Ramadan - Month of Fasting Begins

G'day

Ramadan, the muslim month of fasting between sunrise and sunset has commenced. The shops are chock full of additional foods, cooking vessels and so on in anticipation of the huge feasting that occurs after dark. Here's a shot of one of our local stores showing the additional isle space ... only a small part of the total.

No food or drink, even water, is to be taken during the daylight hours. Needless to say, we Westerners have secluded rooms at work where we have lunch, coffee and drink water. And in our houses of course we can do what we like. Sex is not allowed during daylight hours either, but I expect much happens that nobody else knows about.

Our teaching hours are reduced by 10 minutes so we work a 6h day at the college. Many of the students arrive tired and restless after feasting all night. This lasts for a whole month.

The worst thing is that when you go shopping, you can't drop into Starbucks or Gloria Jeans and have a nice coffee ... they aren't open. All part of the local cultural experience.

Cheers.

Robin

Travels in Oman - Niswah's Pottery

G'day

During the weekend 1-2 September 06 we travelled with a group to Niswah and Jebel Shams (Mountain Shams) in Oman. We had a delightful weekend and the Omanis are such friendly people. They approach you in the street and welcome you to Oman or shake your hand and say 'hello'.

If they can't speak English, they either give you a friendly smile, a wave or say something in Arabic, usually 'salam alaykom' (peace be with you) or 'al humdelallah' (praise be to Allah). Both are common greetings, especially the latter which, under varying circumstances might mean, 'Praise be to Allah because I've met you, or you opened the door etc.' Of course, whatever happens is an effect of which Allah is always the cause.

Many of the young kids speak English very well and are delighted to show you how competent they are by asking you questions about yourself and where you come from.

It's lovely to interact with them and to feel so genuinely welcome. I took the photo in the Craft Souk (market) at Niswah where we stayed overnight on our first night. We have dozens more photos of the towns, mud-brick ruins, our colleagues, houses built into rock and so on to add to our growing collection.

Every best wish

Robin

Back Home After a Lovely Break

After what was a wonderful holiday, we arrived at Dubai International Airport at the ungoldy hour 0300 on Tuesday, 15 August 2006 ex Hong Kong. We had spent two full days at Hong Kong doing some long walks and taking a bus tour of the city.

Our driver picked us up from Dubai at 0600 and we were back at our house at Al Ain around 0830 where we began unpacking, but decided to crash instead, leaving the house in a terrible state with clothes here, books there and so on.

After sleeping long and soundly Tuesday night, we did some unpacking this morning and went shopping at Carrefours, Al Jimi Mall for 500 Dirhams of supplies to keep us going for a week or two. All I need now is to attend the "Hole in the Wall" grog outlet shortly to replenish my supply of beer ... my liquor licence runs out on 31 August!

I'm back to work on Saturday, 19 Aug 06 to prepare for the commencement of our new academic year. Christina will most likely spend some time studying a stock market (Options trading) course we have bought and doing some voluntary work helping Arab kids learn English at school and also work at the local Al Ain Museum. Midwifery seems to be on the backburner at present.

The above photo I took of Chris is at beautiful Lake Louise near Banff, Canada. Note the snow in their "summer".

Best wishes

Robin and Christina