Missing persons:

An Indian in Oman: http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/a-week-before-marriage-city-electrician-goes-missing-in-oman/293874/

an American in Nepal: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/soccer/story/2011-12-03/latest-aubrey-sacco-case/51614846/1

What differences do you see in the vibe of the entire articles?

“I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.” - Mahatma Gandhi

“I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed.  I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible.  But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.” - Mahatma Gandhi

After having been a world away from home for six months now, traveling around the middle east and southeast Asia, I’ve learned many things.  Something that has really grown in me is my awareness of the different cultures around the world and my knowledge of how important each one of them is to the people in them.  Culture creates a sense of belonging in the people throughout the world and can make an outsider or uninformed traveler feel left out or naive. Culture is about community, throughout my travels, it has become apparent that although many things can get lost in translation between people speaking different languages other than their mother tongues to communicate as well as people misinterpreting social ques specific to different cultures in interactions.  However, how is it that humans can still generally love or if not love each other, generally seem to respect one another with basic human decency.  It seems that has been taught in every culture I’ve experienced at varying levels.  

“Didn’t you know about the people in the world who have no language at all?”

I was walking along the beach in Seeb.  It was sunset and the beach and scenery was blanketed in a crimson glow from the massive red sun I’ve only had the privelege of seeing in the Middle East.  We had been driving across the beach sands for a few minutes when my friends decided to stop and watch the waves crash quietly in a spot.  I felt like venturing off.  I could see birds flying in thousands just a few hundred meters away so I headed that way, walking through the shallow waves that washed my feet.  I was hoping to get some photographs to bring home with my camera.  Just then, two trucks came towards me.  They were filled with men in the beds and they were waving.  One guy was holding what looked like some kind of pet bird with a leash on it, something similar to what I’ve seen in the states when an animal specialist holds an eagle or special bird for an exhibit but doesn’t want it to fly away.  A little nervous with the number of men in the two trucks, I kept walking towards the thousands of birds flying.  They passed me and parked but the man who had been holding the “bird” came towards me from the truck.  I stopped...unable to decide exactly what to do next, I knew my friends could see me and that it was probably okay.  As he approached me I could see his hands covered in black ink, the sandy beach floor was oozing with this black liquid and I analyzed the fishy smelling dead animal the man was proudly displaying for me.  It was a squid, but he couldn’t talk.  I assumed he was just completely fluent in Arabic, Swahili, or another language besides English as it is common to meet someone like this in this vastly foreign land.  

Just then, my friend came who is Omani and fluent in Arabic, he began talking to him, “Keif Halak”...but the man just smiled and nodded.  Without saying a word, the man dressed in an Oman soccer team uniform (popular among some groups of Omanis) bent down to scribble the Arabic word for “squid” in the sand. My friend noticed right away, “Laurel, don’t know you know about the people who don’t talk?  The ones who have no language to call their own?”.  Being someone who wears hearing aides in both ears and has had to be taught at a young age how to pronunciate certain sounds because I am completely deaf to some sounds I naturally asked, “Oh, are they deaf?”.  Thoughts immediately rushed through my head being aware of the lack of disability services that are available for people in Oman versus places such as America I realized that maybe these people are the ones that society failed because they never learned how to speak and were not taught to pronunciate like I was.  My Omani friend answered with somewhat of an unclear explanation that has left me thinking and wondering what I had seen that day.  He said “Yes, they cannot hear you and they are mute because they have a sickness and they cannot be taught to speak”.  I wouldn’t consider my hearing impairment a sickness so I was left confused despite asking numerous clarification questions as we watched the men pull the tattered fishing boat onto the sands as the night began to fill in all the areas of the beach that were once pink from the sunset.  

  Who are these people of silence?

Flooding in Oman

The other day, while venturing in Ruwi, I witnessed my first flooding in the Muscat city area.  It was one of the first days in November and an unexpected rain poured down heavily onto the city.  At first, in the car, it seemed to be just raining hard but when I arrived in Ruwi to get out of the car, within two seconds of being outside, my abaya, hair, and scarf was drenched in heavy rain drops.  It felt kind of nice actually with the dense humidity and heat in the air to have a natural shower but I quickly ran inside for fear of my hearing aides becoming wet.  My hearing aides are not waterproof.  

As I watched from the open doors of the Muscat Security Market, I observed the flooding of the street that runs through Ruwi and parallel to the canal.  As the rain poured down harder, it seemed that the roads were flooding more and more.  There was a massive amount of water filling up into many areas of the streets and overflowing onto the curbs. Perhaps if the roads are designed differently with some sort of drainage, the water would have more places to escape when falling from the sky.  As I watched many people in the traditional Indian dish-dashas yank up their peach or blue pants to tread through the growing flooding in the streets to the traffic, I began to wonder what types of problems arise that I normally wouldn’t think of when this type of flash flood happens.  Do people get electrocuted?  Does work get cancelled?  

While I was standing at the entry way of the Muscat Security Market, there were about 10 Omani men in their formal dish-dasha wear who seemed to be employed at the Market, just standing for at least an hour watching the rain and not working.  I wondered if it was a cultural thing to just enjoy rare natural occurrences together and not worry about working.  I tried to make up scenarios in my head that could be similar to what they seemed to be experiences while at work.  Perhaps American employees would possibly find it appropriate to stop work and watch out the window talking and conversing for an hour or so if we were under attack by a giant hurricane that might eat us up alive and they were trying to figure out or wait to hear on the news what to do.  Maybe this flash flood was similar in a sense (but obviously very different because no was fearful of their life...it seemed).  All I know though, is if there was the type of flooding in the streets in New York City, I don’t feel that people would react the way they did for nearly as long as the people at the MSC did so.  I liked watching them happily enjoying the natural occurrence together.  Colleagues conversing and taking in whatever seemed to come at them in the day and stopping to take it all in.  It left me wishing in a way that this type of thing would be a familiar sight when there is a rare heavy rain occur at a security market in New York City!  

