The second week in Oman was just as good as the first one. Because I am writing this rather late, I will just try to give an overview of some of the highlights.
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| Driving around Muscat |
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| Driving around Muscat |
One morning our FGIL groups (Omani girls that help us with colloquial speaking and answer any Arabic questions that we have) were canceled and we were taken to two museums, Bayt Al-Veranda and Bayt Al- Zubair. Both of the museums were about Omani history and it was interesting to learn more about the country in previous years, especially because most of the development and infrastructure in the country is only around thirty five years old. While we were at the museums we were given a list of vocab to find, somewhat like a vocabulary scavenger hunt.
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Artifacts at the museum
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| Painted goats outside of a museum |
That evening, we went to a very large Interfaith Iftar. As usual, the food was quite good. We talked to some local women about Islan and listened to a presentation about the importance of love in faith. Before all the NSLI-Y girls went home, we decided to head to a McDonalds so we could get some American food. The whole night was a really nice bonding experience for all of us and our Resident Directors.
Thursday was the holiday Karankashew (a very rough transliteration). Karankashew can best be described as Halloween in Islam. Karankashew marks the middle of the holy month of Ramadan and swerves as a way to entertain the children. During the night, all the little children put on their best clothes and run around to other houses and sing and ask for candy.
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| Karankashew candy |
On the weekend, the NSLI-Y girls and our Resident Coordinator went to the home of our Program Director about an hour outside of Muscat. The point of the weekend was to be able to relax a little bit and be more 'American'. The first day was spent swimming in the Program Director's pool, watching Finding Nemo in Arabic as well as critiquing Happy Feet 2, having a dance party to American music from 2005, having an Omani barbecue, and sitting on the roof admiring the beauty of the country at dark. We also did some Omani cooking on the first day, which turned out pretty well. Our PD had also stocked up on some American comfort foods like chips, chocolate, and ice cream so we were pretty happy. The second day was the Fourth of July. Two girls got up early to make red, white, and blue pancakes and we ate them while singing happy birthday to America. Being away from America on this very American holiday was weird, but I think it made us appreciate the United States and our lives there more. After serenading America, we went back to swimming and lounging around enjoying our relative freedom before heading home. As much as I love it here in Oman, it was nice to have a weekend to relax and be able to swim and wear shorts; being able to step back into a culture that I know and am comfortable with for just a little while makes the cultural adjustment so much easier.
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| Poolside |
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| Swimming felt so nice |
Thus ends the recap of week two, hopefully I will find time to do a recap of week three soon. We are all going camping for the next two days, so that will be a fun experience. It's weird to think that my time here is almost halfway done; I don't want to leave.
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