Labour Camp

Last night was rather interesting because I went to a labour camp. These camps are set up for foreign workers that come to work construction and the like. They are uneducated, poor men from India, Bangladesh and other nations like that. They come to Bahrain to make way more money then they ever could in their home nations, and then send most of the money back home to their families. They work well over 12 hours a day, 6 or 7 days a week and get paid the equivalent of $60 to $180 a month. As a sign of what they think of it all, they try hard to get people that they know back home, friends and family, jobs in Bahrain as well. If you look at the pictures on Flikr you'll be able to see one of the better rooms. Only four guys to the room, they've been able to, after quite some time, get a tv. All the units have a\c, roof vans, and a small fridge. All the cooking goes on in a common room and all the hygiene equipment is also in a communal place. I went into another room and they have 8 guys in there. The room was about 50% larger then the room that you can see. So there really is not that much person space when you get down to it. Not much at all. You put your stuff under your bed or hang it above, and thats pretty well all the space you have. Not that it much matters, because you don't spend all that much time there awake. The vast majority of your time is taken up working and sleeping. They actually go to bed around 8pm, but that is because they start work at 3am, so that they can beat the sun up, and thus the heat. When I went there I had to wear a long-sleeved shirt and if I were blond, I would of had to wear a hat, just so that the administration would not as easily see a white person walking around the camp. This is because they fear us and our habit of becoming upset with them about such issues as standard of living and human rights. The guys that I went into the camp with go in every week to see their friends. Evangelism is illegal so they make sure not to cross that line. They go in to do bible studies and the like. They are baby Christians there, and even if they have been Christians for longer, they have not had all that much opportunity for discipleship or even basic bible knowledge. So they go into the camps. Sometimes they sing, sometimes it is a full time of prayer, sometimes there are bible studies and sometimes they go in just to listen to the workers and show that someone cares. Also they go in and help them with what they can, like understanding the legal system when they have problems and those sorts of things. I can't imagine how hard that sort of life would be, to be away from friends and family for so long, while working many hours like that. It would almost be soul crushing, but they accept that life and chose it over the one that they had in their home nation. They were quite welcoming (though I think they found it rather... novel to have a white person there with them, don't think that happens much) and showed great hospitality. They were a great bunch of men and now when I go around Bahrain, I will no longer see faceless workers toiling away in the sun, but instead men with stories and families. I do like it when things become humanized. God is their God just as much as He is my God, we are brothers. God loves them just as much as He loves me. We may be in drastically different places in life, but God seeks to work in all of our lives and complete the same mission. It was strange, I did not feel any pity for them, and I don't think that they would want any. I did feel a connection to them, through our faith, and an admiration for what they were doing for those back home. They were making the most out of their lives the best way they knew how. I do wish greatly that the situation wasn't like that. There is great exploitation of foreign workers, though this is a world wide thing. We should seek not to change the system however, but instead to convert it. I had a great sense of peace about the camp however though, for I know that in all things God is in control and is sovereign over all things. He watches over those men and takes care of them as His children. I also am so glad that there are men that do go into the camps and spread light, bring encouragement and are the hands and feet of the Lord.