Apparently, I was just naive in my observations because I did not know what possibilities lay ahead because of the floods.  I looked up the news and there were several stories about causalities, electrocution, cars that were lifted away and smashed in the water, and buildings flooded inside.  It was a lot worse than I imagined so the observing colleagues at the MSC seemed to make more sense to me afterwards.  

I read about the tragedy of an 8 year old boy who was waiting for his father and got electrocuted on the terrace by their fence at home because of the water.  There were massive traffic jams of which many turned into complete wrecks of cars that had been lifted away by the water and smashed into the cars in front of them near the Al Nahda hospital in Ruwi.  In some parts of Muscat, according to reports by BBC News, the visibility reached nearly zero and there were even “cuts in mains electricity and water supply”.  I was surprised to continue reading and find out that around 20,000 people were actually evacuated out of Oman!  The results of this flood was because of a Cyclone called Gonu that has traveled through areas of the Middle East with winds of over 150 miles per hour and it’s starting to finally mellow out, alhumdellelah.      This was a much more serious issue than it seemed to me at first as a flood at home would not be as serious it seems.  

Lulu Hypermarket=Awesome

When I first discovered Lulu Hypermarket, I was happy.  We took the besa bus up to the street across from Lulu.  We couldn’t miss the giant warehouse adourned with tacky green, red, blue, and yellow lights that looked like a combination of Christmas celebration lights and 1980‘s-movies-spaceship-style animated lights...It was night time so these lights made the start of this grocery adventure especially nice.  As I walked into the store, it looked like a regular massive market such as Walmart except the things being sold throughout this store were much more exciting.    The entrance presented a verand with several sections; the ordinary area for ATM machines and customer service area but the other sections were made up of stores with bargain prices on authentic gold jewelery (extremely popular in Oman), a stand with all kinds of beautiful smelling perfumes, and a KFC.  In the center of the entrance were three mannequins advertising the latest fashion of traditional Omani attire with huge price tags expressing their bargain prices.  “Dishdashas for 2 Rial, Women’s traditional Omani dress for 17 Rial, small girl’s traditional dress for 10 Rial...”  It reminded me of Halloween to see such sparkly and fun clothing being sold but this is really something someone would buy to wear everyday!  (One of the many reasons I love Oman).

We walked through the small entry stands to get to the main store aisles.  There were nut stands, an entire aisle of just bags and bags of all the most delicious spices, an entire section for huge bags of flours and rices.  But, my favorite part of the market was the produce section.  I felt like I was in the pictures I see of overcrowded India.  It was difficult to get around through the many aisles of oranges, baskets and baskets of all types of chiles, as many kinds of gourds one can think of, garlic, and pounds of fresh ginger roots!  We bought rambuntuns, dragon fruit, a custard apple, some different types of chilies, rocca, ginger, and many other things.  I really enjoy going to the market and looking at the produce and trying new things.  

Emirati Expressions Exhibit

Abu Dhabi was my favorite emirate based on the things I experienced of the three out of seven Emirates. In the week we were traveling, we visited Sharjah, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi in UAE.  It could have been because of the more mellow atmosphere and environment built in Abu Dhabi.  The more recently developed emirate had a more pleasant vibe than the more fast-paced seemingly more “fake” Dubai that felt overdone and too “glamorous”.  It felt like a Las Vegas of the Middle East because everywhere I seemed to go was something we had to pay extravagant amounts of money for (to eat, shop, ski, sled, or ice skate).  I’m not saying there was no Emirati culture, but Dubai is an emirate of a couple of millions of people and Emiraties make up a third or something of this population.  I wonder if most of them just hang out at home or if they are the ones in the most expensive clubs and restaurants in Dubai.  

Anyways, Abu Dhabi inspired me more because of the more apparent culture and less over-developed feeling.  It felt like the state was developing at a much more calm pace allowing for room to have the Emirati culture grow with the modernity with seemingly more ease.   I mentioned my thoughts to my Omani sister and some other Omani members of my family and I got a lot of the same comments and feelings.  If many people from Omani culture who go to these places several times a year to visit their relatives feel this way as well, that must mean something  My favorite part of the culture we experienced there was the fact that we got to visit the Saadiyat Cultural District.  It was exciting to see the designs in the museum of what the much anticipated Saadiyat Island will be like.  There will be a Louvre, a Guggenheim, a state of the art performing arts center, and many other neat attractions.  It will be interesting how these newly added additions will affect the culture and feel of the emirate when they are complete in the next couple of years.  

The best part of the Saadiyat Cultural District was the Emirati Expressions exhibition.  Upon entering the large hall, one could go left to the exhibition or go straight to the very large black and white polka-dotted cube that immediately draws your attention.  The large cube was a large installation put in by the anonymous artist “JR”.  On the brochure it says, “The fact that I stay anonymous means I can exhibit wherever I want”.  I thought this was interesting because it’s so cool that he does these large scale photographic installations and makes them public.  I like the idea of public installations that are not approved and usually illegal but that artists do them anyway.  I forget the actual term that is used for this but I love the concept of graffiti and putting something somewhere that is unexpected that can spark emotion in the public or make them think about something or simply enjoy a work of art.  

