Discover Oman

During the first week of February, TAISM secondary school closes its classrooms and the students and teachers learn about Oman by traveling around the country.

I was lucky enough to chaperone the 7th grade students. I believe that many adults fear being with students this age because their own memories of Middle School are forgettable. Well, what better reason to help make these kids experiences better. Anyway, the 7th grade at our school is great and they made this week very enjoyable.

On the first day we stayed around Muscat. We took a bus to a small village called Ghala. This village is still very traditional even though it is located about 10 minutes from the ministry area of Muscat. Ghala has a colorful history. It is located at the foot of the jebels and has hot springs that served as an important resource for caravans traveling to the interior. Today the springs still feed a communal bathing area (men and women are separated of course) and irrigate date palms and small gardens.

After exploring the shady village paths, we hiked along an old road that ended up at another village called Bausher. The road is falling apart, but was once very busy with camel and horse caravans that brought trade goods from Muscat to places like Nizwa. At one point we stopped for a group photo and a few kids found pottery fragments. These were interesting finds, but probably not too old as this road was used not too long ago. Remember, Oman had no paved roads until the mid 70’s. I am not sure when the current road was made to Nizwa, but probably not until a decade or so ago.

After arriving in Bausher we had a picnic and then explored a wadi. The first time I came to this spot was with my dad last September. We came across an Omani family that was enjoying the weekend and although the man did not really speak English, we were invited to spend some time visiting by drinking Kawa (coffee) and eating dates. Luckily, there were no picnicking families to be distrurbed by the kids racing up the wadi. The hike was fantastic. Exploring the canyons and caves reminded me of our visit to Utah. After an hour, we had to turn around but I don’t think we were close to the end.

The next day, we split the grade in half. The group of kids that I was chaperoning (along with another teacher) was called the turtles. We took a bus to Ras al Junaiz which is renowned for its sea turtle nesting. However, our first stop at the beach was to visit an archeological dig. The archeologist who met us was a young Italian. In fact I had met him previously in the year at a friend’s house. At that time he was returning to Italy. He had been part of a government sponsored project to build a replica of a 3500 year old boat that tried to sail to India. However, after just a few days, the boat sank and the crew (including Allejandro) rescued. At Ras al Junaiz, he was investigating some bitamin that had recently been found. Bitamin was used as a water proofing agent in ancient times. Anyway, the site was quite fascinating. Here (on the eastern most tip of the Arabian penninsiula), they were discovering there was once an ancient sea faring village that had once traded with the Indus Valley and even Mesopotamia. As proof, the archeologists had uncovered, pottery from those places. After visiting for 30 minutes, the students went for a swim in the ocean, but one boy stayed talking with an archeologist about how to get into the profession. Ahh…experiential education at its best.

That evening and the next morning we came to the beach to look for nesting turtles. We saw two medium sized (1 meter long) Green Turtles. We watched the one in the morning finish covering her nest and then go back to the sea. She laid close to 120 eggs, but only about 1 in a 1000 will survive. She laid them close to the water which means they will most likely turn out to be males (sex is determined by the temperature of the incubating sand). During the nesting season (June, July, and August), you can see 400 or so turtles a night. This is a very important place for these endangered animals.

The next day we visited a very interesting mosque. The building is still used and reminds people that Oman was once ruled by the Persians. Our guide informed us that it is the only mosque in Arabia to be of “Persian Style”. It is decorated with over 20 domes and dates back 1300 years.. If you wanted to see another like it you would have to travel to Iran.

After the mosque the kids refreshed themselves by swimming in a beautiful swimming hole called Wai Bani Khaled. They spent most of their time jumping off rocks into the aqua blue colored water.

In the evening we went “dune-bashing” in the Wahiba Sands. Dune bashing is basically off road driving on dunes. Some of the 4x4s are extremely powerful (4 L engines). However, since the Bedouin (local people of the desert) have adapted the Land Cruiser as their main mode of travel, they are very adept at sand driving. I guess it is not uncommon for these people to drive across the desert on their own (I would always go with someone else as a means of getting out of the soft sand). After dinner, the kids and chaperones all danced to the beat of some local Omani musicians. The instruments used were drums, hands, and an ude (guitar like instrument). What amazed me most was the songs and rhythm. They were all very African. Upon more careful listening, they were sung in Swahili. In fact, the men even danced a lot like the east Africans I met in Kenya and Tanzania. It was an interesting example of Zanzibar’s (the southern capital of Oman) influence on Oman.

The final day in the desert we visited some local Bedouin people. It is amazing to think that there was no tourism here just a decade or so ago. Even 10 years ago, these people still used camels for their transport. Now, everyone has a Land Cruiser and the camels have relatively easy lives. The big business now is camel racing. The animals can do a km across the desert in 1.5 minutes. Hmmm I wonder if all this “advancement” is good for everyone.




Discover Oman ended last week and this week has been extremely busy. I had surgery yesterday and am pretty immobile today. I had a few veins removed that were causing circulation problems. The surgery was pretty superficial, but I still had a general anesthesia and I will be unable to play football for 4 weeks. Having the anesthesia is scary. Our life is flying by now and so much is happening. By the time I feel better, Ellen will be giving birth. What a roller coaster!