Our flights went really well, we took a plane chartered by the military called a rotator flight from Norfolk, Virginia first to Rota, Spain and then Sigonella, Italy and then finally to Manama, Bahrain. Norfolk to Rota was about 6 hours, Rota to Sigonella was about 2.5 and Sigonella to Manamawas about 4.5 hours. In each of the stops we were in the terminal for about three hours for refueling and resupplying. They served meals on each flight, they were actually pretty good and some of them warm. The girls did great on the plane, they slept most of the way to Rota, part of the way to Sigonella and then a good part of the way to Bahrain. When they weren't sleeping they were pretty happy, we kept them busy snacking, coloring, reading books, and singing songs and they hardly cried. The hardest part was getting off the plane with our carry on baggage. Since we had to have Madi's car seat on the plane it made for a hard time carrying everything out of the terminal and through customs. Luckily there were some nice military personnel who helped us out carrying things and finding is a luggage rack to help ease the burden on us.
We were met by Lieutenant Saleem who Tyler will be working with on base and a couple enlisted guys who brought their truck to help with all our luggage. It was nice to have some friendly, helpful faces there to meet us. Lieutenant Saleem was so kind to us; he took us to our hotel, made sure we got checked in and to our room with our baggage alright, took Tyler to the market to get groceries, paid for the groceries, and bright then up to our room. He went above and beyond what we expected or even needed and it was wonderful to feel like we had support already in this new country.
The work week in Bahrain is Sunday through Thursday, with the Sabbath observed on Fridays. We arrived on Thursday morning, so the end of the work week. Today was Friday and we were able to take an Uber car to and from church since our vehicle is, and will be, in transit for another six weeks or so. We will most likely rent a car so that we won't have to do that in the future but we were glad to make it to church regardless. We are in a small branch, the primary is so small that Ameilya and Madi are in the same class for part of the block. The Relief Society is small with only about 15 sisters including myself in attendance today. Everyone was very friendly and the branch president, noticing that we were new, pulled us aside and got to know is a little bit during Sunday school. In coming here it feels like we have a lot of instant support: between the military community and our church branch I think we will be more than supported and have all the help and friends we could ever need.
Our "apartment" at the hotel is really nice. The hotel is called The Diplomat Radisson Blu and we are on the 5th floor. We have per diem from the military that covers the cost of it for up to 45 days until we have found a permanent residence. It is a two bedroom, two and a half bath with a living room, kitchen, dining area and lots of closet space. It is close to the military base and actually offers a shuttle service every hour to the base. I haven't been on base yet but plan on it very soon, probably Sunday for the base orientation meetings. Tyler had to report on Thursday so he went to the base while the kids and I took naps to just show his face, meet a few people, see the building, and then LT Saleem brought him back to the hotel.
Our adventure is just starting and we are slowly but surely getting acclimated to life over here. We are excited to get involved and meet people and make new friends.
Here are some pictures of our apartment:
Living area
Half bath
Kitchen
Dining area
Kitchen
Kids bathroom
Matter closet area
Master bedroom
Kids bedroom
Sleeping kiddo
Madi's bed
Sleeping kiddo
Living area, Tyler calling his parents
View from our living room window
Welcome gift they brought to our room
Toddler choo choo train
Tired, sleeping Madi. We tried to feed her dinner and this is what happened instead. Another week and I bet we will be on a pretty normal schedule for this time zone. Right now all of our internal clocks are pretty messed up.
WOW! Such an exciting adventure. :)
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