Dress Up!

One of the weekends we stayed here in Salalah, we had a "Cultural Day" for all the girls, where we got to see what traditional dancing and dress is like here in Southern Oman. It was quite an experience -- we got to have all the pretty (over the top) make-up put on us, and dress up in these thick black velvet robes (the traditional garb at weddings).

Some observations -- make-up here is completely over the top. 2) Even when we are in a completely girls-only environment, a lot of the women still wanted their hair covered and they never showed any skin. We were definitely under the impression that once the environment was only girls, everyone would be much more open, but that was not the case (at least not at this "Cultural Day") In these pictures, you can see more of the event -- we had a show of traditional dancing, and then we all got to dance, and a big meal of traditional foods, henna and make-up.





Again, as I mentioned in previous blogs, the traditional dancing here does not require much moving at all -- it is more like gliding across a stage rather than a lot of moving...

Marriage customs are also very different -- according to the students here for about 2 months before a girl gets married, she sits in her room and just eats and doesn't go out. She is trying to gain weight for her husband. Many grooms and brides still never see each other before they marry. It is very rare that they actually know each other or meet each other before marrying.

According to the students here, when a man is ready to marry (meaning has saved enough money) he tells his mom and she goes out and does the investigating and comes back with possible brides and then describes them to her (So and so is attractive, so and so is more studious...etc) and then he chooses based on her descriptions!

Khor Rouri

The last stop on our trip to the East was called Khor Rouri -- it is an extremely old archaeological city that has ruins from an old city that used to be one of the major sites of....you guessed it! (Frankincense!) The site also has a temple, and store rooms and a port area for the boats.




If you can't read this sign about Khor Rouri, it says: "The ancient site of Sumharam (end of 4th century BC - 4th century AD), built in the area of Khor Rori, is the most important pre-Islamic settlement in the Dhofa region and is also the center of frankincense production areas. South Arabian inscriptions were carved along the monumental gate to the city. Outside the city wall, a small temple and structures contemporary to the first phase of the city were excavated (3rd century BC - 1st century AD). The great quantity of iron and bronze objects discovered, as well as the presence of a workshop for metals, suggests that the city was also a very important center for the internal trade towards south-eastern Arabia and the northern coast of Oman, which was rich in copper.





So this site is really famous for being a gathering spot for all the magicians and Jinn in the region. Every Thursday night they are said to gather and have lots of jinn that gather and the famous magicians practice black magic there. According to the students at the University, this still happens and if we wanted to come any Thursday night we could... (others disagree and say that is not true anymore).

Jinn are a fascinating subject here in Oman, because Omanis, as Muslims, have to believe in the Jinn (they are considered to be one of the creations of God, along with Angels and Man). We had a whole lecture on this -- the Jinn are made of a different substance, while man is made of earth, the Jinn are made of fire.

So, magicians are known to exist and be very powerful here in Oman (of course this depends on who you ask) and according to the Oman students here, they gain their power by controlling the Jinn, but according to one student, the magicians have to sacrifice something they love, and if they want to become truly powerful, they have to eat their own children.

One of the students I talked to actually told me a story about a man eating his child, while another told us the story when we were out in the Sahara of a man who married a Jinnia, and had 2 children with her. He said that someone wanted to come visit them, and he said he could come to his house and see them but whatever he does, he cannot say the name of God (Allah), but apparently when he entered the house, the Jinn and children were so bright and talking in some strange language...and they were so bright the man said, "Oh my God!"and the Jinia (wife) and kids disappeared instantly.

So of course most Omani's don't really believe these stories -- but they are widely known and passed around. That is what I find most interesting!

We're not in Kansas anymore...

So continuing the theme of Trip 2 -- I am going to post my last blog on our second excursion to the west. On the third day we visited the valleys and rivers that make this region so famous in the summertime. (As you all know by now, this is the Khareef season, which means that there is constant daily drizzle)

The rivers are incredibly green and beautiful and they make you think you are in Virginia in the summertime.


Here are just a few pictures of the rivers there (don't they look like Virginia??)




The mountains are so green and lush, aren't they?





Look at the color of this water here:



Now, I know you are asking, what is the difference between Oman and Virginia? Well....that would be the Saudi tourists (of course!)

