Thankful in Oman

People back home continually ask us: what are we doing over here and how much longer do we have to stay? What so many can't comprehend is that there are a lot of really good things to be thankful for living in Oman, it's just that so many of them are different here than in the States. Being different has never been about all right one way and all wrong another!

I am thankful this time of year for so many things. I am thankful that I serve a loving God, who is slow to anger and compassionate towards me. I am thankful that my Father God loves me, my children, and anyone else who calls upon Him and asks to be a part of His kingdom. I am thankful for a country, America, that was founded on Biblical principles, and for a past president, Abraham Lincoln, who wanted to declare a national day to give thanks to our Father God for His blessings, a day we call Thanksgiving in America. I am thankful for a caring and loving extended family and for our wonderful children and a special granddaughter. I am thankful for friends both in the U.S. and in Oman as well as other parts of the world. I am thankful for a wonderful husband! I am thankful for all of the new experiences we are getting to have here in Oman.

Celebrating what is normally considered a family holiday half a world away from your family can be hard. However, we have learned very quickly over here to form our own unique group of family friends. It is really exciting, though, when we can extend our celebrations to wonderful people of other cultures and share our blessings with them! That is what happened this year when we gathered at our friends' house in Muscat. We had guests originally from India, the U.K., Slovakia, Lebanon, Egypt, Brazil, Jordan, Sweden, Italy, and maybe a few more I forgot! It was fun explaining the meaning of Thanksgiving and our traditions.

First of all, we tried to have traditional American Thanksgiving dishes: turkey, dressing, vegetable casseroles of corn, green beans, and sweet potatoes, mashed white potatoes, and cranberry sauce--in addition to desserts of pumpkin pie, pecan pie,  apple pie, chocolate pie, plum pudding, and berry cobbler.

Don and Mary setting up ahead of time.

Our Indian friends helping before dinner.

Leave it to a pair of architects to have a creative
and organized layout for the olive tray!

Explaining the ingredients in our Thanksgiving dishes to our hosts' teenage daughter and her friends

And the serving begins! Kids first!

Adults waiting for their turn at the buffet

A friend from the UK, me, and Ashwin, our friend from India

Another friend from Slovakia

Enjoying a wonderful meal 

Of course, desserts are the best. Do you see the flaming plum
pudding? A wonderful homemade, traditional British dessert!

I must confess that it is definitely sometimes hard to find all of the ingredients required for specific dishes. We ordered turkeys from the American club, I scoured the non-Muslim sections of the one local grocery chain that has a special room of pork items for ham, and when I found Durkee's French Fried Onions in another grocery store, I bought every single one on the shelf! I didn't think I'd ever do that, but I know other expats do it because I've heard them talking about it--which is where I got the idea that I could do it! (By the way, it was 7 cans, that was all!)

We also had our share of typical holiday mishaps! Our hosts had a gas leak on the propane tank (yes, you read that correctly) for the oven. They had been trying to have it fixed for 2 days when flames burst out from a burner the day before Thanksgiving. Thankfully, it was finally fixed later that day so they could continue with their baking. I got up Thanksgiving Day early in the morning to bake in the oven all the dishes I had prepared the day before. Much to my great dismay, I had no flame for the burners or the oven. Our propane tank was out! Thankfully, I had no leaks! And thankfully, I have a wonderful husband who immediately got dressed and walked the compound to find some workers who would replace our tank. (It was a national holiday here in Oman, but for a different reason, so a lot of workers were off for the day.) The men were tipped nicely for their help--and we were glad to do it!

At the end of the evening, Ashwin joked on being our "token" Indians for the day after hearing
us talk about the very first Thanksgiving, and my husband joked that we Americans were the
"token" pilgrims, since we were visitors in a foreign land! Everybody laughed about that!

It was really a very fun afternoon, with good company and good food, all of which proves we can be thankful anywhere we go and every day for the blessings God has bestowed upon us.

