The last day of Discover Oman, the younger elementary students celebrate by dressing in traditional Omani clothes and going out to the tents that are set up on the playground to take part in other Omani traditions.
Everyone in Caleb’s class looked great. The little guy in the blue dishdasha is Omani and you could tell that his clothes were authentic and not costume quality because the fabric was so nice. The second graders were patient all morning and finally got the OK to head to the tents!
First the children all got to try dates and another type of dessert. A sweet round thing that looked like a ball of dough that had been fried. It must have been good since all the kids went back for seconds.
Next, they all smelled the Arabic coffee that is flavored with cardamom.
Then she poured them each a cup of “special coffee”(grape juice)
Face painting time — the Omani flag
Henna application. The boys got khanjars (traditional Omani curved knife — Oman’s symbol) and the girls were given traditional flower and vine designs.
The henna is squeezed out through a small hole in a plastic bag, like piping frosting on a cake. The designs are all drawn free-hand. You leave the henna alone until it dries and flakes off. The henna stains your skin and the rust colored design lasts for about two weeks.
The shirt I’m wearing is made out of a massar, which is the scarf that the men wear wrapped around their heads.
Back in the day when camels were the main form of transportation, the men would put perfume on their tassels to keep the camel stink away. The boys all got perfume to put on their tassels.
She was so fast and so detailed with her designs
When they decorate brides before the wedding, they apply the henna all the way up to the knee
ETA: I almost forgot about the music! They had traditional singers and drummers and some of the kids had fun dancing. (not mine though)
Another great day at school. Time to head home for a nap!
A few days ago the boys and I went to Calvin’s soccer game after school. Why wasn’t Josh there? Because he’s traveling in Morocco — rough job, huh? So far he’s loving it there and he described it as “gritty,” like Egypt — both literally and figuratively. I, on the other hand, am becoming quite content with the clean, quiet, and subdued life we get to live in Muscat. I’m not missing gritty at the moment.
Instead of dodging snakes in the marketplace (he sent me a text that the souk in Marrakesh was wild and full of mopeds and snakes), I got to relax on the bleachers at my children’s private school while we waited for the game to start. With a cappuccino. Beat that Morocco.
Carter was happy because I brought them Sohar chips as a treat. Sohar chips are to potato chips what Funyons are to onion rings. Completely fake, but yummy tasting. (I assume Funyons are still yummy — I haven’t eaten them since 7th grade when I ate them every day along with a Skor bar and a Pepsi for lunch. Brain food.) Anyway, Sohar chips taste like they’re made with powdered mashed potatoes. Out of curiosity, I just looked up the website as I was writing this and they’re described as: Potato Based Pellet with Chilli & Chicken Flavour
Yummy. Anyway, they’re made in Oman so I guess they’re “green,” even if they’re not healthy, right?
Calvin’s game was good — they were evenly matched in the first half, but ended up losing 3-1.
Once the chips ran out she got tired of watching soccer and not being able to run on the field so Carter and Caleb took her over to the playground. She loves slides.
This slide is tall and steep for a toddler, but she didn’t hesitate for a second.
On Saturday I got to go along on a Discover Oman field trip with the 4th grade classes to visit the mangrove habitat/sanctuary near our house.
The mangrove project starts when they collect the seeds and plant them in their nursery in July/August. It takes 6 months for the mangrove tree to grow into a seedling big enough to be transplanted. This grove of trees is protected by fencing or the camels and goats will come and eat them. The project has been ongoing for the past 10 years — the first transplants recently reached maturity.
It turns out that mangroves are great for the ecosystem. In addition to cleaning the air, they maintain the soil along the coastline by preventing erosion, and most importantly, act as a nursery for small fish and other marine life. I’m sure I could have learned more about mangroves, but I got sidetracked by the mermaid calling to me in the background and wondering if I could sneak off and grab a cappuccino without anyone noticing.
The mangrove roots growing back up out of the ground. I have no idea why they do this. Correction: I had no idea why they did this until I looked it up on google just now. It turns out that these special roots breathe air. Ocean mud doesn’t contain much oxygen, so they stick their little roots in the air and breathe away. More nifty mangrove info can be found here.
Some of the mature trees that were planted when the project first started. The kids had binoculars and were spotting birds and huge crabs.
This is the nursery where the baby trees are grown. It’s watered by the tides twice a day, just like the adult trees.
That’s why you can find baby sea snails hanging out on the mangrove leaves inside the nursery.
Each of the kids got to take and plant their own tree.
Planting is done at low tide — in a few hours these trees will be covered by water.
Carter found a tiny crab while he was digging a hole for his tree.
Once the tree planting was finished we all went across the street to the beach to eat lunch. Carter found a huge (live) starfish in the water. He has the sharpest eyes. When he was a toddler he was always spotting tiny specks of airplanes way up in the sky — he’d shout out “pain! pain” and we’d have to hunt and squint until finally we could see the minuscule spot of a plane cruising at 30 thousand feet. It comes in handy daily when I have to ask for his help finding my keys, finding his brother’s shoes, finding my shoes . . .
As if the field trip weren’t cool enough already, it turned out that the Tour de Oman (yes, like the French one) was scheduled to ride right past where we were picnicking. The police closed down the road and we all gathered on the sidewalk to cheer on the riders.