Answer to Where's Al-Saratan?

Here you go! (Admire my technological prowess....)

Where's Al-Saratan?

This is the American-in-Oman take on the classic "Where's Waldo" game. Saratan = Crab (it also means cancer, both the disease and the astrological sign -- fascinating isn't it, since the crab is the sign of the sign?) Anyways...this picture is from our trip to the East -- the beaches were filled with seashells and sand crabs!

Find the crab in this picture! (I will post the answer in the next post!)

(It's a sand crab = white to blend in with the sand)

In thّe land of camels. (ٍِعلى ارض الجمال)

I thought I should give a little context into the camel here. The camel is ubiquitous in Oman and not just in the desert. As you see in these pictures, camels just roam free and they are not bothered at all by humans -- in fact, they like investigating our camp sites, coming close and (as the picture below shows) eating our leftovers!



Aren't camels cute animals? They just have very expressive faces I think.

Here in Oman, you will see camels everywhere when you drive between cities -- but don't think that these are wild camels -- according to our Omani friends, all camels in Oman are owned by families, and are marked by their owners to show who they belong too -- but they are left alone during the day to roam free for food. At night they return home to sleep -- according to our Omani friends there is no risk of camels being stolen though (as I thought there might be) because they are all marked, but more over, because they are not worth anything -- there are no real uses for camel's now except for the milk and meat, and those are not that valuable (since, again, camels are ubiquitous) and everyone now eats other forms of meat (beef and chicken) and drinks cows milk. So when I asked about whether the camels could be stolen, I was told that that wouldn't happen, because "what would someone do with a lot of camels?"


Cute nonetheless!

I have to admit that after posting this the first time, one of the students here at the University told me that camels are in fact worth thousands of dollars (though I think she may be mistaking your average roaming camel and specially bred racing camels, but I can't be sure, I really have no idea how much camels are worth!)

My Progress in Arabic!

I just had to give a presentation in my Arabic class, and I could tell how much my Arabic improved...I thought I would post it for the benefit of my Arabic-reading friends.

١) اليوم ساتحدث عن موضوع الذي ناقشناه قليلا الاسبوع الماضي، و هو انتشار اللغة الانجليزية عالميا و العلاقة بين اللغة و الاستعمارة/الغزو الثقافي

٢) اولا اريد ان اقدم اطارا تحليليا يستخدمه الباحثون في تحليل ظاهرة انتشاراستخدام لغات مختلفة نسبيا و تراجعها، وكما هو مستخدم كثيرا في تحليل و تطوير سياسيات اللغة في مجتمعات متعددة اللغات . هذه النظرية اسمها "تبيؤ اللغة" و هذه عبارة الترجمة الحرفية من الاعبارة الانجليزية
"Language Ecology"
و افهم ان هذا المصطلح خاص بهذا المجال، و من الممكن ان اغلبكم لم يسمعه من قبل

٣) نظرية "تبيؤ اللغة" هي استعارة من علوم الاحياء لشرح المناهج و الدوافع التي تشجع استخدام لغةً ما او تحول دون ذلك وهذه النظرية تتضم ثلاث افكار رائسي -- اولا انّ كل لغة تعيش و تتطور في مجتمعها البيئيّ بين لغات اخرى و ثانيا انّ كل لغة تتفاعل مع مناخها السياسي،الاجتماعي، الثقافي، و الاقتصادي، و ثالثا انّ اي لغة يمكنها ان تصبح مهددةً لولم يكن هناك الدعم الكافي للغة بالمقارنة مع اللغات الاخرى في المجتمع البيئيّ و كما نعرف انّ اللغات غير المستخدمة ستموت في مرور الوقت
To take into consideration: اخذ الى عين الاعتبار

٤) و مع هذه الخلفية اريد ان اناقش انتشار اللغة الانجليزية و كيف نحلله في اطارنظرية تبيؤ اللغة هذا
ولكن اولا ساعطيكم احصاءات
• حاليا يوجد واحد من كل اربعة اشخاص يتكلم باللغة الانجليزية وبناءا على التنبؤات فانّ بعد عشرين سنة من المحتمل ان يصل عدد المتحدثين بالانجليزية الى الثلث من العالم
• احصاء آخر مهم هو انّ نسبة المتحدثين بالانجليزية الذين يتكلمون بها كلغة مكتسبة، و ليست كلغة ام حاليا هم اكثر باربع مرات منهم الذين يتكلمون بالانجليزية كلغة ام

