Perkins', Rabbits and My 8th Grade Class

What do the Perkins', Rabbits and my 8th grade math class have in common?  See below the picture to find out.

They all multiply really fast.  Faster than you might expect.   Of course, rabbits just breed like... well, rabbits.  My 8th graders are supa' stah's when it comes to mental math (they really don't even need calculators).  And the Perkins' multiply.  You see,

We're pregnant!  Or, more accurately, Alison is pregnant.  We found out a couple weeks ago, and have made the big announcement over the Thanksgiving holiday.  So some of the details:

• Alison is about 11 weeks along.  We'll go in this next week for the next checkup.  I'll post the ultra sound then. 
• Alison's due in June, which means we'll be hanging out in Bahrain for the summer.  We have heard rumors that, once many expats vacate after school lets out, things are pretty dead here.  It'll be nice to have a quiet summer. 
• Last pregnancy, I gained some sympathy weight.  I think it would be unrealistic to keep from sympathizing at ALL this time around, but a little less sympathy might be in order. 
• Eva is also very excited.  She'll be giving up her crib for the big girl bed come July when its time for baby II to move into the bedroom.  
• Eva's room is no longer 1/2 baby room and 1/2 office.  It is now completely children's room.

Here's some more info about the pregnancy this particular week: 

• Your baby, just over 1 1/2 inches long and about the size of a fig, is now almost fully formed
• The hands will soon open and close into fists
• Tiny tooth buds are beginning to appear under her gum
• Some of her bones are beginning to harden
• She's/he's already busy kicking and stretching, and the tiny movements are so effortless they look like water ballet. These movements will become more frequent as his/her body grows and becomes more developed and functional. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Thanksgiving holiday has provided me with some of my fondest memories with family.  Every year we would go down to my Aunt and Uncles, and my whole mom's side of the family would cram into their house.  All but one of the cousins were (are) boys, so we always had a good time wrestling, playing soccer or basketball and making movies.  So large Thanksgivings are always a lot of fun.

We hosted Thanksgiving with our neighbor, Linda, for the third time.  We don't have enough room for all those people in our apartment, but between the two flats, no one goes without a place to sit.  Alison did more preparation than previous years, and so has been spending the last couple of days baking and cooking.  Today was a doosey of a baking/cooking day, but here is some of what she put together.

Do you see the large red pot on the stove?  That was FILLED with potatoes, and thus filled with REAL mashed potatoes.... mmmm.....

Here is a closeup of the green bean caserolle that Alison made.  Cream, cheese, butter, more cheese... it doesn't get any more heart-stoppingly better than that.

I had meant to take a picture of all the people who'd come, but I forgot in all the hubub.  It was a great time of hanging out with some of our American friends, and a lot of our non-American friends came a long to celebrate the holiday.

Before we ate, Alison read the following Psalm as our prayer of thanksgiving to God for all he has provided:

Psalm 136: 1-9
¹Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. 
            His love endures forever. 
²Give thanks to the God of gods. 
            His love endures forever. 
³Give thanks to the Lord of lords: 
            His love endures forever.

⁴to him who alone does great wonders,
            His love endures forever.
⁵who by his understanding made the heavens,
            His love endures forever.
⁶who spread out the earth upon the waters,
            His love endures forever.
⁷who made the great lights—
            His love endures forever.
⁸the sun to govern the day,
            His love endures forever.
⁹the moon and stars to govern the night;
            His love endures forever.

What I LOVE about Arab Culture

(Alison has written a guest post! In fact, she may become a regular author. Keep your eyes peeled!)

On Sunday, two days before the official Eid holidays, we decided to do some errands during the day (Since Josh is a teacher, he gets this whole week off. Normally he would work Sun – Thurs). However, since it's still a business day, governmental government offices are open and we decided to try to get some tasks done that normally get put, such as getting our car registered and insurance paid, and getting mine and Eva’s visa worked out.

Both the visa place and the insurance place are next to each other, so Josh dropped Eva and I off to get our residence permits worked out, while he took care of the car. I enter the LMRA (Labor Market Regulatory Authority) which is always filled with tons of people – mostly laborers. The place where I have to take a number just to wait is already a line 10 deep. Often when I go to these government establishments, there is usually a line for women only. But I’m never quite sure where it is (I think women actually just walk right to the front) so I tend to hold back and hope that I get called forward. And I do – almost every time. (At the Dubai Airport I have NEVER waited in an immigration line more than 5 minutes with Eva – no matter how busy - before an Emirati official comes and ushers me to the front).

