The Parlor

The Sinaw Souk (market) is the meeting place for many of the local Bedouin (semi-nomadic tribes). The come in from the desert and trade with each other. In the old days, they would use camels and donkeys, but now the ever-present Toyota truck is the work horse of the desert.

The all black outer garment the women wear is called an “abayya”, and it serves to cover up the ladies when they are out in public. It’s a cultural thing, as opposed to an Islamic thing and the style of it varies greatly between tribes, villages, and countries in the Gulf. Sometimes it’s simple, black, and all covering. Other times it is split up the middle to show off the dress underneath or even bedazzled with sequins and rhinestones. Usually though the women are wearing either brightly colored clothes underneath it, or if they are in the cities they are rocking some very expensive high fashion gear under the abayaa.

The women also wear some sort of head scarf, this is mandated by Islam but the fashion of them vary greatly depending on where you are. In the UAE they are almost exclusively an all black sheer material, but in the interior of Oman and along the coast they come in all manner of exciting colors. In my classrooms I even see head scarfs with expensive logos like Gucci, Chanel, Fendi, and Louis Vuitton logos on them, but whether they are legit or “genuine copies” is way above my fashion skillz.

The face masks “burqa” are traditional cultural clothing, also not mandated by Islam. They vary like everything else by fashion, family, and tribal association. The ones seen here are traditional interior Omani Bedouin.

The men’s outfits vary as well depending on tribe association. The guys directly below are wearing the traditional Oman hat that sits high on the head and has intricate embroidery work around it.

Many of the Bedouin tribes wear some sort of turban wrapped material around their head, and everyone is wearing the ever-present long white (dishdasha/ kandora). These are well suited for desert living: loose, long sleeved, and white.

PS: this guy is carrying a bucket full of honey bottles, an expensive local delicacy  here in Oman.

But like all cultures, many of the younger generations are bucking the traditional styles and wearing other colors of dishdashas. This brown one is a bit more tame but they come in yellow, baby blue, and pink.

Also of note is the older guy here adjusting his “wizar”, underclothes. This is what you wear under your dishdasha, think kilt. It isn’t indecent to be seen outside your house only in your wizar, but you wouldn’t want to go to the store in it, kinda like a bath robe.

Hope you dig a little exploration of some of the cool things we get to see out here in Oman,

b

One of our favorite things about Muscat is that there are mountains! And not like little wussy hills, but legit 8-9000 ft mountains where it freezes at night on top.

Amber and I had heard about this magical mountain called “Jebel Akhdar” (the green mountain) where people grow pomegranates, apricots, and roses. So one weekend we packed a picnic and went to check it out.

It was an interesting drive up with vomit inducing curves, but once at the top it was easily 20 degrees cooler and the views were spectacular.

The top is a huge plateau with 30 little villages and terraced farms like something from Italy. If you look behind Amber you can see the village on the side of the mountain. Later that day we walked among the terraced pomegranate farms. Up here it is tough to remember that we are in a desert.

Picnicing on the edge.

Some of the terraced pomegranate farms of the villages

The streets in the villages are too narrow for cars even if you could drive them up there. The roads getting to these villages are so steep that I completely embarrassed myself by stalling out going up in first gear four wheel drive. Total rookie move and much embarassment as I had to back down the road and try it again with a little more “sauce”.

Just about every home in Oman has very brightly colored wooden or metal doors, but in the villages you get to see some of the older more “pizzazzed” styles. You can also see that even up here you can’t escape the tax man as the door below has a bill stuck in the top of the doorway.

Internet office lady: Where is your krookie?

Me: What’s a krookie?

Lady: I need krookie, Give me krookie!

-What is krookie?

-Krookie, give me krookie.

-How can it give you krookie? I don’t know what is krookie!

-This. Same same this- (she shows me something like a blue print)

-I don’t have this? Where do I get this?

-Krookie! krookie! give me krookie!

-I CAN’T GIVE YOU KROOKIE! I DON’T HAVE KROOKIE!

                              -at the internet office trying to get internet for my house.

Me and the Krookie Monster went back and forth for a while more and I finally ended up talking to a manager who also told me that I needed a krookie and that it should take maybe two months more to have internet in my house.

Unfortunately me losing it in gov’t offices is WAY more common than it should be. Back in the States, I’ve always understood myself to be pretty calm and laid-back, but something about life out here has changed this a bit. Apparently my kryptonite is Arabian business/ gov’t practices. Amber just laughs at me, and I’m just amazed and wonder where the cool me went.

Usually it goes like this:
-I have to get something done that involves a gov’t office.
-I prep myself and calm myself down in the parking lot and tell myself not to go “Hulk out” on anyone.
-I enter the office, calm and cool.
-I give them the required paperwork that I have spent days researching what I needed to make sure I have everything and there are no mistakes.

Now usually something goes wrong: they change their mind, they change the paperwork requirements, a number is messed up on a form, the computer is broken today, something…

Then I lose my mind and become the American in the movies. It is embarrassing, it is shameful, but it happens more frequently than I’d like to admit, and nothing successful ever comes of it. I’ve come to think these situations are some sort of character building “ROPES course” I am supposed to “pass” before I can move to the next level because I get A LOT of opportunities to “do it again”, and I usually fail. It seems like I’d have learned how to deal with this by now; we’ve been here going on 3 years. But no, I still fall right back into the “making a fool of myself me”

Maybe someday I’ll be the cool person that can handle this, but as it is I’m on year 3 of being the embarrassing American in the office not getting things done.