It’s hard getting up in the morning before the red sun climbs over the desert horizon. It’s hard catching the bus to school as it weaves between skyscrapers picking up other sleepy teachers. It’s hard dropping the card into the clocking-in machine at school and starting to teach at 7.30 am. But it’s our fault. We chose to leave our beloved village in the Spanish mountains and come here to live in a city in the Middle East and work in an International School for a year.
If we’d stayed in Spain, life would be very different. We’d get up when we wanted to, without alarm clocks shrilling in our ears. It would be much colder, yes, but there’d be no traffic sounds, no skyscrapers. The hills would be dotted with almond blossom and the urgent ‘click-click-click’ sound of quails calling mates would echo round the valley. But here in the Kingdom of Bahrain, there are no birds to be seen except for pigeons and a few scavenging seagulls. And no trees except for ornamental ones, watered daily.
Actually, that’s not quite true. Most Bahraini websites and brochures mention the Tree of Life, an extraordinary tree that stands alone in the desert. It is ancient and appears to survive without water, as rain rarely falls here in Bahrain. There is no vegetation around it, no clue as to how it survives. It’s not surprising that the Tree of Life is a huge tourist attraction...
Read more at www.expatfocus.com/victoria-twead-250111
1 comment:
Very useful!
Post a Comment