National Day in Oman

Oman's official National Day was November 18, but the celebration is still going on a week later. National Day this year marks the 43rd anniversary of the ascension of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said to the throne. It really is different living in a kingdom as opposed to a republic. The people of Oman are very fortunate to have a Sultan, or king, that has invested as much in improving his country. Honor was given by the people to the Sultan last week on the 18th, and he has granted a 4-day weekend this week to the people! It coincides perfectly with Thanksgiving for us American ex-pats, so we are glad to have the day off to celebrate our own national heritage!

Don and I decided to go out for a drive around Muscat on National Day to take pictures of the city all decorated in honour of the Sultan. Oman's colours are red, white, and green, so it kind of feels like Christmas! We were here last year for National Day, but I didn't have near the grasp on understanding this holiday as I do now! I hope you enjoy learning how other cultures celebrate national holidays!

Cars

Omanis like to decorate their cars and drive around town at night on the main "drag", namely Sultan Qaboos Highway, around the Royal Opera House in the al Shatti area of Muscat.

Pictures of His Majesty on the rear window

Yes, they really do drive around like this sitting on the car doors. 

The symbols on the front door are Arabic numbers for "43".  I have no
idea who the creature no the side of the car is supposed to be!

These guys in the two pictures above were moving so fast I couldn't get a clear picture of them. They have on masks, and they were marching and making lots of noise across the street from the Royal Opera House. The ROP (Royal Omani Police) were on hand at the intersection to prevent a recurrence of last year's event where the young people marched out into the actual street (a very busy intersection!) and tried to "direct" traffic! Again, Omanis love their National Day!

Royal Opera House

Right behind me as I was taking the pictures at night above was the Royal Opera House. It was gloriously decorated in red and green lights.

The front of the Opera House with a message to His Majesty on the white square on the front.

The moon was full and gorgeous that night!

Side marble courtyard lit up.

Businesses

Many of the businesses around town decorate to celebrate--both inside and outside.

Inside a bank in the mall, they changed their light panels to red, green, and white.

This same bank also had a big monitor flashing poses of His Majesty from various times during his reign. I found these very interesting as we usually only see current pictures of him.

Pictures of His Majesty are also displayed around town outside of buildings and on the street.

Outside of a Muscat Bakery location

On the median of a major road

Streets

Last, but not least, are the lights that decorate the entire length of Sultan Qaboos Highway. They start putting them up weeks before National Day.

All walk-overs and fly-overs (overpasses for both pedestrians and cars) are
decorated with lights and an image of His Majesty.

Close-up of His Majesty's image.

Arabs love the "curlicue" 

You can tell that traffic was bumper to bumper!

Lights lining both sides o the highway in addition to the string down the median.

And, as it is well-known that Omanis love their sweets, it is only fitting to end this post with a picture of  the cupcakes served at Don's office!

The Omani flag. The symbols in the upper left are actually 2 crossed swords
with the traditional Omani khanjar (knife) on top of them.

Don's Trip to Wadi Al Arbeen

When I first started traveling to the MENA (Middle East North Africa) region, I was very unfamiliar with the local culture.  What little I thought I knew was based on media reports that didn’t paint an accurate picture of the people of Oman.  The past seven years have opened my eyes to many new ideas on local culture that is based more on personal experience and less on media bias.  One such point is that I have found the people of Oman to be very warm and friendly.  A good illustration of this is a recent trip to Wadi Al Arbeen (وادي العربيين).

We began our adventure at 7am at the Oxy Muscat office and traveled by a caravan of 4 wheel drive SUV’s and pickups to the favorite petrol station to gas up.  Next our group stopped in a small village to purchase lunch.

As you can see from the illustration, lunch was an Omani goat and sheep purchased from a relative of one of our group.  The task or choosing the right animals was interesting and amusing as our group took turns trying to figure out how to get the goat in and secured to the bed of a pickup.  By the way, locally grown goat and sheep are a delicacy and the goat and sheep pictured cost around 210 OMR (Omani Rial) or about $550.