٥) ممكن ان يكون اول سؤال: لماذا تنتشر اللغة الانجليزية بهذه السرعة و الى هذه الدرجة ؟ وربما نتساءل ايضا عن لماذا الانجليزية و ليست لغة اخرى التي قد اصبحت واسع النطاق الى هذا الحد والتي لديها نفوذا عالميا؟ و كثيرا ما تركز المناقشة على هذا السؤال: هل انتشار الانجليزية ايجابي ام سلبي؟

و كل هذه اسألة مهمة و لكن قبل ان نناقشها، اريد ان اناقش كيف يحلل الباحثون انتشار اللغة الانجليزية ضمن اطارنظرية تيئؤ اللغة
٦) كما نعرف كلنا انّ اللغة الانجليزية ليست لغة اصلية في اغلب مجتمعات العالم -- بل هي لغة اجنبية (دخيلة) علما بانّ دخول اللغة الانجليزية الى بلدان اخرى كان اما بواسطة استعمار اقتصادي و اجتماعي ماضي او بواسطة التجارة و تلبية احتياجات التجارة حاليا في عصر سيادة الراسمالية الذي نعيشه -- و كثير من الباحثون يشبهون اللغة الانجليزية بصنف النباتات الطفيلية الذي يتفشى و يأثر على النباتات الاصلية بشكل سلبي، و احيانا يذهبون الى القول بان اللغة الانجليزية مثل فيروس يغزو مناخ اللغة الطبيعية و يسيطر عليه -- وهي تسبب تجاهل و اهمال للغات الاصلية

٧) و المناقشة تدور حول السؤال التالي: الى اي مدى سيصل امتداد اللغة الانجليزية ؟ و هل اللغة الانجليزية تهدد اللغات و الثقافيات الاصلية في الحقيقة ام على عكس، هل يوجد دورا معينا لكل لغة (اولهجة) في المجتمع لا يمكن استبدَالها، و اذا كانت لها دور، اذن لا يمكن و لن يمكن للغة الانجليزية ان تستبدل بهذه اللغات الاصلية.

٨) مشكلة النظرية: في اطار نظرية تبيؤ اللغات، يعتبر انتشار و تراجع استخدام اللغات كظاهرة طبيعية (او عضوية) مجردة -- ولكن في الواقعي لا يمكننا ان نقسم بين اللغة و الناس الذين يتكلمون بها، و اذن لا يمكننا ان نفصل انتشار الانجليزية عن احتياجات و مصالح الحكومة ، و الشركات و المترسملون -- ممكن الغة بذاتها بريئة -- ولكن هي جزء لا يتجزأ من العولمة و كل التأثيرات السلبية التي ترافقها -- كاتساع الفجوة بين الاغنياء و الفقراء و موت اللغات المحلية و انتشار الشركات العملاقة متعددة الجنسيات

More Pictures from the (not so far) East

The first night of our excursion we camped out on the beach! It really was a beautiful site, and then we sat around the 'campfire' and had tea and talked to Omani's about life here.

Trip to the East

Our second trip was to the East. I have to preface this by saying that even though some of the natural beauty was gorgeous(!) overall, the trip was a bit of a disaster -- in that it was so windy the second night we were being attacked by our tents, one boy's tent actually fell down on him.
The second day we were actually woken up by our teacher at 6:30 with shouts to (Sieze the Day) and then we preceded to drive around all day aimlessly, stopping at one beach and another...for no reason....



But, I will try to stay positive! On to the picture narrative:

Our first stop was at Hassan Taqa (Taqa Fort). This is one of the more famous landmarks. I know that this is not going to be comprehensible to some (like me) but this 'stronghold' was actually built in 1930...it just looks the same as all the other Kasbah's built centuries ago!







I actually really enjoyed this aspect of the trip, because we got to learn a lot about how Omani's lived before modernization came to them -- before electricity or new building techniques. And our tour guide gave us the whole tour in Arabic...so we learned a lot of words like mortar and pestle (different than in Moroccan Arabic).

