13 - My Friend from Bahrain

He who Hails From Bahrain!

            In all honesty, the person I consider my closest friend in Asia Pacific College is Mr. Andrey Bryan Buzon. The day we first met was at the first day of classes. During the surprise activity of Ms. Joei that required us to introduce the person next to us, Andrey’s introduction by Vince caught my attention. It was mentioned that he lived in Bahrain for more than a few years.

            But of course, that wasn’t the reason why we became good friends. In addition to his good-natured personality which is easy to get along with, one of the main reasons for that should be the fact that our residences aren’t more than 1 km from each other, and we take the same route home most of the time. Through all the times that we went home together, I came to know more and more about him through his stories. Of course, I also tell my own stories but they don’t even come close to interesting when compared to his.

            Because of that, I came to know a lot of things about Bahrain. From what Andrey told me, Bahrain is a monarchy, ruled by a King. Surprisingly, the size of Bahrain is approximately only as large as Quezon City. The country’s currency is Dinar, which is equivalent to 100 Php. I guess oil really does magic to economy. Bahrain’s religion is Islam. Even though this may be the case, Bahrain is currently in a state of chaos because their Islam is divided into two types, the Shia and Sunni. According to Andrey, the current King of Bahrain is a Sunni Islam devotee. For this reason, he is partial for the benefit of those with the same faith as him, while the counterpart suffers as a consequence. This led to a widespread dissatisfaction to approximately half of the population of Bahrain.

           

            Incidentally, the place that Andrey lives in is right in the middle of the residential area of the protestants who cause chaos to the public. His stories include the fight between the rallyists and the police force. Oftentimes, teargases are thrown and a lot of explosions could be heard. I remember Andrey’s story which he included at his speech for our Public Speaking 2 subject, about the time when he woke up, there was a freaking tank at the front of their house! I didn’t dare to believe it at first, but seeing his straight face that seemed to tell he was serious, I believed it with some reluctance.

            Oh. Did you know that Bahrain isn’t pronounced as [Ba-Rain] but rather [Bach-ran]. Yeah, seriously. That’s how he said it was.

Andrey had many more stories about Bahrain that he told me before, but unfortunately, they are too long and I’m too lazy to type all of it. So with that, I would like to extend my gratitude to my dear friend, Mr. Andrey Bryan Buzon. Thanks. J