Missives from Muscat: Salon Tajmeel

On Monday, our PFs made a "Salon Tajmeel" for us in one of the classrooms. We had henna and makeup talk - all the ladies - for two hours.

Sticker-stencils allow non-henna experts to apply henna in the comfort of their own home. Or classroom Salon Tajmeel.

It looked pretty gross while drying...it took so long! Nearly two hours before it began to crust and dry so I could remove it.

Halima arrived soon after Aya colored in my stencil...Halima has been practicing henna application, freehand, since she was fourteen. She had some pretty incredible skills! She did both of Julia's hands...

And then Nana's...

And then one of mine! It turned out really beautiful.
Tomorrow we got to Sharqiya Desert for an overnight camping trip. More soon, inshallah!

Up North to Sindbad's Home

 This weekend, a bunch of girls and I rented a car and drove up the coast to Sohar, the home of the mythical sailor Sindbad. Along the way, we detoured to Rustaq. There was a fort, which we never found, and also Ayn al-Kesfa, which we did (after a few wrong turns and directions from a helpful lady who seemed surprised that I could ask her in Arabic).

Ayn al-Kesfa, Rustaq, al Batinah province of Oman

 The water in the spring was incredibly translucent blue-green, and very hot. It was so hot outside that swimming in a hot springs was unthinkable, without even taking into account the constraints of lady-body-coverage. Julia and I have joked about buying burq-inis, but have yet to pony up. I later learned that the temperature was 109 degrees, with 89% humidity. Saunas are fun and good for your health and all, but you're only supposed to stay in them for 15 minutes or so. What to do when the sauna is just...the environment?

 Farther down the road, and after we did the most disgusting thing I've done in a while (eat KFC), we headed off the freeway to Al-Khaboura fort.

 It sits right on the ocean - this coast has a lot of forts, as it overlooks the Gulf of Oman and was an important border to defend against invaders from (now) Pakistan and Iran across the Gulf.

 Our hotel in Sohar was a little hard to find. The map on Booking.com looked pretty simple: the town of Sohar is spread along the coast and the hotel was right off the freeway across from the port...
We drove about 40 kms extra trying to find the place - I knew it was north of the city, all the hotel rooms in the city were either booked or too expensive for us, but I had no idea how far north. And Google let me down (just the once, sorry babe), so I pulled over at the nicest beach resort in Sohar and asked the desk clerk to let me use their internet to try to find better directions to the place. It was far from my finest hour, but it was a good learning experience. I think we're so used to having our phones and GPS, as well as (let's be honest) appropriate freeway signage and offramps at appropriate intervals, that we hadn't thought of having an old-school backup. Next time, a detailed physical map will be in hand, not just the overview of Oman map!
The place in Sohar was lovely - it was also residential apartment style, like our place in Al-Khoud, but SO MUCH NICER. This place was a real apartment. There was a washer (!!!!!!), a toaster, and showers with tubs and curtains. We knew from the website that it had washers, so we brought our laundry...we must have looked like crazy overpackers, each carrying in at least two bags of luggage!

Highlight of my week

This morning, we woke up and got lost again trying to find the Sohar fort. When we finally did, it was open...kind of. It is currently under restoration, but the door into the interior open space of the fort was open. It's not trespassing if the door is ajar, right?

 Sohar's fort is distinctive because it's white - all the other forts I've seen or seen advertised in Oman are brown. The white of the fort under the brilliant sun is stunning, and reminds me of the Mediterranean. Unfortunately I think the restoration will change all of this - the central tower has been completed, and it is beige.

Unrestored interior of fort

View from Sohar Fort to the Gulf of Oman

Afterwards, we drove back south along the coast to Sawadi Beach. We missed the turnoff for that too, but eventually found our way. As I drove through Sawadi, I had to slow down for the speed bumps...and the goats.

 The goats were everywhere! There was even a goat on top of a car (see below). Goats rule the town in Sawadi.