After this we went to see a tomb of an old prophet, who helped bring Islam to the region...and a huge graveyard around it. This was actually a really beautiful site, and we got to go explore the graves...but the oldest ones we could find were about 200 years old.

The contrast between the white tomb and the brown gravestones is quite stark, and makes for some beautiful pictures. Also, you can see the cool old-style Arabic writing (the tombs in the pictures are about 200 years old)

Al-Musiqa!! (Houssein Al-Jasmi Concert)

For those Arabic music lovers out there, I feel like I have to put some pictures up of the Houssein Al-Jasmi concert. (I know you are all jealous)

Here is a picture of my friends and the poster of Houssein, (he looks very jolly doesn't he?) The poster says "To my loving fans in Salalah" (Sorry the picture is a little blurry, I didn't have it on night setting)

For the non-Arabic music lovers out there, I can give you a little background information. Houssein Al-Jasmi is an Emirati man who is beloved for his ballads...he plays with something of a concert orchestra behind him, and doesn't move at all on stage, but everyone knows and loves his songs, so they definitely aren't there for the visual show so much as a chance to see him live and sing along....

Of course, as any concert in this region is somewhat of an adventure, this one was definitely so.
He was supposed to sing around 9pm...he finally came at 1am after 3 hours of opening acts...

We didn't leave until 3am!

So here are some pictures...(with witty commentary of course)

This is me and my roomie Chris and her bf Eric waiting outside the stadium (we waited for a very long time so there was plenty of time for pictures)










Here's a picture of the famous man himself: (Yes, the whole background was techno-discotecque style -- with swirls of technocolor all night long)


So one of the reasons Al-Jasmi is so famous in Morocco is because he did an album of songs in each of the Arabic dialects, (uncommon) and his song in Maghrebi dialect (it was Algerian, not Moroccan, but they are very similar) was called Waqt Dalali, and our whole group the whole night was yelling out "Maghrebi" or "Wat Dalali" to try to get him to sing that one...but he never did :(

In other exciting news though, he did sing one of my other favorites (ok Ok, I admit the only other song I really know) which is "Bahabik wa Heshtini, wa nti noor 3yni...bhabik mout" which obviously doesn't sound very romantic in transcribed English, especially since I can just hear Alayna saying mutt instead of moot....but he's actually saying "I love you and I missed you, you are the light of my eyes, I'll love you until I die"

This of course takes me back to Morocco...when this was Simo's favorite song and his cell phone ring too, it would ring off the hook daily, or would be blasting from his car...or Simo would spontaneously break into song yelling at me ...Bhabik wa Hashtini....(always directing his singing to me of course...ahh the memories! hehe)

So...on to social commentary.
One thing that fascinated me happened at the concert. One of our student teachers Yaarob, who is just such a sweet, welcoming guy, Omanis really are incredibly generous people...who helped organize the trip and what not, started dancing.

(Dancing here means standing up, bouncing a little, sticking your arms out in odd positions and acting like you are riding a camel -- I am not making this up or exaggerating at all, the traditional dances all originate from the ways of desert life, so the camel ride is really one of the most traditional and respected dances) In other words, dancing is in NO way scandalous, or even active compared to dancing in the US. Nonetheless, dancing in public is still seen as a bit risque for anyone. So Yaaroub actually complained that he was hot from the dancing, then pointed to the scarf he was using to cover his face and said it was because he was wearing his scarf...I asked him, "Oh, is covering your face part of the traditional dancing ritual" and he said, "No, its because I don't want to be recognized. He said that its really a small world in Salalah, and since he comes from a good family and wants to work in the Ministry when he grows up, so he can't be seen doing anything like dancing in public...especially with girls! (We were in family seating, so that girls and guys could sit together, otherwise we would have had to be separated which would have been terrible because all our Omani friends were guys)

So, Yaaroub said that as soon as he leaves he will get about 8 texts all saying...we know you were at the concert (again not the best place for upstanding youth to be). But the real problem is not the people who are there, but the fact that the concert was being broadcast live... and he really didn't want to be recognized by TV cameras.

