THE PLACE WHERE I GREW UP

The ruins of an old Portuguese fort in Bahrain.

Dearest Friends,

We spent our last week in Bahrain at the Delmon Hotel --  John going to work each day, and me with lots of time on my hands.  Time to read and lay out by the pool.  Time to think, about what was behind us now, and about what was ahead.  I took care of a few last errands, such as picking up some travelers' checks (remember those?) and paying our final electric bill, but I didn't even bother to let the phone company know that we no longer needed that phone we'd been waiting a year and a half for!

On September 1, 1977, we arose before dawn, packed our few things, and headed to the airport to catch our 9:00 a.m. flight to Athens, Greece.  We had to walk across the tarmac to reach the plane, and halfway there my husband suddenly stopped and spun around to face the city.  I'd been doing my very best to think positive thoughts about our trip to Europe and the career that I had waiting for me in Houston, and not to let myself dwell on what I was leaving behind.  I feared that if he said something sappy about all that, I might just lose it and burst into tears!  Imagine my surprise when, instead, he lifted his thumb to his nose, and blew raspberries towards the city!  "Adios, Bahrain", he hollered.  "There's not one single thing I'm going to miss about you!"  That's when it really hit home, how vastly different our two experiences had been -- how his being offshore most of the time, or in the office with other expats, and constantly having to deal with our stupid transportation issues, had kept him from feeling any sense of connection to the place.

Meanwhile, his little wifey had been off mingling with a very international group of women, working for a Bahraini family, living alone in an Bahraini neighborhood, and taking her typing and French classes, in which there were no other Americans.  Though I may have been raised in Dallas, Bahrain is the place where I grew up.  It was the first place where I had to deal with problems and crises all on my own; the first where I was no longer surrounded by people who felt they knew what was best for me, and actually had to decide that for myself; the first where I interacted with people from many different backgrounds and beliefs, every one of which had been brought up to believe just as strongly, if not more so, that their way was the right way.  As I mentioned before, you'd have to walk around with blinders on, not to end up with a broader view of the world after experiencing all this.  I learned a lot about other cultures, a lot about the games our leaders play, a lot about the terrible things that are done in the name of religion, and most of all, a lot about myself -- about my strengths and capabilities, my likes and dislikes, and about my beliefs and disbeliefs.  Miss Becky had indeed had quite the adventure!

I feared it may well be our last and greatest adventure, but life had a few more surprises up its sleeve for us (remember when I said I'd never want to have kids in Indonesia?), and I can't wait to tell you about them.  First, however, we have a month to spend in Europe together!