Bahrain

We are on to the 'B's (although we did skip Australia, but we'll get to that). I did our calendar today for all of February, with the hope that we'll get to our Religion unit, after we learn about the 7 countries who are part of the Immigration Ban. But, that won't happen until the first week in February (we've got to finish up January, then Asa is in the office). 

Anyway, today we learned about the tiniest of all the Arab nations on earth, Bahrain. In case you aren't familiar, it's made up of 33 islands in the Persian Gulf, and 92 percent of the available land is desert.

But, besides air and boat, you can drive to Bahrain, thanks to a series of bridges and causeways called the King Fahd Causeway. (Well, sort of, it connect Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, while there is no official U.S. Department of State warning to visit Bahrain, there is one to visit Saudi Arabia). 

Bahrain is a tiny country (it's 181st in landmass), with just over 1.3 million residents who enjoy their weekends on Friday and Saturday. Their Sundays are our Mondays. (They actually used to have weekends Thursday/Friday but decided they should have at least one weekend day the same as the rest of the world). They've got some good (albeit) crazy pearl diving opportunities (traditional divers don't use any equipment- they just hold their breath and are lowered into the water with a weighted rope). They also are home to the only known cat to live in the desert, the Arabian Sand Cat, who is so awesome, it eats poisonous snakes for dinner.  A Muslim-majority country, Bahrain has a strict, no-alcohol policy, so when they hosted the first ever Formula-One Grand Prix in the Middle East, they showered their winner with fizzy, non-alcoholic rose and pomegranate water.  And my final fun tidbit for you is about the Tree of Life. It's a 400 year old tree that stands all by its lonesome in the Bahrain desert. The water source is a mystery, and tree experts think it must have one of the deepest root systems of all the trees in the world. 

The boys drew some cute postcards, with lots of info on them. (They've been on point with their cards lately). 

For dinner we had three bean soup, a pretty popular dish in Bahrain. (Although they make it MUCH spicy-er than Asa did, as he was trying to make it Corinne and Calib friendly). For our main dish, we had traditional Bahraini Chicken Machboos.

Our fruit tonight was watermelon, commonly grown in Bahrain. 

Dinner earned three spoons up. 

Hayden announced to everyone he didn't care for rice. (Hm, I think it's going to be a tough year for him). Peyton and I are combining for a spoon, because he liked the main dish, but not the soup, while I liked soup (it was like a really hearty vegetable and was super good on this cold Florida night), but thought the main dish lacked any sort of flavor. Calib and Asa both ate everything on their plate, and in their bowls. 

Another island country, we just had to make a nail polish dot in the middle of our Persian Gulf work. 

13 Down, 180 to Go! 

Next Up: Barbados