Also, our friend Salah who was joking with him kept saying Yaaroub do X or Y for me or else I'm going to yell your whole name out in the crowd (this is like the greatest fear...to have his whole name/family name/tribe name) yelled out, because then everyone would know exactly who he was and that he was there...
Here is a picture...you can see him in the brown dishdasha with his face covered by the black and white kuma.

Trifles

We can talk about differences in gender norms (and/or stereotypes) all we want....but sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. These pictures (taken at Taqa fort on our second excursion) speak for themselves.

Geodes

One of the coolest things we saw on our first excursion were geodes in the middle of the desert. They were just whole rock spheres that you could just pummel to the ground and they split open and you get to see all the crystals inside. Very beautiful!

I never saw these in the deserts of Morocco at all. But we did see them on the roadside for really exaggerated prices! Here we could just take as many as we wanted free!!

They look a lot like cauliflower on the ground...but inside are beautiful!
Put in an order if you want me to bring you back one!

More Pictures from the University

Here are some more pictures of the University.

It's very small, as you can see, and quite pretty, with green spaces and a computer lab.

The Uni!

So I thought I should also throw out some pictures of my university -- where I spend so much of my time here!

It is really a beautiful university for Oman -- green patches, and some gardens, and its a great place to just sit and study and work. And we also get to meet and chat with Omani students who are studying here for the summer, and with our PFs (Peer Facilitators)




Daily Schedule- Saturday through Wednesday (our school week here is different because Oman follows a weekly schedule based on Islam, where Friday is the holy day, and Thursday and Friday are the weekend)

Our daily schedule looks like this:

8:30-12:30 Arabic Class with professors. Break is usually from 10:15-10:45, it sounds generous, but really it's necessary if you're stuck in a class with a teacher you don't like as Emily and I both are.

12:30-2:10 Lunch. Sometimes we go out, sometimes we order in, sometimes we eat really bad egg, cabbage, and ketchup sandwiches from the snack shack on campus, but most often we just pack lunch from the free hotel breakfast. We don't really go out that often because it's a long trek through the glaring sun or the rain. Well, not really the rain, but the cloudy drizzle that manages to have a very strong glare at the same time. Therefore, it's really not that pleasant to go walking around near the university....but luckily, the university is really pretty and comfortable!

2:10-3:30 First PF (Peer Facilitator) session. I meet with a girl named Mona, she's 29 and is married, and has two kids, a girl who's 10 and a boy who's 6. I would post a picture of her, but she covers her whole face outside of the university, and has asked me expressly not to post any pictures of her on the Internet. Emily's PF is Fatima, she's 22, and is from the mountains surrounding Salalah, (aka 'a mountain girl'), and only covers her whole face when she's in the Salalah -- not when she's in the mountains.

3:40-5:00 Second PF session. I meet with a girl named Oumaima. She's 23 and went to a "mixed" private school in Muscat, so she tends to be much more open to gender mixing, and more liberal in other ways too. Partly this is also due to the fact that she's from Muscat, which is much more cosmopolitan than Salalah, which is smaller and more conservative. Oumaima is an accounting student here, and will graduate next year. She is really hard working, and wants to do her Masters in New Zealand, where her fiance (also Omani) is currently studying. She met her fiance in her mixed highschool, which is considered very progressive here, (ie that she met him before becoming engaged to him and is not related to him).

Home at 5:00 for dinner, homework, exploring, etc.


Q and A

1) Why don't women cover inside the university?

As I mentioned before, Mouna covers outside the university but not inside. Why is this? Well, girls are actually forbidden by law from wearing the complete face covering (which covers everything, including eyes) and the niquab (which covers everything except for the eyes) inside the university.

This law was put in place about 3 or 4 years ago, because the University was having problems with girls wearing the niqab, specifically, teachers didn't know who their students were, and couldn't form any real relationship with them, and also there were a lot of incidents of cheating -- anyone could come in to class and take an exam for someone else. Also, it maybe be in response to an urge from inside the university to establish a more progressive learning environment inside the university.

So they outlawed wearing the niqab inside the university -- but in response about 50% of the girl students dropped out -- their families were really upset and complained to the administration about having their daughters required to show their faces. Crazy isn't it??

