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FeaturesJanuary 23, 2005

Kim Reagan Baker not only adjusted to a new job when she joined her husband at his job site but she adapted to a new culture as well. Reagan Baker, who is a native of Cape Girardeau, returned to the states after nearly three years in Bahrain, an island country in the Middle East. While there, she worked as a nurse for the U.S. Embassy...

Kim Reagan Baker not only adjusted to a new job when she joined her husband at his job site but she adapted to a new culture as well.

Reagan Baker, who is a native of Cape Girardeau, returned to the states after nearly three years in Bahrain, an island country in the Middle East. While there, she worked as a nurse for the U.S. Embassy.

Living in Bahrain "was like being on a vacation that never ended," she said.

Beautiful sunsets and panoramic ocean views, desert hills with scattered palm trees, ancient mosques and local markets filled with colorful wares were all part of the landscape. Yet few people ever venture to Bahrain because "it's such a small island you can hardly even find it on a world map," Reagan Baker said.

Bahrain is situated on the border with Saudi Arabia near another island, Qatar. Most people come close to the region if they know of Abu Dhabi, she said.

Moving from a home in Georgia to Bahrain wasn't just about a shift in cultures, but also about adjusting to the weather. Temperatures in the summer months can reach 140 degrees with 96 percent humidity. From November to April, the temperatures drop and fall to about 50 degrees at night.

Adjusting to the Middle Eastern Muslim culture wasn't terribly difficult because Reagan Baker had visited her husband before moving to Bahrain. He has been working in the country since 1993, returning to the states every three months or so.

Bahrain is full of expatriates and Americans are fairly well tolerated. The king is quite popular among his people and very tolerant of other religions, although Islam is the dominant faith, Reagan Baker said.

Adjusting to the daily utterings from prayer towers all across the city and the haphazard driving system took some getting used to, she said.

American missionaries were among the first people to bring health care into the country. But since Reagan Baker went to Bahrain as a private citizen, she had to consult with the Embassy for help before she could be allowed to work.

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To practice as a nurse, she needed a license and most hospitals require that foreign employees be sponsored in some way. However, the nurse at the Embassy was about to leave so Reagan Baker applied for that job and got it.

"It was a different kind of nursing," she said. She was trained as an operating room nurse so handling questions about vaccinations, immunizations and other foreign travel health issues was new.

But it also broadened her work since much of the training and care is similar to a nurse practitioner. Reagan Baker would make diagnoses and then consult with physicians who were stationed in Kuwait or Saudi Arabia.

She left in October because of a family health emergency back in the states. During her farewell party, she was presented with an award from the Office of Military Cooperation and political military section. Never in the history of the Bahrain embassy has the award been given to an employee who hasn't worked in that division, Reagan Baker said.

"With all that she's got to see and the education she got in just 2 1/2 years, we're just so very proud of her," said her mother Vonne Reagan.

Because of her experiences, Reagan Baker knows more Arabic than she ever did before, though she can't speak it nearly as well as she can understand it when it's spoken.

A hobby in photography and a desire to see the country while she was living in Bahrain sent Reagan Baker to the Bahraini countryside where she saw the Tree of Life, an enormous tree that is considered the oldest living thing on the island, scores of camels and vendors selling date palms, herbs and fruit.

Reagan Baker said that she barely had to sacrifice while living in Bahrain because the country is quite wealthy and gets products shipped from all across the globe. As an Embassy employee, she was allowed access to the ship store at the naval base. "But they don't lack for any products. You just have to get out there and look for it if you can't find it in the local market."

But her travels are behind her for now. Reagan Baker is staying in Cape Girardeau to finish a bachelor's degree in nursing at Southeast Missouri State University.

ljohnston@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126

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