And sure enough, the guy working the counter asks several men to move out of the way so that I could come forward and then he smiles and coos at Eva and pleasantly hands me my number. I make my way up to the waiting area, where I expect around a 30-40 minute wait (there were probably 40 people or so waiting in the same room. As I find a chair, I notice my number has already been called. I go to the desk and Eva & I get our visa’s sorted quickly and then we leave. All the while having kind Arab men volunteer to help me get my stroller up and down the stairs of the building.

I love the fact that Arabs rarely let women wait in line. And if you are a women with a baby – it’s almost as if they are apologetic that they didn’t get the thing you came to do done before you got there. It’s fantastic. And this is not just true about older grandfatherly Arab men who are preferential to women and babies. Single guys in their twenties will coo over Eva and ask to hold her. It was a little bit of a shock to me at first – as that kind of behavior isn’t exactly the norm in the US.

Eid Al Adha Part 4: Stoning and Sacrifice

You can read Part 1 here, Part 2 here, and Part 3 here.

This is the second day of the Hajj.  To recap, the day before Hajj is the ritual cleansing.  The first day of Hajj itself is the praying for forgiveness.  Today is the second day of Hajj – the stoning and sacrifice.

1.  What People are Doing on Hajj:  The night before, those on Hajj spent the night at a place called Muzdalifa where some slept and some stayed awake all night.  When they wake up, they will head to Mina where there are three pillars.  Before I talk about the rituals, it would be good to describe the Quranic version of events. 

Christians will recall that Abraham had been promised a son.  Impatient that God had not provided a son through Sarah, Abraham takes a concubine to bear him a son – Ishmael.  Later on, God asks Abraham to show his devotion to God by sacrificing his son.  Muslims believe that the son to be sacrificed was Ishmael. 

While on his way to perform the sacrifice, Satan appears three times tempting Abraham to ignore God’s instructions concerning the sacrifice of Ishmael.  Muslims believe that Abraham threw stones at Satan.  As Abraham was about to sacrifice Ishmael, God provided a ram to be sacrificed instead, satisfied that Abraham was totally committed to Him.

Now back to those on Hajj.  They have arrived at Mina where there are three large pillars.  They will throw stones (collected as they walk from one location to the next) at the three pillars, which represent Satan, and the three times he tempted Abraham.  While stoning the pillars, people renounce evil and declare their willingness to sacrifice all they have to God. Once they have finished the stoning, they will kill a sheep or a goat in memorial of God’s provision for a substitute for Ishmael. 

2.   What people are doing in Bahrain:  again, I’m not sure.  I’ve not done enough research for this.  Many, though, are probably killing a sheep, goal or a camel (or some other animal) as a way to remember God providing a sheep in place of Abraham’s son.

3.  Beliefs: 

• Satan tries to thwart one’s obedience to God.
• Evil must be resisted and one must be willing to sacrifice all they have to God
• Remembering God’s faithfulness in the past

4.  Similarities and Differences

• Difference: The Story of Abraham’s Sacrifice – there is a lot to be said about the differences between the stories in the Quran and the Bible.  I’ll highlight two things.  First, the Bible does not mention Satan tempting Abraham (though I imagine there were a lot of serious misgivings as Abraham approached the sacrifice).  Second, the Bible identifies Isaac as the son to be sacrificed, as opposed to Ishmael.
• Similarity:  Like Muslims, followers of Jesus acknowledge that there is a spiritual battle.  Satan tries to tempt followers of Jesus and thwart God’s plans – the plan which is ultimately to poor out His love on His people. Romans 8:35-39 might be an appropriate verse to put here:
  ³⁵Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶ As it is written:

                                “For your sake we face death all day long;
                                 we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

• Similarity:  We must resist evil.  Followers of Jesus understand that God has prepared us as vessels of righteousness.  We also understand that everything that we have is a gift from God.  And as such, we are to use all things we have for the Glory of God.
• Similarity:  Like Muslims, we also remember God’s faithfulness in the past, albeit in different ways.  We have Christmas – the remembering of the birth of Jesus.  We also have Easter (which in some ways is the equivalent of Eid Al Adha), which remembers Jesus as the sacrifice for our sins. 

Eid Al Adha Part 3: Wuqoof – Standing at Arafat

You can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

Yesterday was a busy day for us, and I didn’t get a chance to write.  My apologies to all three of my readers.  Today I will be more on top of it.

