Harris Happenings: Oman

We woke up and enjoyed breakfast in the hotel (see room above)-each day consisting of various eggs, bread & humus, toast, beans and other random things with good juice and tea. Another lady, Sherry, and I went to my old neighborhood to visit with my British friend (so wonderful to see and catch up with her) and see if any of my neighbors were there, while the rest of the group (including the four from Virginia who arrived that morning) had a slower morning and walked on the beach.

Aisha & Azza were not there but my across the street neighbor Majda was. We sat and had some fruit with her, her daughters (it was winter vacation from school) and even her husband came in a for a bit. They were totally redoing their home, including jack hammer in the kitchen. This was a common themes in homes, if they couldn't build a bigger one, then they were repainting, redoing and adding on! It was nice to see her. We then walked to the Majan hotel to get a taxi (first I tried to get a Learner's car to stop-I had forgotten the different paint jobs!) to meet the group at Darcy's restaurant, where our POBox was and where the Al Fair used to be, it was gone and other mall stuff was there.

We then met as a group to learn some about Oman and what we would be doing during our time there, before heading out to the Muscat Festival.

Trying to find a parking place was crazy so the drivers decided to drop off people at the gate and continue looking. I was also trying to set up meeting friends there and was on the phone while driving past a police officer at the gate. As he flagged me down I remembered that it is illegal to talk on the phone while driving. He gave me a hard time and almost wrote me a ticket but I sincerely apologized and promised not to do it again, so he let me off! We then drove up a big hill and found parking on a curb, I was shaky from the experience but fortunately the other driver (a dad of two girls) stayed right behind me the whole way so I didn't have to walk to the gate by myself! But we went in and it was crowded! Tons of people walking around. We met Mouza and family at the Heritage Village where we had Omani bread with egg for dinner, Badriya speaks English but Mouza only speaks Arabic. It was amazing how quickly and easily Omani Arabic came back to me. I was able to understand some of what they were saying to each other and almost totally understand when people were speaking to me. In the bread line Mouza (who is very animated) and I were carrying on in Arabic about something. Several ladies of the group were behind us and started laughing. They pointed out that I had a huge audience of Omanis staring at the tall American speaking in Arabic. Sometimes if expat speak Arabic they have truly studying and are good-mine is very broken and local yet more than just Hi, how are you. I spoke to one couple who were watching and they were from Musundum, the little peninsula that jets into Iran in the most north part of Oman. I guess they don't get many expats speaking Arabic up there. We did a little shopping, watching music and then walked to the camels.

Teresa our oldest tourist had ridden one (see photo below) and hurt her arm as he jerked up. We sat her down, the rest of us hanging out trying to help and one Omani sat down beside a group of our guys and started talking about America-they continued the relationship during our time in country. We finally got some medical help and a group took her to an ER where it was discovered that the arm was broken, she had to come back the next day to get it set and the next to get a cast. She was such a trooper and joyful and always expressing that she knows God is in control. They had some wonderful time of worship with the nurses and got an experience most tourist don't!