Now, the university has helped pave the way for girls to not have to wear the niquab in public, that is definitely becoming more common now. But at the time it was scandalous!

2) What is this 'mixed' schooling you speak of?

In Oman, all government schools are segregated, based on gender. There are male schools with male teachers and female schools with female teachers. Only in private, fee-paying schools will you find boys and girls taught together. Oumaima, my PF, went to one of these schools because her family wanted to give her an advantage in English, because, as I mentioned before, English language teaching is quite weak in Oman, despite being the second language. I think these mixed schools are more for the wealthy, so it makes sense that they are often more liberal in terms of gender relations.

3) Why are there two separate cafeterias and entrance doors?

Gender separation. The jury is out on whether separate can ever be equal here. Everything is done to limit women and men interacting. I really am not sure why, part of it is justified by the need for modesty in Islam, but otherwise this is clearly a cultural tradition (of the Gulf) that is just justified by Islam, not required by it. Oumaima, who despite being quite liberal in many ways is very religious, and explained to me that though men and women are equal in Islam, their roles are different in society. We will definitely come back to this in other topics.

4) Why don't we like our professors?
No time for this now....it would take too long to explain...

More Pics of the Black Bathrobe

For Alayna --- to clarify -- it's called an Abaya (not a black bathrobe)

But nonetheless, here is another picture of me in front of our hotel on our way to the desert --

Globalization in Action

I have to write about one of the most interesting things I saw on my first trip -- it was the irony and the extent of how globalization is changing the country.

So on our first day of the trip, we stopped by a roadside meat stand to see the traditional Omani lunch and how it is cooked. It is actually pretty fascinating -- the fire is built with stones around it, and heated all morning, then big slabs of freshly butchered goat meat are thrown on the
'stone grill'. (See pictures!)


This is one of the grills -- the meat is actually cooked right on top of the stones. According to our sources (the men working at the grills) they slaughter and sell about 30 kids' worth of meat (baby goats, not children!) on a normal day, and during the days of the Khareef Festival it can be tons more (50 -100) -- and this is only at one stand of about 75 all along the roadside.

(Here is a picture of them putting the meat on)

Now, where is the globalization you say? That would be the transnational migrant movement here in Oman -- most of the hard work or physical labor is not done by Omanis at all, but by Southeast Asians. I knew this -- but seeing an Asian man (perhaps Indonesian?) performing traditional butchering and grilling really threw me off guard -- maybe because this is one of the few traditions that pre-dated modernization that has still made it, or just because butchering has Islamic regulations, that I expected the butcher to be Omani, or Yemeni (as the manager of the grill was) but no, in the picture below, you can see that he is definitely an immigrant from Asia)

This is also a good picture, because you can see the huge hunks of hanging meat.

So, I will definitely discuss this idea of a servant worker class here in Oman in a later post. But this is it for now....

Because True Stories are Best

Yesterday me and 3 friends were coming back from a (wonderful) dinner at a Pakistani restaurant...we waited for a taxi outside a grocery store while Salah, the one guy with us, compared taxi prices and we took the cheapest one.

So, our taxi driver (and older gentleman, probably 45-50) was talking to Salah, when he suddenly announces, I have 2 wives, and 9 children...and she is going to be my third wife -- and points directly at me! And I was like...no, no, thank you....I am taken....and he says, "No, no, you are going to be my third wife, and teach me English," we all laugh this off and Salah luckily changes the subject (Thanks Salah!).

I should explain that this is actually not that common here -- and this guy seemed quite serious, and like he really couldn't understand why I wouldn't want to be his third wife.

Then at the end of the ride, we rush out and Salah stays behind to pay, but the taxi driver won't let him pay, saying that because I was there, the ride was free! And then he gives Salah his phone number for me!

Speaking of multiple marriage -- my teacher, who is Syrian was explaining how one day he was teaching a class at the university and asked the girls whether they would prefer to be a second wife or to never be married at all, to which 75% said 2nd wife. Third wife to never married -- 50%. 4th wife to never married -- also about 50%!

This may not be a fair assessment but the principle of marriage and elementary school dodge ball seem the same --- you never want to be the last one picked to be on a team. More stories to come later! It is truly the greatest fear of girls here. The question is why? Is it social status that marriage brings? Freedom? Kids? Financial concerns?

