I was invited to give a workshop on WeBWorK at the Learning Technologies and Mathematics Middle East Conference jointly sponsored by Sultan Qaboos University and the Institute for Mathematics and Education at the University of Arizona.
After locating Oman on the map to be sure where it was, I quickly discovered many surprising connections: First, the chairman of the mathematics department, Artu Dorvlo, graduated from the University of Rochester statistics department as a student of Sam Rao. Sam had visited Oman several times to supervise graduation exams and warned me of the heat. Oman has two seasons -- rather warm, and way, way to hot. Fortunately I was there during the end of the "cool" season where the temperature highs were around 90 degrees high and lows of around 70. It was very pleasant.
Next I discovered that a first year graduate student in the math department, Ali, was from Oman. He immediately invited me to meet his family while I was in Muscat and after the conference I did. They were immensely hospitable, as were all of the people I met in Oman.
When I announced to my complex variables class that I would be visiting Oman (and that they would have substitute instructors) Elizabeth told me that she had lived in the UAE for five years and had visited Oman for vacations. She said it was a beautiful country and it truly is.
My colleague Tom Rishel at the Cornell medical college in Qatar emailed
me some advice
about what to wear and how to bargain. I was all prepared.
After about 24 hours of traveling and surprisingly rested since I slept on the 12 hour hop from NYC to Dubai, I arrived in Oman Thursday at midnight. I was met at the airport by the SQU public relations staff and by Mohamed bin Rhouma, the local organizer of the conference, who took me to my lodgings at the faculty club on the SQU campus.
Clock tower at Sultan Qaboos University
After breakfast I met Mohamed and another speaker, Maha from Lebanon, who had also arrived early for the conference. SQU is quite isolated, and while it is a beautiful campus, nothing much is happening on Friday (the sabbath for islam) so Maha and I asked to be taken into town. Mohamed still needed to meet arrivals at the airport, but we convinced him to take us to the sea and drop us off -- we'd catch a taxi back. Maha spoke Arabic -- we'd be fine -- don't worry about just concentrate on picking up the other speakers and keeping the conference running smoothly.
He
dropped us at a fish souq (market) in as-Seeb on
the beach and
pointed to a vegetable souq
nearby. While
we were
there Mohamed
bought some
fish. The souq
consisted of several
dhows pulled up on the sandy beach. 
Maha and I
walked along the
beach
and then into
the vegetable souq. Maha bought several fruits and vegetables that were
strange to her (she is from Lebanon) and I 
took a photo of the vendor.
I found a few tourist block flutes for sale that were actually in tune,
but the vendor wanted 1 rial (about
$2.70) and wouldn't bargain -- and since I'd been there only
one day I
had no
feel for prices so I declined. (I wish I had bought the flute
-- it had
a nice sound.)
Maha and I continued to walk along the road by the sea -- there was a
choice between
that and heading inland. As it turned out heading inland would have
brought us to the center of the as-Seed shopping district and
restaurants and would have been
the wiser choice. It was my suggestion that we continue along the sea
road, although it was noon
somewhat hot. I had maps from the tourist book that seemed to indicate
that it was
not that far from the fish souq and the vegetable souq to the central
harbor
of Mutrah and then to Muscat. The direction was right, but the scale
was way off --
in fact as-Seed is some 20 miles from Muscat center and the fish
souq--vegetable souq
pattern is repeated at the edge of Mutrah -- which is
within walking distance of Muscat.
We walked for a mile or more, past many new fancy houses, some not so fancy houses, the sultan's racing stables, and eventually decided we had walked far enough and would catch a taxi the rest of the way into Muscat. The first cab asked for 5 rials to drive to Muscat -- perfectly reasonable for the actual distance, but since we thought we were only a mile or so away we refused to be "ripped off". We tried again by hailing a minibus -- a sort of shared taxi that is cheaper -- except that on our first attempt we hailed not a mini-bus but a bus labeled "school bus", which stopped anyway. The driver, we later found out his name was Sayed, picked us up anyway and after some consultation in Arabic with Maha said he'd take us to Muscat after he picked up some clients.