 Sawadi Beach is 12 kms from the main highway, but worth it. There are several beautiful rock formations off the coast, and the beach is strewn with shells. You can hire a boat to take you out, or jetskis.

 The water is so incredibly blue, and it was cool (unlike the water in Muscat, which was just as warm as the air). We combed the beach for shells, and found a couple of neat fossils and coral. I would have stayed there all day, but we had promised to have the car back by 5pm.

Showing some scandalous ankle

Missives from Muscat: The Simple Things

 During a video chat with my best friend recently, I realized I haven't posted any pictures of the interior where I've been living. It's not much to look at, truthfully. The hard part is actually the gadgetry. There are switches to open the flow of electricity (which makes sense and is environmentally savvy), but you have to figure out which one is which. And which one turns on the A/C, or the individual water heater in your bathroom so you have warm water to shower or wash dishes (or your clothes) in.
Above, you can see my A/C remote/control, located on a different wall from the switch that turns on the electricity to the A/C. The middle switch, with the red light, turns on the water heater in the bathroom (this switch is not located in said bathroom). The three switches on the end are the bathroom light and fans.

 On the other side of the door, you have two more switches, the right one opens the electricity for the fan, which is controlled by the knob above it.

 And on a third wall, just inside the room, there is the A/C electricity, and the two lights for the room.  These handy little electricity opener switches are also installed on every outlet, so if you accidentally plug in your phone to charge it overnight, but forget to turn on the flow of electricity...ahem.

And finally, just to clarify, since Berna was confused when I said water went all over the bathroom and got the toilet paper wet. Here's why. As you can see, the bathroom IS the shower (this also happened in Syria and in SE Asia, so I'm not new to this method). In my opinion, it's also very energy efficient, because every time you take a shower, you clean the bathroom. Just make sure you leave the toilet paper, and hang your towel, outside the door (next to the 15 switches).

 Today, at a similar hotel apartment in Sohar, we were treated to this delight (see below), and immediately all five of us each took a refreshing shower just cause we could.

 And the creme de la creme:

I've never been more excited to see a washing machine in my life. The website said the hotel would have one, so we all brought our laundry. Yup. The trunk of our rental car is filled up with clean laundry that we washed ourselves. If nothing else, our trip has been a success for that. Maybe I just need to stay in a hotel flat with a washing machine every two weeks...

More on Sohar, to come.

Missives from Muscat: Mosques and Matches

 Tuesday we visited the Grand Mosque of Muscat. It's a massive complex, which was constructed in 1995. After all us girls had to fully cover, including pinning my skirt together. It had a slit up to two inches above my ankle on the inner fold of the skirt, which no one could see unless the wind blew hard, but this was deemed unacceptable by the modesty cops who refused to let me in unless I pinned the skirt together at the shoe level. It was really completely mortifying, especially because they allowed in women wearing skinny jeans or transparent veils. Modesty is understood as covered, regardless of whether it's tight or revealing, a construction of modesty pretty different from the one I come from. It was a pretty embarrassing moment, even though I hadn't done anything - and it made it hard to appreciate the mosque even though it was beautiful.

 We toured the women's prayer hall before visiting the men's.

The main/men's prayer hall

 Our guide described in detail where all the pieces of the mosque came from: Turkish carpets, mosaics from Iran, chandelier from Germany, wood from America...the list went on & on. It is a massive space - you can see people in the photo above, at the end of the blue carpet.

Chandelier from Germany

After the visit was over, we visited with a sheikh and a da'iya who talked to us about Islam - I think they were disappointed that none of us converted. We headed back to school and finished out the day.

 Tuesday evening was the 2014 FIFA Qualifier Match between Oman & Iraq. Pretty much everyone in the program went, and us ladies were able to get us all into the "Ladies & Family" section. You're welcome, dudes.

 The crowd went CRAZY when Oman won. There were Omani flags everywhere, and people were climbing all over the bleachers and singing. And that was nothing compared to the street racing that happened later - we saw a guy actually standing on the roof of a moving car, waving an Omani flag and chanting.

