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.