Much has passed since our time in Jerusalem. Although Israel and Oman are
definately more similar culturally than the United States and Oman,
differences are still clear. In Israel, although I knew I was in a
different country, I did not feel out of place. In Oman, I, and every
other Westerner, sticks out like a sore thumb. I learned the true meaning
of discomfort a few days ago when we entered a market in a small Omani
village on our way to the desert, dressed in short, T-shirt, sneakers, or
in my case, Mercersburg plaid pants. In a country where men wear white and
women wear black, the pink, white and baby blue patchwork must have been
quite the sight. I could feel head turn towards me, every eye on me, and
never have I wanted more to be invisible (or hide behind a burka). Despite
this, I cannot say that I have found the Omanis to be unfriendly. On the
contrary, I have felt tolerated, if not always welcome, and definately
safe.
After the experience in the market, I was happy to hop back on to our air
conditioned bus and continue our ride to Wahiba Sands. The two days we
spent in the desert were definately a lot of fun. Our bus dropped us off at
a rest stop about away, and we were then driven to the camp in SUVs. We
spent the most of the day generally relaxing until we were brought up to
one of the higher dunes to watch the sunset. When we returned, we sat
around a camp fire singing. Our guide, Ali, shared some traditional
Bedouin songs with us, and we tried to sing along without much success. We
had been warned about how cold nights could get in the desert, but I was
still surprised by the rapid change in temperature. Although the sun is
unforgiving during the day, the evenings are comparatively very cool. The
following morning, we went camel riding; it was fun - actually not much
different from riding a horse. Unfortunately, we had to leave shortly
afterwards. We spent the rest of the evening with our host families in
Muscat.
This morning we visited the Grand Mosque in Muscat, and then we did some
more shopping at the souk. The actual Symposium started this afternoon. So
far so good. I am curious to see how it will all unfold.
We arrived in Oman shortly after midnight because of issues with the plane. The flight was an interesting one; the plane kept making strange noises. I was also told that during my visit to the bathroom, someone's watch began to beep, alarming some. I feel a little bad for keeping our host families up because of our delay. So far, they seem like very nice people. Six hours later, we got up and went to the American British Academy. After meeting with six other fellow Americans from the Winston Thurston School, we headed out to the marketplace. Afterwords, we spent a very relaxing afternoon on a beautiful beach. I thought it was very nice to spend an entire day that was not devoted to political discussion, not that I disliked our meeting in Israel at all.
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