We got a great view of everyone because the race started right down the road in front of the Opera House so they were all still riding in formation behind the lead cars when they passed our spot. Josh said they ride together for the first K of the race so they don’t all pile up in a crash right at the start.
Then it was time to go back to the beach where Carter and his friends built a dam to wall in one of the huge tidepools. This was a way better field trip than the ones we used to take from Laurel to Chabot Science Center . . .
The Muscat Festival is a month long celebration of Omani heritage that is held every year. There are special events like Fashion week or the Taste of Oman food festival, but even the normal nights are fun. It’s like a big county fair with exhibits, shows, and food.
Admission? 800 baisa total. It only cost 25 cents for the younger two boys and 50 cents for the three “adults.” Crazy cheap.
This is overlooking the park where the festival is held. The big dark space behind the stage is a man made lake/water feature with fountains and the ring of lights around it are the food booths. The festival covers a huge area.
One thing I love about living in the middle east are the warm evenings, even in winter. It’s one of the things I’m most excited about staying the same when we’re in Bahrain.
gun tossing Omani boys — I’m assuming they’re fake guns. I hope they’re fake guns . . .
They have displays set up to demonstrate the bedouin way of life in Oman. This guy is demonstrating using livestock to “pump” water out of a well. He drives the animal down the hill, the animal pulls on the ropes and a system of pulleys brings a bucket of water out of the ground. I’m not so sure that people aren’t still doing this in parts of the country.
Who knew watching a bucket travel up and down a rope could be so fascinating?
Camile loves camels. They’re her favorite animal. She talks about them every chance she gets.
It looks like the men took over the Women’s Folklore Group
This guy is making halwa. Halwa is a traditional Omani dessert that is made of eggs, sugar, flour, and fat. This mixture is boiled over a fire for 3 hours while the guy with the big stick stirs it constantly. It is seasoned with cardamom (it tastes similar to cloves if you’ve never had it) and the result is a gelatinous, sticky, smoky and spicy tasting sweet. Omanis eat it for all occasions and non Omanis either love it or hate it.
I’ve had some that was ok. The texture is gummy and strange to me and the smokey/sweet combination tastes like someone added beef jerky to your dessert (when it’s good). Or as my dad described it, “It’s like a chain smoker mixed this for 3 hours with his hands” (when it’s bad).
They serve it in huge bowls with slivered almonds sprinkled over the top.
Can you imagine doing that for three hours?
This version was one of the better ones I’ve tried, although it had a bit much rosewater in it which made it taste like a sweet beef jerky garden.
The boys and Camille were happy to devour it after I had my taste. It’s eaten by spoon or more traditionally, scooped out of a communal container using your fingers.
Women in traditional Omani dress (what they used to wear before the abaya became the fashion here) walking and singing. They sound fine, the guy on the megaphone was a little hard on my ears.
There were trinkets and handicrafts for sale. This inspirational banner reads: “I am busy. U R ugly. Go way.”
Time for more food. The large metal circle in the center is a hot iron — she takes a handful of dough and rolls a paper thin layer around on it (thinner than a crepe).
Then she cracks an egg and, using her spatula, breaks the yolk and spreads the egg all over the top of the bread.
A few flips of the wrist as she folds it into quarters and adds a drizzle of honey.
I have a general rule of not eating street vendor food. I also don’t eat samples from Costco or any other food freebies except for the ones from “my” Trader Joe’s where I know all the people working in the sample kitchen. I know my heebie jeebies are irrational/unreasonable so I let the kids eat to their hearts’ content and they never get sick. So I wasn’t going to try this weird bread/egg/honey concoction, but as Josh was offering me a bite I saw an Omani man eyeing me and I didn’t want to look like I was rejecting his food so I took a bite — and it was really good. So good that I had a few more bites even after he wasn’t watching me any longer.
Yes, they were fighting over it. We had to go buy a second one.
Cotton candy? Of course.
A sweet Omani woman stopped us so she could give Camille a balloon.
Waiting for “Happy Corn.” Yes, that’s actually what it’s called. They take regular frozen corn, put it in a pot with butter and spices and it’s really good. Or so they tell me. Remember? Street food cleanliness issue.
I know it looks like we ate our way through the Festival, but we also saw a parade, a fountain/lights show, a trapeze act, and several musical performers. Too bad we don’t have time to come back during fashion week. I want to see if it’s abaya fashion or the clothes that are worn under the abaya on display. “Make it work designers!”
I decided I better look at a map to see where we are actually moving. All I knew was Bahrain was somewhere around here. You would think I would have a better handle on my Middle Eastern geography, but no. Not so much.
This is me poring over a map: looking . . . looking . . . Hey! Bahrain is super close to Muscat! Hmm, and a lot smaller.
My dad made a joke a few weeks ago that wherever we moved, at least we’d be living closer to home. Technically we will be closer since we’re moving north, but not by much. Sorry Dad.
On the homecoming front, because we are moving from one overseas location to another, the government will pay for us to fly home this summer. It’s a good thing because we have a minivan to unload, a cat to pick up, and an entire houseful of furniture and things that are in storage. Supposedly these should be items that I can’t live without, except I’ve been living without them fine for over a year, so they must not be that essential. We can’t ship it all because we have a limited weight allowance and the idea of pawing through boxes of our junk to find the few things we’d actually want to have in the next few years isn’t exactly appealing. Not sure what we’re going to do about that. Maybe rent a furnished place and deal with whatever has survived storage a few years from now?
