Oman

Summary: My time in Oman has been busy but delightful.  My hosts at the language teaching institute, previously just email contacts, are now colleagues of the heart.  My six seminars on three days (for institute, university, and secondary school teachers) were well-received, but I have a greater sense of actual needs now.  I loved staying in and touring the town of Nizwa, a historical capital built around a date palm oasis.  It was very meaningful to be here over Easter.

More details:

I have really enjoyed my time in Oman.  My host here in the city of Nizwa is the Scientific Institute for Training and Administrative Development (SITAD), an institute I have been in email contact with for years.  The current director is Nigerian, from a diplomatic family, with a PhD in economics, fluency in many languages including Arabic, and many visionary ideas for “excellence in service.”  I’ve enjoyed getting to know him and his wife and family and seeing how they fit in culturally here while also leading short-term volunteer teachers from around the world—currently Tanya from NewZealand, who is also helping host me.

SITAD is hoping to expand its services to nearby towns, so they used my time here as a way to offer seminars to teachers from all kinds of schools.  I went to the College of Applied Sciences and spoke to about 20 both local and expat English teachers on critical thinking.  I went to a wonderful secondary school in the nearby town of Bahla and spoke to about 60 teachers on teaching reading, and on using student created practice activities.  I spoke to about 15 local teachers who came to SITAD for two sessions.

My time at SITAD also involved observing teachers and even being a substitute teacher for a teacher out on emergency.  It’s good for me to have fresh experience in answering student questions that come out of the blue, trying to hear the soft voice of the one woman in the class who sits in the back, and dealing with students at different levels in the same group.

I’ve also enjoyed touring Nizwa and surroundings.  It’s a pleasant town in the middle of a date oasis surrounded by jagged gray mountains.  There’s a fort (you can see the holes where defenders poured boiling date juice down on attackers) and a souq (market)—and lots of modern, but low-key buildings too.  Nizwa is hot and dry, but all buildings seem well air-conditioned. 

Tanya also took me to see Al-Hamra, a village that contains old two-story mud brick houses (as well as plenty of new villa-style homes.  Oman has a good economy and an enlightened sultan who spends the nation’s wealth on the people, so you can see a lot of palatial houses.  Since women don’t go out much, it’s a priority to have a house with a lot of space.)  In Al-Hamra, an enterprising family has turned an old-style house into a “living museum.”  Grandmothers in colorful garb demonstrate coffee-grinding, bread baking, weaving and so on.  We also drove up into the mountains to see another village.  This one is tucked into a little canyon, invisible from the plain, but lush with date palms planted on small terraces, and irrigated by an ingenious system of little channels.  Here the houses are made of rocks.  My apartment—which SITAD keeps for visiting teachers—is in an old section of Nizwa, with windy roads, high walled houses, and lots of date palms.  Very pleasant! 

It’s interesting to see how Omanis are maintaining cultural traditions, negotiating regional influences, and engaging in the modern world.  One example is dress.  Most Omani men wear a white dishdash, a long robe, along with an embroidered cap (and some of high status wear a turban wrapped in a patterned scarf).  Most Omani women out in public wear a black abaya (long robe with head covering)—a custom that came from Saudi Arabia five or ten years ago. Now they are embellishing the abaya with embroidered cuffs, ruffles on the front, or sequins along the head scarf.

People have been friendly and warm, asking me when I’ll be back. I was here on Easter (busy day with seminars and a class observation, and with lunch and fellowship at my hosts’ home in between), reflecting on all our need for resurrection power.

On Wednesday I leave Nizwa very early.  We drive to Muscat where my hosts catch a morning flight to return to Nigeria for a family reunion and where I meet a friend of theirs who will show me around the capital before my afternoon flight.  I’m flying to Dubai, and then on to Dushanbe.  Lee is heading for the same destination, from LA via Istanbul (from Lee: I'm departing LA Tues. late afternoon, flying overnight to Istanbul, then again overnight to Dushanbe. We plan rendez-vous about 4am Thurs. in Dushanbe--about Wed. dinner time east coast, mid-afternoon Wed. in Pasadena)  Yea!