JR is a young French artist.  He likes to print humongous portraits of people or their intimate parts of their faces and post them in public places throughout the world.  I really liked the fact that it seems his art is so intrusive in the way that it could pull anyone in closer to figure out what is going on with the huge photographs of eyes or huge photographs of people in locations that are not expected.  JR in a way is doing a lot of the things I would love to be doing more of.  He travels to far off lands, makes friends, makes them models for his photographs, and makes art from these photographs while building relationships and learning more about people, cultures, and his own self in some ways with being able to really look at people’s eyes in his massive portraits.  Like they always say... “The eyes are the windows to the soul”.  And JR makes these windows larger and more accessible peer into and think about.  

The Photo booth installations was in fact a very large photo booth that allowed for visitors to use.  If you used it, a massive portrait of yourself would fall from the top of the cube for you to have posted as part of the installation that was throughout the many walls in and outside the museum.  The public became a part of this project.  “INSIDE OUT is a collaboration between the artist JR, and you”.  

The entrance to the rest of the exhibition was nice because it had a large quote up of an author I enjoy and respect.  She written some great philosophical books about photography and using the camera as a tool to investigate people.  Her name is Susan Sontag.  A quote that she is famous for was a part of the entry to the exhibit read “Essentially, the camera makes everyone a tourist in other people’s reality, and eventually in one’s own”.  

It was a great introduction to the exhibition of photographs created by Emirati artists and some visiting photographers.  One of my favorite genres in art and quiet possibly the world’s most popular hobby! If more and more people learn to take photographs to explore themselves and the world around them better, the more we will be able to understand each other and our cultural differences.  Photographs become ideas, realizations, explanations, and observations.  All unique to the eyes of the picture taker.  

I really enjoyed being at this center for the short time we visited and wished we could have had a little bit more time to take it all in.  I am happy we got to go!

Sharjah

Dubai2

Qatar Observations

-Many women wear the burkha.  More common to cover your entire face and leave only your eyes to see and hands are okay too and heels.  

-I saw a lot of more westernized style in the abayas the women wear in Qatar, too. I mean this in comparison to Omani style in the abaya.  The Omani women seem to wear abayas that are fashionable that are extremely loose-fitting so that there is little or no way to really see their figures underneath.  In Qatar, on the other hand, I was surprised to see many women wearing abayas that are similar to one I have purchased that button up on the top but are free flowing and have no buttons about halfway down my stomach.  This leaves space for you to show-off your sense of fashion and that is one reason why I actually chose to purchase one of the abayas I got.  I like it when I can show my favorite skirt or pants underneath with a peak at what type of shirt I’m wearing.  And I know there are many women who feel the same way.  I saw this in Qatar a lot and they seem to very interested in the real designer bags and not the knock-off ones.  I think that’s a reflection of a culture.  In many countries, the knock-off handbags seem to be extremely popular. Perhaps there appeared to be that every other woman in Qatar was walking around with their group of friends and a $2,000 handbag because the small population of Qatar of around only 2 million people are very well taken care of by the oil revenues that the government distributes to the people.  The Qatari family in this generation and the last have been set for life in terms of monetary worries.  

Something else I observed that had to do with expensive things in Doha was that after watching a wonderful film at the Doha Film Festival, we walked around to find a crowded place to smoke some shisha and have a fresh mango juice.  We found a gorgeous place that was extremely crowded.  The waitress immediately greeted us (I still have no idea where she popped out from-but she was very fast to grab our attention and be at our service), she told us that there is a 150 Qatari Rial minimum bill for the place.  That means that basically, we would be spending 15 Omani Rials which is close to 45 american dollars. Yikes.  She said the actually shisha was only 100 Qatari Rials, 26 American dollars.  Still, a huge yikes so we politely let ourselves out.  Who spends more than 5 dollars on a shisha?  Very expensive.  

-Nepal people everywhere.  Cab driver Nepalanese.  Waiters at the restaurants from Nepal. Why?  Tunday-bar! means Thank you in Tibeten. 

-Food tastes fresher but I still find myself missing Oman and my family’s homemade food.  There’s something about the warmth in it.  The food served is food in my Omani family’s home is food for the soul. 

-The skyline for the city of doha is similar to Dubai in the pictures I’ve seen and also had a Las Vegas feel to it.  The buildings are grand and beautiful but they have a certain faux feel to them.  Even the “traditional” souk in the heart of the city was recently completely renovated and the many restaurants and the long courtyard with many cafe patios lining it outside filled with customers eating, drinking juice, and smoking shisha took me back to the times I’ve spent in Europe doing the same thing.  

-The Islamic Art Museum

-Education city is so nice. The building is gorgeous.  The dining hall has great food. The people are wonderful. 

Nizwa-Homestay

My Omani family that hosted me in Nizwa was awesome.  They were so sweet and welcoming. I spent an entire day with them.  When we arrived at the home, we were greeted at the gate by the husband of one of the women who lived there while the two women (who I found later to be the women of the house) stayed in the background at the entrance to the front door of the home.  The man came all the way to the outside of the gate entrance.  The two women waited excitedly at the front door clad in their regular housewear of a brightly colored and busily-designed thaub with their matching hijab covering their hair.  

We were welcomed into their home and guided to the humble majlis.  There were a couple small loveseats on one wall, two walls lined with the bedoin style floor pillows, and the fourth wall had a modest sized boxed television set with a lonely 90‘s style vase filled with artifical plants.  The rom had no pictures hung up on the wall except for one showing the family’s loyalty and respect for the Sultan Qaboos Bin Said.  The majlis is much less grandious than my Muscat family’s special sitting room because the one in Muscat has these fancy large throne-like sofas that line all three walls of the larger rectangular room.  These sofas are lined with elaborately designed and almost gaudy textures.  It’s got a beautiful and large oriental-style rug in the center and the flat-screen television is mounted on the only wall that does not have the fancy seating.  The decorative pillows line all of the free space of the seats.  It’s pretty elegent when one first walks in.  