The magic that was to be my entire stay in Oman became clear
at about
this point. Sayed
drove us to a school where he picked
up 15 or so women and children
heading for a wedding celebration. (Since I speak no Arabic, I
understood only what Maha translated for me,
and I hope I have the details correct.) I think Sayed was some relation
to the wedding party -- at any rate we got on the road, Sayed put on
some tapes and the entire bus began to sing along. We cruised down the
four lane highway for twenty minutes to Muscat and I began
to reassess the scale of the coastline. I knew SQU was outside
of
Muscat proper,
but I hadn't realized just how far away it was.
At Ruwi, which is still
north of Muscat proper, we left the
highway, passed the Indian High
school and pulled up to the house of the wedding party. We
snapped
pictures of the bride and groom. We were invited inside to the
party,
but we declined since Sayed had promised to drive us through Muscat.
We left Ruwi and drove into Mutrah harbor where we parked and took
pictures. (We didn't go
to the Mutrah souq since we knew that the conference had planned an
outing to that destination.)
We traveled along the coast a short distance (this is the part of the
map from fish souq
to veritable souq to the other side of the corniche where I had
originally placed us -- off by 20 miles.)
Mutrah
gate
Mutrah harbor
SayedWe passed by the Sultan's palace in center Muscat
and on to
the east through the Muscat gate to
the roundabout with the wooden dhow (I believe the true name is
baghala), built entirely without nails and
sailed to China in 1980 to prove that it could be done and in fact it
had been done long ago.
We
came back along the same road and descended into the Marina Bander
al-Rowdha for lunch. We treated
Sayed to the buffet, which was probably not the cheapest in the area, I
was still trying to
get a sense of scale on my first full day in Oman, but the marina was
very pleasant.
After lunch we went back to pick up the wedding party. We were
again
invited in,
but declined because we wanted to get back to SQU (and reassure Mohamed
that we
had not been irretrievably lost) and because Sayed also had duties. The
mother
(of the bride?) insisted on serving us Omani coffee and Omani halwa
outside in the bus. I got to practice shaking the coffee cup after my
second cup to indicate that I had had enough -- otherwise the cup would
be refilled and returned to me.
(This was one of the customs that Ali had prepped me for.
Several other Omani's described it to me as well -- it seems to be a
custom
they enjoy trapping foreigners with. )
After that we took the group of women and children from the wedding party back to its original house and headed out to SQU. I was afraid that we had seriously inconvenienced Sayed since he had other duties. We had tried to convince him to let us take a taxi back to SQU so that he could get on with his day but he refused. Sayed absolutely refused to accept any money and was completely polite and unflappable during the entire day. He possessed an elegant version of California laid back cool that seemed typical of many of the Omani that I met. On Maha's recommendation several other Arabic speaking members of the conference went sight seeing with Sayed later in the week ( he continued to refuse payment of any kind) so apparently we hadn't inconvenienced him excessively.
Below the mosque at Sultan Qaboos University
As I said, it was magical beginning to my stay in Oman.
Conference day -- Mutrah Souq in the evening
The conference began with a
beautiful Quran
chant/reading and
speeches
from organizers and local officials including television coverage
from the local media. I was sitting behind the Vice Chancellor so I
might actually have been on Omani
television. This was followed as usual by a coffee break during which
the principal speakers and officials were ushered into the nearby
majlis (council room) for a brief conversation. I'm really glad that I
brought a sport coat and tie
for this conference! I've never been a VIP before and it was comforting
to be wearing something approaching the proper
costume.
The coffee break was followed by two plenary lectures, lunch and then the workshops. The WeBWorK workshop had the usual startup struggle getting the projector to work of the local computer but in general things went well. (My laptop couldn't access the internet -- I hadn't yet figured out how to get through the SQU proxy -- that came later.) I had over 60 participants which is by far the largest number I've ever tried to handle and while Lotfi helped out with those that had no computer experience I was the only WeBWorK expert around. Next time I think I would lecture first and then have them follow the tutorial outline while I walked around to help. Trying to walk the group together through the tutorial script was uphill work. I ended up hoarse the next day and with a cold that may have been exacerbated by all the vocal work. Unfortunately the cold lasted most of the week.
