Omanization

A friend sent me this Washington Post article about Gulf States trying to employ their younger citizens. It's pretty interesting.

If it's Monday, this must be America?

I feel like complete shit. I am completely jet-lagged out. My day started on Sunday. I take my medicine at 6 am, but I didn't get up until 7:00. Then it was the trip to Nizwa. It's about 1.5 hours or so, and I “napped” most of the way. By which, I mean that I had my eyes closed and I listened to music. After the trip, at 8 pm we met downstairs at the hotel with our luggage, and our flight left a little after midnight on Monday. On the way to Heathrow I slept about an hour. I slept another hour, hour and a half from Heathrow to Dulles. At which point I realized I had been traveling for about 21 hours, after being up for about 18, and still had 10 more hours to go. I started to wonder how long it took to drive from DC to Arkansas.

I was still doing okay at Dulles. Customs was fine, I made it through security again. I was one of the first so I skipped out on most of my group - I didn't feel up to a big hug-cry fest. I saw a few of them later on which was nice. So I left Dulles and flew to Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport? I slept another hour on this flight, which was most of the flight. And this was when the jet-lag hit. I got off the plane and felt completely confused and somewhat nauseous. While I was buying water I asked what time zone I was in. I mean, I know Kentucky is easterly, but I thought Ohio was a bit more central? How the hell did I end up here? This is where I am writing this post. There's free wifi at Dulles and here, but I can't seem to get online, so you probably won't see this post until I get home.

So, only a few more hours until I'm home. Frank is cooking red beans and rice. I think I need to sleep for a week.

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Well, I made it home last night, but my luggage didn't. I know it was in Dulles, because I went through customs. But then it vanished. And you'll love this: Delta only scans baggage tags on arrival. So I won't know anything about my luggage until it gets to Arkansas. It wasn't on this morning's flight, but maybe it will show up tonight. If not, we're heading out to the airport tomorrow to find something out in person.

Nizwa Rocks!

What can I say, it does. Here's a link to get you started. We only had about 1.5 hours at the fort, and that is not nearly enough. I mean, this isn't one of those forts where you can rush through it in 15 minutes - this is a FORT. It's been restored and you can wander all over and there's an exhibit hall and a bunch of exhibit rooms too. I rushed through it and only saw about 60% of what was there. I could easily have spent half a day there, maybe even all day to do a thorough examination. Also, a lot of the tourists at the fort were Omani.

The souq is nice too. I was worried the town might be too touristy, but it wasn't. I did see more white people than I have this entire trip, though. And when I bought a mango juice box the Indian clerk told me "merci beaucoup." Of course, how many people are stupid enough to go to Nizwa in the middle of August?!? It was hot. Nizwa and the Rub al-Khali are the only two places I have been where I sweated into my eyes and the salt from my sweat actually burned them. But the souq - it was nice. Not one of those mazes, but a big open place with air-conditioned stores. Nice silver and copper. I didn't spot the vegetable souq or the meat souq until we were leaving, so I don't have photos of the inside of them. I took a peek and the meat souq looked as big as the Harps on Wedington.

Anyway, that's the Nizwa update. I had to shower after that trip and I'm preparing for my 31 hour trip home. Argh! See y'all soon!

Passport Problems

Well, one of our number may not be leaving Oman any time soon. I'm not sure of the entire story, but here's what I have gleaned so far. Amy was walking along or crossing the street, which is pretty busy. A car came really close to her and almost hit her, so she kicked it. The driver was an Omani woman, and she had a passenger. This woman and the passenger both say that Amy cussed at the woman. They followed her to the hotel and called the police, and the police took her passport. Apparently cussing someone out is an insult to their honor, and it normally takes 2-3 months to clear this up. So Amy is currently in limbo. Our director is trying to fast-track the process.

Third Excursion Part 33-1/3

And then we returned home via Thumrait. We got in about 2:30 pm and I cannot tell you how wonderful that shower was. I had to use extra Q-tips to get the sand out of my ears. So Wednesday night is okay, but Thursday evening I'm not feeling so hot. So I go to bed, and I wake up about 2 am Friday morning: cramps, bloating, gas, bubbling stomach, diarrhea, really nasty. That lasted till almost noon. I crashed for most of the rest of Friday. Saturday is the first day of the week so I got up and decided to go to the clinic. Except that I had no money. If I had gone to school, I would have gotten paid that afternoon, but I was sick and missed school. And all the banks are closed on Saturday. And the clinic by the new hotel doesn't take Visa, and I couldn't find a phone number for the clinic at the old hotel. Argh!

So I survive, and on Sunday I decide to try again. The program sent my stipend home with a suite-mate, so I had money. I decided to go to the same clinic as last time, in Haffa House hotel. Well, the cabbie only heard Haffa, so he took me to Souk Haffa. Once we got that straightened out, I made it to the hotel. He also insisted on quizzing me in Arabic the whole way. “What is that, in Arabic?” It was kind of fun. I got to the clinic about 8:50, but they didn't open until 9:10 so I sat in the waiting room waiting for the doctors. When I was talking to the receptionist and nurse in Arabic (or trying to – they spoke Iraqi amia and I didn't understand much) the nurse asked if I was Palestinian. I'm very pale, so I think that's the first time I've ever been mistaken for anything other than some crazy white woman. Or maybe she was just being polite? This time I got the new female doctor who spoke English. And the same lab lady. When she saw me, she was like “Again? You went out and ate something didn't you?”

So, are you ready for my diagnosis? Hmm? Well, I have a bacterial infection and parasites. Yes – I have worms. Feel free to laugh if you wish. Once I got some antibiotics and some food into me I found it remarkably funny. I have roundworms, just like my dog did when we first got her. So I'm now high on some serious antibiotics and anti-nausea meds and more antibiotics and Immodium. The big antibiotics cost 12 Rials, which is kind of a lot over here, but still fairly cheap back in the States. And I have a final exam on Tuesday, so wish me luck. Pictures won't go up until I return to the US next week. Ciao!

