Middle East Tour

Our military tour of the Middle East resulted in a lot of amazing photos, including this one, taken in the building called "Taliban's Last Stand"; the last hiding place of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Now you can see those photos on Flickr. The link is now in the right sidebar.

WOWK-TV in Charleston, WV was one of the many evening news stations to feature The Redding Brothers' departure for the Middle East. Read the report here.

While we were in Bahrain, a small country in the Persian Gulf, our
guide took us out to eat an Arabic meal. I am glad we had a guide! The
language barrier, and the unfamiliar menu items would not have created
a great experience otherwise. But with our guide, the meal was amazing.
I want to eat Arabic right now, just thinking about it.

After that experience, our group felt like we were pretty comfortable eating in public places in Arabic countries.

So
when we were in the United Arab Emirates, and were invited to a meal,
we weren't worried at all. Despite some weirdness in the ordering
process, everything went well. Our food came, and it was reasonably
close to what we wanted.

Then came the end of the meal, and a strange gentleman in a funny
red hat came to our table. We couldn't understand his gestures, but he
began to lay very small cups in front of each of us. And like something from Willy Wonka, he tipped
his giant, convoluted, shiny silver coffeepot, and poured a
teaspoon-full of coffee in every one.

And then he waited. So we smiled and began to sip the coffee.

And he waited. Not knowing what to do, we started handing him the cups back. He began stacking them.

And still he waited.

So we thanked him, and then he thanked us, and turned. And as we
watched, he placed each of OUR cups down in front of other customers.
And they began to drink from them, without a sign of reluctance.

At
this point, all of us Americans were horrified. What strange custom was
this?! What other dishes did this restaurant not see fit to wash?

We chalked it up to a cultural misunderstanding. Until we asked some of our other Arabic acquaintances about this
custom. They too were shocked. So, um, where DID that custom come from?

Since it's Memorial Day, we want to give a shout out to all the guys and gals we met throughout this last month in the Middle East:

 Sgt. Campose and Daniel at Manas, Kyrgyzstan

The MWR gang in Kandahar, Afghanistan 

Staff Sgt. Page in Bagram, Afghanistan

 K.B. and the guys at Al Udeid, Qatar

Hussain Al Safar at Naval Support Activities in the Kingdom of Bahrain

Will, Ms. Johnson, and the guys at the New Cantina in Djibouti, Djibouti

Fareed in Fujairah, UAE

Sam and TMac at Ali Al Saleed in Kuwait

The commander at Camp Virginia for the eye protection (it really helped with the sand!)

Thanks for the warm hospitality while we were there, and for all you guys did to make the show days run smoothly.

But most of all, a big thank you to all the Soldiers, Sailors (what were you guys doing in the desert?), Airmen, and Marines who came out from their desert tents to listen to a rock band performing in a sandstorm. More than ever, we appreciate the good work you guys do 7 days a week.

 Thanks again,

-The Redding Brothers (Micah, Josiah & Gabe)