Updates galore!

What a busy week! Well, compared to my last month. I think that sometime in January, I had wished to be more productive and active in February ... and bibbity bobbity boo, my wish came true. But no matter; activity - intellectual and physical - is quite welcome from a drab January spent in anxiety and frustration over bureaucracy. I think I've accepted that fact of life now. Well, more than I did before. In any case, this week: I did not dance with Twinkle Toes at salsa lessons (al-hamdulillah), made a presentation at a local college, went behind the scenes of fort restoration and museum preparation, and (the most important thing of all) finally started on my Fulbright research portion and made my first two visits to area Oman Women's Association chapters. This entry will be rather extensive, so keep your hands and arms inside the vehicle at all times ladies and gents and enjoy the ride ...

Twinkle Toes
There is a guy in my intermediate salsa class who thinks he can dance. But the bottom line is ... he cannot. The other ladies in my class and I have discussed this. He cannot keep the rhythm, he tries to blame me (and other girls who dance with him) for mistakes he makes when learning the routine (have to admit, there is a LOT of pressure on the male side of a dancing couple to do well. All women have to do is follow ... and follow well), and it's just not very pleasant dancing with him when a girl wants to follow and he can't lead you well. I don't think he read the part in the group's weekly emails about dance etiquette (esp. the part about body odor). Nast. Anyway, every class, I cringe because I dance with him at least once, and it's just horrible and unbearable because he makes you believe that he knows more than he does until you actually dance with him and you wait with bated breath for the instructor to yell out "Switch partners!" But lately, there has been a surge of recent beginners graduates creeping into the intermediate class and there is an (almost) even ratio of male to female. Which means more (and more often than not, BETTER) dance partners to choose from when we have to rotate partners. And this past Sunday, Twinkle Toes and I did NOT cross paths. Al-hamdulillah indeed.

American Corner presentation
The US Embassy Public Affairs Section has a neat initiative called American Corners and when we Fulbrighters had our initial in-country orientation way back in September, they encouraged us to get involved with it. And thus, I did. I was actually scheduled back in November, but there was a switch in personnel involved and the school holidays were approaching, so all involved felt it was best to move it to the beginning of February. In general, the American Corner presentations are diverse and personal to the presenters and have ranged from things like surfing to American film. Hometowns and home states are quite a popular choice, and thus, I chose to present on the Old Dominion (Virginia). It was really neat -- I hadn't presented anything in awhile, and the overarching making-me-nervous factor that these students are not native English speakers. But all was well, and I warmed up to them by introducing myself in Arabic (always a hit and takes them by surprise) and showing them pretty pictures (thank you wikimedia and Google images) of Virginia, from the Blue Ridge mountains to the Chesapeake Bay to the NOVA suburban sprawl to the charm of the RIC. And afterwards, I felt like a bit of a celebrity because the students all wanted to take their photos with me and the Embassy rep with me. Funny. But all in all, very good. Definitely fulfilling the Fulbright mission of cross cultural communication and interaction. And it was nice to be able to contribute to creating a wider knowledge of the concept of "America" outside the realm of Hollywood, Bush and globalization. Mostly, I was grateful to have to speak slowly as I was (and still am) getting over a bit of a scratchy throat. Damned weather changes.

The Coldest Winter
OK, this bit wasn't in my summary list, but it has to be mentioned. Many Omanis have dubbed this as the coldest winter. I'd have to agree. Seeing as how my body has quickly acclimated to 65F/20C as the low temperatures, imagine my body shock when temperatures dipped down to 55F/13C this past Tuesday. With a wind chill. All while wearing the usual light clothing. Record lows in Muscat down to 12C (around 50F). Ca-raaaaazy. Even snowed in a few towns near the mountains.

Al-Hazim Fort and Castle
This fort and castle is not officially opened to public yet, but thanks to a local contact/new friend/now colleague in a new spin on my Fulbright project, Julia at the Centre for Omani Dress got us "VIP passes." Julia helps to dress the mannequins in the fort and castle restorations and she was going to measure the new mannequins at Al-Hazim castle. The task seems quite simple, but when you think about doing this yourself in a large cavernous room where your only company would be mannequins with half arms, hollow insides and lifeless eyes staring back at you, I think you'd want a little bit of company. So that's just what we - myself, another COD volunteer and her relatives, and a friend of Julia's - did last Tuesday when the temperature was 13C and we were all shivering... including Julia's friend from Switzerland. Oddly enough, the falaj (water system) that runs through the castle is WARM and it was so relieving just to stand by it and create our own little makeshift sauna.

Al-Hazim is about 15 minutes away from the city of Rustaq, located on the Batinah coast of Oman (about 1.5 hours West of Muscat; the area borders with the UAE). After our visit to the Rustaq souq for some supplies (such a neat old crumbling place. They have a new souq, but we preferred the old one where the shops all closed by 11 am, and all the men were shivering in their stalls bundled up in jackets, socks and gloves. And there were so many cute old Omani men who were so sweet.), our next stop was to unpack newly made mannequins (models of prisoners of 100-200 years ago) in the prison. The room was the warmest room in the castle due to the fact it had no ventilation. In traditional Omani fort-and-castle style, the room was large and circular, with a giant thick pole running through the middle. There was no light, so imagine the chills we all got when Julia's Omani friend and our tour guide turned off all the electric bulbs, closed the door and blew into a conch shell whose sound echoed throughout the hallowed halls of this Omani prison. And apparently, as a torture device, the keepers of the castle would blow that horn for minutes and minutes until the prisoners went mad, I guess ... In any case, that shell was displayed on a table along with other traditional devices used for torture... We climbed and descended many steps, secret passageways, peeking into large rooms used for various purposes and all to help serve the imam. The highlight was the expansive roof (where they apparently brought horses to drink water ... guess they didn't want to risk enemy lines stealing them) and from the parapets and towers you could see for miles and miles (that is, if the day were clear and sunny, rather than windy, dreary and perpetually cloudy as it was on Tuesday).

Rustaq's old souq ... hope it still exists in 10 years.

It was interesting to hear Rashid's explanation of how the administration of various authorities affects how this particular fort was to be restored. UNESCO originally had it under its authority to be restored, but not to have a museum (which is currently being worked on) because it generates profit. The focus is for the public to enjoy and appreciate the fort's architecture and beauty in itself and there is no doubt about that. The doors themselves are intricately carved. The stone in the large circular cannon room was carved as well and they have original Portuguese cannons in place. The corridor ceilings mirror old boat building techniques and are seamlessly integrated a simple, minimalist yet effective and strikingly beautiful traditional manner of Omani architecture and decoration. In the end, the Omani Ministry of Heritage and Culture had the fort handed over to the authority of the Ministry of Tourism to develop a museum (for profit). The fort has been restored, but it takes a long time to have a museum put in. Seemingly little things like lighting (you have to carefully break the old stone walls to install wiring ... who wants to destroy a 600 year old artifact?!?!), sound (the echoes of sounds in the large rooms have to be lessened considerably), and how your mannequins are made (which can affect how you make the garment to dress the mannequin and how long it takes to dress 25 of them) take so much time, consideration, coordination, cooperation, and of course ... money.

Sadly, my camera battery punked out as soon as we got to Al-Hazim. But thank goodness for cell phone cameras, eh?

Wow. This entry is entirely too long, even for me. I'll leave it for it now, but trust that I will provide another update soon regarding my OWA visits (which are quite exciting!), once I visit a few more next week and have a nice comparison platform. Until then ...

Ma'salaama kulkum. And think warmer thoughts!