Sharqiya Sands

Pictures at:
http://cmu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2061851&l=60edd&id=4807606

I am in Sharqiya sands, listening to 8 men sing, play drums, and clap- enjoying sheesha after a wonderful meal of cucumber salad, tomatoes, hummus, lamb and Arabic bread.
We spent our day traveling, picnicking, and dune riding- hopefully followed by camel riding tomorrow! This is our first excursion as a group- and so far it has lived up to my expectations; plus I think we are all ready for some fun after two weeks of intensive Arabic and Omani cultural immersion. It was for things like these, connected with learning about what we are going to see in class first, that I selected this program because the academic director gives us the structure that allows us, I think, to see more of a country like Oman than I think I would be able to on my own.

We just finished dancing to the music I was talking about earlier. I really like the style here- its group orientated- we all sort of walked/clapped/danced around in a circle and people would go in the middle and dance special for everyone’s enjoyment. At one point a local guy grabbed my hand and we made a sort of limbo spot that everyone in the circle passed under two times around!
Right now I am sitting in front of a fire pit, and two German kids are grabbing pieces of brush and throwing them into the coals. It is pretty cool, and I now understand the attraction- the brush burns with a green flame. The desert night is very pleasant- cool and still- I wonder if its like this all year? (Probably not)
Oh, and the camp we are staying at- I feel like royalty coming into this place. It is decorated with tapestries, there are rugs on the floor that we take our shoes off to walk on, comfortable couches to lounge on (both on the floor and sitting height) and beautiful hanging lamps. If they somehow provided us with some snow sprinkled with sugar- I would think I was part of a story out of 1001 Nights.

Holy cow, do you know what a wadi is? I just spent the whole afternoon in one, and honestly this was comparable to my feeling of amazement in the Blue Grotto, but much more personal- more on that later.

So raise your hand if you do think that the world is a surprisingly small place. Well if your hand is up in the air, or you would have put it up had you not been the only person in the room- go ahead and rest. (there shouldn’t be anymore questions) I am now a firm believer in this concept. We traveled to a Bedouin household, and there an academic gave us a lecture on how the Bedouin live, work, travel- an overview. Well as it turns out, he got his Masters degree from Carnegie Mellon! He grew up in a small village in the mountains- a very rural part of Oman- and because he did so well in the government public schools he got a scholarship to study in the US.
Anyway, the rest of the day we explored a 500 year old city, which is still inhabited, particularly their water system. They draw water from underground aquifers, and using a system called Afilage distribute it to the many farms and places for public access. Honestly, in my ignorance I never fully understood how people could settle in the desert- I knew the basics, that people settle near the sources of water and use it efficiently; but to actually see it today, working without pumps or other equipment was fascinating.

The wadi. A wadi, can be best described by me as a place where water rushes down mountains and through valleys when it rains in a very dry environment. The edge of the one we visited is near the highway, and we hiked in about an hour and then had a picnic. (You’ll begin to notice that those are poplar here) We were at a spot where an underground spring surfaced, creating a large pool of water amid sheer mountains on either side. The sight was truly spectacular, deep-blue, green water amid tan, white and brown rocks everywhere else. We swam into the pool towards a cave, reaching it by swimming through a space that my head barely fit for about 3m. Inside…well, you’ll just have to visit Oman- but let me know, cause I want to go back!