Two posts - ME and Bahrain

Yeah - today I will have to write about both my worlds - my internal battles and the exterior war going on in Bahrain.

ME

My personal life is going through a huge restructure, my own values are being reassessed, I am working hard to identify my priorities, regroup my energy and start fresh.

All I know ( always knew, but just let it pass by) is how much I want/need to be happy. To see the sun shinning when I look out of the window. To identify what makes the butterflies more colorful in my life.

I am in a restructure mode. Painful, sad, and full of changes. Changes that will no doubt completely reinvent the way my life is - and I am grateful for that. Enough of living in an automatic pilot. Enough of pretending whatever I have is enough.

But while my "internal life" is this mess, the world around me in crumbling. Yeah, I know you know I live in Bahrain. And the news are showing you a little of our situation here. So I will share with you, a bit of my view. As an expat living in the middle of the conflict.

Bahrain

70% of our population is shia. 30% is suni - and so is the government. Sunis have more money, better jobs, more opportunities. Sunis are more educated. The shia population is now fighting for better wages, for equality, for government jobs.

The Prime Minister has been in power for 40 years 

The peaceful protest turned into a bloody battle between the people and the police. 6 people dead.

But all of this, you probably heard on the news.

And how are we in the middle of it all?

The conflicts are not close to our homes. We receive updates from friends of where the friction is, so we avoid the areas.

Some areas are closed, but we can still access most of the city using secondary roads - it means some intersections become bottle necks and the traffic suffers. 

Traffic is a whole new game. most people are home, did not go to work and are not venturing out, so most of the roads are clear ( apart from the mentioned bottle necks).

Some companies canceled the working day and sent employees home.

A few expats are flying out. Most are just waiting to see.

Our neighbourhood supermarket run out of bread, milk and eggs yesterday - it seems that people are stocking up food.

Several friends of mine had flights scheduled in or out of Bahrain. They all managed to leave/arrive safely.

I tried to visit the conflict areas, to have a real feel for what is happening, but the police stopped me. I could not get anywhere near the masses.