Hello Laurie,

Today we took the Greek alphabet book to Bahrain. It took us around 40 minutes to drive from our house until we crossed the King Abdul-Aziz Causeway, which is a long bridge that connects Saudi Arabia with Bahrain in the Arabian Gulf, or Persian Gulf as the Iranians prefers to call it. I am attaching a picture — you will see two towers, to the left the tower has the Bahraini flag, it is white and red, and the tower in the right is Saudi Arabia, green flag.

In Bahrain the things are much different than in Saudi. There are restaurant that serve pork and also it is possible to buy alcoholic beverages — these items here in Saudi are completely forbidden. In Bahrain are cinemas and clubs and the woman can wear western clothing, but the Saudis and Bahrainis ladies continue using Abayas and conservatives dresses. The Bahrainis men also like to wear Thoba, but the majority cover the head with a white Ghutra and the Igal (the black crown that hold the ghutra has a long tail). You can see some Bahrainis men in the picture — there is also a Saudi family in the picture.

Outside the Seef Mall where we took the picture, we tried to take another pictures but we could not stay enough time to take it — the weather is very hot in this time of the year and it is difficult even to breathe. However, one of the security guards of the mall was showing much interest and Octavio started reading to him the alphabet.

Bye for now.

Perla Sarmiento de Adams
Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia