Giving Thanks on National Day

Greetings again from Oman!

I have so much to be thankful for this year! So I wanted to be sure to thank all of you for your emails and support, and I wanted to tell you about my latest adventures here in Oman(November was FULL with them!!).... AND, these emails and my blog are my journal while I'm here, so I have to be sure to include all of the funny stories so I remember them in the future. :)

11/12 - 11/13 : Snake Gorge
Early in the year, the staff at my school were sent an email inviting us to teach courses for the other staff; they were called "Teachers Teaching Teachers" or TTT's. I didn't volunteer to teach anything, but I did sign up for a course that another teacher organized: "Get Out and Know Oman." We met 2 times in October to talk about camping in Oman; where to go and what to bring along. But I wasn't really in the course for the first two classes, instead, I joined so that I could partake in the camping trip we would take at the end of the class. :)

5 families from school, Lydia, and I spent the day on November 12 driving up Snake Gorge in the mountains near Nizwa, with a stop on the way up to hike into a small village. The trip was exciting! I drove my Pajero (yes... I still own an SUV) first down, then up the canyon on dirt and rocky roads for around 5 hours. For the majority of the trip, the other 4 cars were in front of me and I brought up the rear, behind my friends', Miguel and Sarah's, car. There were a few switchbacks on the way down into the canyon that were so tight that I had to drive to the edge, then quickly switch into reverse without letting the car roll off the edge, so that I could make it around the curve. !!! My adrenaline was pumping through my body and I couldn't stop smiling! The scenery was gorgeous, the company was pleasant; who could ask for more?!

The excitement heightened on the way up the other side of the canyon. Miguel's 4 wheel drive was not working properly so he was struggling to make it up the rocky, slippery, steep roads. His passengers dispersed into other cars, trying to lighten the load to make the car's job easier, so Sarah (his wife) was in my car. We no longer were following him and instead were in front of him, but we were trying to go slow enough that we could see if he was making it up the switchbacks successfully. There was another family that was behind him in the event that he needed some help getting his car up any section of the road. Sarah, Lydia and I stopped our car along the edge of one of the switchbacks because we hadn't seen Miguel in a while. When we finally saw him speeding up the hill behind us, we decided to stay parked so that he could pass us and we wouldn't be slowing him down. Unfortunately, he was unable to make the turn and had to slow down too much and was unable to get up that section of the road. He began backing up, in search of a flatter section of road where he would be able to build enough speed to make it around the corner and continue up the road, but because he was on a curve there was nothing behind him but the edge of the cliff. He backed up slowly until his phone rang. He had no idea who would have been calling him at that time of day, so he stopped the car, put on the emergency break, and answered. At that point he had no patience to talk to whoever was on the other side of the call, and when he didn't recognize the accent or the voice he quickly said he couldn't talk at the moment and hung up on the person. He then opened his car door to see how much space he still had to back up. That's when he saw that his back wheel was only centimeters from the edge of the cliff. He was stuck. If he took off his emergency brake, he would surely back off the several-hundred-meter cliff. Whoever called him had probably saved his life! Luckily, the Irishs (the family who had been behind him in the event that he would need help) drove up. They attached a tow rope to Miguel's car and pulled him to safety. Miguel, the next day, called the number back of the person who had called and stopped him just in time, and found out that it was his tailor - he had ordered a suit to be made for the Ghala Ball that he would be attending the next weekend and it was ready for him to try on.

After all of that excitment, the rest of the campout seemed perfect. We arrived to our camping location just as the sun was setting behind the mountains. We set up our tents (it was cold being so high in the mountains - I even got to wear my sweatshirt!!), built a campfire and made dinner. We then sat around the campfire and I happily entertained the kids with camp songs.

The next morning we awoke in a cloud. After a leisurely breakfast spent watching the sun rise into the sky and clear the haze around us, we packed up camp and went for a hike. At the edge of the mountain, we had a stunning view of the canyon that we had driven up the day before. We continued on until we ran into an Omani man with his family. Miguel talked to him, practicing his Arabic - I was exploring another area of the mountain. Miguel soon called me to him and the Omanis, telling me that we had been invited to have coffee and dates with the Omani man and his boys. So we sat for about 20 minutes on the top of the mountain and shared each others' company. The Omanis offered us fresh oranges, apples and, of course, fresh dates bought that morning at a nearby village market. They served us each some coffee in shot-sized coffee cups. I managed to swallow a small cup of coffee (for those of you who don't know, I'm not a coffee drinker because the caffeine makes me sick) and politely refused a refill. The Omani man spoke English well and asked us where we were from, where we worked and then he and the boys began talking about soccer. It was just as I imagined it would have been; the friendly conversation, the tendency to give away anything they had to be as hospitable to their guests as possible. We said goodbye to each other (the men shook hands, but in Muslim culture it is rude for men to touch women in public, so I waved goodbye), and walked back to camp with a bag full of fresh oranges and dates. We then ate a quick snack before heading down the other side of the mountain, down a paved road, back through Nizwa, and along the highway back to Muscat.

11/19 - 11/20 : Turtle Beach (again!) & Wadi Tiwi
The next weekend, Jenelle, Jeff, Zach, Corinne (one of Jenelle's co-workers at a British school in Muscat), and I headed out on another adventure. We went back to Ras al Had - the beach with the sea turtles. Despite the cooler temperatures, we were lucky to still see a couple sea turtles at night. But we had no moon to light our path, and flashlights scare the turtles, so we went to bed early and awoke before the sun to see any turtles that we could with some daylight. We saw several baby turtles making their way to the ocean, and one mother turtle finishing her hole before heading back to sea.


That morning I started feeling ill; my body was achey and I had no desire to move around. So we spent the morning and early afternoon hanging out on the beach, jumping some waves and throwing a frisbee. I sat and watched more than I would have liked, but that also allowed me to finish a novel that I had started the day before, so I was content.


On our way back from being lazy on the beach, we took a turn up a wadi called Wadi Tiwi. We thought it was Wadi Shab, but alas, we were mistaken. Wadi Shab is a place where you hike to a water hole, then swim through the water until you reach the other side and find yourself a wee-hole that your head fits through. You swim under the hole and come out the other side to find a beautiful blue-green pool and greenery. I can't WAIT to actually see it myself! Wadi Tiwi, though was another adventure. We drove on a one lane road up the side of a cliff, down the cliff, up the other side of the gorge and into a small village that was constructed all over rocks. We parked the cars and started our stroll through the village, only to soon be followed by a group of young boys. We were like Pied Pipers! We went up crumbling stairways, were meowed at by cats, had to move aside for loaded donkeys, and wove through the maze of homes, until we decided our following was long enough. We then meandered back down, careful to duck under rubber water tubes and over random wires that crossed the path. We greeted and were greeted by everyone we saw - though none of those people were women. "A salaam u:alaikum!" Older men asked where we were from and where we were going (all in Arabic). Too bad we didn't know how to reply very well. The ride out of the wadi was quicker than the ride in; 4-wheel-drive comes in handy to get to the outskirts. What a pleasant mistake. We made it out just as the sun was setting. I slept the rest of the ride in the back seat while Zach and Jeff kept themselves amused in the front.




The next day I took my first sick day of the school year. It was just what I needed to feel better: to sleep all day and not stress about work. It made the 3-day week go even faster (it was only 2 days for me) - I was happy to be at work with my students on Sunday and Monday.




11/24 - 11/26 : Massirah Island
November 18 is Sultan Qaboos' birthday. To celebrate, the Omanis decorate the streets with his pictures, light up highways and bridges, and raise hundreds (if not thousands) of Omani flags around the country. There is also a national holiday for this occassion, called National Day. National Day itself is always the 18th, but the dates of the 4-day weekend of celebration is determined by the Sultan a few days before his birthday, and this year was on Tuesday and Wednesday the 24th and 25th.

I decided to take advantage of this 4-day weekend with another roadtrip, and luckily, Jenelle, Zach, and Jeff were willing to come along. We drove the 5 hour drive to the eastern coast of Oman, to a point where a ferry takes you and your vehicle across the ~20 kilometer stretch of the ocean to Masirrah Island.

The first highlight of the trip was our arrival to the ferry. We arrived just as the ferry did - it unloaded its passengers, then we became part of a frantic race to get onto the ferry before anyone else. There is no organization to the loading of the ferry, whatsoever. So Zach and Jeff managed to cut into the ferry toward the beginning of the battle, but Jenelle and I got stuck behind a large truck that was bringing a shipment of carpets to the island and several other smaller cars kept cutting the truck off. Luckily (probably because of the fact that Jenelle and I are western women), an Omani man saved the last spot for our car. So we continued our way to the island, carefully exiting our vehicle with only about 20 centimeters on either side of our car to open our doors. The ferry ride lasted about one hour.

The island itself is pristine. It has a mountain range located along the center part, and a paved road around the entire island. There is a decent-sized town at the northern end of the island and the rest of the island consists of rocks, sand, probably about 100 palm trees (total) and the bedouins' huts along the coast.



I was told a story by one of my colleagues before going to Masirrah that I thought was interesting:

Several decades ago, a British navy ship arrived to Masirrah and was stationed at the island for awhile. While they were there, the British soldiers went into the villages on the island and raped the women. The Omani men, to retaliate, killed the British soldiers. The sultan at the time (not Sultan Qaboos, but his father), in order to keep peace with Britain, punished the Omanis by destroying their homes and not allowing supplies to be shipped to the island so that they could re-build. When Sultan Qaboos came into power about 35 years ago, he wanted to give something back to the Omanis on the island since they had been living uncomfortably for so long. So, Sultan Qaboos gave every Omani family on the island a brand new Toyota Range Rover truck. They were all the same make and model.

Now, when you go to Masirrah Island, you can see those trucks everywhere! The families have since painted them different colors and decorated them in whatever way they could to make them unique. But they are still there.

Back to the camping trip:
We camped for 2 nights. During the day we hung out at the beach, Zach and Jenelle tried kite boarding the one day we had enough wind, and I read and swam a lot. The second day, while I was trying to help Jenelle and Zach with their kites, a group of Omani women piled out of their truck and came to meet me. I talked with them for about 20 minutes and they invited me to dinner at their home. I accepted and we exchanged telephone numbers. They tried to leave the beach, but got stuck in the sand, so Jenelle and I had to pull them out with her Land Rover and the tow ropes we had brought. Unfortunately, I waited for a call from them for several hours, then I tried calling, but communication fell apart and we didn't end up joining them for coffee or for dinner. But it was fun to talk to them for the short amount of time that I did.

The ferry ride home was less hectic because we came a day before the holiday was over; Thanksgiving day. The ferry got stuck on a sand bar since we were riding at low tide. The drivers had all of us move our vehicles as close to the front of the boat as possible so as to shift the weight. We made it off the sandbar and to the docks. My Thanksgiving dinner consisted of some veggie pizza in a town on the drive home. :) It was a great way to spend the weekend; I felt thoroughly rested once I got home.


This past week a rare phenomenon happened here in Oman. On Wednesday while I was outside playing Capture the Flag with some middle schoolers, the sky opened on us and several rain drops came down. Not enough to make me wet, but enough that the students were impressed. So it rained in Oman (according to everyone else I talked to... I'm not sure I'd call it "rain")!! Apparently there is nowhere for the water to go when it does rain, so streets and buildings get flooded quite easily. Ha! How funny. It rained in Oman.

This weekend I'm anxiously waiting for my sister to arrive - she gets here on Sunday night! I am trying to get into the holiday spirit despite the beautiful weather and lack of snow. My brother is coming, too, on Christmas day, so with both of them here, I will have plenty more adventures to share in the coming month.

I trust everyone is doing well! This is finally the conclusion to yet another novel-like email. I wish you a warm holiday season. Keep in touch and keep smiling!!