Back to the Nizwa family majlis.  We are motioned to sit down and we sit cross-legged on the floor.  One of the women comes leaves for a minute to come back with a round serving tray filled with gorgeous fresh fruit, an edible form of dates, and a fresh pot of coffee to pour in those tiny little middle esatern style cups.  We were given the traditional set-up when a guest in in your home in Oman.  The oldest of the house cuts up the fruti, starts pouring the coffee, and then offers the dates or halwa or whatever type of sweet date concoction they have to offer.  In this case, we had sweet and nutty homemade halwa.  My favorite treat.  She said it’s made from dates, rose water, saffron, almonds, and sugar.  The women were proud to present us with their tray of treats to greet us in their home.  We were the first Americans they invited into their home.

They knew barely any English.  But, I think they might have been shy at first. I managed to get out of them that they only lived with each other in this small home and their husbands shared the two seperate bedrooms with them.  They gladly gave us a tour of their very clean home.  The kitchen with a window in it, their bedrooms, and the “laundry room” which was just a space underneath the stairway.  The stairway I guess just went to storage.  We were not invited upstairs so I didn’t want to pry and ask.  They encouraged me to take photographs of their bedrooms and within the house.  I felt uncomfortable doing so at first, especially after being told so many times that Omani familial culture is very private within the families from the public and I’m definitely “the public” to these people.  But the photographer in me was eager to so I did.  I was able to document some of the most private areas of an Omani woman’s lifestyle by being welcomed and not only welcomed but encouraged to take these photographs.  I feel so lucky! 

Then, we went outside to the next door neighbor who live in the same house but another section of it with a seperate entrance.  They were throwing a birthday party for one of their children who was turning one-year old.  We were welcomed in and greeted by the eldest of the home with the traditional coffe set-up again.  There were many other women there sitting around.  The men were in the other room, seperated by a closed door.  The women waited on the men when they would knock on the door to call for some more food or drinks.  It was pretty busy at that house.  We brought over some sharpened slaughtering knives so the men in the other room could go out and slaughter the live goat so we could have fresh meat for our mansaf.  I’m still not sure if Omanis call mansaf mansaf; the communal spiced rice platter with slabs of meat on top.  Jordanians call it this and it’s pretty similar minus the yummy cinnamon and cardamom spices in it.  We sat and talked to an English teacher who is a young Omani.  She told me all about how most women still get married much later than the previous generation of Omanis here.  There are no moer people getting married off at age 12 and 15 years old.  Many women get married at 20-25 years and men, a little older at 26-28 are the numbers she gave me.  She didn’t plan on getting married anytime soon and was proud to say she was already 25 years old.  She then, pointed out her younger sister who was 20 years old and already married with a one year old baby.  She said “It depends on the person and what they want to do with their life.  If they are ready, then they get married, like my sister”.  

It’s interesting to note that she spoke really good English and she only studied abroad in the United Kingdom for one year while learning English mostly in school in Muscat.  I thought that was really cool.  

There were many kids running in and out of the house while the 12 or 15 women, the guardians of them, were sitting and relaxing, tending to the infants, in the very small majlis.  At one point one of the women handed a 7-year old boy a lighter to use for something.  I assume he used it to start the fire outside so they could cook up the freshly slaughtered goat for lunch.  It surprises me still, how Omani children in general seem to be much more mature in the ways they socialize and are respectful, helpful, and trusted to do things within the family that a child of the same age in the States most likely would normally not be at the same level.  

"He who has no past, Doesn't have a present, and Shall not have a Future.

Lately, I've been reading about the different art museums and the art world in the Sultanate. Ghalya's Museum Of Modern Art in Muttrah area of Oman, caught my eye because it is a museum who's main purpose is to accomplish two things: "What has surrounded the Omani people, and what has lived within them".  In my attempt to try and understand a as much as I can about Omani culture, history, and people, this museum would be an interesting place to check out as one experience that may help me to grasp the immense changes and development this place has experienced and grown from. I plan on visiting this museum after we get back from Qatar and after the holidays.  I want to understand what the people of Oman lived in when they lived here before 1970.  The museum consists of typical Omani homes with the interiors containing preserved Omani cultural artifacts and typical things that go in each room of a household from the years between 1950-1970.   

Some Background History on Nizwa: We leave tomorrow morning!

The schedule for Nizwa is as follows.  We are going to go to the Nizwa University in the morning upon arrival.  We will have a lecture by the President and the Vice President of the University.  Lunch will be served at the University and then we will set out of the Al Hoota Cave. Nizwa is one of the most ancient cities of Oman and it is best known for silver

Al Hoota is right where the Jabal Shams are.  Jabal means mountain in Arabic.  The Ministry of Tourism here has taken it upon themselves to organize an ecotourism approach to bringing people to visit Oman and this environmentally respectable attraction.  I’m excited about this cave exploring visit.

Then, we go to an old Omani village called Mesfa’a Al Abriyen.  I am not sure what we do there but, I looked it up online. 

Thursday, we go to visit a family homestay and have lunch with them.  We have been given the assignmen to observe and take note on what we experience about Omani community lifestyle in the village.  Nizwa is a very traditional Omani area so it sounds like the perfect place for this excercise.  We will go to the Nizwa Souq to shop and then to the fort.  

The Nizwa fort was built in the 17th century.  It sounds pretty cool.  There are several traps set up in this fort for enemies who might have be able to get as far as sneak in past the tall walls that surround the fort.  There’s a museum inside.

Finally the next day, we will go and hike at Oman’s most famous mountain.  Jabel Akdhar.  I helped my brother who is in the school of Tourism Management of Oman to research this mountain for his huge project he is working on about this area of the country that is very popular with tourists.  We will have a picnic lunch in Wadi Bani Habib and then go back to Muscat that afternoon. Woo! 

