Spring Break

Yes, it has been a long time without an update. Things here have been quite busy. Ellen stopped working in mid-March because she felt like she was going to have the baby very soon. She was tired and her work was more hectic than it had been all year. She was also having enough contractions to think that the baby may come any day. Ellen’s doctor told her she should slow down and it seems that her body is appreciating the rest. Now, her pregnancy seems more “normal” and we have been happy to not have the baby too early. With Ellen’s need to be home and get ready to deliver the second bambino, I was trying to catch up from my surgery, complete my grades and comments for the end of the quarter, and plan for a sub when Ellen went into labor. Well, now it is spring break. The grades are in, the planning is done, and we are eagerly awaiting Taj’s sibling.

Although we did not go on a great big adventure for spring break, we have kept ourselves busy. Most days consist of a family adventure to the beach, Taj’s nap, and then a family outing to the pool, beach, friends’ house, etc. Hey it does sound like a real spring break! To make things easier, the March weather continues to be more pleasant than we expected. It has rained on a few different occasions and the sky was cloudy for a week straight. On the beach today, it was 31 Celsius (about 88 Fahrenheit). Although that is hot when you consider there are no trees to give you shade, it is still not humid and the ocean breeze makes it pleasant. However, I have been noticing a shift in the wind. I think this is due to the ocean water warming up. Once the cool water becomes bathtub–like, there will be nothing to absorb the heat and then we will really be counting the days until summer break. According to climatology reports, the average high temperature in May is 103 Fahrenheit and for June it is 106! The average lows during that time will be about today’s high. Yikes!

Anyway, all the rainy and relatively cool weather has been welcomed by every living thing. Whenever you see someone and talk about the rain, they always throw in a “hamdalya” – praise god. The plants have especially appreciated the increased precipitation. We have been really lucky to see the wadis turn a green-brown instead of the normal just brown. Most of the plants have been flowering. Since the climate is rugged and there are not a lot of resources for the plants, the flowers are small and some almost unnoticeable. However, it is still very pleasant to take walks and see so much life. There are times in Oman when this rain and extended growing season does not happen for years. I know in the late 1990’s, it did not rain in Muscat for over 2 years!

Besides being able to spend a lot of time at the beach and watch the plants grow, this spring break has been a wonderful time for reflection. Ellen and I have talked a lot about our life abroad and about what our life would be like in the states. I think that, if it wasn’t for our supportive and amazing families, we may chose to be overseas a long time. While we continue to put a lot of effort into work, life here is much less stressful than it was in the USA. If we were back in Stillwater, we would either both be working full time, or changing how we spend our weekends and vacation. Furthermore, since I do not have a 45 minute commute anymore, I get to spend about 255 more hours a year with Ellen and Taj (that is 10 days-a vacation!). I have always imagined my work being the fourth priority in my life. The first three would be Ellen, children, and creating adventures. I think that this is a healthy and balanced perspective. Even though these viewpoints are considered normal in many parts of the world, it seems that many Americans might disagree. Living overseas has allowed us to realize, how so much of our lives in the US were dictated by both work and consumerism.

Still, as an American with my own cultural bias, I sometimes find it hard to understand the slower pace of life here in Oman. On the weekend (Thurdays and Fridays), most Omanis visit with their families and attend Mosque (the holy day here is Friday). Even on weekdays, the people here are always visiting and talking. Two days ago, I watched two men park their car under an Acacia tree, pop the trunk, and sit inside the cramped quarters. To them, this was an ideal setting to discuss whatever they were conversing about. Being able to simply sit and talk is a skill I sorely lack. There are only a handful of people I would actually be comfortable to spend long periods of time chatting with. It seems that the people of this country can do this with almost anyone they meet on the street. Maybe this is because cars, mobile phones, schools, airports, and tarmac roads are still relatively new to this country. Ellen and I were talking to a man named Saif about what life was like when he was growing up in an interior town called Izki. He explained that his town (which is a pretty major town by Oman standards) did not receive a road until the mid 1980’s. His father used to work in Muscat and before the road was built, it took him two weeks to travel by camel (the only option) and visit his wife and children. The drive today takes one and a half hours. The people here have gone through so much change in such a short period of time. The change has been peaceful and positive for the most part (increase schooling opportunities for everyone, much better health care, electricity, clean water, etc.). However, it is still a country of contrasts: men sipping afternoon coffee in the shadows of a giant super market, camels being transported in the back of Toyota pick-up trucks, and fishermen trying their luck with hand thrown lines off the bows of fiberglass power boats. It seems that in 10 years this country will be as different as it was 10 years ago.