1.  What People are Doing on Hajj | Wuqoof

This is the first day of the Hajj itself, and may be the most important day of Hajj (my Muslim friends can correct me if I’m wrong).   Today is the day when Muslims gather on the Plain of Arafat and face Mecca.  Many will fast, as fasting atones for the guilt of the previous year and the following year.  From Noon till sundown, they pray on the following topics:

• They should remember God
• They should ask for forgiveness
• They should pray other Islamic prayers

An especially sacred moment is during the setting of the sun.  During this time, people are alone with God.  It is during this time that they are requesting that sins and lifelong shortcomings be forgiven.  At sunset, a cannon signals the end of the ritual and pilgrims head to Muzdalifa.  At this location many will sleep and some will stay up all night. 

2.  What people are doing in Bahrain:  I’ve not been able to find out a whole lot.  The people I was going to ask have not been around.  However, the roads were fairly quiet yesterday.  I didn’t see a whole lot of Bahraini’s out.  When we were out, it was mostly expatriates on the roads and in the grocery store.  I imagine that some people are fasting (even though they are not on Hajj) and many people are visiting family.

3.  Beliefs behind the rituals: 

• People are seeking to be forgiven for their sins.  It is important to note that the emphasis is on the shame of sins.  Our sins are shameful before God’s eyes.  Our sins separate us from God and we must be forgiven for those sins.
• People are seeking intimacy and closeness with God.  This goes hand in hand with the first.  In order to have intimacy and closeness with God, the shame of our sins must be removed from us, for God is a Holy God.
• God is a Holy God, and he cannot tolerate our sinfulness and the shame we bring on ourselves through our sin separates us from God.

4.  Similarities and Differences to Christianity

• Similarity:  As a follower of Jesus, I must seek forgiveness for my sins.  In fact, I am invited to do it in 1 John 1:8-9: If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
• Difference:  My sin is only forgiven because Jesus – the Son of God – has taken the punishment.  My sin has brought shame on me that separates me from God, and since God is a Holy and Righteous God, He must deal with my shame.  In His mercy, God placed the punishment on Jesus instead of me, giving me freedom from the shame I have brought upon myself.
• Similarity:  followers of Jesus seek intimacy with God.  In fact, people of many religions seek intimacy with God.  But, since God is Holy and cannot tolerate the shame of man’s sin, we cannot experience intimacy with Him outside of the forgiveness of sin.  Why seek intimacy with God?  Because God is all satisfying.  
• Similarity:  God is a Holy God.  God is Righteousness.  God is Mercy.  God is Forgiving.  God is Love.   

Eid Al Adha: Ihram - The Ritual Cleansing (Part 2)

Read Part 1 - Introduction. 

Eid is three days long, and it technically starts tomorrow.  So businesses were open yesterday and today.  Tomorrow the Eid starts and will last until Thursday.  Even though Eid starts tomorrow, it is still an important day for those who are on Hajj, or making the pilgrimage to the Grand Mosque (Masjid al Haram) in Mecca. 

1.  What People are Doing on Hajj | Ihram – Ritual Cleaning

Before one can even enter the area of Mecca where the pilgrimage rituals take place, he must cleanse himself.  Once the ritual cleaning is done, he must wear two white cloths (one around the waste, one around the shoulders) without stitching.  Everyone must do this, and so everyone – regardless of social status – performs the hajj as an equal of everyone else.  There is no discernable difference between a peasant and a president. Now that he has been cleansed, he can enter Mecca through the Miqat, the entry place into the area of the Hajj.

After entering Mecca, he will head to the Grand Mosque (where the Kabaa is kept) praying the Talbiyah:

Here I am at Thy service O Lord, here I am, here I am at Thy service and Thou hast no partners.  Thine alone is All Praise and All Bounty, and Thine alone is The Sovereignty.  Thou hast no partners.

After visiting the Grand Mosque, pilgrims will walk to a tent city called Mina, continuing to quote the Talbiyah prayer.  From here, he will spend the night in meditation and prayer.

3.  What People are doing here in Bahrain: I found out today that the Eid Al Adha is, among other things, for the purpose of honoring those who are on the Hajj.  So as Muslims in Mecca start the Hajj tomorrow, so starts the Eid.   Today there isn’t a whole lot going on.  Tomorrow there won’t

2.  The Beliefs: what are the beliefs that drive the rituals?

• To come before God, one must be clean
• God must be sought above all else, and we are His servants. 
• We are slaves of God

4.  Similarities and Differences to Christianity:  This summer, I mentioned to a group of people that we (Christians/Americans and Muslims) share a lot of values.   One person asked skeptically what I meant.  And so we have here some examples of the convergence of beliefs:

