Realizing recently after a comment from my sister that I should remove the link to my blog from my email signature because it's been so long since I updated it, propelled me to arrive here today. More reasons why I am back:
1. Pete revealed that he enjoyed a friend's blog more than he ever did mine! How could he?
2. I have some extra time on my hands and can surely find time in my day to blog about the randomness that is my life.
3. It's been almost a year and my oh my how much has changed in that time.
4. I have a huge load of laundry to wash and would much rather write about it than do it.
5. I recently finished "Infidel" and want to encourage everyone to read it. It's incredibly powerful and thought-provoking.
6. I drank 3 cups of coffee this afternoon to caffeine-out my hangover and it has had the added effect of making my brain and thus fingertips whir.
7. I'm living in Salalah, Oman and the strangeness I see on a daily basis must be shared with someone other than the SCUBA boys who spend their evenings in the room of doom and gloom with their beloved television.
8. Ah, what the hell.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Nebyue, Ghi's nephew and an explanation
Ghion's family in Ethiopia...I suppose I should update this a little more often. This is a long story, actually a pretty amazing one and one worth telling. Gimme a few more days.Of course updating it would have to do with me not being a culture-shocked kid. Life has been uber out of touch in a way for me as of late, and I am not quite sure what to think of it. Any suggestions? I'm happy to hear them.
Q: Why don't elephants use cellular phones?
A: So the rest of the world won't know their plans.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Saturday, February 14, 2009
A little creepy, eh?
A lovely day on the beach in Hasik and there are dead puffer fish washed up all over the shore. What could be the reason? Alive, they're quite cute, big eyes and funny lips, slowly cavorting thru the water. Dead, still cute.
Friday, February 06, 2009
Ashes to Mekong
A dusty tribute to Grandpa in Vietnam with the Irrawaddy dolphins to hang out with in the Mekong. Jesse took this photo and this is his hand as well.
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Beach Clean Up
For those of you who will be visiting Salalah, specifically February 25 and 27, I am organizing a 2,000 volunteer-strong beach, reef and beyond clean-up. Let me know if you'll be around. You're invited, all of you. You will also get to watch my trash-rich, interdependent ecosystem presentation after we wash our hands and eat the snacks provided by the local University. After all this hard work, we will be rewarded with a barbecue at my house afterwards. We will be serving roasted plastic bags, cigarette butts, lighters, flip flops and some more plastic tidbits with green cumin sauce…mmmm...kidding. But, Pete will be cooking, and hopefully all of you have had the opportunity to eat sweet Pete's deliciously delectable gastric delights. And if not, get over for the clean-up. You won't be sorry, about the food that is. You will, however, most likely be shocked by the amount of trash on the beach and being spit out by Mother Nature at low tide, leaving a bare scrabble of rocks and rubbish.
The Smiths say it Best: Meat is Murder
Speaking of meat, did you know that if all the greenhouse gases measured in CO2 equivalency from the millions of trains, planes and automobiles spewing out their excrement each day were compared with the excrement, hormones, antibiotics, and feed waste from the world's livestock, guess which has the greater impact? That's right you meatheads! And don't forget about all the water and land degradation Ms. Cowie Hamburger dearest is causing as well. Don't be involved in the industry of death as Jesse says…*And right on Nanako! I learned of your recent abdication of meat, and am so proud. And as for the rest of you…..? At least you're not eating shark fin soup. I watched this dismayingly informative movie the other night, Shark Water and was sadly devastated to learn that in the two hours I sat and drank a Corona watching the movie, 15,000 sharks were killed. For every one person killed by sharks (of which more people are killed by soda machines each year), more than 73 million sharks are cruelly slaughtered, and mostly for the mere texture of their tasteless fins in shark fin soup. After which the still-alive and finless sharks are thrown back in the water to sink to the bottom and die. They are truly one of the most important keystone species on Earth and there is not one of the 400+ species left that isn't endangered. Tragedy of the Commons, depressingly. Most of their numbers are down 60 to 99% from their original numbers. But, do not be too distressed because you can help... http://www.sharkwater.com/ has heaps of ideas on what you can do. And if you see shark for sale at a grocery store or a restaurant say something, and don't go back if they don't take it away. I made a huge scene at a shop in Jakarta in May that was full of shark jaws, teeth, cartilage pills and other souvenirs. Any potential customer within ten meters was not going for in for a little browse, that's for sure. 
