Speaking of Children

In my previous blog I said that Omanis are generally shocked that we don't have children, or even plan to soon. I, however, am always shocked to see their children running around in what are basically abandoned construction lots barefoot. I guess it's just a different philosophy of children. You have 8 so 4 will pass into adulthood. Still though, who wants to see their 5 year old's foot get impaled by a rusty nail? Maybe Americans are too obsessive about their children's well-being, but still something to think about. Makes me nervous. 

Flies But No Children

We're moved into the new house, or viiiilla, as they say here.

It's beautiful and way too big for the two of us... everybody asks us where all our children are. They are very disappointed. There are so few people in Oman and so much space that the real-estate, if you can call it that here, is not really at a premium. Land is for the taking. Hell, the government gives each man land and builds him a house when he gets married. The idea of being married and living together as a family WITHOUT children is so foreign. Many people here can't understand having a fulfilling married life, even temporarily, without children. I think part of it is because in these small towns, there is really nothing to do. In the wadis, at least the women sometimes help with the goats and the farming. But here in town and the 'suburbs', without children there is really nothing at all to keep the women occupied. It's sad I think, if you can't entertain yourself and do something satisfying in life for yourself.

On another note: I say we are moved in, but we only have one air conditioning unit in the bedroom so it's pretty intolerable to even go elsewhere in the house now. The windows don't have screens, so it's full of flies too. But as everyone has noticed--westerners and non-Omani Arab staff alike, that the Flies of Oman are fat and slow. As George said yesterday, as he was going around with the fly swatter, it's not even a challenge hitting these things, it's just a chore. Nabil, an Iraqi collegue from last year, who incidentally did not like Oman, would regularly compare Omanis to their flies. Big and lazy!, he would say. In Iraq, you cannot hit them!
No I don't know if the man-fly comparison is fair, but he was spot on about the flies.

Skype

So I take back what I said yesterday about the wireless internet being the best news of the week. Somehow, I don't know how or why, but suddenly Skype is working again. The speed isn't fast enough for video, but I bet I can use it to call again, and at least to chat. This is good news.

Suddenly this small world I live in has opened up just a little bit...

Does anyone know where else in the Middle East, or in the world, Skype has been blocked, or is blocked still?? I'm interested.

Internet Challenge

Alhamdulilah! There is wifi in the office building this year. I don't think I can express how radical of a technological advancement this is for our dear college. I'm used to having to share a line with my officemate. While this wouldn't be so bad if internet was easily accessible at home, it is here. That's the good news of the day. Probably the week.

On a related note, at home we've been using a USB dongle thing to access the intermittent internet. Because it's a USB device, only one of use can use it at a time. Due to domestic sharing stress and maddeningly slow speeds, I have given up using the internet device at home. It has such miserable download speeds that it's not even worth fighting over, but we do anyways of course.

Now I would call myself a Luddite exactly, but I also really don't like constantly being hooked in with TV, internet or cell phones. I'm actually looking forward to the extra time I'll have because I'm not mindlessly staring at a loading Gmail screen.

Nevertheless, it will be difficult to not look up Rachel Ray or Oprah.com or Esquire.com (much more worthwhile by the way) or whatever other drivel I look up when I'm bored.

Any sort of connection to the outside world is welcome here, so I might fail. I'll keep you updated.

First Day Back at Work

Ramadan Mubarak. It's the first day of Ramadan today, and incidentally the first day of classes as well. Theoretically. As we all learned well last year, the students don't come for the first semester until they're good and ready. Additionally the Ministry of Education, in conjunction with the Ministry of Health (swine flu concerns), has canceled school for all K-12 students until the end of Eid al Fitr (a month from now). Given the family culture here, having all your siblings at home during Ramadan is even more incentive not to come to the college. So I'm not expecting much action around here for a month.

Other than that, it's good to see friends from last year and be back in the system that I don't understand but am oddly accustomed to by now.

Hopefully we will move today to our new house, but we'll see. As I said, nothing works on my schedule here. Things happen when they happen, and you can spend massive amounts of energy trying to make things happen when they 'should', or you can just sit back and drink some tea. Secretly for now. (It's Ramadan).

Back in Oman: Round 2

We arrived safely a few days ago in Oman, exhausted and sick, but at least we have some down time before everything starts up again.

Everything is same old same old here, except maybe the internet is actually worse. Idle promises of 3G coverage were thrown around last year, getting our hopes up. No such luck. I've been trying to load this internet page for 2 days now, only now succeeding.

Our new place is all finished, except air conditioning units. Were anything else missing, we could move in, but although the heat is better, that's still not a possibility. We'll be moving in sometime this coming week. We hope. Ramadan starts on Saturday, which always throws a wrench in things. It will happen eventually.

I think it's finally sunk in. Nothing is going to work on my schedule here. You'd think I would have learned that by now, but my worker-bee mindset still kicks in. Maybe I've got it now. We arrived to find a little problem which helped drive this point home. Again.

At the end of last year, George and I bought a nice (faux, but IKEA) TempurPedic bed. We had arranged to store it over the summer in a vacant apartment below. It stayed there for the last month of last year, so we trusted all would be fine over the summer. We arrive back to find it gone. Our company's go-to man who we're close with had no idea where it was. The landlord of this building and of our new house had no idea where it was. Jetlagged and sick, I was livid. Finally word comes around that it was put in a store. Sold. That's it. I was really angry.

As usual, my anger was wasted emotional energy, as anger usually is. They said the store...they meant the storage. "Makhzin". Storage. That's my new word of the week. I should have seen that one coming.

Now the question is: would the anger still be wasted energy if they really had sold our bed??

Well, for now, we're hunkered down in our packed apartment, inching around boxes, but mostly staying in bed and watching movies, trying to shake this cold/flu before school may (or may not) start on Saturday.

Nobody knows really.

Changing Stereotypes

Who knows if this Iranian (Revolution?) is going to result in overturning Ahmedinejad's control and Khamenai's dictatorial position, but one thing we do know is the no one will be able to get away with talking about Iran in the same was that was deemed acceptable before.

The usual: Iranians hate freedom. Iranians love Ahmedinejad, who loves nuclear weapons. Iran is one big throbbing nation of evil out to get the West.

Because of the Iranians' reaction to this fraudulent and distinctly undemocratic election, they have taken a huge step in regaining an international reputation as being a people who desire justice, fairness, and amiable relations with the West.

Even if this fails to oust Ahmedinejad, it has already succeeded in robbing him of any remnants of respect and credibility that he might have had in his back pocket.