Oman Day 1: Arabia's Best Kept Secret

Chris and I got 6 days off of work so we could travel a bit. We decided to travel to Oman, the southeast most country of the Arabian Peninsula (and its one of the best kept secrets in the world because its one of the nicest countries I've ever visited). To make the most of our vacation and avoid some crazy long layovers we flew from Riyadh to Jeddah KSA, Jeddah to Muscat Oman, and finally Muscat to Salalah Oman. This almost ended up in disaster however because when we arrived in Jeddah at 2:50am we had to board our next flight by 3:40am. No problem right? Well when we got there we asked where we were supposed to board our next flight. They told us the north terminal. What we didn't know and were not told was that the north terminal was a 20 minute drive from the south terminal! So we rushed to grab a taxi thinking were weren't going to make it. When we got there to get our tickets the man at the counter told us they were closed. I begged him to get our tickets and board the flight and luckily he relented. We made it just in time. Finally we were on our way to Oman to my relief. The instant we arrived we knew we weren't in Saudi anymore. Not all the woman were covered up from head to toe - one woman even had tatoos all over her arms, music was playing in the restaurants, and they were selling art, movies, and books about different religions. Hard to believe we were only hours away from Saudi Arabia by air. We arrived in Muscat the capital but our destination that day was Salalah on the opposite side of the country as you can see on the map. It was another hour and a half flight to arrive there.
There were many reasons we chose Salalah to visit. The city itself is located in the Dhofar region which is the greenest place in the Arabian Peninsula (its the only green you can see on a satelite image of the region). Monsoon rains called Khareef, water this small part of the country for 3-4 months out of the year. However, we knew we would be arriving during the dry season so we didn't know exactly what to expect. We had seen pictures of the area during the Khareef and it looks like a green tropical paradise. We knew it wouldn't be quite like that, but we were still excited (if only to get away from work for awhile)

We were pleasantly surprised to discover that even though it was not the Khareef season Salalah was still very green and warm. The air was humid and cool and didn't smell like an arid wasteland. The streets were very nice and all the people waved at us. Also, garbage wasn't thrown all over the place which is the case in all the other Middle Eastern countries I've been to.

For my Mormon friends and family, this part of the world is where Mormon scholars strongly believe that the Bountiful in 1 Nephi is located. In fact, the Dhofar region is the only place that meets all the requirements in all the Arabian Peninsula to be Bountiful. This place also has Biblical and Qu'ranic significance as well which I will also mention. While we were here we went to a few of the most likely sites for Bountiful, as well as other historical sites and ancient cities. It was quite the adventure but this day we mostly just settled in since we had been flying all night.

Throughout the city of Salalah (a small city by the way) fruit plantations were all over the place. Every road we took was lined with palm trees - very beautiful.
Our driver took us to our hotel, shown above, which is located right on the beaches of Salalah. The Beach Villas Hotel was located right along the Indian Ocean, and though small, and only two star, it was the highest recommended from the travel book Lonely Planet because of the good price, location, and the owners, who helped us find everything we were looking for and went out of their way to help us have a good vacation.

Here is the view from our balcony. We could hear the waves of these great waters as we slept at night.

Here is our room.

Its been so long since I had seen green!!!

Our hotel owners, the Kumars, set us up with a nice car so we could go anywhere we wanted.

Since we were tired and didn't have a lot of day light left we decided to play it easy. We went to the museum of Frankincense land, a UNESCO World Heritage site and museum. I mentioned this part of the world had Biblical significance. It is because the coastline of Oman is the perfect place for frankincense trees to grow. Its one of the only environments these trees grow in. For thousands of years the coasts of Oman were visited by ships from Egypt, Persia, China, and so many more countries for trading and to get the rare frankincense. We read that the people believed frankincense strenghtens your immunity and protects you from evil spirits. Even today people still harvest frankincense, which is the hardened sap of a particular tree. Traders and camel caravans would also travel up and down the west side of the Arabian Peninsula to collect Frankincense and trade other goods. A very difficult journey through the wilderness I might add. The frankincense presented to Jesus most likely came from this place.

Here is one of the frankincense trees in the park.

Just relaxing at sunset. Besides the frankincense museum that talked about the history and many old cities that belonged here, there was another part of the museum that talked about ship building (there were numerous types of ships that sailed these waters) and the importance of trade and ocean life in Oman. I had no idea that Oman was such an important part of the world in ancient times.

More frankincense trees. Besides the museums and the trees we weren't aware that this place was also the site of an ancient city known as Al-Baleed. We visited this site on our last day in Salalah.

We next went to dinner in the city. It was a Lebanese restaurant popular for its fish.

As usual, I order the ugliest fish available, but it tasted great.