Little piggies
I am getting fat. The fucking Hilton buffet dinners with 40 dishes to spoon onto your plate (ok, only about 28 for me and my refusal to chew thru flesh), is to fault. And then there are fifteen desserts touchingly displayed underneath palm canopies. What is a sugar-toothed, green-scarfed person to do? Shun dessert? I don't think so.
And I'm sticking my stomach out.
Rainy smells and scarves
While the clean smell of rain had vanished from the sky, yesterday evening Peter and I took a little walk thru the souk (market). The air in the souk, supple with indecipherably aromatic perfume mixtures, was very still and quiet. I was the only woman, except for the few swathed in hijabs, with only their eyelined and blacked eyes visible, behind the counters selling frankincense. We bargained for three gorgeous Pashmina scarves, and proudly wore the green ones to barbecue night in the garden at the Hilton.
And yet another momentous event happened in Salalah last week. It rained in January. Three nights ago, the sky opened up and finally succumbed to the marinating heaviness that had been hiding and lurking around all day. It even rained out in Rub Al Khali, which only happens every twenty years or so unless oneiric, and never in January…As much as the plants and I enjoyed the out-of-turn-moisture, it begs the question: Global Warming in action?
Black tipped reef shark
A baby. We never see sharks diving here anymore because people are doing shit like this and then selling the fins at the fish market. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that we are catching one billion pounds of shark each year. They are killing the Earth. I know this sounds extreme, but sharks are so important in the ocean ecosystem, and the oceans, being 70% of the Earth are responsible for most of the oxygen we need to stay alive, (thanks mostly to phytoplankton), they moderate the weather and climate, 10% of human protein intake comes from the ocean, we get heaps of minerals from the ocean, they regulate and recycle our toxic poisons, the list goes on...and on....Pay attention!!
Finning
I know you all know now about finning and its evils. This morning Peter called from the harbor to tell us that someone had caught about 15 baby sharks and was cutting them up for their fins. We went down there as quickly as we could with a camera and got in this guys face and took photos. He smiled and didn't stop or slow down his slicing in any way. We emailed the photos to the Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Tourism in Oman with a letter reminding them this practice is illegal in Oman. We'll see what happens.
January Happenings in Salalah
Last week Thursday was a National Holiday for all of Oman. Omani's didn't have to go to school (where, I just learned the government gives $208 per month to every person enrolled), or work and nearly every shop was shut, including the pot planting and seed shop where I still need to get soil to pot my 10 free plants from the Ministry of Agriculture. The poor little plants are still sitting in their garbage bag homes on the front steps, being used as barf bags by the scarred and whiny neighborhood cats. Last night there was white puke #1 and yellow puke #2. Both stunk. 
But, football, not puke was the occasion marker for this Omani ebullience and freedom: the big win in the Gulf Cup. Oman beat Saudi Arabia in a sudden death penalty shoot-out. In the 35 years since Oman entered the GC they have never won. The first five goals went in for each team and on the sixth kick, Saudi missed it and Mohammed Rhabir, with the best shot of the day into the top left corner, won the Cup. Oman went wild and Sultan Qaboos responded in turn with the holiday. On the drive home we joined everyone and their grandparents dancing in the middle of the street, put on our hazards and perma-horn honking. Now Oman has a chance to go to the World Cup in South Africa. A monumental day indeed. And are any of you Cape Town Brentwood kids upholding our World Cup promise and going back for 2010?
But, football, not puke was the occasion marker for this Omani ebullience and freedom: the big win in the Gulf Cup. Oman beat Saudi Arabia in a sudden death penalty shoot-out. In the 35 years since Oman entered the GC they have never won. The first five goals went in for each team and on the sixth kick, Saudi missed it and Mohammed Rhabir, with the best shot of the day into the top left corner, won the Cup. Oman went wild and Sultan Qaboos responded in turn with the holiday. On the drive home we joined everyone and their grandparents dancing in the middle of the street, put on our hazards and perma-horn honking. Now Oman has a chance to go to the World Cup in South Africa. A monumental day indeed. And are any of you Cape Town Brentwood kids upholding our World Cup promise and going back for 2010?
Monday, January 05, 2009
beware of the lionfish..they'll get you
Oman is great! I'm putting together a curriculum for school kids on the atrocities and dangers of plastics in the ocean and elsewhere. Hopefully this will turn into my own NGO and spread throughout the country. And then the world!! Ahahahhahaha.
REDUCE, RE-USE! Take those canvas bags to the grocery store, abstain from the water bottles. I have to go eat lunch and will write more tips later...