Next weekend is....international travelling to Qatar and UAE. 

Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque Visit

This is a must visit when in Oman.  It was a highlight of my first couple of weeks here.   This massive building is worth having to wear long sleeves and covering my head in the high humidity and hot weather.  I recommend just buying a 10 rial abaya at the Ramez market because it is much easier to throw this on over your clothes so one can be sure they are respectfully dressed.  When I went, I had pretty much just arrived in Muscat and did not own an abaya or really know where to even get one.  I wore a pretty dress from Kashmir that I bought in the souk during our stay at the hotel with the school program.  It was long and covered my legs as it dragged on the floor and covered a lot of my arms so that you could see my arms from below my elbows to my hands.  I thought it was appropriate to wear to the mosque however, when I arrived, one of the program coordinators (an Omani woman) asked me if I had pins to make the dress close more on the bottom.  The dress had slits on both sides up to the bottom of my knees and this was not appropriate.  We found pins and the issue was addressed and fixed.  I learned my lesson!  So I advise any woman to simply grab a pretty 2 Rial Kashmiri scarf from the famous Muttrah souk or Seeb souk and a 10 Rial abaya at Ramez Center.

The Grand Mosque of the Sultanate of Oman is a pretty impressive place to visit.  I see it everytime I am on the freeway between my school in the residential coastal town of Al Seeb and the more touristy areas of Muttrah and AlQurum.  It is especially breathtaking when traveling on the freeway at nighttime.  To catch a glimpse of the aesthetically lit-up architectural masterpiece is a feast to one’s unsuspecting eyes.  The handwoven Persian rug in the main hall is 70m x 60m.  Over a period of four years, over six hundred women conceived this carpet. While this mosque is not the largest in the world, the carpet is the largest in the world.  

We visited this mosque about a month ago.  I just want to go back and enjoy the serene environment of the well-kept grounds and the peaceful quietness. Thanks to the Sultan Qaboos Bin Said for funding this gorgeous building and for the architects and builders.  My favorite would have to be all the designs and the spacious feeling of the mosque.  Someone told me that many parts were built and then taken down and rebuilt if things were not perfect.  The Sultan made sure it was perfect.

Bait Al Baranda

Photography in The Sultanate of Oman

As  someone who is studying photography in her home university, I am somewhat embarrassed to admit I have not kept up to date with what is happening in the fairly unknown art world in Oman.  I am going to make a point to begin doing so now as our Arabic finals are on Tuesday next week and we will stop having our classes everyday of the week that takes us away from our homes at 7:30 am and does not bring us back (if we take the school bus home) until around 6pm.  

Delicious Cupcake Recipe. Gourmet Hazelnut Cupcakes. Doesn't get better than this.

Justine made this at school today for Valentine's birthday.  The cupcakes were amazing.  I will definitely be making these in the future.


http://thecupcakerecipes.com/?p=624

Made with ground almonds and hazelnuts and covered with dark chocolate frosting, these cupcakes are worth serving on their own, without any other embellishments. Add a sleek touch to a significant celebration, such as an engagement party, by topping the cupcakes with striking caramel-dipped hazelnut spikes.

Dark chocolate frosting is shown, but caramel buttercream is another option (and would complement the toppers).

Gourmet Hazelnut Cupcake Recipe

Makes 16

1/2 cup whole unblanched almonds, toasted

1/2 cup hazelnuts, toasted and skinned

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup cake flour (not self-rising), sifted

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup firmly packed dark-brown sugar

3/4 cup milk

4 large egg whites

Dark Chocolate Frosting

Caramel-Dipped Hazelnuts

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. In a food processor, pulse together almonds and hazelnuts until finely ground (do not overprocess, or the nuts will turn into a paste). Into a mixing bowl, sift together both flours, baking powder, and salt. Whisk in the ground nuts.

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and both sugars until smooth. Beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of milk, and beating well after each.

In another mixing bowl, with electric mixer on medium speed, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form. In two additions, gently fold the egg whites into the batter.

Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored up to 3 days at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

Using an offset spatula, spread frosting over each cupcake. Cupcakes can be refrigerated up to 3 days in airtight containers; bring to room temperature and top with caramel-dipped hazelnuts just before serving.

Yummy Caramel Dipped Hazelnuts

Ingredients

24 hazelnuts, toasted and skinned

3 cups sugar

3/4 cup water

Directions

Gently insert pointed end of a long wooden skewer into the side of each hazelnut. Place a cutting board along the edge of a countertop; place newspaper on the floor, directly under cutting board.

Prepare an ice-water bath. Heat sugar and the water in a heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar is dissolved and syrup is clear. Stop stirring; cook until syrup comes to a boil, washing down sides of pan with a wet pastry brush to prevent crystals from forming. Continue to boil, gently swirling occasionally, until medium amber. Plunge pan into ice bath to stop the cooking; let stand until thickened, about 10 minutes. (To test: Dip a skewer in caramel and lift a few inches; if a thick drip slowly forms and holds a string, the caramel is ready.)

Dip a skewered hazelnut into caramel, letting excess drip back into pan. When dripping syrup becomes a thin string, secure opposite end of skewer under cutting board. Repeat with remaining hazelnuts. (If caramel hardens before all hazelnuts have been dipped, rewarm it over low heat.) Let stand until caramel string has hardened, about 5 minutes; break each string to desired length. Carefully remove skewers. Candied hazelnuts should be used the same day; store, uncovered, at room temperature until ready to serve cupcakes.

**recipe created from Martha Stewart.

Fahida:Women Must not be Scandalous. Women Must Behave.