 It was all capped off with a beautiful Omani sunset and the view of the Grand Mosque illuminated at night.

Missives from Muscat: You Win Some, You Lose Some

Given how successful Friday's outing to Nizwa and Misfat al 'Abreyyin was, it was kind of inevitable that we'd have some ...not outright failures, but...ok, outright failures. Some days you love being abroad, because it's beautiful and exciting and stimulating. Other days, you just want to go home.

Yesterday my roommates and I woke up and our internet wasn't working - our password had expired, so I didn't get either of my video-chat dates that I had planned. That made me already kind of grumpy (a lot grumpy). We decided to go into Muscat, rather than stay out in the Seeburbs (our suburb is named Seeb, get it?). We picked out a place to visit in Muscat - Shari'at al-Hub, which runs along the beach and leads into al-Qurm shopping area. On the map this looked simple, and we thought, hey we're up early (ready to go by 9a) so let's go into town now, stroll around, have lunch and come back during the siesta. Everything here, except lunch restaurants, closes between 1-4pm, during the hottest part of the day.

Our hotel manager, Haitham, was at the front desk when we came down and asked how to get a cab. In the morning in Souq al-Khoudh, it's completely empty, so flagging a cab on the street would be impossible. In addition, we were a little nervous about haggling; there are no metered cabs here, so you negotiate a price before you get into the cab. We'd heard everything from 1.5 rials (~$4) to 5 rials (~$13) to get into town. Ever so generously, Haitham drove us to Shari'at al-Hub, showing us a few other places along the way. He dropped us off at the Starbucks with the most incredible view.

We then walked along the beach, which was strewn with with unbroken seashells. We then walked up to al-Qurm shopping center, about 2 kms south. We were the only people on the sidewalk. It was boiling hot - over 100 degrees and 70% humidity. We didn't want to take a cab, because we knew as soon as we gave up and got in a cab, the shopping center would be around the corner. Cars and cabs kept honking at us - the three crazy foreigners walking in that intense heat. By the time we made it to Al Qurm, we were drenched and drained. We sat on a bench in the mall for a good ten minutes, in the A/C, just to cool off before going into any stores. Defeated, we ate a (relatively) expensive lunch and caught a cab back to Souq Al Khoudh.

After a nap, we thought we'd do some grocery shopping and laundry. Trying to be efficient, we gathered up our laundry and went to the laundry place across the street to put our clothes in the washer...only to discover that they only have dry cleaning here. For everything. And you pay per item of clothing. So, per pair of underwear, per sock...

I'm sure that most people have washing machines in their houses, so it's only crazy foreigners that need laundromats. But it was the straw that broke the camel's back - not only had our attempt to get to know Muscat failed, but it made us feel like the city was entirely inaccessible without a car (to get into the city from the 'burbs, and to get around the city itself). It's like LA. You just need a car. And then on top of that, we had no choice but to do laundry by hand in the bathroom (we bought a bucket for this purpose during our later grocery outing). Handwashing is fine for a hot minute, but for six weeks - it's a lot to put up with. Nothing ever feels fully clean, and my room is strewn with clothes at the moment, in various stages of drying.

It is hard not to be sidetracked by these defeats, little as they seem - they add up to a lot of discomfort, and make it difficult to feel physically comfortable to take on the big emotional discomfort of being away from home and out of your comfort zone (24/7, for months at a time). I can only hope to weather these frustrations gracefully, and learn to expect less and be content with the simple. And I can express my gratitude for the things that keep me going: for the sweet emails, texts and video chats from friends and family, functioning a/c & internet (when they function), lemon-mint juice, and for the wonderful, brilliant and exceedingly compassionate man I have somehow convinced to be my boyfriend, who talks me back off the ledge more often than I think he realizes. At the end of the dirty laundry, weird food, the fridge that freezes everything no matter what temperature it's set at, the bathroom that is always soaking wet from the overzealous showerhead, speaking like a 1st grader in Arabic (on a good day), and weathering through the crazy heat...I am thankful to be here. Tomorrow is another day...inshallah.