Cinnamon, Honey, Cummin

From Oct. 28-09

Dear Health Fanatics,

I think most of you saw the Forward about the incredible number of cures that can be effected by consuming cinnamon and honey. After I read it I raced to City Centre and went into the huge Carrefour market (sort of a French Wal-Mart). In less than half an hour I had located the spices and stood studying them. Did you know that there are a lot of spices? I found the cinnamon and they had a couple of brands. I selected one. But wait! Right next to that one there's another container, bigger and cheaper! So I made the exchange, checked out and drove home.

That night it was time for my first cinnamon and honey drink. I added the ingredients to the hot water, and in so doing noticed that the cinnamon smelled a bit funny. When I tasted the concoction it also tasted a little funny. I looked at the jar: Cummin. Darn! Almost the same color! Not my fault! I'm not even sure what you use cummin in. Meatloaf? Anyway, since I paid for it, I drank it down. Honestly, it may not make the menu at Starbucks.

I've now tried again for cinnamon and have succeeded and drink it down regularly. And it works...the first thing I noticed was no outbreaks of acne! Also, I'm starting to get some feeling below my knees. You better get started on it.

I had told you that our first league game, with Najma, was coming right up...if they showed up for the game. Well, they didn't have to show up. They just called the Fed and the Fed in turned called us. The message: Najma is not ready to play yet. So the game is postponed. I find this an interesting option for a team to have when they feel they are not up to par.

Sunday nite we did in fact have a game, taking on Isa Town. We won but played lousy. I can't get my players to move, beg though I may. Last nite at practice I made a lot of threats and this succeeded into frightening them enough to start stirring around a wee bit. We play Nuwaidrat on Saturday. You may remember that our club had signed two of their players from last year. That made them mad and they wouldn't release one of them, Ibrahim, even tho they had no valid grounds to refuse signing the papers. The battle waged for a couple of weeks and in the end they blackmailed us into having to give the other player back in order to get Ibrahim. So we will play against our former squad member next game.

Games are usually played on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays. The fans, for big games, are rabid. I'm told that for important matchess people show up at 4:00 so they can get into the gym for a 7:45 game. Scammers even sell counterfeit tickets. Finally, nearly 2000 squeeze in but we could easily draw 5000 if we had a bigger building. In fact, there is a big new building here and I was told that Bahrain will use it to host the Arab Club Games in April if they win the bid. We will play in that competition. If it's not here I'm told that Dubai also wants it. While in Beirut, Mgr. Hussain managed to wrangle us an invitation to Morocco, also in May. A competition in Casa Blanca, which is supposed to be nice place. It's an 8-9 hour plane ride from here. I've never been to Morocco, so look forward to that. I also look forward to my daily hot drink to soon vanquish baldness. And I believe it will. It's miraculous. And I think cummin may very well also work.

I've seen all ten league teams play now and 9 of them are capable of winning on a given nite. I saw Bahrain Club two nites ago, a team that hasn't won a game in 3 years. They didn't win this nite either but I was still pleased to witness the competition, because of the BC coach. Quite a hefty young fellow, with extra girth around the middle, it was obvious he had put some thought into what he would wear for the game. I feel that his selections were a fashion triumph. He wore very baggy red gym shorts and for a top simply went with a dark blue Chicago Bears football jersey. Written on the back, in orange, was: SINGLETARY. That would be Mike Singletary, now coach of the SF 49ers. I feel that he may have been sending some sort of covert statement through his wardrobe. I continue to ponder, with admiration, his cunning. His foreign player is an old tallish Iraqi. They may not taste victory again this season either, unless Coach's secret messages mess with the other teams' psyches or something like that.
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Remember when I went out few weeks ago to Amwaj Island...where I was somewhat frightened by a building disguised as a dragon? Well, I've been back there twice. In one tract, called Tala, you leave your ID with the gate guys and can go in to where there's a Costa's Coffee and a Dairy Queen among the residences. So what I do is power walk for about 40 minutes, taking in the sights, and then I help myself to one of their nice big round swimming pools. The pools sit right next to a lagoon and yesterday I did some saltwater swimming there as well. Which is funny. Because before I started taking honey and cinnamon I didn't even know how to swim. I also had a cheeseburger and a blizzard (Snickers) at DQ. The place is quiet and serene and it's a nice outing.
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When I first got here I thought it was easy to drive around...not so much traffic. But, unfortunately, I was tricked by the fact that it was Ramadan and most of the drivers were home sleeping (while they fasted). Now I find that traffic is a big problem, mostly because the system is designed with almost no side streets. So every major intersection has incredibly long lines. Can easily sit through 3 (long)red lights before finally moving along. Another factor in the long waits is that the traffic engineers don't dare to let lanes from opposing sides of the street make left-hand turns at the same time. The result would be chaos and mayhem, neither of which are welcome here in the friendly kingdom.
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Yesterday I went with my new friend, Ozell, a Dominican-American who coaches Ittihad, to lunch at Nando's (a Portuguese chain...good food) and then across the street to The Second Cup, where I enjoyed a caramel moccachino. One waitress was quite brassy and kept talking to us. So I asked where she was from. She said something I didn't understand. I asked again, she said again. On the third try I realized she was saying she was from "Mount Everest." And she smiled as she said it. Turns out she's from Nepal. She told us how a Mexican kid from the U.S. military base very close by, has been coming in to see her for a week now. She thinks he likes her. So she asked us all these questions about Mexico. I advised her to focus on the musical question, "Mamacita, donde esta Santa Claus?" I feel that's good advice until this very minute.

Eventually we paid and left. But here's what you have to remember about the money: the denominations come in different colors. The 20s (about $55) are sort of aqua; the 10s are green; the 5s are blue; the ones are red (but watch out...they have two different sizes of these); and both the one-halfs and one-quarters are brownish. What?! You don't have any half dollar or one-quarter dollar bills in your wallet? Well, they're needful here, where each dinar is worth $2.70 and you need smaller denominations. Still always end up with tons of change. When I have enough of this change I will send it to poor kids so that they can take the cinnamon/honey cure. It's miraculous.

Young Coach G.P.(and getting younger by the minute; it also cures aging)