Last night, after dark, as I was getting into my sister Balquees’s car after a nice evening at the Mueleh City Center Mall getting a manicure and pedicure and a soft new abaya, I was greeted by a frazzled woman.  My 24-year-old Omani host sister was noticeably distressed.  Immediately as I plopped into the passenger-side leather seat, I did not need to ask her what was wrong, she had already begun her short story of the embarrassing incident.  

She explained that she was early to pick me up so she had been waiting for me outside of the mall in her car in the dark.  She was filing her nails in the parking lot when an Omani man kept pacing back and forth.  He appeared to be speaking on his mobile phone or he was pretending to me.  The more the seconds passed, the more she believed he was pretending to be on the phone. 

She huffed out a breathe of air and continued.  “I was calling Shihab (her especially protective brother) and I was so scared that I called him while the phone was in my lap and I turned the speakerphone on so he could hear me and I would not have to put the phone up to my ear”... “I did not want the scary man to see me calling my brother or anyone”.  I asked her why she was so worried and why she did not just drive away and she responded that it is not normal for a man, especially an Omani man to be hanging around a car that a woman is waiting in.  It is even more strange that the man would then approach her she explained.  

Balquees continued the story;“Shihab heard my story and was just asking exactly where I was and asking where Laurel was and to make sure Laurel is okay as well and he was really worried about us”. I asked why Shihab would be so alarmed to hear this?  Apparently he is especially protective as a brother but this is a pretty strange situation to be in in Oman as an Omani woman between an Omani man is what I understood from my sister Balquees.  I was kind of confused because I didn’t realize that my sister was so constrained from speaking to men outside of her social circle of family, her music teachers, and my friends who are American guys.  She speaks with them all freely if they are around and so the thought of her not feeling it was acceptable that a man would approach her to ask her a question about her car struck my curiosity.  

Overall, the man who may or may not have been trying to be creepy at all but came off very strange to Balquees ended up approaching her at her car window and asking if her car was for sale.  She responded with a “no”.  He then handed her his phone number and asked if she will sell the car, that she should call him or if she needs anything.  Balquees said that she told Shihab and he protectively demanded her to, “give me the phone number and I will go to the police and they will straighten the man out”.  

Balquees vaguely explained that it’s basically very wrong to approach an Omani women and hand her your phone number if you are a male Omani and it’s even more wrong for that woman to accept the phone number by taking the piece of paper it is written on.  Balquees was saying she did not want Shihab to have the number because she had accepted it (apparently because she was not thinking) and then felt it would make her look bad if she went to the police.  

I’m not entirely sure what exactly occurred in terms of why this was made into the big deal it seemed to be but I hope that in my research and further observation of women and the culture in general here, I can better understand this type of experience in the Sultanate in the future.  

In a culture that still has ultra-conservative gender segregation methods in most public areas which are especially noticeable in restaurants, that usually have a separate seating area for women and their families that are confined in four tall walls, I was not surprised to hear that it’s not okay for a woman to accept a phone number from an Omani man who is not their family.  But, I am trying to judge the level of strangeness of this occurrence in Oman and between native Omanis of the opposite sex.

The questions I wish I could have answered are: Why was my sister so distressed over this incident?  The man did not do anything to physically harm her and he left after handing her the number from what I understand.  Why was my host brother so upset and why did his protective instincts kick in so strongly when he heard this?  He sounded like he was worried about both myself and Balquees being harmed by this guy.  Is there a worry about human trafficking here of regular citizens and American students?  Would it be easy for us both to be kidnapped and sold into the sex or slave trade?  Is this why he was so worried?  Why did Balquees not just drive away when she sensed the man was up to no good?  Was she looking for a little excitement so she decided to make the experience more of a bigger deal than it was?  Or is there something I’m missing here.  

Laura by: Mohammed Abdo-كلمات لورا

Babi in my host family starting humming this song.  He said that the singer Mohammed Abdo is famous and in this song he sings about a woman named Laura who is the best and the most beautiful.  Some of my brothers and sisters hum the song sometimes around the house.  It's a pretty song.  I like it.  My sister made a joke that there are new lyrics to the song and it goes like this "Balquees that Balquees, fida Balquees La guana" ...Her name is Balquees.  Haha. 

It seems like people who speak Arabic in several countries like to call me "Laura" rather than "Laurel" probably because the concept of having a "Lam" at the end of the name after a "Ra" is difficult to grasp and say in the native language.

That my love if he saw her beauty Melted from the excessive refined Fattan Laura .. That Laura .. Fida Laura Guana Hidden from the eyes prudish The artist's affection Bmahjh Chad, you sing like her kindness Rightly in the abyss of Hanan Laura .. That Laura .. Fida Laura Guana And faded under Hanaya was Vibrant in my feelings and my I do not Tslani poetic desires for Refuses to reveal the secret of my tongue Laura .. That Laura .. Fida Laura Guana When the constraints of affection The years pass like seconds Then become constraints Anataca And based on aspirations to Aziz Laura .. That Laura .. Fida Laura Guana ذاك حبي إذا الجمال رآها ذاب من فرط حسنها الفتان لورا .. تلك لورا .. فداء لورا الغواني تتوارى عن العيون إحتشاماً وحناناً بمهجة الفنان أنت شاد ومثلها ينشد الرفق صواباً في لجة من حنان لورا .. تلك لورا .. فداء لورا الغواني وتوارت تحت الحنايا فكانت نابضاً في مشاعري وكياني لا تسلني يا شاعري عن هواها يرفض السر أن يبوح لساني لورا .. تلك لورا .. فداء لورا الغواني عندما تصبح القيود حناناً وتمر السنون مثل الثواني عندها تصبح القيود إنعتاقاً وإنطلاقاً الى عزيز الأماني لورا .. تلك لورا .. فداء لورا الغواني

Wadi Bani Khalid hiking and swimming in the Moqal Cave :

Our journey to the Moqal cave through the canyon (wadi in Arabic) began like what felt like we were in an epic start of a low-budget film.  The climax of the wadi visit turned out to be discovered as a complete surprise which made it even more of an exciting afternoon hike.  