So what does our future look like in ten years? Being here makes us realize that life does not have to include a mortgage, car loans, saving for college, and stressing about retirement savings. Of course, as a trade off, we get to worry about all the things we do not know about in our host country. Furthermore, we miss our friends and families immensely. While we are so lucky to have so many people to care about, it makes it hard to be so far away from a place that really feels like home. However, no matter where we live, we know that Taj and the second baby will always have wonderful and caring role models to visit and learn from.

Like the first sunny day of spring, a cloudy day in Oman is invigorating!
This past weekend we were incredibly lucky. Just when it seemed that the weather was already starting to warm up, we woke to a cloudy day. The skies got progressively darker and soon we could hear thunder and see lightning. Within minutes, huge rain drops were falling. It was a beautiful and exciting thing!! The skies got even darker, the wind picked up and the rain was falling horizontally. The wind was strong enough to blow down fences and tear down our outdoor shade tent. I thought this would be a short-lived experience so I huddled by the window watching the puddles grow, rain streak the window pain and waiting to see what objects might blow by our house. Taj sat in my lap and gripped my shirt. He was definitely a bit scared. With each rumble of thunder, he would point at the sky and say “truck”, as though he couldn’t understand why such loud noises were coming from the sky!! Although, the rain slacked in it’s intensity, it continued to rain off and on for two days.



To the left is our walk to school on a "normal" day. To the right is the flooded wadi. At its height it probably was a meter deep. Three hours later it was dry again.


Since moving to Oman, 7 months ago, I think we’ve had a total of 10 cloudy days. This includes 1 day over winter break when we had rain.
This recent rain storm was enough to flood the wadi behind our house, flood the freeways in several areas, cause trees to fall over, cause all of the houses to leak and many automobile accidents. It reminded me of the summer thunder storms and tropical depressions I experienced while living on the gulf coast of Texas. Nature has a way of sneaking up on you and surprising you with its many degrees of power.
After the storm, we have had beautiful clear, cool days and nights. The crisp air allows spectacular views of the mountains, to the south, and the ocean, to the north.


The cool air has continued! No air conditioning needed and many pleasant evenings outside. Today we went to a fort that was about an hour drive away. For the past two weekends, I have been pretty boring because of my surgery. It felt great to get out and explore Oman some more. The fort we visited was called Nakal Fort (for the town it is in. The structure we visited was restored in 1990, but it has been has protected an important water source since pre-Islamic times (1,700 years ago). Don’t know if I have mentioned this before, but the government here takes fort restoration very seriously. They have restored hundreds and are not done. It is great, but I wish they would give a little more attention to the bronze age sites and old villages. Anyway, each fort is pretty similar. However, this one was particularly interesting because they have put a lot of “artifacts” in the room you visit. It is still hard to know what much of it is as there is no interpretive displays. The china I saw today could be an antique or bought down at Lu Lu’s. It was a nice visit. Taj enjoyed climbing up the stone stairs and looking at all the different guns in the rifle room.

After the fort, we visited a small hot springs. The water was quite high due to the recent rains and many local kids were splashing about. The three of us had a picnic next to a bunch of young Omani men who would play drums (on empty water containers) anytime some similarly aged Omani woman walked by. Some things are true anywhere in the world.