In the evening the conference participants were taken to downtown Mutrah where the Mutrah souq is one of the main attractions.
The Mutrah harbor at night.
The entrance to the Mutrah Souq.
The
center of the souq and a close-up of the ceiling 
The gold souq
We changed money (finally -- both Friday
and
Saturday were
holidays since Saturday
was the prophet Mohamed's birthday -- the money changers near the souq
were open anyway.) The souq consists of many
covered alleyways with small shops in the walls and along the sides of
the alley. The ceilings have wooden cross bars
covering designs on the ceiling underneath. There is one central circle
where the wooden bars extend like spokes from a wheel. It is very easy
to get lost and tricky to find a store that 
you'd
like to go back to. I
bought a small amount of
frankincense and a burner -- as instructed I bargained down about 70%
from the asking price -- but I'm sure that I still paid
far more than a local would pay. I found a rock reputedly from Salalah
for Clarke, some millinery trinkets for Sandy,
and on impulse a bag of green Omani henna. (I guess I was inspired by
the henna decorating the hands, arms and feet of the women
in the wedding party the day before.)
There was some discussion of going out to dinner in Mutrah, which I was up for -- my workshop was done, but other speakers were more interested in turning in early, so we took the SQU bus back out to the university. Taiba, who was sheparding the expedition used her mobile phone to call ahead and pick up falafel and shwarma (Middle Eastern wraps) on the way back. I saw extensive use of mobile phones to set up appointments and coordinate activities. It seemed like as you came close to someone's house you phoned ahead to let them know you were about to arrive. I didn't hear extensive conversations, at least in public, but phones clearly smooth the way for all manner of changes in plans and timing. I felt rather isolated since no-one could reach me to tell me that plans had changed -- and I could reach them only if I could find a regular phone. Our group of speakers finished dinner in the courtyard of the SQU outside the faculty club and went to bed.
Conference day -- Dinner in the evening at Crown Plaza Hotel
This was another full day of plenary speakers in the morning and workshops in the afternoon. I attended most of the Mathematica programming workshop which was very well conducted by Nabil Fares but toward the end of the 4 hour workshop I started to zone out and left to take a nap in preparation for the evening.
The evening banquet was at the Crown Plaza hotel in the Qurum district. It was outside on a lawn -- clearly an ideal spot for wedding celebrations. The night was warm and pleasant, the moon was full and the meal was excellent.
The conference day began with special presentations with all of the officials present again. The principal speakers received presents from the university. The American ambassador (Ambassador Grappo) spoke briefly -- addressing us as fellow mathematicians since his undergraduate degree had been in mathematics. This was followed by another coffee break in which the officials and principal speakers took Omani coffee in the majlis. First Omani halwa was offered -- this is related to halva but does not have seeds and nuts -- it is dark and has the consistency of a firm pudding. It is very sweet. Each guest is presented with the plate of halwa and they take a small sample with one of the small spoons on the plate -- then the halwa moves on to the next guest and the coffee server pours coffee into a small egg shaped cup and offers it to the guest. The coffee server may move on, but he will return to see if the guest wants a second cup -- returning the cup to the server gets you a refill -- returning the cup and waggling it from side to side indicates that you have had enough. It seems important to know this rule; it is described everywhere in guide books and by nearly every Omani that I met.
The rest of the day consisted of contributed talks, many quite interesting. I attended most of the sessions but skipped a few as I was beginning to burn out.
Towards the end of the afternoon Atsu Dorvlo used his phone to dial Talib, Ali's father, who invited me out to dinner for the evening. Talib is an ambassador with the Omani government and he took me to the Diplomat's club out on embassy row -- a truly elegant building and grounds. It was surprisingly windy and after attempting to eat on the terrace we adjourned to a private dining room inside the club. We were joined by two of Ambassador Talib's sons-in-law, Dr. Majed was director of the department of malaria eradication and who had trained at Boston University, and Hani who is a human resources officer for the Oman Refinery Company. He had also been to school in the US, but I forget where. Everyone spoke excellent English which was good since my Arabic was limited to about 4 words: "shukran" (thanks), "afwan" (the response -- you're welcome or "please"), "salaam 'aleikum" and "'aleikum 'assalaam" (a greeting: peace be on you and the response). It would be difficult to learn Arabic in Muscat since so many Omani speak English so well. All instruction at SQU is in English.