Our informative tour guide and laid-back Zanzibar-an Omani driver, Yassar, a man of two legal wives--(another story in itself), drove us in his white Nissan truck down beneath a bridge to  a small lagoon entrance.  Old blue and white row boats awaited us.  Old men dressed in white clothe greeted us in their boats.  They rocked back and forth as we loaded up into them and tried to even out our weight gently to avoid flipping over into the mucky but clear water.    

We were not told there was a well known and famous speciological location deeper in the wadi freshwater pools we were told we had an hour to enjoy ourselves in.  A dutch kid came up to us to talk about the cool cave located up the wadi just a little ways.  He led us through a few pools and we slipped on the slimy rock beds.  We swam through the schools of tiny fish who enjoyed sucking just slightly on your legs and feet.  One could hear people making a lot of noise from a distance as we got closer and closer to the entrance to the cave.  The pools got noticeably deeper and we could no longer touch the bottom.  All we could see was a luminating blue and blurry silloettes of rocks in the the water below.  As i grabbed onto both sides of the rocks in the extremely narrow entrance to pull myself through to the large single chamber of the cave,  I felt consumed by the rocks. 

As we reached the surprisingly large open chamber, I immediately felt like I was in a real-life version of a Disneyland amusement park water ride.  I felt like I was in a better version of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.  There were places to jump off rocks everywhere you looked.  People were waiting in line to jump off one particularly popular rock where the majority of people seemed to focus their attention on the jumpers.  

The many years of water flow has created beautiful patterns and shapes in the rocks.  A guide was climbing all around the cave and jumping from creative locations within the chamber.  He looked brave as I was sketched out climbing up the slippery rocks to get to the main jumping location in the cave.  The more I neared the edge of the cliff to get ready to jump, the more I felt I might slip by accident before I could jump away from the rock to avoid a head injury on the way down.  I was pressured to jump already after spending a few minutes trying to convince my friend Kate, who was ahead of me in line to jump off the cliff into the clear blue water.  By the time I looked down to what I had been trying to convince her to jump into, I began to feel nervous.  Did I really want to try and jump off of here?  What if I slip and hit my head before I can push hard enough against the rock to jump properly?  What if I slip now?  What if?  We began being pressured to jump because were were running out of time to get back down the wadi for lunch and then driving the rest of the way back home.  So...I tried to convince my friend again before finally just doing it!  I jumped and it was great.  I landed in the water and wanted to climb up and do it again.  The first jump is always the scariest.  Then, after jumping, you gain your confidence and are ready to do it again and again and explore other places to climb and jump off of.  I wanted to stay in that cave for the rest of the day.  It was such a cool place.  Truly one of nature’s playgrounds. I hope to go back there again before I leave Oman or at least go to another hiking place or cave similar to this to explore.  

Oman is famous in the Speleological world.  There are many caves to study and explore here.  There is even one of the world’s largest underground caves that has been covered by National Geographic.  It is called the Majlis Al Jinn Cave also known as the Salma Plateau.  From the photographs, it looks pretty magnificent.  It is almost 60,000 square meters underground with a 4 million cubic meter capacity.  In order to enter the cave, one must trapeze down with a free hanging rope through the large dome shaped entrance.  It’s about 120 meters to get down through this ceiling opening to the cave and is very difficult to get out of if you are not in good physically shape because one must pull oneself back up through the ceiling opening when finished exploring.  This adventure is for an experienced caver.  

The history of how it was discovered is kind of cool.  It was by chance that while scientists were looking for carbonate rocks trying to find underground water reserves, the cave was spotted.  Don Davidson in 1983 was the first person to repel down inside of the cave.  There are three openings.  The shortest entrance is a 120 meter drop and the deepest entrance is almost 160 meters long.  It’s a 1,300 meter mountain journey to the cave entrance that is believed to be an impressive 50 million years old. 

There are plans within the Ministry of Tourism in Oman to create a way for tourists to visit the cave chamber to appreciate the natural geological wonder and wildlife that lives there.  Hopefully this will be available to experience in the near future.  I have a feeling Oman will become less and less of a secret vacation spot in the years to come.  


Another reason it is an exciting time to be in Oman. 

Ras Al-Jinz Turtle Reserve in Sur, Oman:

We tried to not move on Omani time but failed miserably at this attempt to be at the turtle reserves before 8:30 pm for our tour.  We still got a tour and were able to see some turtles but apparently there were not very many out compared to what usually are around each night.  We saw a mother turtle laying about 100 eggs before she dug up a decoy nest a meter next to her real nest which she covered up with sand.  The many baby turtles we saw coming from the sand and making their journey out to the wild ocean were so small and delicate looking.  I felt really nervous I was going to accidentally step on one of them.  There was no light allowed down there and we only went by the light of the moon.  Occasionally the guides would shine their special flashlights on a turtle to look at more closely.  I honestly felt really uncomfortable being down there.  There were at least 50 people down on the beach.  The baby turtles were hatching out of their eggs underneath the sand and just digging their ways out from several different locations.  I felt like I was going to step on them or someone else might accidentally do so.  I felt like I was intruding on their space.  

This uncomfortable feeling I felt until we left the beach about an hour and a half later raised some questions in my mind.  There seems to be a very fine line between encouraging people to care more about the environment and endangered species and protecting them.  The green turtles who nest at this beach location that is a natural reserve now are an endangered species.  The many footprints that left a thick layer over the designated nesting beach left me wondering if this really was okay that this was happening.  Could we be doing more to protect the environment and our precious endangered species? 