Above is the most prominent Mosque in the area, Sultan Qaboos Mosque, named after the Sultan of Oman. Very beautiful. So that was our first day in Oman. There is too much to write about so I have to split this up. I'll try not to sound like I'm giving a history lesson in future posts. I just wanted y'all to get a feel for the place and its importance.

Short Week 14

Tomorrow, if all goes well, I'll be on a plane to Jeddah and then on to Oman. Because of this, my week of teaching was very short so I don't have much to say. Here are just a few pics and stories before I head out.
Above is my favorite cat on the compound. Saudi Arabia is infested with cats. Everywhere I go its cats cats cats. This cat, I affectionately named Blood Cat. I first ran into Blood Cat on Halloween night. I walked outside in the dark and underneath a car I saw this cat with its eyes glowing, but it looked like blood was dripping from its mouth (and who's to say it wasn't?). I often see this diseased looking cat all over the place. Usually when I see it he/she always has his/her mouth open but I don't know why. Some of the cats in the country are pretty disgusting because of the difficult lives that they live. I bet you just want to pick him up and give him a big hug, don't you? Notice the stylish half tail. All the cats are doing it these days.
I put this one up for my folks since they are practically in a biker gang. Believe it or not, they do have Harley Davidson shops in Saudi, and I periodically see biker gangs roaming the streets in their Harley Davidson jackets and other gear. This street is called Tahliya Street, one of the streets where the rich people like to hangout. The cars we sometimes see parked on this street cost a fortune. The young men in the country love to show off their extremely nice cars as well as their moves. Last week I saw a guy on a motorcyle get up on one wheel and ride down the street. We frequently see the teenagers drifting in their cars and doing all sorts of dangerous stuff on the city streets. Any wonder why the death rate by car accident is so high in this country? The death rate on the streets is worse here than in America, and people don't drink and drive because alcohol is illegal here. Its pretty sad. I see a car wreck on the road just about everyday here. My roommate Chris actually had a student that died in a car wreck some months ago.
Sunset on Taliya Street.

Kingdom Tower at night.

My few days in class went mostly well. My students often ask me what Americans think of Saudi Arabians. I tell them that most Americans know very little about their country and that many people don't imagine big cities, malls, and fancy cars. Most people think its all sand and camels. They really think its funny that Americans are so ignorant about their country. In so many ways my students are just like American young men. They play video games, they are great with computers, obsess about cars, and love soccer. Don't get me wrong, there are some pretty sharp differences when it comes to cultural things, but I think you would find that my students are quite wonderful. I sometimes wonder if they would be treated well in our country. I know that some people are pretty racist against people from the Middle East ever since September 11th. The thought of any American being rude to my students kind of infuriates me. So please, if you ever see them, please be nice!

Thats all. I'll have more for you next week.

Rainy Week 13: You're Going the Wrong Way....

The attendance in class this week was horrible. Why, you ask? Well, for some reason we've been getting rain. A little here, a little there, but one day in particular was madness. My students who did show up told me that when it rains they love to go into the desert and play and I think that is exactly what many of them did. So there was that, and the fact that there was a football game. When Saudi Arabia is playing football the students seem to think its some kind of holiday. Its funny too because they literally think that we should legitimately allow them to leave class without marking them absent. Jokes on them this week though because Japan killed Saudi 5-0.

The rain this week was extremely refreshing. Its so rare here I would just go outside and walk around in it. One morning I got up early just so I could walk to the copy center in the rain and make tests for my students. When we drove to school that day it was like driving through a river. Traffic was crazy slow but it was interesting to see. Deserts don't handle a lot of water at one time very well. Saudi Arabia has actually seen some pretty bad floods in recent years.

Driving through the river.

Here are two of my students. They are both really funny. Despite the rain and road closures they made it to school. The student on the left is wearing this gigantic brown robe thing. I laugh when I see it because I don't think its that cold here (I don't even wear a jacket) and that is enough to keep any person warm in just about any weather. Whenever he wears a white thaube under it he looks just like Obi Wan Kenobi.

Here I am with another one of my students AND wearing my other students brown robe.

Here we are having a drink at a little restaurant during our break.

Above is my class getting ready for student presentations. This week the chapter of our book that we are studying is about dreams. So we've been using language that is about dreams and nightmares and stuff like that. We even talked about the story of Yusef (Joseph) of Egypt that is in Surah 12 of the Qu'ran. The details of the story would be familiar to all who know the Bible as well. So my class was supposed to get up and describe one dream they have had as well as talk about a dream, or goal, that they have for the future and how they will accomplish that goal. It was a lot of fun. The energy was unusually high because of the rain. I'm not kidding either because I felt it too. Everyone was a lot happier. I think its just because rain is so rare...its kind of like when it snows a lot and kids get excited because school might be cancelled (we did let everyone go home early that night incidentally, after they finished their presentations of course).

