Week 2 in Oman

August 24, 2008

Hi again.

Thank you to EVERYONE who wrote to me!! If any of you want to be taken off my list, please just let me know. I'm thinking of starting a blog, but I haven't yet (mostly because I don't have internet at my house yet). So when I do I'll let you all know and I'll stop filling your inboxes. :)

Well, I've been here 2 weeks now. This week wasn't quite as exciting as the first, mostly because I spent the majority of it working. I guess that was exciting for me, but I don't have as many stories to share.

As I mentioned before, the work week is from Saturday to Wednesday and our weekends are Thursday and Friday, so Saturday is the first day of school. I'm pretty nervous, but I think mostly prepared. I still have to finish some things in my classroom. When it's all ready I'll take a picture so you can all see. :) My room is a science lab and feels pretty dark, so I've been trying to brighten things up with homemade posters and with calendar pictures. :)

This Thusday I took my first road trip with two other new teachers, Zach and Jeff. We went to Nizwa, a town southwest of Muscat and further into the mountains and desert. It was a successful trip! We saw our first camels, saw a museum inside the Nizwa Fort where we learned about Oman, and because of our inability to see a cave we instead stopped in another little town on the way back from Nizwa, called Tunuf, where we happened upon a river (yes, a river!) flowing through the desert and mountains.

Finding Tunuf became the highlight of our day because a) we saw ruins of a town made of mud that was abandoned in the 50s (or 60s) because of a civil war in which it was bombed. AND when we found the river near the ruins, we found that it is the most popular place to be for miles around. There were families everywhere enjoying the water jumping from walls into the river, and staring at us, the foreigners, as we made our way around and through the river.

A couple things I noticed when being with so many Omanis:

- I am a white, ignorant foreigner. I have so much to learn about Muslim culture, and though I try to be respectful, it didn't matter - I didn't fit in. I was certainly the spectacle of the afternoon. Even though I was with 2 other people, I, being female, caught everyone's attention. Despite the awkwardness and discomfort I felt at being stared at by everyone around me despite my attempts at being discreet, I cannot help but appreciate the experience. Nobody was disrespectful, just curious. I did not once feel intimidated or threatened. And for once (Mom, you'll appreciate this) I did not go jump off the cliff into the river, despite my desires to do so. And I don't regret not doing so - I'll just go back some day that isn't the weekend when there aren't other people around and do it then. :)

- Some families were eating together along the river and the women and men ate together, but every other activity was separated by gender. There were groups of men drumming, some swimming, some driving through the river, and some scrambling up rocks to jump into the river. The women stayed along the side of the river, or even further up the bank, out of the water, perhaps taking care of the youngest members of the families.

- There was trash everywhere. Despite the sultan's attempts at making Oman a "greener" country, people here are still of the Bedouin mindset: the desert will take the refuse away and we will not have to deal with it again. The desert has not been taking all of the plastic bags and plastic food containers away. Some people even bagged all of their trash and tied it neatly together, then left it along the river's edge.

Despite the trash, and my ignorant desires for women's rights in a culture I know very little about, everyone seemed content. I was not there to judge anyone. I was just happy that everyone was spending time outdoors, enjoying the water and cool(er) breeze! What a great way to spend a weekend afternoon.

We came back and went to a sushi buffet for dinner with several other teachers. It was good, but expensive. On Friday I came to school for most of the morning so that I would be prepared for the students to arrive on Saturday! And they did! Friday night I played my 1st game of soccer in 7 years - staff versus high-school-students. It was excellent - I didn't have the ball handling skills that I used to, but I could run fast and keep up with many of the boys. :) (There were only 2 of us girls playing, me and the other new teacher, Sarah.) It felt good to get some intense exercise. I look forward to playing Ultimate Frisbee tomorrow after school.

I met my 6th graders yesterday morning. It was great! They are so sweet!!! (such a different attitude than my 7th and 8th graders the last 2 years) :) I have students from India, Egypt, Korea, Denmark, South Africa, and Venezuela, and 2 from Minnesota! They were all excited and nervous to be in the middle school. But we made it through the day - and by the end of the day I was exhausted. Today also went smoothly - I'm so excited to be teaching science. My students seem motivated and eager to please. I am teaching on a block schedule, too, which helps for preparing classes. I only have 2 or 3 classes each day, though each is 80-90 minutes long. I think once I get used to the longer class periods, they will be very helpful - especially for science labs and group work.

Alright, that's enough for now - I have to go better-plan my health curriculum. I hope you're all well and that you continue emailing me updates about your lives, too.

Have a great week!! :)Sara