The damn lights still weren't on...
But the Sun came up.
It was a start.
Around 10:30 the wheels finally got set in motion and things started happening. My friend and new building manager Sayed came over to have a look with Dinesh, our head of security. They agreed that the place was completely out of power, but they did seem to enjoy the cord I had running into my living room from my neighbors house.
They got the neighborhood maintenance group, AMLK to come by and after about 3 hours of a guy standing at my fuse box flipping the same 6 fuses, they agreed the place was still completely out of power.
While this was going on, my friend who is in from Australia and I decided to take a little spin around the island. Well, not all the way around the island...election day and the embassy warning about traffic being "disrupted" meant we would see a more local form of the island.
First on our list was the fort across the road from me in Riffa, the Sheikh Salman bin Ahmed Al-Fateh Fort. Everyone calls it Riffa Fort - yet I have no idea why.
Can't pronounce it? Can't invade it.
It was a great day so we got into the Deathtrap-Mobile (DTM) and sallied forth on our adventure. The parking lot in front of the fort was kind of empty. There were two young 20's guys in street clothes who gave us the evil eye as we walked about in front of the building. I was guessing that is just how all young 20's guys in street clothes looked.
Now, IN MY DEFENSE, I am pretty sure that is how I looked when I was a young 20's guy wearing street clothes.
So we walk towards the front door and at this point I notice something is wrong, but we go in anyway after removing our shoes and placing them in the rack outside the front door.
You know, the rack for the shoes you find outside of a mosque.
Uh oh.
This is no moon!
Wait...
I mean:
This is no fort!
So my friend and I got to visit the mosque which is right outside the Sheikh Salman bin Ahmed Al-Fateh Fort.
Now, IN MY DEFENSE...it WAS right in front of the parking lot AND it is the same color AND it is the same style!
IT LOOKED LIKE THE DOOR TO A FORT...OKAY MAYBE NOT NOW THAT I AM LOOKING AGAIN BUT AT THE TIME IT DID I SWEAR!
So we walk in and share "the look" and respectfully and politely walk out. The young 20's men in street clothes are no longer interested in us, which was actually hurtful now that I think about it.
We walk to the street, where the sign pointing out that this is the mosque and the fort was just a shade to the left was located...now, IN MY DEFENSE the sign was on the far side of the parking lot...
Oops...
So we walk past the mosque and into the Sheik Sal...the Sheik Al Salm..Al Fa...into Riffa Fort.
So khaki...
It was pretty cool, actually. The rooms were very sparse and there were no displays etc. but it really didn't need it. Needed a museum! A big glass one in the middle of the fort!
The walls became parts of the decor of the rooms - and it was a fort, so not like there was much in the way of art on the walls in the first place.
I am no photographer, but here are just a few shots:
This is called: "A window"
This is "a door"
This is called "a more awesomer door"
This is a room that is altogether also awesomer...
I honestly enjoyed it very much. You could climb into the turrets and onto the roof in some sections...but IN MY DEFENSE (NOW THAT IS A FORT JOKE!! AM I RIGHT!? GUYS??) I really like history and forts in general.
I wished I had taken more pictures - I had to dig this one up online. They also had these great little rain gutters that filed the water away from the interior:
Synchronize viewpoint?
Don't mind if I do!
My friend pointed out the amazing similarities between the rain gutters and the synchronization points in Assassins Creed. It was a true shame there was no hay bale underneath the gutter to complete the effect.
We toured and checked out the little cafe inside, and the mysterious glass box inside the fort:
Ye olde glasse boxx
I only later learned this was the museum, unfortunately closed when we visited.
We get back into the Deathtrap-Mobile (DTM) and head to our next destination....
The Tree of Life.
Now, IN MY DEFENSE, I had visited here previously, so the second time didn't have the same effect. However, I could see in my friends' face that they were having the same reaction I did my first time.
The big difference for me was in fact two simple facts:
One, the ground was actually spotted with green shrubbery. When I was there in the summer, the area was completely barren except for the tree.
Two, now that the weather was cooler, the Bedouin groups had settled in and started to construct their tent cities.
Travel light, that is what I always say...
Still, it was an awesome experience and I know I will be back again and again.
It is an amazing thing, really:
My first visit - you can tell because the camera melted right afterwards...
It is a tree situated on some 400 year old ruins of a fort. I suppose there was a spring there and that is what made the fort self sustaining, and therefore the tree has some water, but I really just like that it is there at all.
There are no trees around it, it just pops out of this hill.
Like some chlorophyllic jack in the box...
So, things have been going really well...but I knew it couldn't last. Now, IN MY DEFENSE my house was in some real trouble and I am known for having things be...difficult...
So we set off for some lunch and to check in on the circus at my Villa.
The good news is...um...yeaahhhhh.
Nothing had been done. When I got in they assured me they would be done that day. Then 10 steps away another guy said tomorrow...maybe. And as I opened the door, Sayed looks at me and says:
"The ministry of Electricity is at fault," (I didn't high five him at the electricity pun) "and therefore they will have to assess and determine what to do."
In Bahrain I had no doubt, none, that the Ministry of Electricity, (which I didn't know existed, but upon reflection of course it does) can fix this problem. I was more worried about how long it would take to fix...
One day?
Two?
A week?
The email I got the next day wasn't promising...
Sayed told me the Ministry hadn't yet scheduled a date to come and look at the problem.
Uh oh.
I may be eating cold beans for a while...
Now, IN MY DEFENSE, I know how things work in America when the government gets involved. It is more like a bunch of monkey's trying to screw a lubed up door knob than real progress a lot of the time.
My neighbor Aimee who has been very concerned during this whole event was on her porch, so my friend and I joined her to watch the action unfold. We told stories and laughed and commented on how sorry we were for hurting people's feelings without being sincere about it.
But mainly we watched the digging.
What's that?
"What digging?" you ask?
Oh..that would be this digging:
I hope he PICKS a winner!
That is my driveway from my neighbors porch where we tailgated the show. The crew arrived at 5 PM on Sunday, and didn't stop that digging until 4 AM Monday.
New people showed up. Old people left.
Foremen brought food.
crewmen ate food.
A guy in a thobe with dyed red hair sat in the truck and watched them work, occasionally yelling in Arabic.
The hole was about 6 feet deep. They had to ax in steps to get out.
So that went on until 4 AM. Well, to be more correct, the pick axes went on until 3 AM - the shovels scraping the dirt back in went til 4.
I just hope they let the guy get out of the hole first...
Honestly, I am impressed by several things that happened.
Now, IN MY DEFENSE, I do expect the best and prepare for the worst, but this wasn't so bad at all.
Not only did the Ministry get to my Villa within one day, they installed a portable generator for me.
Not only did they install a portable generator for me, they sent a crew to work for 11 hours in the dark while digging into my driveway.
Not only did the send a crew to work for 11 hours in the dark while digging into my driveway, the next morning by 8 AM they sent a different crew to level and re-brick the driveway.
Not only the next morning by 8 AM had they sent a different crew to level and re-brick the driveway, but then they told me to document any losses so they could reimburse me.
The power is restored in my Villa and things are getting fixed one by one.
Yesterday the first floor got lights.
Today the second floor is getting them.
In theory the AC units will be serviced soon.
My oven and stove should be back online soon, I hope. But to be honest I enjoy having the excuse to eat and order out.
My friend from Australia has been much more tolerant and patient than I have been to their credit. But, IN MY DEFENSE, they wanted to see Bahrain - and this incident along with all the food, crazy maintenance, interesting stories, trees and forts, has been exactly what this place is all about.
That, and young 20's guys in street clothes hanging out in front of mosques.
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