From the village to Wadi Al Arbeen was about a 2.5 hour trip from Muscat.  We passed several tour groups in 4 wheel drive vehicles who believed they were seeing a taste of real Oman, but  none got to experience the culture as I did.  Our group left the main road and soon were headed down a treacherous dirt road with beautiful views.

Toward the end of our journey to the wadi, we arrived by driving through a low point of the water to arrive at a small, but deep pool of water with a water fall.  When I was a kid, this would have been what I described as an oasis.  The water was cold, clear, and deep.  While lunch was being prepared several in our group took advantage of a cool swim, while others setup tents and mat floors.  We also enjoyed a typical Omani breakfast of fruit (mostly locally grown bananas) Arabic bread and white processed cheese.  Btw, in the local culture each morning at 9am, Omani men and women (in shifts, but sharing the same eating area) will combine bread, processed white cheese, potato chips, and hot sauce for a breakfast sandwich.  It seemed a little odd to someone who grew up eating bacon and 

eggs, but US breakfast food seems just as odd to them as theirs does to us.  I do on occasion eat breakfast at work and have learned to enjoy both the cheese sandwiches and the company.  There is also a bean soup dish called ‘foul’ that is pretty good.

My hosts watched my reaction as they prepared the main course for the meal.  Having fresh meat meant we had to butcher the meat and get it ready for cooking.  As my grandfather was the butcher in a small grocery store in rural Oklahoma, I was familiar with most of the event, yet it was interesting to see how the guys took turns preparing our meal.  In addition to cutting the meat, some worked on preparing massive amounts of tomato, onion and garlic.

When it came time to cook the meat, it was placed in a very large covered pot and then set on top of a portable cook stove.  Those familiar with cooking crawfish and turkey outdoors on a portable Cajun stove would have felt right at home.  I was told that by adding one goat and one sheep, the amount of fat content was just right to cook the meat without adding water.  Instead, they cook the meat for about 30 minutes and then add the veggies before cooking another hour.

We had cooked the meat just long enough to add vegetables when it began to rain.  The leaders of our group panicked as they realized that the entire area we were in could soon be under water.  In a coordinated effort, the group broke camp, placed the meat pot in the back of a pickup and the entire group started back across the deepening water of the wadi.  From the wadi we traveled 20-30 minutes through small villages and wadi roads to the ocean.  Along the way, we came across one of the few (perhaps only) Frankincense trees in northern Oman.

Once we arrived at our ocean destination, we setup the fire again and laid out the mats along the beach.  The skies were cloudy and eerily beautiful, so no tents were needed.  As we looked back to the mountains, you could see that large water falls were forming and flowing through the mountain tops toward the wadis, so we did leave at just the right time.

While on the coast we had some special guests – wild donkeys.  They wander about the country without being bothered and seem to thrive in the Omani wilderness along with several other types of local wildlife.

Once the meat was ready, we stretched out long plastic sheets for the meal, which was served on large disposable trays.  Each tray was set before a group of 4-6 hungry participants.  Beside the meat, there was also fresh Omani bread.  The bread resembles a French crepe, but is larger and thinner.  My hosts showed me how to dip the  bread into the rich broth.  I found the meat, bread, and broth to be very delicious and similar in taste to beef.  (In fact, the tender goat tasted more like US roast beef than the New Zealand beef they sell at the expat stores in Muscat.)   Once the meat was finished, the empty trays and soiled plastic were wrapped up and placed in trash bags.  Then more plastic came out for the desert – water melon, dew melon, and pomegranate, followed by Omani coffee.  Omani coffee and tea would be special local blends of coffee and tea boiled together with milk, sugar, and cardamom powder.  It is all quite tasty, but more like Turkish coffee than what you find at Starbucks.

After lunch, some guys took a short nap, sat in circles to visit, said their prayers, or took walks along the beach.  We broke camp in time to get back to Muscat  before dark.

It is difficult to relay all the small events and conversations that make up an adventure like some of mine in the region, but adventures like mine to Wadi Al Arbeen have formed many positive memories and strengthened relationships with some good men.