We had a very pleasant meal and discussion and then Ambassador Talib took me back out to SQU. We arranged to meet Wednesday so that he could show me the Grand Mosque and some of the downtown museums. He also offered to entertain me Tuesday night but I thought that I might have prior commitments which in fact I did since it turned out that the mathematics department was taking the principal speakers and organizers out to dinner. He was a most gracious and interesting host.
This
trip was arranged by the mathematics department. Bill
McCallum,
Deborah Hughs Hallet, Lotfi Hermi (all from University of Arizona),
Fued Chaatit(from Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morroco), Maha
(from Eastwood College in Lebanon) Ayman (the math
department computer
specialist who has been struggling with the WeBWorK server),
Taiba (a
graduate student and instructor in statistics), Mohamed (main organizer
at SQU) and I were taken by
university bus south and inland to the city of Nizwa.This journey
begins along the main four lane highway
that runs east of the Western Hajar mountains -- the highest mountain
range in Oman. The desert has a slightly greenish
tinge particularly near the coast since it had rained shortly before I
arrived. The mountains are earth and rock rising steeply to our right
as we go south. There are mountains to our left as well, but not as
close or as steep.
We
pass by Nizwa heading west and then back north slightly up
a steady
steep slope to the town of Misfat Al Abreyeen -- famous because it
continues to live in the old way. From the parking lot you pass
through the pueblo like village to emerge on the edge of a canyon or
wadi. 
There are steps down the side of the canyon wall
which is
steep
but terraced.
The first ledge has a large pool (see
www.explore-oman.net
for a 3-d view of the pool) which was empty on the day I was
there. Water was being
diverted around the pool to the crops.
The falaj system is a system of mini-canals carrying water to fields. It is very old but very efficient. In this village you could see the boulders, wrapped in old cloths and palm leaves that are placed in the concrete or rock channels to block the water from one branch of the falaj and divert the water toward other channels and other fields. There is a good deal written both on the engineering and on the social architecture of the falaj system. Each field receives a certain allotment of water, there is an auction system for apportioning extra water -- the money raised goes to support the falaj system and those that run it.
On the next terrace there was a small
space under the palms filled with growing plants. I didn't recognize
the plants but it includes figs, dates and other fruit bearing trees.
One can continue down the steep steps and at each landing one finds
additional crops growing. 
I have one photo of a villager climbing back up the stairs in with a load of green branches -- I don't know what the crop was.
The main wadi can be reached from the cliff side and even it is under cultivation -- however one would not want to be there during a rain storm.
Returning to Nizwa we purchased lunch items (pita bread, laban or labneh -(yogurt/soft cheese) ) and were taken to a park outside Nizwa near a wadi. A main falaj canal flowed near the little park where we ate -- between the park and the wadi. The water was very clear.
After lunch we toured the Nizwa fort. The fort is
interesting but very aggressively preserved
so there is nothing very ancient about it. 
There were nice textiles for
sale and the rooms were staged with various items of furniture and
cooking utensils. 
There is a nice
view of the town of Nizwa from the ramparts with the Hajar mountain
range and in particular the variegated plateau called Jebel Al Akhdar
to the north. Nearby the entire city is shaded by palm
trees. The view of an oasis of palm trees with the rocky desert beyond
was a new one for me.
The minaret from the Nizwa mosque is adjacent to the fort and I have
few pictures of it and the dome of the mosque from the fort walls.
It was now about 2pm in the afternoon and
unfortunately the
souq at Nizwa was closed down for the mid-afternoon break. I
had my picture taken in front of the "antiques" instead of the tourist
knick-knacks.
We returned to SQU and then to a dinner for the speakers and
the
organizers sponsored by the SQU mathematics department at the very
upscale Hyatt Hotel in Qurm.
