Orientation

First the important things. Coca-Cola is widely available, but unfortunately Pepsi products actually seem to be more popular here than in most other places I’ve been overseas. I’ve also become reacquainted with some old friends and acquaintances from PNG, like P.K., Milo, and Miranda. The food here is amazing, and (obviously) beats the Ratty hands down (even chicken finger Friday and Cajun chicken pasta—no joke). There are traditional Arab foods, but also Indian and African influenced foods as well.

So I’ve been in Oman for a couple of days now. We’ve been staying in a hotel by the port in the old part of Muscat. The old city is comparatively small, since there has been tons of construction in the area since 1970. There are western and Asian brand name fast food chains, malls, and car dealerships strung out along the Sultan Qaboos Highway, which runs along a stretch of the coast here with several different centers including government ministries, shopping centres, Omanoil headquarters, and if you get far enough, the SIT headquarters in Seeb.

Our days have consisted of lots of information, tours, and briefings mixed in with a fair amount of freedom. Our evenings have been entirely free so we’ve had time to explore, eat on our own (with an allowance we were given), and wander around the local sooq (market).

The culture here is amazing, and I find myself reminded again and again about why cross-cultural experiences are a good thing. Nearly everything is clean here, and the smell of frankincense and other perfumes and spices being burned hangs around various places here in the old city. Virtually every Omani wears the traditional dishdasha or abaya—to the point that you can tell who the expatriates are by dress more easily than by anything else (including skin shades and tones). I’ve already put my Arabic to use, and two and a half years of study are totally worth a couple compliments from taxi drivers and the automatic 500 Baisa drop in price I received at the market just for responding to an offer in Arabic rather than English.

A main focus of our orientation so far has been to prepare us for the home stays. Omani culture is highly formal—more similar to Japanese or Korean culture than Papua New Guinean in that respect (although I still find myself making comparisons to PNG all the time). The formality allows for the possibility of lots of inadvertent cultural errors, however. Using your left hand to scoop rice into your mouth (note the implied lack of a fork in either hand), setting your money on the counter when paying for something, crossing gender lines, and smelling or dressing improperly are all potentially troublesome areas. I think we’re all trying to acclimate ourselves, and we’ve been given several opportunities to try things out through “drop-offs” at different areas in the city.

An unexpected possibility has come up in regards to the homestay, though. Apparently we have a larger than usual number of guys on the SIT program this semester, and finding families willing to take a strange, foreign man into their house are much harder to find than those willing to take in a strange, foreign girl. There’s a possibility that I may end up in a house full of young men who have come into the city from the interior for some reason or another, then. I’m definitely opening up to the idea, especially since such a living situation would probably help my Arabic more than even staying with a family would. (where conversations with half the family—the women—would be limited, or where Swahili or English may be the main language of conversation at home). The Omani empire used to include a good part of the East African coast, and up until a couple decades ago still included Zanzibar. Many of these families have returned to Oman since 1970, and a disproportionate number of the host families for SIT are of such a background.

I will write more later, when I (in sha allah) will have a host family, and can tell you more about them.

Masalama.