Later, I learned that this was not the only beach that is protected for these turtles.  This particular beach is for people to go and watch them and there are other beaches that apparently are completely untouched and left only for the green turtles.  That made me feel much better.  

About 100 turtles come to Ras Al Jinz each night (the only beach visitors can visit to observe).  The peak of the nesting season is from July to September.  From September to November, the most number of baby turtles hatch each night and set the start of their life journeys into the vast ocean waters.  Earlier this year, nearly 400 Green turtles were marked by rangers at Ras Al Hadd Reserve in order to track the number of turtles that nest each season in the area.  So far, over 7,000 have come to nest since July 2011.  Basically, this means there is a very large turtle population in this country of coastlines and warm waters.  The fact that there is a high population of this endangered species must mean that the Sultanate of Oman is doing many things correctly to properly conserve the animals.  

It was really cute to watch the baby turtles paddle their way across the sand to the sea.  They’re existence is so tiny and it’s just amazing that these small things just somehow wake up from their eggs and have an instinctive calling to get across the sand to the sea nearby.  It’s amazing.  It was also exciting to watch a female turtle who had just spent a few hours laying and burying her hundred eggs in the sand work hard to get back to the ocean by pushing her paddles into the sand to move just a couple inches at a time.  She would stop after several pushes to rest.  She must of been so tired after laying eggs and then burying her eggs and then moving to the sea.  Sounds like a lot of work.   

It was cool to learn that Ras al Jinz is a world-famous excavation site with artifacts found from as long ago as 4,000 BC.  You can even go and stay at the hotel accommodations they have there that include the evening tour we went on and the 4 am tour to watch the turtles as well.  

Overall, the experience was something I wish I could have done from the beach because I was generally uncomfortable with being so in the middle of the nesting area and worried I might step on a baby turtle or in the nests where I might crush a few eggs.  It was a beautiful and memorable thing to see though.  

I don't have any photographs from the reserve because I left my camera at home.  No artificial light was allowed by visitors.  Only the guides brought tiny flashlights so they could point some things out to us when they occurred. 

Al Mughsayl

About an hour west of Salalah where the gulf waters crash against the colorful limestone cliffs and the natural blowholes shoot out impressive sprays of the salty seawater there is a scenic cave.  The limestone cave is called Marneef Cave.  I really liked the walk up to the rocks because it made the destination that much more grandiose.  The ocean is gorgeous to the left of you as one ascends up the long stone pathway of stairs to the flat and cemented rock path at the top.  There is a sign that reads “Take nothing but memories, leaving nothing but footprints, Enjoy your visit”.  I thought it was a nice touch to greet visitors. 

The waves crashing against the cliffs are relaxing to watch and listen to.  

The blowholes were cool to see although only one of them shot water out of it.  They are formed naturally when there is a hole in a surface on land because of different pressures in an underground speliological system.  The air pushes through the surface opening along with water and creates a shootout of water and air.  You can see the blowhole squirting water powerfully in the photo below.

Taqah Castle

Salalah is the capital of the exceptionally beautiful Southern Omani region called Dhofar.  Taqah is a coastal town about 20 miles east of Salalah.  Sultan Qaboos was actually born there and it is also the location of where his mother is buried.  

There are many Wilayat’s in Oman.  The term means “province or directly translates as “that which is governed”.  Salalah, Taqah, Muscat, Seeb, Muttrah, are just a few of the Wilayats I’ve visited and will write about.  

We stopped at a castle in the heart of Taqah town.  The castle is well-kept and a fun historical place to explore.  The number of decorated rooms filled with artifacts and furniture from the time period offer an attractive glimpse into the heritage of the province.     

As I approached the entrance, a glimpse of the rich maritime culture of the Indian Ocean was revealed in the ornately-carved wooden shutters.  Zanzibar is famous for these types of double-door entrances to residences.  A man who looked like he was Indian seemed like he was going to greet us.  I think he just wanted to ogle us as it seems that Americans are an unusual sight to see in Oman.  I took a photograph of him.    It seems that a lot of people here are curious to look at us and what we are doing.  They want to know who we are and why we are a world away from our own culture or something similar to it.  As we stepped over the one-foot high frame on the floor (a part of the Zanzibar doorway) into the first room of the castle we experienced the greeting room.  The greeting room is a.k.a   This room was lined on both sides with benches adorned with colorfully-decorated large pillows.  

Beyond the greeting room is a courtyard that offers a few different paths to follow.  The first thing that caught my eye was the well.  I thought it looked like a place where people would be hung by their necks in the old days similar to other historical castles I have visited.  However, the area was actually just an old water well for the household.  I peek into the hallway on the left.  There are several rooms.  Each with different uses from the past.  It was fun to explore the weaponry room, a store, an old food storage room, and a storage room for wood to make fires.  The ministry of Tourism in Oman did a good job with filling the castle with artifacts that represented the lifestyles of the people in this castle.  It was very cool to see all the props in the different rooms as they may have been placed in the past.  

I climb the steps leading to the adobe-style rooms on the second floor.  Taqah in Arabic is the word to describe an aperture or a window into an outside world.  Rounded arch shapes are often referred to as a taqah.  In the second-floor rooms there were some beautiful arched-windows.  I wonder why this is not a very popular aesthetic in the States because it is so pleasing to my eyes.  I really love all of the Arabian architecture here.       

The adobe-hued castle was built in the 19th-century as a private residence and later became the home of the governor (Wali). 

My favorite part of the castle was climbing to the roof where the view of the town was nice.