I had a chance to use Atsu's phone to call Ambassador Talib and to make
arrangements for the next day. The dinner was a buffet at the Grand
Hyatt in Qurm and was delicious. By this time however I was pretty
wiped out and still fighting
of the cold. Others were tired as well so we ended the evening
relatively early (by Omani standards) and returned to
the faculty club.
Ambassador Talib and his driver picked me up at the university (they
had dropped off Shaima, one of Ali's sisters and Hani's wife at the
university for her classes). He took us to the Grand Mosque, a new
mosque built by the Sultan, that
combines both tradition, art and modern engineering. We were given a
private tour of the mosque by a friend of Talib's, Ahmed Bin Salem. The
interior of the mosque is enormous and can't really be
understood
from photos although the 3-d panorama at www.explore-oman.net
comes as
close as one can.
Each of the inlays on the wall is numbered and stored in a computer so
that replacements can be made. The marble wall panels are fastened to
stainless steel backings so that they too can be
replaced if cracks occur. 
The
overhead chandelier weights 8 tons and
has an interior walkway
and ladders that can hold eight workmen while they change the bulbs.
The four pillars contain
the outlets for the air conditioning -- an arrangement which greatly
reduces the noise over having the air conditioning
underneath the building or issuing from vents near ground level. 
The inside of the mosque and the surrounding courtyards can hold over 20,000 for prayers during the Ramadan and Haj high holidays.
The outside dome has
a watering system that washes the gold dome
and the used water is retained and used to water the grounds. In the
outside halls there are beautiful panels
with modern interpretations of ancient islamic designs. There is also a
door decorated with what
looks like inlaid birds-eye maple -- although it may be a different
wood its appearance
is exactly the same. The inlay woodwork is remarkable.
Ater leaving the mosque we visited the Omani Center for Traditional Music which is housed in the national television studios building. Hani had arranged the visit for us. They were in the process of moving and were not really in shape to receive a visiting ambassador, but we went in anyway. (http://www.octm-folk.gov.om/meng/musicology01.asp) I spoke French with the assistant director who was from Tunisia. One of the technicians took us to a control room and showed us a few film clips of dancers and musicians at folk festivals. They were not really a museum (at least yet) and didn't have musical instruments at the studio. The director and I agreed on the importance of recording the older players, dancers and carriers of the traditions soon, while they are still living and before modernization overtakes some of the rural traditions. In general Oman seems to be making a remarkably graceful transition from a traditional past to modernism -- embracing new patterns without completely letting go of the old ones -- in fact often folding them into the new patterns in creative and elegant ways. I left with a packet of information about Omani music including a CD, various brochures and a book written in Arabic on the oud.
After the Omani music center Ambassador Talib took me to the Bayt Az-Zubair museum in beautifully restored Omani home in downtown Muscat. There were displays of jewelry, costumes, utensils, furniture and other artifacts from Omani history. Cameras were not allowed inside but while leaving I did take a photo of an old style house that was used to endure the summer heat before air conditioning and of two boats preserved from earlier times. Across the steet is the Bayat Muzna Gallery.
We
had to leave somewhat early since Ambassador Talib had been called
to handle some urgent business at the embassy.
He apologized, saying that he had intended to have lunch with me and
show me around a bit more of Muscat. His
driver dropped him at his ministry (and I got a brief view of the lobby
before his aids rushed him off to work). The
driver took me back to the university by way of the as-Seeb souq that I
had visited on the first day. I wanted to see
if I could find that flute. Unfortunately it was 1:30 by the time we
got there and the souq was closing for the afternoon
break -- I was very proud however that I was able to direct the driver
to the general neighborhood and in fact find the exact stall. I used
the afternoon to pack and to get some much needed rest.