• To come before God, one must be clean.  This is central to those who follow Jesus.  God is a Holy God, and He will not – cannot, even – tolerate unholiness in His presence.  And so to go before Him, we must be cleansed of our sins.  We must be absolved of the shame that we have brought upon ourselves.  Where I differ from my Muslim friends is that my shame has been borne by Jesus Christ.  As the perfect Son of God, He took the punishment for my own sin and has cleansed me.  Having taken the free gift of Jesus’ cleansing, I am able to enter into God’s presence. 
• All Praise and Honor Belong to God.  God is Sovereign.   How can any follower of Christ deny such a statement about God? 
• We are servants of God.  Romans 6:18 “You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness”.  Through Jesus, we are no longer slaves to sin, but have been set apart (made holy) for the purpose of Righteousness. The name Abdulla (a common name in Bahrain) means “Slave of God”.  We are set apart for God.  
• One of the differences is that Jesus redefined how His followers do worship.  Jews also had one particular place in which to worship God - the temple in Jerusalem.  However, when talking to the Woman at the Well, Jesus says that we will worship in spirit and in truth, and that physical location does not matter.  
• To clarify the point above:  Muslims do not need to go on Hajj to worship God.  However, it is an act required by all those who have the means - physically and financially. 

The Snow In Minnesota...

...falls from November until March.  Sometimes April.

One of the things I miss about living in Bahrain is snow and cold weather.  Honestly, I would prefer 20 below to 100 any day of the week.  Or month of the year.  Most of you have probably seen and many of you are probably experiencing the first great snowstorm of the season (for the midwest at least).  Here's the CNN video.

Eid Al Adha - Hajj (Part 1)

We have a week off from school this next week.  The holiday is for Eid Al Adha, or the Festival of Sacrifice.  I've learned about a lot of the Muslim holidays over the last four years, but this one is the one that is least familiar to me (partially because its always happened over Christmas break, which overshadows much else for me).  But to learn a little bit more about it, and in an effort to give you an idea of what it is, I'm going to blog about it on each of the important days.

Many people will be cursorily familiar with this Eid as its the time that Muslims go on Hajj, or the pilgrimage to Mecca.  The Hajj is a four day long ceremony - one day of cleansing and three days of various rituals.  A good parallel might be Christmas pageants or Passion Plays that many Christians participate in (at least in the US).  Many of us have performed in plays as children or adults, for the purpose of remembering what happened at Easter and Christmas.  These holidays are remembrances and celebrations of God coming to earth (in the form of Jesus) and Jesus sacrificing himself for our sin and shame. 

My goal is to do four things for each day: 

1.  Talk about the rituals on Hajj

2.  Identify the beliefs driving those rituals

3.  Describe the traditions of people here in Bahrain

4.  See where these beliefs converge and diverge from Christianity

It might be good to point out that these will be fairly general.  People have written whole books on Islam and Christianity, and whole books on small segments of each.  So this isn't an effort to be exhaustive.  Links will probably be provided to give clarity to certain parts that I'm not going to cover here.  

Hope you learn something!

The Rain In Bahrain Makes the Kids Go Insane

Last night, I heard a knocking in/on my a/c.  It was disheartening (I thought it was broken) until I realized it was the pitter-patter of rain drops!  This morning while at school, it started to come down fairly hard.  A good solid rain.  With thunder and lightining, which is fantastic.

You can imagine that rain is a fairly uncommon thing in Bahrain.  I mean, we live in the desert for goodness sake!  Having a rain storm here is the Midwest equivalent of having a huge snow storm.  Its a lot of fun to see all the snow, and there's a good chance that school may be canceled.  No, really.  School has been canceled before due to the chaos the rain causes on the roads.  I may have blogged about this before, but here are some observations/thoughts from today's rain storm.

1.  Road Chaos.  People drive really really slowly.  Traffic will back up for miles.  And when you finally get to the hold up, you often find that its just a puddle.  I used to think that people were afraid of getting their cars wet.  However, I have a new hypothesis.  There are a lot of potholes in the roads, and with puddles, you can't see the potholes.  It could be quite damaging to some cars if they were to hit some of the potholes.  Therefore, they go around the puddles.  Slowly.  Which backs up traffic.  Not only that, but people are a lot less used to driving in the rain, so people go slower out of safety.  Its like being in the south when an inch of snow brings a city to a halt.

2.  The kids go crazy.  It was a pretty solid down poor this morning before classes started.  The kids would run out into the court yard and get rained on then run back to cover.  Screaming and screeching from students.  It was a delight.  Until they got to class and I had to attempt to calm them down and teach about solving word problems.  But seriously, who wants to solve word problems with there's RAIN outside!  They all come in making jokes about how they didn't need to take a shower this morning or about how its going to flood the entire city (which might happen, actually - the sewer systems aren't built for heavy rains)

3.  New meanings to scripture.  Coming from the Midwest where rain is abundant, its hard to imagine how refreshing rain can be.  But when rain only comes 3 or 4 times a year, its extremely refreshing.  Any place that there is standing water, there is life.  there's a place near our house where trucks get treated water, and it often spills out as they leave the compound.  This has created a pond of sorts near the entrance.  All around it are green grasses and plants.