REDUCE, RE-USE! Take those canvas bags to the grocery store, abstain from the water bottles. I have to go eat lunch and will write more tips later...
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Salalah, Oman First Impressions
As some of you may have heard, Pete and I have jumped on the "why the hell not" bandwagon and moved to Salalah, Oman. We've spent the last few days at the airport trying to retrieve our luggage *never fly Oman Air, or at least bring all baggage with you on the plane and don't check ANY OF IT*, snorkeling with Iranians, being introduced to "His Excellency," wandering around the ridiculously large and marbled new palace we've been offered as part of our work contract, drinking free, freshly and locally grown and squeezed any-fruit-you-want juices at the Hilton *where our work is based*, chasing camels, goats, cows, gazzelles and sheep out of the middle of the road, and watching heaps of dolphins and hairy fat men jump around in the ocean. It's been quite an experience so far.
This is all started when we realized that work at the dive shop in Railay, Thailand was really not to our liking. Not to dwell or anything, but the manager was a completely disgusting, shamelessly sleazy, nauseatingly nefarious, rotting fucking alcoholic warthog with absolutely nothing to offer the world in the way of usefulness, reliability or management skills. Actually anything related to sobriety was beyond his realm of understanding. So.... we did a little talking and a little emailing and here were are in Salalah, and about a gazillion times happier. It took a week of being holed up in a 5 star hotel in Bangkok due to the airport closure, with only 100 dish buffets 3x daily, steam rooms and delightfully fluffy King sized beds to jump on, to offer us solace. After staying at fairly ratty hostels and a house furnished with a bed and random cupboards that smelled of low tide when you were so unfortunate as to turn your face into them, we found ourselves quite tickled and thanking those Thai PAD protesters while we forked into the 7th course at breakfast. *OK, it wasn't that gluttonous, but damn near close.* I'm using a Slovenian computer and can't find the parentheses button, so sorry....
So Oman. A few things: Oman is surrounded by Saudi Arabia and the "Empty Quarter" to the west, UAE to the northwest, Yemen in the south and 1,700 kilometers of coastline on the eastern side. The Sultanate is really full of wonders. His Majesty Sultan Qaboos is gay *don't tell anyone, it's not exactly kosher around here, even tho the man has almost single-handedly made this country as successful as it is today and is very highly revered despite his gaiety and gayness. Salalah has been a major trading port for Frankincense for ages, and altho the smell reminds me of my Grandfather's Catholic funeral when I was 12, it's not so bad. I guess. Yesterday I stopped the truck for camel crossings at least 5 times, turn on the Emergency lights and W-A-I-T while they sniff the air for the stench of their personal leader: the poopy ass one foot in front of their face or maybe they will stoop down to see if there might be some grass growing from the pavement by your window. Stupid and funny looking animals. If you hit one in the daytime apparently you can be fined up to $100,000. So drive slowly. Hitting one at night relinquishes you of responsibility, so you can drive as fast as you want. And people do; I think the worst drivers I've ever come across have all congregated in Salalah, and the ones who couldn't handle just driving shitty without alcohol all moved to Cape Town where the beer is cheap and readily available.
The camels aren't really used for anything but status symbols it seems, and occasionally milk and beheadings on the auspicious occasion of Eid-Ad-Adha *the Feast of Sacrifice*, at the end of Ramadan beginning December 8. Beheadings happened at intersections, on the sidewalks downtown, on the left hand side of the road, on door stoops, anywhere, really. And then, apparently the Indians who live in town, most of them vegetarian, have to then clean up after the decapitations. Very nice.
So far we've been hanging out with the Tomb of Job from the Old Testament, archaeologists excavating a 4,000 year old settlement down the road, a civilian F-16 instructor, His Excellency of course, dolphins and guitar sharks. And, thank Allah, our bosses could not be any sweeter this go-around.
The weather here is clear and a lovely 26 degrees. Yesterday, and amazingly the day before were exactly the same! This will continue until March at least. And coming from rainy rainy Thailand, we're quite happy. Nights are deliciously cool and quiet, minus the Call to Prayer *which still wakes me up every morning at sunrise. I'm sure that soon I will be able to sleep through that, the hollow banging noise coming from the patio upstairs, the doves cooing into the air conditioning, and Glen, the snoring Canadian with a badly tuned French horn for a nose at night. Soon....
