Bahrain After Five Long Years
by Anah Galathea
One cool January day, while on a car, I cannot help but remember that once upon a time in Bahrain, everything I see was new to me. Passing Jidhafs, Sehla, then Al Hashimi Center, I felt like 2005 was just yesterday. The road, the trees, the houses and buildings were bringing sparks to my eyes as I felt so excited to be in another country and to see foreigners instead of fellow countrymen. That time, I thought it was all a dream. There was a sense of disbelief and awe that for the first time in my life, I was a thousand miles away from home, geared up for a new life and some new adventures.
There are little things I would like to compare as I observed them from five years then. In 2005, the air was more fresh, the roads have less traffic, the flats were more cheap ranging at (Bahrain Dinars) BD 100 for a whole flat, and now your BD 100 is only equivalent to one room in a sharing flat.
The exchange rate was much higher then, at 1 BD = 150 Pesos. Unfortunately, my salary then was very low and I can’t remit money back home to my heart’s content. And now 1 BD = 115 pesos and below. What a difference!
The Labour laws have changed hamdalilah! (thank God). If you want to leave your company and transfer to another, you would have to pass on the hole of a needle, pay BD 1,000 or go home. Now the Law says you can leave anytime as long as you give a proper one month notice and comply with its Labour requirements. Bahrain is somehow free from the clutches of greedy sponsors who take advantage of little people.
Five years ago, there were no iphones, blackberrys, ipads, macbooks, etc. We were contented with our simple cellphones as long as you can “tok and tek” (talk and text, pun intended). Our desktop computers were not flat screened, was there skype that time?
The winter of 2005-2007 live up to its name. When you get out of your car or home, your teeth will chatter, your bones will hurt, your back is painful. I remember we would walk along the road wearing bonnets, hand gloves, double jackets, socks, and boots. Today, yuh, it is still cold but it has little difference with the cool Christmas weather in the Philippines. It is just cold not verrrrryyyyy cold! I wonder which one changed: the weather (as credited to global warming) or my body temperature has changed and I am somehow immune to the cold? I need some answers…
In those times, you don’t dare ask a BD 500 (= 75,000 Pesos at BD 150 rate) salary when you’re a local transfer and would like to work in an administrative position. You won’t have the guts then unless you’ve been in Bahrain for a longer time.
Five years ago, life was more simple. Friends come and go, some of them remain. Love was a little more exciting. You fall for someone of different nationality or you find someone like you who came to Bahrain to find life, to find a job, to find love.
Five years after, you have more than a grasp of what life is in a foreign land. You have survived, you have settled. You could have become rich or stayed without savings. Your life is not a matter for you alone to determine. God has already engraved you in the palms of His hands (Ref. Isaiah 49:16) and His plans for you is to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future (Ref. Jeremiah 29:11). Live life to the fullest and hold on to God’s promises that the next five… ten… fifty years will be much, much blessed! Shalom!