At 8:30 in the evening I was again picked up and taken to the the ambassador's residence in Qurum. I met Abdoul, Talib's brother, Nassar (a cousin? and police official), Majed and Hani again, and Ali's younger brother Mohamed who is about 14.). We sat in the formal majlis and talked for a while. Talib's wife entered briefly to give me a package of presents for my wife Sandy. (Scarves and various incense combinations.) Talib gave me a coffee table book on Oman (in English) which he says is one of the best. He also gave me computer copies of beautiful paintings of Omani scenes that he had painted. Sandy and I have hung them in our dining room. I didn't have much in the way of presents but I gave Talib my Peetniks baseball cap explaining that he could wear it into the local Starbucks (and told him how to find out the rest of the Peets/Starbucks story on the web). I had brought my computer on which I had preloaded Google earth with shots of Rochester, Canton and Cranberry Lake. It worked really well even without being connected to the internet and gave some sense of where I came from, where I had grown up and my family's summer cabin on Cranberry Lake. I also had some photos of our cat Artie exploring the snow-filled roof our home -- so at least for Mohamed that made for photos of significantly different weather. The others had all lived in the United States.
The "simple dinner with the family" was still pretty elaborate, including delicious stuffed lobster, arabic appetizers (hummus, kebab, baba ganush ), and many other courses afterwards. I had to try something of every dish, but fortunately I was not required to eat all of it. After dinner we continued discussion, with halwa and omani coffee in the inner courtyard around a pool which was covered by a roof to protect it from the fierce sun during the day. At night it was very pleasant. Abdoul's son also named Mohamed (younger than the first Mohamed) joined us as well.
On leaving I was able to give them post cards with an aerial view of south flow in Cranberry Lake -- a landscape and climate about as different as possible from the one in Muscat. Abdoul who lives by as-Seeb was to take me back to SQU and as we proceeded to the car I was given, in addition to earlier gifts, a cardboard box of about 15 pounds of Omani halwa, 4 pounds or so of Omani coffee and by Hani an Egyptian oud that he had decided he was never going to play. I should perhaps have tried to refuse this last, but my first reaction was "wow! an oud! the Karamfil orchestra can really use this!" and in fact it has.
I got back to SQU by 1am (still reasonably early by Omani standards) and rushed to sleep so I'd be ready for the trip to Jebel Akhdar the next morning at 7am.
University trip to Jebel Al Akhdar (Green mountain)
Actually the rendezvous time was 7:30am so I was a bit early (and worried for a few minutes that I had missed the trip until I reread the notice). The actual departure was somewhat later. The participants were mostly instructors at SQU, particularly instructors of English coming from many countries and their families.
We left in
a convoy of about 15 four wheel drive vehicles zooming down the four
lane highway towards
Nizwa once again. Near Nizwa we turned back north -- we parked briefly
to have breakfast -- changed plans and continued to the town of Birkat
al-Mawz where there is a checkpoint for entering the Jebel Akhdar
region. 
From
there we climbed up switch backs
from near sea level to the 6000 feet (2000 meters) Saiq Plateau. The
air is
noticeably cooler
at that altitude, but the terrain is still very rocky with only sparse
vegetation. 
We 
stopped
for breakfast provided by the university which
we ate on mats spread out
near the road.
Then we got
back in the cars and proceeded to the old
village of Wadi Bani Habib which as far as I can tell is not inhabited
although the farms around
it seem to still be cultivated. The village is across the wadi from the
road. All 15
4WD vehicles cram into the parking space and we have half an hour to
descend into
the wadi and across to the ruins of the village. Near the bottom of the
village on the far side of the wadi are walls protecting the "farms"
from the wadi and a falag
system for irrigation. A farm can be 15 feet by 30 feet and contains a
fig tree
and smaller vegetation grown in the fig trees shade. The intense use of
very small
amounts of land is very different from what I am used to.
More village buildings -- apparently
abandoned
Wadi adjacent to the farms at Wadi
Ban Habib
After climbing back out of the wadi we are taken to the village of Seeq
(or perhaps Saiq?)
where we again see this intense form of agriculture. They grow roses
and the trees are figs
and pomegranates and other fruit trees I'm not familiar with.
The
falaj system
is again present including the rock and clothing "switches"
for directing the water flow.
You can see the farms in walled enclosures along side the wadi.
Even within a plot little canals in the dirt direct the water.