Third Excursion Part Deux

The next day I woke up and my stomach was sick. I'll spare you the details, but it was diarrhea. I borrowed some Immodium from Adam because I'd left mine at the hotel. Then it was off to the desert!!! Since it was hot I wore my Omani housedress over shorts and a t-shirt. The drivers went crazy! They kept telling me how wonderful and beautiful I looked in thobe Dhofari. They got even more effusive when the sand kicked up and I put the headscarf across my face. I felt a bit odd. Several guys were wearing wazars, but that didn't solicit comments.

There was a long ride along dirt/rock roads, and a stop to pick up geodes! That was fun. And there was a cold front or something because it only got up to 45C. Then we tried to get to our campsite. The site was actually inside the desert, so we had to take the 4WD vehicles over real sand dunes. No roads, no little tiny dunes, real dunes. Well, we had 7 vehicles, and all of us managed to get stuck at one point or another. I was lucky – I got to ride in the vehicle while the best driver took it over the big dune. It was freaking awesome! We were bouncing around all over and stuff was falling out of the back into the back seat area. It was great! Then I had a view from halfway up the dune of the other vehicles. Anyway, it took us a few hours to get everyone unstuck and over the first big dune. It was hilarious to watch too.

So we get to our camp site an hour or two before dark and start setting up tents. The program bought 4 special tents just for us girls – we referred to them as the “bint tents.” There were 4 bint tents and 12 girls, so it worked out well. All the bint tents were on one side of camp, the boys' tents on the other, and the drivers slept over by the boys. We were supposed to have a cook-out meal, but it was late by this time so 2 drivers went back to town and brought food back. It's very easy to accommodate vegetarians in Oman, and we had 4-5 on our trip. The food was vegetarian something-or-other, chicken something-or-other, and diced up camel meat. The camel wasn't bad. It was a bit gamey and tough. And fatty. But the taste/flavor was good. It's darker than chicken, but not as dark as something like beef. Maybe like a really dark piece of chicken thigh.

Anyway, we had fun and climbed dunes and sang songs (Sam brought his guitar) and chatted. It was still pretty hot, but Kristen and I slept in our tent because we wanted to sleep in very little clothing. We did keep the flap open, but it was dark so we wouldn't offend the drivers. Most of the girls and half the guys slept outside - we had little mattresses and pillows. And it was very sandy. You are out in the middle of lots of sand, with wind, and sand gets everywhere. It was even stuck in my teeth. Let me just leave it at that.

The next day, I got up early and my stomach was a bit upset. Still okay though. By the time we left, though, one of the peer facilitators was puking. Next we went to Ubar. It's the old trade city (village) that was found by satellites a few years back. Got pics.

Third Excursion – Part One

Our third and final excursion was to the north. We spent the first day driving to four springs in the mountains. Ayn Garziz, Ayn Salanhut, etc. etc. Frankly, we were all a bit ayned out by the end of the day. The second was really beautiful and the 3rd was huge and full of people. But how long does it really take to see a spring? At the last one we didn't even look at the ayn, we stopped and had lunch. Unfortunately, we did not realize at the time that there was an orchard and accompanying bees nearby. I ordered some tea from the little tea stand and as soon as I set it down there were bees on it. Anyone who knows me knows that I get a little freaked out around wasps and bees. And if you've ever been to Louisiana you will understand why. Fortunately, these bees were nosy but passive. I lost my tea to them, but when our lunch arrived I was smart enough not to open my soda. A few girls lost their soda, but we all survived the bees.

We stopped for the night at Thumrait and stayed at the Thumrait Tourist Hotel. When we walked into the lobby, I could hardly see because of the frankincense. The girls were put into 3 rooms: a room of 6, a room of 4, and a room of 2. I was in the room of 4 girls. It was a bit interesting, You walk in the door and there was my bed with a chair and wardrobe. Then another door to a small hall with a bathroom. The hall opened onto a bigger room with one bed and a TV, and there was a doorway outside and a door to another room with two beds (and a glowing lizard). I actually liked my room. I had the bed to myself, I could lock the front door, and I could close the door to the hall, and I had my own AC. Everything went well until Naseem decided she wanted to take a shower. As soon as she turned on the hot water heater, the breaker flipped. We lost power, as did the room with 6 girls and a room with 3 guys. This was when the glowing lizard made its appearance in Naseem & Kaavya's room and freaked them out. I searched, but I couldn't find it. After about 20 minutes management figured things out and turned on the breaker. The hotel is interesting. It's a warren of hallways and rooms strung together. All the windows have metal lacings over them – even the ones on the inside. And, they like to serve tap water. At dinner that night, a guy at my table opened the bottled water only to discover that it was already open. He tried the bottle on the table next to us and discovered the same thing. We all took a sip and it tasted like tap water, so we had sodas instead.

Skypocity

I've been having Skype problems since we moved to our new hotel, and today I heard a rumor that Omantel had blocked Skype, so if you can't reach me, that may be why.

Sorry no updates

Last week I was completely exhausted after our excursion. We just had a 3-day weekend and I averaged about 17 hours of sleep a day. Luckily, I'm not just getting old - a good chunk of our group is pretty wiped out. I'm doing okay now, but tomorrow is lecture day, with a bonus speech from the foreign ministry, and then Monday morning I leave on the 3rd Excursion. Assuming I survive this trip to the base of the Rub al-Khali, I will try to post next weekend (Thurs/Fri for me). Once we return, there's about 1 week of school left, then a party, then we de-orientate in Muscat for a few days, then it's back to Fayetteville!