received very nice Scotch and Vodka from Carla, and went to play kickball with a lot of the faculty at a local baseball complex. Later on I went to my first bar in Oman and stayed for only 15 minutes. Carla invited all of us to her place for more drinks and we all went and had a great time. I forced myself to stay up until about 10:30. I know its lame, but after teaching for a full week, well, most of you are teachers, you know what its like. so, 10:30 was pretty good!As a gift to myself, I bought a traditional coffee-table for my apartment. Like most things in Oman, it is a Omani idea but is made of a Yemenese door design and Indian wood.
Towards the end of the month, I took my first kite-boarding lesson and had some fun doing that. But, other than that, not much was happening (unless I am forgetting about something, which is another great reason to update more frequently!)
Oh, Allah, please heal these hands! (Mosque and DWS)
One weekend we decided to take it easy again. So, Thursday morning Jeff, Sara and I went to
the Grand Mosque for a tour. Despite the heat we all had to cover everything except our heads and hands. Sara did have to cover her hair as well, but she made it stylish. The Mosque is open to non-muslims on Thursdays and you must take your 
shoes off before entering any of the buildings. But we just decided to park our shoes in one of the holders and just walk around in just our socks since the entire floor, outside and in, was perfectly clean. They must wash it a couple dozen times a day, and with the cheap Pakistani and Indian labor, why not!
After the mosque, Sara and I went with Courtney and Greg to one of the public beaches to find a fisherman and go psicobloc, or deep water soloing, or DWS, or rock climbing over the ocean! It was a pretty 
incredibly experience! Greg speaks Arabic, so he was able to get a fisherman and his boat to take us out the the cliffs on an island, hang out and laugh at us for just 8 rials! The most challenging and tiring part of the DWS was getting from the water to the base area. We had to pull ourselves out of the water while the waves are helping for only a split second then leave you to be pulled once again by gravity. I didn't get to see Greg go up the route he had so many times before, and with my awesome abilities that Hinkson and Bernie IV helped build up last year, I was confident that I would be able to figure out how to get up without any help. Well, the first thing I grabbed was a rock with seashells sticking out of it like pieces of glass. I immediatly let go and yelped.
But, I was determined to get up, so I placed my hands once again on the rocks and pulled as hard as I could, almost making it before I had to throw myself away from the rocks and back into the forgiving water. I felt my hands stinging from the salt and when I looked at them as I treaded water, they were literally being torn up. But, I knew I could do it, so I ignored the pain like a manly-man and swam over again and place my hands up on the rocks once more wincing as I felt the sharp shells once again under my hands. By this time, there were some curious Omani women in another fishing boat who came over to watch the spectacle. So, now I really had to step up my game to impress the ladies! For a third time I felt the shells insert into my skin and I pulled and grabbed desperatly at any rocks above. But once again, I failed. So, I looked up at Greg and how it was possible that he could stand all the pain. He looked at me confused and pointed out the 
shell free route that he took, I tried once more on his route, but had no strength left to rise out of the water. So I jumped back on the boat and the fisherman temporarily docked so Sara, Courtney and I could join Greg on the small rock platform. The Omani ladies were entertained by my pathetic showing and I began traversing our first route embarrassed. The first route was fairly easy with lots of options to give up if we wanted. Greg led, but tried something a bit too hard and ended up jumping back in the water. Courtney was now in the lead, with me second and Sara following closely. At one point, Sara asked me if it was my blood on the rocks. I looked back at her and saw spots of blood marking my holds. When I looked at my hands, all the rips in my skin were leaking blood. I decided to not let it ruin my experience unless sharks started smelling the blood in the water, and kept climbing. Our second route was the main attraction, though after all we had already been through and being out of climbing shape, we only tried the route a few times. But, it was great adventure!
Oh, the places baby turtles and Taj will go!
Our second turtle adventure was much like the first, however, there were fewer turtles. August 
and September are the best times to go for those of you who might be planning a trip. Another huge difference for this trip was that around 9:45 at night, as we were putting our innocent little heads to rest, an Omani ranger found us! We had heard stories that the previous weekends they tried to kick our friends off the beach because they didn't want people to terrorize the turtles. The Omani rangers were responding to a German couple picking up some of the turtles. So, it was valid, and I am all for fighting terrorism on any front! However, despite my excitement for the rangers doing a great job, it was scary to have silouettes roaming around the campsite and seeing if we would respond to their greetings. But, we all pretended to be sleeping, although I wasn't pretending, and they left. Jeff woke me up after they left and said there were people at the campsite. Of course, I was still half asleep and this just scared me, as I saw their tail lights pulling away, I became very concerned and it took me a full couple minutes to fall asleep again! I did end up having a lot of nightmares about people raiding the campsite though.
mornings rosy sky did not disappoint. In fact it did not disappoint so much that I ended up taking about 50 pictures of it.
in the waves and Sara and I went on a little hike to a lovely spot where we were on a cliff 15 meters above the water and with nothing below us. We watched the fish and snakes playing below, or fighting, we weren't sure, but let's just say they were playing. We headed back to camp and packed up, and were off to Wadi Tiwi.
small village way up in the canyon which required 4WD. We soon discovered why we would need 4WD and a to be somewhat fearless. This was a one lane, steep dirt road with sharp turns and few places to pull off in case of oncoming traffic. With the steep road, Taj was struggling, and at one point simply couldn't go on. Jeff was in my car, so we developed a new method for tackling the rough road. We decided to wait at the bottom of the hill and wait until Janelle was at the top, then we got a running start and flew up the hill as fast as 2nd gear 
would take us ignoring the potholes, rocks and taking the turns way to fast. The method worked and we made it up to the village with Taj smelling a bit burnt out. 
The village seemed to have such a simple life which was reflected in the architecture. No one seemed to put any thought into where or how they wanted to build their houses. There were houses that were built partly on top of abandoned houses and every structure looked like it was going to crumble and tumble down the adjacent valley.
1 comment:
Yeah!! I want to go on your weekend adventures with you. That sounds so memorable. When we meet up this summer we'll actually have to take our walk, or hike, and Archie can come with us:) miss you!
LOVE you!
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