Some
kids are playing around near the village -- they
start
talking at me saying things like "mouth", "ear" and so forth. I egg
them on
somewhat by pointing to my head, mouth, ear, feet and so forth to get
them to say the English word. When I stop after a bit the Arabic
speakers ask if I want to know what the kids were calling me -- I
decide I don't, really.
Next we go to the Jebel al-Akhdar Hotel for lunch and a siesta. I get a
little nervous when we don't start back by around 3pm (we were supposed
to start at 2:40pm)
since I have to catch a flight at 8:40pm. It turns out that there
wasn't room for the drivers to eat at the hotel and they had gone off
to eat elsewhere and were
slow in returning. The expedition leaders were somewhat upset. I had
reminded
them that I had a flight that evening and then left it in their hands.
They kept
me updated on the situation and in fact I had no trouble making the
flight. I always
felt very comfortable that I was being looked after in Oman even when
dealing with strangers.
Our driver was a bit over enthusiastic on the downward trip off the plateau and was yelled at for not using 4WD and overheating the brakes (you could smell them). This is in fact very dangerous and one of the causes of crashes coming off the mountain -- but since I don't speak the language and wasn't in charge or even capable of being in charge I passed it and other incidents off as "I survived my childhood" adventures.
On the return trip we took a "shortcut" which I think was mainly to pass by a wadi after it had recently rained. I have a photo of some kids playing in a pool of water in the wadi. There were still police signs that had been put up earlier warning against using the road and certain points where it crossed the wadi.
I was back at the faculty club in time to shower and change into my power sport coat to try to talk an oud and 20 ponds of halwa onto the airplane. I'd packed the roll on duffle full of books and the carry-on full of gifts. I'd put the computer in a very handsome briefcase given to conference participants. That made 3 items to check and two to carry on. I figured that paying a bit for the extra checked item would be ok and I'd talk the oud onto the plane somehow. The very nice woman at the Omani ticket counter informed me that the third checked item would be 58 rial which comes to a bit less than $180 dollars -- which seemed a bit much to both of us and probably not worth it for the halwa even if it was a gift. She asked if I had a larger luggage container and I said know but asked if there was a place I could buy one. She pointed to the checked luggage counter and I left my bags and tickets with her while I purchased a large cardboard box and some tape (for about 2.5 rial) in order to put my bag containing the gifts and the box of halwa all in one container. I return to the ticket counter and now all of the shipping is free since there are only two pieces of luggage. I have to go get a security sticker for the cardboard box from the guard next to the baggage scanner before I'm allowed to check in the box -- that turns out to be easy -- I go to the guard point to the yellow stickers he is holding and he puts one on the box and everything is go. The airport was not crowded, but I still felt unusually comfortable leaving my ticket and bags at the counter
The oud turns out to be even easier. It fit nicely into the overhead bin on the way to Dubai. I expected trouble with Air Emirates because they have this scary announcement of only one carry on item, although I saw many people with a roll-on suitcase and a computer briefcase who got on the plane and were not hassled. In fact there was some trouble fitting the oud into an overhead bin but the flight attendant volunteered to stow it in the coat closet. On the last leg from NYC to Rochester it again wouldn't fit in the overhead, there was no coat closet, but the flight wasn't crowded and it got to ride the last leg of the journey in a seat by itself.
It turns out that traveling with an oud case is really easy. I got several thumbs up signs or strumming motions from baggage handlers and others in the Dubai airport. I had the feeling that if I could have actually played it I might have been able to talk my way into business class. While waiting for the Rochester flight Gert Anklam, a baritone saxophone player from Germany asked me about the oud. He had an interest in folk music and knew what a kaval was. He was in the states to give a baritone sax concert in New York City but was first visiting friends in Chicago where he had studied.
And that about sums up a truly magical trip to Oman. We have already hung
Ambassador Talib's paintings
in the dining room, we have the oud all tuned up for rehearsal tonight
and Sandy is dividing some of the halwa, coffee and incense for
presents
for our friends. The hospitality of the Omani people is justifiably
famous and I am truly grateful for all of their care and consideration
during my trip. They seem to have been able
to choose a graceful and elegant path towards modernization that brings
both benefits of newer technologies without losing the uniqueness and
comfort of certain traditions.