I will try and write more *if this is possible after the quarterly novellas i always send out and will take photos and upload them to flickr. And I finally joined facebook, so stop telling me I really need to; I've got a nasty head cold; my luggage is slated to arrive "tomorrow"; I got the company van stuck in the sand the other day and had to have some local Bedouins drag it out for me with their Land Cruiser while I sheepishly tried to pretend it wasn't me who was in charge, *this happened the day before yesterday to the boss, so I don't feel so bad now*, tonight is "Mexican Night" at the buffet and I can't wait to start eating.
This is all started when we realized that work at the dive shop in Railay, Thailand was really not to our liking. Not to dwell or anything, but the manager was a completely disgusting, shamelessly sleazy, nauseatingly nefarious, rotting fucking alcoholic warthog with absolutely nothing to offer the world in the way of usefulness, reliability or management skills. Actually anything related to sobriety was beyond his realm of understanding. So.... we did a little talking and a little emailing and here were are in Salalah, and about a gazillion times happier. It took a week of being holed up in a 5 star hotel in Bangkok due to the airport closure, with only 100 dish buffets 3x daily, steam rooms and delightfully fluffy King sized beds to jump on, to offer us solace. After staying at fairly ratty hostels and a house furnished with a bed and random cupboards that smelled of low tide when you were so unfortunate as to turn your face into them, we found ourselves quite tickled and thanking those Thai PAD protesters while we forked into the 7th course at breakfast. *OK, it wasn't that gluttonous, but damn near close.* I'm using a Slovenian computer and can't find the parentheses button, so sorry....
So Oman. A few things: Oman is surrounded by Saudi Arabia and the "Empty Quarter" to the west, UAE to the northwest, Yemen in the south and 1,700 kilometers of coastline on the eastern side. The Sultanate is really full of wonders. His Majesty Sultan Qaboos is gay *don't tell anyone, it's not exactly kosher around here, even tho the man has almost single-handedly made this country as successful as it is today and is very highly revered despite his gaiety and gayness. Salalah has been a major trading port for Frankincense for ages, and altho the smell reminds me of my Grandfather's Catholic funeral when I was 12, it's not so bad. I guess. Yesterday I stopped the truck for camel crossings at least 5 times, turn on the Emergency lights and W-A-I-T while they sniff the air for the stench of their personal leader: the poopy ass one foot in front of their face or maybe they will stoop down to see if there might be some grass growing from the pavement by your window. Stupid and funny looking animals. If you hit one in the daytime apparently you can be fined up to $100,000. So drive slowly. Hitting one at night relinquishes you of responsibility, so you can drive as fast as you want. And people do; I think the worst drivers I've ever come across have all congregated in Salalah, and the ones who couldn't handle just driving shitty without alcohol all moved to Cape Town where the beer is cheap and readily available.
The camels aren't really used for anything but status symbols it seems, and occasionally milk and beheadings on the auspicious occasion of Eid-Ad-Adha *the Feast of Sacrifice*, at the end of Ramadan beginning December 8. Beheadings happened at intersections, on the sidewalks downtown, on the left hand side of the road, on door stoops, anywhere, really. And then, apparently the Indians who live in town, most of them vegetarian, have to then clean up after the decapitations. Very nice.
So far we've been hanging out with the Tomb of Job from the Old Testament, archaeologists excavating a 4,000 year old settlement down the road, a civilian F-16 instructor, His Excellency of course, dolphins and guitar sharks. And, thank Allah, our bosses could not be any sweeter this go-around.
The weather here is clear and a lovely 26 degrees. Yesterday, and amazingly the day before were exactly the same! This will continue until March at least. And coming from rainy rainy Thailand, we're quite happy. Nights are deliciously cool and quiet, minus the Call to Prayer *which still wakes me up every morning at sunrise. I'm sure that soon I will be able to sleep through that, the hollow banging noise coming from the patio upstairs, the doves cooing into the air conditioning, and Glen, the snoring Canadian with a badly tuned French horn for a nose at night. Soon....
I will try and write more *if this is possible after the quarterly novellas i always send out and will take photos and upload them to flickr. And I finally joined facebook, so stop telling me I really need to; I've got a nasty head cold; my luggage is slated to arrive "tomorrow"; I got the company van stuck in the sand the other day and had to have some local Bedouins drag it out for me with their Land Cruiser while I sheepishly tried to pretend it wasn't me who was in charge, *this happened the day before yesterday to the boss, so I don't feel so bad now*, tonight is "Mexican Night" at the buffet and I can't wait to start eating.
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