So when Jesus says that he has living water, it is extremely stark imagery.  Where there is water, there is life.  There is refreshment.  When David says in Psalm 23 that "he takes me to lie beside still waters..." its not just solitude or time for contemplation (though that may happen), he's talking about something much deeper.  Fundamental.  Its not just relaxing.  Its LIFE.  Without it there is death.  And not just any death - a slow, prolonged death of dying from thirst.

I've probably blogged about rain before, and I'll probably blog about it again.  Its always fun to get rain.  If I ever get a decent picture, I'll post it on here.

Work Project: Al Raja's New Website

Some of you know that I'm working for Al Raja School again. I've been fortunate enough to be able to teach some classes and spend part of my time on administrative oriented projects.  The most recently completed project is a website.  Here's the front page:

Now, I know my way around a computer and the internet as much as your average 20-something.  And maybe a little bit better than average.  But I'm certainly not a programmer.  Or a graphic designer, for that matter (I really do rely on Alison to determine outfits that look good).  So I must emphasize that this is no programing or designing feat I've accomplished.  So how did I do it?

I used Weebly - a Content Management System, or CMS.  CMS could also be called "website making for people who don't have any idea how to program."  And Weebly is the king of CMS's.  Seriously, if you can't figure out Weebly, then you have no business being on a computer at all.  And since its created so even my 95 year old grandfather could create a site, its got lots of templates.

Weebly is also great because it automatically integrates our domain name with Google Apps.  Through Google Apps, we now have access to many of Google's products through our own domain name.  For instance, my new school email is webmaster@alrajabahrain.org.  And not just email.  Docs, calendar, chat, sites, and basically anything else that comes with a Google account.  Including Google Analytics.

Analytics is fantastic.  By inserting a small piece of code in the Al Raja Website, Analytics tracks all the users who come and generates about 50 different reports on visitors to the site.  A lot of it isn't useful to the school because we are a non-profit institution and we don't make sales on our website.  But some of it is useful.  And regardless, I love seeing graphs and charts.  And it automatically generates all sorts of graphs and charts depending on what you want.

I've said it before, but I love Google.  Some people think they're taking over the world, and maybe they are.  But I'm ok with that.  I'm ok with that.

Anyway, that's my latest project.  If there are more projects interesting enough to blog about, I'll do so.

Random Updates

There's not been a whole lot of interesting things happening around here, but its been a while since I've blogged, so I thought I'd put some updates on here of random things:

1.  Elections happened in Bahrain a couple weekends ago.  Unfortunately, we spent the weekend in Dubai and so I wasn't here to see everything.  But not a problem, there will be more elections.  So what were the results?  Well, the main opposition party - Wafaq - won all of the seats they contested (18 seats) which leaves them the largest bloc in the 40 seat parliament.   To be honest, I haven't worked out what the other parties are.

Interested in reading more about Bahrain's elections?  Here is a link to a search on Google News for stories on the election in Bahrain.

Another interesting fact:  non-Bahraini's can vote if they own land.  More specifically, they can vote in the municipal elections (equivalent of a mayor or city council).  It makes sense, since those are the positions that will make policies that affect them.

2.  How could there be an update without talking about Eva?  Answer:  there couldn't.  If you saw Eva this summer, you saw her scoot-scooting around.  She's gotten even better at crawling and is now pretty quick.  Quick enough to get into the things she knows she's not supposed to before we see her.  We've removed anything that she can hurt herself with, but she can still get to bookshelves and dvds and the TV.  Its apparent that she knows what "no, eva" means.  Its even more apparent that she is quite capable of disobeying mom and dad.  So we are all learning - Alison and I are learning about disciplining a child in love, and Eva is learning to obey mommy and daddy.  Albeit slower than we would prefer.

And yes, that's right.  I talked about Eva without actually showing a picture of her.

3.  Education.  I don't know if I've ever said this on here, but Alison is going to finish her Masters in Education starting in January!  She has already figured out her schedule for the next year and a half, and she will soon be steeped in articles and books and writing papers.  The good news about all this is that I get to participate in the festivities.  Whatever articles she gets, I will also get to read.  Its hard to say who's more excited about all this - her or me.  This means we are officially nerds.

That's all for now.  In the future, look forward to some posts on Eid, Thanksgiving and possibly a slew of book reviews.