I love this student. He was extra zealous and made a power point for his presentation. I love that he wrote "Is it possible to feel a feelings of person close to you in a dream." Two of my students, one who had lost his mother, and another who had lost his father actually told the class about their best dreams. The one student told the class that in his dream his father who had died many years before came to him and they went swimming in the sea, the other student's mother was in his dream and they had a conversation in his kitchen.

Other dreams included drinking from the ocean but the water didn't taste like salt, zombies chasing them in school, falling dreams, getting good grades on test dreams, and flying dreams.
We caught a taxi home that night. The water had become much worse during our hours in school. So the drive was a little crazy. I took a few pictures but they are a little blurry.

You might not be able to tell but I thought if the water was just a few inches higher it might start seeping into our taxi.

Good times. Today was much clearer and sunnier. It didn't really rain, but it was still cool outside. I was proud of my students as well because they did excellent on today's test. Almost all of my students showed up to which is nice because most of the other teacher's classes were poorly attended.

Next week, if all goes according to plan, I'll be taking a little vacation in Oman so I'm looking forward to that and hopefully I'll have some more interesting pics to share. Thats all for now.

Sabhas, Scorpions, Evil Eyes, and Djinns: Week 12 (my first normal week)

As I was talking with my roommate, I realized that this has been my first normal week in Saudi Arabia, meaning my first week without some ridiculous work drama (seriously, you should see the company I work for) I was extremely pleased with how this week went and inshallah (God willing) I will see many more weeks like it. I have really come to look forward to seeing my students everyday. I feel like I always learn something extremely interesting from them or hear something hilarious. This week one of my old students walked through my classroom door holding some beads. He said, "you know what this is?" while holding up them up. I had seen many older men carrying these beads around in the malls playing with them in their hands. My student told me this was a sabha. My old student then told me I could keep the beads for myself. I said thanks and asked what they were for. He then said, "entertainment" with a smile on his face and then walked out the door. Well, this old student of mine didn't speak a lot of English so when one of my current students came in I asked him what they were all about. He told me that people use them for invocations or after prayers and that they were instituted by the prophet Muhammad. There are 3 sets of 11 beads and you use them to count how many times you say some kind of invocation, Allahuachbar for example, which means God is great. I told my student that the one who gave them to me said they were for entertainment. He said, "yeah, sometimes they are just fun to play with." I thought that was kind of funny. I was also told by a different story that usually the old men are the ones using these (I thought the idea sounded very similar to Catholic prayer beads).

Another day while in class my students taught me about the "evil eye" Apparently if you have envy for someone's success or material wealth you could possibly give them the evil eye which means that some horrible thing will happen to them such as their wealth being stolen, or broken. I was surprised and asked them if this was true. They said yes and I told them that people in America usually don't believe this. One of my students said, "In the past, I didn't believe it, but then I was envious of somebody's health and they got in a car wreck after that." It is for this reason that when something good happens to a person or they come into some kind of wealth you don't say "I'm so jealous!" or "You're so lucky!" You say "Ma Shallah" which means "God has willed it" because if you don't, you risk giving the evil eye.

A few days ago one of my students raised his hands and said "teacher do you marry your cousins in America?" I told them that we don't and they wanted to know why, since marrying your cousin is a common practice in this country. I told them that we don't because it is against the law and that sometimes if you marry your cousin your children can have diseases. The student said "Oh, yes, that is why we have the saying, Relatives are Scorpions" I asked him to explain and he said, "we say this because when you marry, your kids sometimes have diseases, this is why your relative is like a scorpion." I thought that was somewhat humorous. I asked my second class to verify if that was true and they said it really was something they said, although they also used it just because marrying into your family sometimes causes family quarrels. The Saudi government is aware of genetic diseases and so now they have a new law where you have to get a DNA test to make sure that your children aren't at risk for any diseases. If they are then they tell you that you cannot marry that specific individual.

Well, its the weekend now and I spent the day with one of my students. Chris and I got together with him and two of his friends so he could take us to Diryah, on the outskirts on Riyadh. In this area are the ruins of an old fortress where royalty lived hundreds of years ago. The old fortress is pretty run down after hundreds of years, but they are currently trying to rebuild it for tourists and to preserve their history. Below is a picture of the old ruins of Diryah.

Below is a picture of the wall, but its kind of hard to see because of the sun.

My student then took us to another part of Diryah where some rich people are building some places that looked just like the old fortress hundreds of years ago. I wasn't sure if this was to be some kind of hotel or museum in the future, but it was very cool.

Here is a picture from inside one older run down building.

Above is a picture of the surrounding landscape. There were tons of palms as this is a pretty big oasis area.

