Oman

Allan returned from consulting for a stop-smoking program in Oman with gifts for me: a robe (abaya), scarf (lihaf), and face mask (burka). The robe and scarf are gorgeous black silky material with small jewels worked into the edges. The face mask is black cotton with just a slit for my eyes. In all honesty, Oman is not as conservative as some of the other middle eastern countries and the women don’t usually completely cover their faces, but I love the outfit and I have used it multiple times (along with a royal blue Indian sari, a bright pink Punjabi outfit, and earthy brown traditional wool garments from Mongolia) to teach sixth graders about clothing from Asia. The girls will happily try on the beautiful robe and scarf, but refuse the face mask. The boys love the face mask and rush around the room making ninja moves while wearing it.

Since Oman is known for their frankincense, Allan brought some of this back also. Here is a brief look at where and how it is harvested: https://www.britannica.com/video/179535/Overview-frankincense-production-Dhofar-Oman-region

Frankincense production brings me to my favorite of the three books I read about Oman. The Road to Ubar by Nicholas Clapp discusses the search for a lost city on the frankincense trade route using both images from space and reproductions of Ptolemy’s ancient maps from the library of Alexandria. (I’m enough of a map nerd to be excited to learn about Ptolemy’s use of latitude and longitude). I highly enjoyed Clapp’s book for the several thousand years of the history of Oman and the connections to my life in Southern California. The author first learned about this lost city when he filmed the oryxes being brought back to Oman from the San Diego Zoo (a story I’ve known since Kristen was one year old and we became members). He did his research at Southern California’s Huntington Library and UCLA with assistance from colleagues at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena.

The other two books from Oman that I read are also good. They are:

· The Turtle of Oman by Naomi Shihab Nye, a middle school book about a boy whose parents are planning to attend the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, so he and his grandfather go to all his favorite places in Oman before they leave. The San Bernardino County Library had it both in hard copy and on Hoopla.

· Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi, the first Man Booker International Prize winner writing in Arabic and the first female Omani novelist translated into English. Alharthi covers the last four generations of Oman and gives an inside view of the lives of women there.

For current literature from Oman, there is a summary with links to specific works here: https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/article/may-2019-oman-unsettled-new-writing-from-oman-ghayde-ghraowi-ahd-niazy

I haven’t found an Omani restaurant in California, so Vonnett and Kevin helped me gather the ingredients and make the delicious chicken majboos (https://www.196flavors.com/oman-chicken-majboos/) and two versions (one crunchy, one chewy based on how long we cooked the vermicelli) of the dessert halawet (https://www.spicingyourlife.com/halawet-ahmad-how-to-make-omani-noodle/). The majboos recipe calls for spicy green peppers which scared me a little, but Kevin took out the seeds and veins of the jalapenos and rinsed them, so they were not overly spicy. Kevin loved the savor of the cumin and I thought that the garnish with the golden raisins and pistachios made the dish so delicious!

I watched several other videos that taught me things about Oman that I didn’t know before:

· I learned that there was an Omani Empire: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/whp-1750/xcabef9ed3fc7da7b:unit-1-the-world-in-1750/xcabef9ed3fc7da7b:1-3-expanding-to-a-global-scale/v/omani-empire

· I learned about the wildlife on Oman’s Dhofar coast: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2rlpo4

· I learned that there were several zoos that participated in bringing the oryxes back from extinction in the wild: https://www.edzoocating.com/kids-cave/conservation-stories/arabian-oryx

· I enjoyed this video on music and dance from Oman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87h_TNLHRGY

There are beautiful things to do in Oman https://www.saltinourhair.com/oman/things-to-do-oman/ and I have the outfit in which to do them! I would love to go! I look forward to a time when we all can travel, and hope we all survive, thrive, recognize our mutual humanity, learn to deal with our conflicts, and allow peace, health, and safety to flourish in Oman and throughout the world.

Photo Credit: Muhammad Shoaib https://unsplash.com/photos/9R-jEko1PKc