November 2019

I know I've been gone a while.  When summer arrived, I was intent upon posting at least once a week, so I wrote a bunch of posts and scheduled them to post.  Problem was, I didn't really like any of them.  I didn't have anything I wanted to write about concerning Oman.  It didn't feel genuine to post about Oman while I was in the States.  Then we came back to Oman, school, life, and some rather demanding projects right from the start.  I was overwhelmed.  I was stressed.  I was not a happy camper.

Life settled down around mid-october into its new rhythm.  But I still didn't get back into blogging.  I thought about it, I even wrote a couple of posts in my head, but I never put "pen to paper" (or is it fingers to keys?).

My goal is to re-start with fewer posts "required" of myself.  Maybe something like a monthly update unless I have something cool to share (a trip, for example).  I also hope to go back and post about our time in Ohio this summer or our trip to Salalah over our mid-term break or our snorkeling with whale shark adventure.  But those will come when I have time.  For now, the November update:

November in Oman is National Day celebrations.  The streets are decorated.  The stores are decorated.  Pictures of the Sultan grace buildings, stores, and cars.  This year, we celebrated the 49th National Day.  To commemorate the day, there was a military parade, there are fireworks, there is singing and dancing that pops up all over the place, and schools tend to celebrate in their own special ways.  At BSM, the children were allowed to come in traditional Omani dress or dressed in the traditional dress of their home country.  Last year, I sent my boys to school in Texas Rangers shirts and shorts.  This year, they wore their dishdashas and hats that we had picked up last year.  They were definitely a bit small almost a year later, but we made them work.  Underneath, they were US shirts from Mamaw and Papaw.  Good thing because J got hot and removed the dishdasha sometime during the day.  The school day started with an assembly with singing, dancing, and musical performances.  Neither of us was able to attend, which is a bit of a sore point for me.

My boys in their dishdashas and massar for J and kuma for E.

National Day marks the day the Sultan came to power.  It is also his birthday.  National Day is actually 18 November, but that isn't necessarily when the public holiday happens.  We had a holiday on 10 November for Mohammed's Birthday.  That day changes every year because it is a lunar holiday.  So maybe because the two were so close together this year or maybe not, the holiday was called for 27-28 November which meant that we had Thanksgiving off again!  We did two thanksgivings with friends.  I somehow took no pictures from the one on Thanksgiving Day.  But know that they were filled with turkey, ham (a luxury here), brisket, the typical and not so typical sides, friends, laughter, and swimming on the kids' parts.

First Thanksgiving meal 

I loved the picnic style of eating these two chose.

We had quite a bit of rain in November.  We even experienced our first no school day due to weather. It had rained on 10 November, rained in some places on 17 November, rained again and heavily on 20 November, and was expected to rain most of the 21st.  That rain held off for the most part until the evening.  The declaration for no school actually came down from the government (the Ministry of Education).  Rain here is a very big deal because everything floods.  Some areas of town and Oman flood worse than others.  E and I were out at dinner when rain began again on the evening of the 21st, it poured and was a slow drive home dodging flooded lanes along side roads and the highway.

The biggest event of the month was probably E's "Edventure Camp" to Sifah for his Year 6 trip.  It was 3 nights of glamping with a ton of activities.  They kayaked, mountain biked, rocked climbed, rappelled (called absailing by Brits), tried slack lining, built a chariot and had a race (they were supposed to build rafts, but the seas were rough his day), ate well, drank hot chocolate, and enjoyed evening activities such as movie watching and a talent show.  E's favorite activity was the mountain biking (to my great surprise).  He also enjoyed the chariot race since he was the rider because of his small size.  I probably forgot some of his activities.  All I know is the kids came back exhausted but grinning.  E talked our ears off all evening!

The camp grounds - I cannot show many pictures as all with E have other children as well.

The camp grounds at night.

Heading out for kayaking.

One last highlight and hurrah to send the month off in style was attending our first ball.  Balls are very popular here as fundraisers, but we had yet to attend one.  We decided to join some friends for the Crystal Ball this year because it is supposed to be one of the best.  It was themed "The Greatest ShOman."  We had a "ball":  we danced (not well... we are so Baptists in that respect), mingled, ate yummy food, and drank (our not so Baptist side).

Stephen and I all dressed up

Our crazy group of mostly Americans whose children mostly attend BSM.

So there you go!  I hope you enjoyed our month's adventures.  I will hopefully be reporting back in another month.