Ok, more stories to come!

Onward to the Golden Dunes...

On the whole, tend to be very hot and not support much human civilization. This means that traveling out to the desert (in any country) is a time-consuming and very hot endeavor.
We must suffer for our fun in the sun (and sand)! Our trip out the Arabian Desert is no different. It was incredibly incredibly hot!! It was between 110-120 degrees the whole trip!

We had some adventures along the way though -- which include seeing dead roadkill (big lizards). See the picture:

The first night we stayed in a hotel on the way (the electricity in the hotel went out every 10 minutes and there was absolutely no hot water) Really, on our way there I thought...oh we are really in the middle of nowhere now and this hotel reflects that, but on our way back it seemed like a completely different hotel -- cool and dark inside compared to the terrible heat outside and with clean bathrooms inside! What a difference one night in the desert makes.

Most of the second day was just spent driving out to the desert, with a few intermittent stops at nearly-abandoned cafes and restrooms along the way....eventually we made it to the hot hot desert (right around dinner time actually) and climbing in the sand dunes and setting up camp quickly ensued.

So here are some pictures of the desert -- unlike in Morocco this is not the Sahara, but the Arabian desert -- different country, same principle -- lots of sand, stacked very high. Barren of life. So when the temperature is 120 at sunset, there is no camel riding. Instead we took SUVs and just charged through the sand dunes.

Essentially if you have ever wondered what it would be like to be in a Ford Truck commercial -- I have now experienced it first hand, playing in the desert in vehicles...it's fun, if not a little scary to see SUVs look tiny and insecure compared to the dunes.


Also in the picture below, you can see a pack of black camels! Really cool! I have never seen black camels before.

And there I am...also like a black camel...haha, joking, but seriously, we had to cover up from head to toe because of the sun and the black abaya seemed like the coolest option because it is loose fitting (undecided as to whether that was a good choice or not)

You can see our campsite (real camping...in the middle of nowhere!)

From Green Mountains to Golden Dunes

Every two weeks, our large group divides into 3 small groups and travels....to the North (to the Desert), East (to the Beaches) or West (to the Yemeni border). We don't go South because that is the Arabian Sea (please look at the map in posts below if this confuses you).

My group's first trip was North to the Desert! In order to get to the desert you have to go over the mountains, which are beautiful, misty and green thanks to the monsoonal rains. Also, at this time of year, there are a whole bunch of natural springs to go visit, which are like green oases and swimming holes.

So in the next few posts, I will share pictures on our first excursion. In these pictures you can see how green and misty the Monsoon season makes Salalah. These pictures all come from the mountain ranges right around Salalah -- probably no more than 15 miles. The picture to the left is a cave that we visited. You must remember that this is a country to which modernization is really very new -- and as recently as 50 years ago people still lived in these caves...(remember before electricity or cars or anything!)

So please when you are looking at these pictures, keep in mind the fact that we are in a Gulf country! And the day after seeing these beautiful Ains -- we were in the Rub3 il-Khali (which translates into English as "Empty Quarter") and is essentially one of the largest expanses of unoccupied barren desert land in the world. And it's famous because the majority of the Rub' Al-Khali is in Saudia Arabia)

A Shout out to Emily!

Update!

One of my friends has agreed to help me with the blog....her name is Emily Voight and we have had many an adventure together here in Oman, including camping in the desert (the famed rubu3 il-khalee) as well as the windy coasts....(stories to come)

Here is a lovely pic of her:



(She's not happy with this. Quote "Anything taken on our trips is clearly bad news")

Stunning Beaches

One of our first weekends in Salalah, we went to one of the beaches nearby, and they are just stunning! They are really isolated and foggy, due to the monsoon climate.
Unfortunately, we can't actually swim in the water, which is just a tease. We can look at the water, we can put our feet in the water, but that's about it. This is because of the monsoon climate, which creates really terrible undertow, and they told us about four times at orientation that we could die. So not wanting to tempt fate, we went to the beaches and played frisbee and soccer, and took lots of pictures of the beaches from which you will now benefit.

They look much more romantic than they really are. In reality, they are just beaches. They are really pretty. But what is a beach really, without swimming in the ocean?