Here I am with my student in the black t-shirt and his two friends. They like to come here everyweek just to talk and have fun. Its quiet here, and Riyadh is a pretty busy city, so quiet can be difficult to find sometimes without going into the desert.

Chris and my student exiting one of the buildings with the wall in the background.

Here is the inside of one of the unfinished buildings. I'm really not sure what this building is meant to be. But its very cool looking.

Inside one of the rooms.

Chris and I in front of an ornate looking door.

I asked my student why he wasn't smiling in any of the pictures. Its because he said he doesn't like his smile so he looks very serious, but don't be decieved. He is actually pretty fun to be with.

After our exploration of Diryah we went down the road, set down some blankets and waited while my student prepared our dinner kappsa (which is all Saudis ever eat! not really, but they sure love it).

He said he wanted to be a chef. This reminded me of when I worked on the river and I would be chopping the vegetables while our passengers patiently waited to eat.

Washing the dishes before he begins cooking the chicken.

This night was actually somewhat cold. Not by Utah standards, but I can honestly say this was the first time I actually felt cold in Saudi Arabia. Something that I will not likely feel again in this country.

Here is the finished product. Rice and chicken, plus a salad which was incredibly good. Maybe my student really should be a chef. We talked a lot about many things during our dinner. He told us what it is like when someone wants to get married. If a young Saudi man is interested in a girl, you tell your mother, and then your mother talks to the girl's mother and sets up a meeting for you to talk. He said its a pretty nervous time for a young man because you go and meet the girl and she doesn't have her head covered and you talk to each other. In this meeting you decide whether you have things in common and whether you think that you would both make a good match. He didn't say this but I think you can have more than one meeting to decide.

As we ate, we heard a donkey in the distance. My student said this isn't a good thing because it means the donkey saw a Djinn, which are similar to or equivalent to devils. If you hear this or are worried about a chance encounter you say Bismillah (in the name of God) and then you will be okay. I actually want to write more about Djinns in the future because I think its very fascinating. But that will do for now.

My students are incredibly awesome. Oftentimes Saudi's get government scholarships to go and study at a University in Canda or America and that if they do, they will stay with a family. I think it would be so much fun to host some of my students in America. I know that so many of you (my family and friends) would love them if they came and stayed with you. Many of my students are extremely respectful and kind. It is the dream of many of my students to go to Canada or America to study. I keep hinting at Utah as a good place if such an opportunity arrives.

My Favorite Saudi Pass Time

First, I want to say, I experienced my first rain in Saudi Arabia tonight. It was refreshing. I hope to see more of it. Now for the real purpose of this blog.

During my first week in Saudi, one of the teachers pointed out a hilarious spelling error on one of the toy boxes at the mall. Ever since then I have noticed that many of the toys here have a lot of weird things on them. Chris and I have made it our habit to bring cameras to the mall to take pictures of toy boxes. Everytime we do I think all the Saudi's must think we are crazy taking pictures of toys and laughing. Here are just a few of the best that we have gotten.

Babies Sweeting Baby! It says "Let your choice have more convincingness", "Let the children play happily and feel assured", and "Let the children study while they are playing and grow up while they are playing!" I especially like the part about the children feeling assured. What a great toy!

"Birthday Cake: MAKE A VOW TO GOD" This is one of my favorites. You have the nice festive toy box, all colorful and fun, and then suddenly MAKE A VOW TO GOD! Classic.

Here is Beautiful Girl. It says "The new field for the children to play, and they can find pleasure in it naturally!" That sounds nice.

Iatrology? I almost majored in this subject at school!

This Kitchen Set "helps our children play & learn the kitchen equipments" A must have for all children.

This toy can "take your endless fun!" I don't know why anyone would want that. I'm glad they put the warning on the box.

I love this one. "Lovely Baby: look, I do have many medical instrument, let's be the little doctor" I love how the baby is trying to reason with you.

If you need your children to grow, then Super Assistant is the toy for you. "It is happy best presents for the growing of children!"

"The Heavenly Music: OPEN the source of INTELLIGENCE" I need to do that. It must be some darn good music.

"Lovely funny baby! Fresh picked fashion !With Different Modes,"

The Rorty Gift? Is that good?

100% Happy Baby is very tired.

Wow.....this is a real.....sweet baby. Kind of scary looking too.

"The Noblest Setting of Kitchen" This toy is only for the upper class.

Hmm....lets just take four random English words and make a toy doll out of it. The result: Beauty Girl Vogue Current.

This masterpiece speaks for itself.

JOIN ME FORT A SWIM! I will.

This funny cookware will give you "infinite pleasure." Sign me up!

My & Baby

I will never forget: MODERN FRISK GIRL.

This one was the first funny toy I saw in Saudi Arabia. Thus began my new hobby.

Barbie? Nope, Its BARLIE!

Every little girl wants Benign Girl!