We enjoyed a relaxing evening around the camp enjoying dates (have I mentioned that I love Omani dates?) and hot tea, we had a nice devotional and sharing time and loved the amazing view of the sands. Pirate jokes became a theme, starting on our boat trip and especially over this dinner, they were lame but funny to keep digging deeper. Dinner was awesome, I made a wrap out of humus, a (turkey) hot dog, feta cheese, and a french fry in pita bread-delish, and there was good fruit as well. The sun went down and it got a cooler.
They made a fire and had Arabian musicians playing drums and singing in the inside area. A Welch man with his South African wife had brought marshmallows and shared with some of our group. We considered getting a hubbly bubbly, sheesha, hookah, water pipe (whatever you want to call it) and Dale had never had one so he got an apple one to share-I didn't inhale!
My ears get cold in the wind and my hair blows in my face so I wrapped a scarf up like a turban, the group all thought it looked funny. They also laughed as Debbie borrowed Dale's headlamp so we were the weird head gear friends. The next day the Lebanese lady (who I discovered worked in fashion in Muscat) was wearing a turban to breakfast so I was confirmed to not be too strange!
There was a large Omani family sitting inside and a group of us went in across from them to hear the music. One of the camp workers came over to me and said they had complained that we had taken their photo, I said no we didn't, he said well they said you did, I said okay I will remind the group not to please, he said ok. So one of our ladies said oh no I was taking a picture of the room towards them and I guess that is what they mean. So I went over and told the family what she had said and apologized. The father said she has taken many, and I said she said she only took one, he said she has been taking them all night, I said I will ask her again not to and she really is sorry. I found out they were from Salalah, the town in the South and they were on a big trip, first the sands then the Festival then Dubai. They were very interested that I spoke Arabic but the conversation wrapped up. I went to warn all the others to not take pictures in their direction and the Omani worker who first approached me heard and said we as American can't understand how the ladies here don't have the freedom we do and are worried about facebook (which was a huge issue every time we took a lady's picture even friends they all said NO facebook, no facebook)! So unfortunately all of our cultural interactions were not positive.
We enjoyed a relaxing evening around the camp enjoying dates (have I mentioned that I love Omani dates?) and hot tea, we had a nice devotional and sharing time and loved the amazing view of the sands. Pirate jokes became a theme, starting on our boat trip and especially over this dinner, they were lame but funny to keep digging deeper. Dinner was awesome, I made a wrap out of humus, a (turkey) hot dog, feta cheese, and a french fry in pita bread-delish, and there was good fruit as well. The sun went down and it got a cooler.
They made a fire and had Arabian musicians playing drums and singing in the inside area. A Welch man with his South African wife had brought marshmallows and shared with some of our group. We considered getting a hubbly bubbly, sheesha, hookah, water pipe (whatever you want to call it) and Dale had never had one so he got an apple one to share-I didn't inhale!
My ears get cold in the wind and my hair blows in my face so I wrapped a scarf up like a turban, the group all thought it looked funny. They also laughed as Debbie borrowed Dale's headlamp so we were the weird head gear friends. The next day the Lebanese lady (who I discovered worked in fashion in Muscat) was wearing a turban to breakfast so I was confirmed to not be too strange!
There was a large Omani family sitting inside and a group of us went in across from them to hear the music. One of the camp workers came over to me and said they had complained that we had taken their photo, I said no we didn't, he said well they said you did, I said okay I will remind the group not to please, he said ok. So one of our ladies said oh no I was taking a picture of the room towards them and I guess that is what they mean. So I went over and told the family what she had said and apologized. The father said she has taken many, and I said she said she only took one, he said she has been taking them all night, I said I will ask her again not to and she really is sorry. I found out they were from Salalah, the town in the South and they were on a big trip, first the sands then the Festival then Dubai. They were very interested that I spoke Arabic but the conversation wrapped up. I went to warn all the others to not take pictures in their direction and the Omani worker who first approached me heard and said we as American can't understand how the ladies here don't have the freedom we do and are worried about facebook (which was a huge issue every time we took a lady's picture even friends they all said NO facebook, no facebook)! So unfortunately all of our cultural interactions were not positive.
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