Getting Cultured

One of the cool things about getting to come here to the Middle East is having the opportunity to learn about the culture here. Sure, Bahrain is crawling with ex-pats and it’s really pretty westernized, but it IS an Arabic country and it’s neat to be able to expand my understanding about the folks here … which really isn’t a stretch, since I knew nothing about the Arabs and their culture 6 months ago.

For example, here in Bahrain the weekend used to be Thursday and Friday, like it is in Saudi. Friday is the Muslim holy day, which I guess would be like what Sunday is for Christians in the States. It’s pretty quiet around here on Friday morning, and most mom-and-pop type shops stay closed on Friday. But, about 2 years ago they changed the weekend to Friday and Saturday, to make it closer to the weekends we have in the States and Europe. Since more than half of the working folks here are with companies in those other countries and it is easier to run business with the work week more closely following the days abroad. Obviously, they had to keep Friday as a weekend day, so that’s why the weekend is still a day off from the weekend at home. A neighbor of ours had just gotten here from England before they changed the weekend, and they were telling us how strange it was, that one day you just expected the weekend to start on Thursday and then it came down overnight practically that they were changing it. Could you imagine that happening at home? I mean, think of all the red tape, the voting, the congressional meetings, the planning … and that’s just the legislative part of it. Then you’d have all the businesses in the country having to revamp, reschedule, and re-plan everything around the change of days. It would take YEARS to implement something like that in the States. Here, it was just a matter of an announcement, and it was done. I guess that’s how it works when a king is running the show.

Every day, we’re learning more about the folks and customs here. It’s kind of cool. Like, we found out pretty early on that the Arabs actually smell really good! I don’t know why, but I had it in my mind that the people out here would be stinky, but Arabs are almost obsessively clean people and they all really smell good. Who knew! The Indians and Paki’s … well, that’s another matter.

It’s also interesting that the Muslims pray 5 times a day. No matter where they are, at prayer times, they drop and kneel. Most malls and shopping centers have prayer rooms where folks can go when the Call to Prayer starts ringing out. There are big Mosques, of course, but there are also small mosques around so no one is far from a place to pray when it is time. They are everywhere. And, they all have big loud speakers so you can always hear the Call to Prayer when it’s time. No matter where you are. It’s kind of a cool cultural experience to have that going on. And, even though I’m not Muslim, it’s kind of neat to hear the Call to Prayer, because it does remind me to be quiet for a moment and connect with Spirit in my own terms.

On the 1st of this month, Ramadan started, which is a month long “holiday”, characterized by daily fasting, traditional rituals and charitable acts. It’s kind of a neat deal, actually. And, I’m sure there is a lot about this time of year that I’m not fully understanding yet, but it’s interesting. I will explain what I know about Ramadan in the next entry. I don’t want to make this so long that no one will read it. Ha! I’ve probably already lost half of you.

Now … WAKE UP … because there will be a quiz when I’m done discussing Arabic culture. So, keep on your toes!