Jasra Handcraft Center

Scout and I explored the Jasra Handcraft Center this week also.  It is a place to check out the local artist scene with a emphasis on the old arts, and handcrafted items.  Some of it was cheesy, like this pencil topper.

Some of it was beautiful like this gypsum carving/molding, and the model ship building, (of which I did not get a picture)

 Of course, I see quilt patterns.

The Desert and the Tree of Life

We finally took some time to escape from the city and go explore a little more of the desert.  We drove down to the southern portion of the island and really got to see the old Bahrain.  Of course, parts of the desert were full of trash and old oil infrastructure, but it was fun anyway. The kids loved the tree of life.  That may have something to do with the fact that there were 2 ice cream trucks there, and we bought them ice cream.

The following picture is a panorama pic of the desert on the side of the highway.  You will probably need to click on it, so see it larger.

 The desert here is not all sand, it is more rocky and hard.  The pictures you see of camels with sand dunes in the desert are not from Bahrain, The sand blows around here, but there aren't really dunes with loose sand.

 This is the tree of life.  Full of tourists wandering around a tree in the desert.  Of course we had our own photo shoot, like the rest of the tourists.

 This is another panoramic picture, I am standing in the middle of the tree.

 Yes, you can climb up into the tree.  There is some graffiti on the tree, but not as much as I expected.

Bahrain life

I am slowly starting to feel normal here, and then things change. I was getting used to our hotel and then we moved into a house and are now we are living in a big house with all our camping gear and our bikes.  

I am adjusting to all this as much as possible, but to watch my kids adjust quickly is amazing. They are great kids.  We are trying to show them a lot of our new culture as possible.  Some parts they like, and some parts are a little overwhelming.

My kids are not used to being a minority and they are one here. They are often surrounded by people in head dresses, thoub and abayas. Like all of us, they think new stuff is a little scary.  It is uncomfortable to be in a situation that is unfamiliar.

It is interesting to watch them learn how to deal with being uncomfortable and we as parents try to model the correct way to be respectful and to learn as much as possible.  It reminds me that it is good to expose them to different cultures and life outside their comfort zone.

We went to a Bahrain Cultural Exhibit that was assembled at the Arad Fort.  It was held at night and had all sorts of local foods, displays on how they make things, and local music. It was outside of their comfort zone, but after a little bit of coaxing, they relaxed into it and learned a lot.

It was very windy, and more than a little dusty.  This is the sun on the way to the festival, it was not very bright, but looked cool through the sand in the air.

This picture is the Arad Fort, and how they light it up at night.

 This is the traditional Dhow boat used for fishing, pearl diving and transport.  (the dots on the picture is the sand in front of the lens)

 Model Boat Building

 Traditional crafts for sale.

 A somewhat decent picture of us in the blowing sand.

 The food, this is a fried dough with garlic and hot peppers, it was very good.

 This is them baking bread inside a very cool wood oven, the bread is on the sides.  Then they spread cheese or Nutella on it.  It was very good.

 The four women are weaving the thread and the one woman makes stitches to attach it to the edge of the garment. The sewer in me was fascinated by this process.

 They had mats and pillows on the floor for a puppet show.  You can guess how they got used before the show.

Bahrain National Museum

We took an afternoon and took the kids to the Bahrain National Museum, it was actually really cool, and we will have to go back sometime soon.

This is the sculpture garden outside the entrance.

 There was a traveling exhibit of the costumes made for movies.  The kids had the camera, so there is a mix of pictures.

 There was an exhibit on Storytelling and it had a great kids area on the 2nd floor.  Part of it was these awesome bean bags to sit on during story telling time.  They were huge, and I would love one for the house.  I found them for about $250 and that was a little too much for a bean bag, but I loved them.

I also found my first quilt on display in Bahrain.

 I was hoping for a local quilt, but no, it was made in the US.

 It was beautiful though, and had lots of great details.

 They did have dress up clothes for story telling.

 They had exhibits about the traditions of the Bahraini people and how their lives were lived.

 Or course there was a great little coffee shop in the museum.  This is to also prove that Daddy was with us on this excursion. It was good he was with us.  As this picture was being taken a little 4 year old locked himself in a bathroom that no one could crawl into to get him.  After dealing with 2 security guards and several non-helpful bystanders, he was able to unlock the door himself.  As we walk out of the bathroom, we found that the other children has spilled Daddy's coffee all over the floor of the fancy coffee shop.  We left as soon as we could.

Handcrafts of Bahrain

I am spending some time exploring with Scout on the days when the kids are in school and I found a small shopping area called the Capital Mall. They sold some of the handcrafted goods of Bahrain.  The prices were high, so I didn't buy much, but it was beautiful to see all of the goods that are still hand made by a small group of people.

This is a miniture house, there were a few of them, made in all different sizes and they were amazingly intricate.

 This was a handcrafted saddle, I have no idea when someone would use it, but it was very beautiful.

 They had a bunch of these, they were handmade baskets that were then hand painted.  They sat on a cake stand and are used to keep the flies off of your food.

 The traditional boat of Bahrain is the Dhow, this is a model of one. They are very detailed and beautiful, ranging in price from $45 to several hundred.

 This was a selection of the hand made baskets available. They were very unique, but I was afraid they would not be very sturdy.

I am waiting to move into our house, and get a little more settled before I invest is some local art.b

Bahrain Fort

We visited another fort this week.  This is the Bahrain Fort, Built in stages through several centuries.  First built in the 15th century and then built and rebuilt several times through the 17th century. This is a major picture dump, and I may not caption them all. The kids had the camera for the day, so there is a good mix of pictures.

The entrance to the Fort

 We could not figure out how these little cubbies might be used.

 Cool series of arched doorways.

 Munchkin took lots of pictures of the signs, these are the first and only interpretive signs seen at a historic location.

 This is the interior of the 17th century portion of the fort with reproduced grass huts in the rear.

 The Grass Huts

 Love the city skyline beyond the old fort.

 This is Bahrain, Random bags of trash on the site. Munchkin

 Well that was part of an Art exhibit. Lots of mirrors.

 Arched ceiling above the well.

 The view towards the water.

 The cool shadow of the 5 of us.  I just thought it was cool.

 As we were leaving, we saw these cool houses that were painted with lots of bright colors and designes.