Trying to post pics - we'll see if this works!

Wish me luck. Here goes....

1/28/08

Last ones for tonight are attached. The beautiful blue water pic is of a Wadi we hiked into for an hour and then got to swim in. It led to all these pools of intensely blue water that looked like they were lit from beneath. The blond woman in that pic is my aunt. From that first pool you see we swam and hiked in and out of several wadi pools and finally swam through this little crevice through a cave for about 25 feet which then opened up to a gorgeous cavernous pool. The swim was really good for my arm. I think the resistance of the water helped to loosen up where the camel had kicked.

The memory chip with my dune-bashing and dune skiing pics is up in the room, and I need to get to bed. More hopefully tomorrow if they give us time to chill out for more than two seconds so I can email!!! :-) I'll also try to put in more stories about the people we've been meeting and the types of interactions we've been having. I have to be careful about emailing some of those details. It's tough b/c I wish I could be totally free to say whatever like back in the States. Just know that we are connecting with people but that a lot of patience and restraint is required.

I meant what I said about you guys emailing me what's going on with your life. I don't want two months to go by and me totally be detached. I am realizing more than ever how much all of you mean to me.

Also, has the stock market crashed over there??? What's going on, or should I not want to know?

Good night!
Susan

1/28/08

1/28/08 - PICS FROM OMAN

1/28/08 - It's 1:15am here but I am trying to send you guys a few pics before going to bed since I've had such a hard time posting them to my blog...... please bear with me. I'm sending 2 by 2 so they go through..........this hotel lobby computer is SO SLOW it's driving me nuts!

Here's a story while I wait for these pics to attach -- Wednesday night we are going to the Muscat festival with a group of Omani women we met last week. We were invited to their home and had the whole traditional coffee and sweet noodles, dates, and oranges pre-meal meal in the majales (sp?) room. Then we had a full on real meal with them. The whole event took nearly five hours! It was getting so late that they ran out of time to do this tradition where they put a pot of burning incense under your skirt to make you smell good. I can't remember the name of it but if I find out I'll let you know. It's about the weirdest tradition I've ever heard of, but at this point nothing is really surprising me anymore. :-)

1/28/08

1/28/08 - CAMEL ATTACK!

I am retroactively updating my blog since I couldn't access it from overseas. All the headers were in Arabic for the first half of my trip, and then poor internet access became the issue. This post was from an email I sent to my supporters on Jan. 28th...

Hi all,

I miss you so much! I don't have too much time to write, and it's overwhelming to try to tell you all that's going on. I've been away from email from several days b/c we went on an excursion to the desert. I have lots of stories to tell, most of which can be told better through pictures, but I'm having a hard time uploading my pics onto my blog and onto a Picasa web shared album b/c I'm on the hotel lobby computer. So for now I'll just attach a few here and there.

The first pic attached is of me getting henna this morning from a Bedoin (sp?) woman out at the desert camp we stayed at last night. The Bedoins are gypsies of various tribes. We stayed in their region for two nights at two different desert camps. Yesterday we were able to snowski and snowboard on the dunes and then went dune-bashing in 4-wheel drive SUVs, which was INSANE. You won't believe it til you see the pics. I was really scared at first b/c I was in a car being driven by one of us Americans. It wasn't until I switched to a car being driven by the local guy that I was able to relax and totally enjoy it. He's been driving these dunes since he was nine, so that just put me at ease. This is a camp that our local friends here take groups to several times a year. Pray for the people who run the camps, for blessings on their families, and that God would draw them near to Him.

The other pic is of a village boy we saw on the drive to the desert. We were driving slow through a little village and stopped for something and saw this boy playing with four kittens that couldn't have been more than a day or two old. He was soooo happy playing with them and was excited to share his joy with us on the side of the road.

I have a scary story to tell -- mom, dad, Carolyn, and Kathy: close your eyes for a minute -- on the first day of our drive to the desert we stopped the cars to take pics of wild camels that were on the side of the road. Long story short I think there were too many of us too close to one of them, and I was the closest to him and happened to maybe look him in the eye too long or something, who knows why but he all of a sudden charged me. In an instant I knew I had to run for my life or be trampled by this huge beast. Something told me to suddenly zig-zag ala my powderpuff football quarterback-style moves (as seen in the BHS class of '90 yearbook). Just as I zig-zagged I threw my arm above my head and behind me to block just as his hoof or head or something came down and hit it. My arm hurt all day and is now bruised, and I was really shaken up for an hour or so, but overall I was not hurt considering how dangerous the situation was.

Since then it's been hard not to think about it, and in a weird way I've been pretty deeply affected by the incident. It's the first time I've ever had to run for my life, which is a weird feeling. One time when I was 13 I had to swim for my life when a boat was coming straight at me in the lake, but since then I can't recall feeling this feeling, and this camel thing was definitely worse. For the first day or so I kept replaying the scene over and over in my head, not being able to shake that moment of fear when I knew he was coming after me. It all happened so fast that I didn't really have an accurate picture of what went on. It wasn't until the next day that I actually got all the stories from the others about what they saw happen. The first day everyone was just trying to let the dust settle and get my mind on other things.

Apparently when the camel started to charge he was practically on me within just two big steps of his long legs. Then he reared up, which is (I'm told) right about the time I did my zig-zag. On the way I threw my left arm up and behind me to protect my head. Either his head or foot (they think his head) hit my arm and then somehow I got away and he went the other direction chasing some of the others briefly and then stopping. I know the holy spirit was what prompted me to zig-zag at that exact moment, but I literally shudder when I let my mind go to a place of wondering what would have happened had I not moved in that way in that instant. It's not healthy or productive to think about that, but naturally I was shaken up and kept thinking about that the rest of that day and the next. I'm always looking for spiritual metaphors in things lately, and I can't help but equate it to my spiritual walk. I think of the certain death I was headed towards before God rescued me, and I shudder to think of what would have been had he not stepped in. But I shouldn't fixate on that, rather on his mercy and love and promises of future grace. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1

Another interesting side note about the camel incident is that I didn't even have my sandals on all the way. I had slipped my toes into my Teva straps but hadn't fastened the strap around my heel. And we were on this bed of little rocks, in what they call a Wadi, which is a dried up river bed. So, the footing was shifty and insecure. How I was able to turn on a dime the way I did I'll never really know.

This morning I conquered my new fear of camels by going on a camel ride. This one was muzzled and leashed, so it wasn't so bad, and actually I really enjoyed it!! I'll send pics in a separate email so they go through.

Please send me updates on your lives and what's going on in Austin and cities you live in. I'm already feeling a tiny bit homesick and really really like hearing about you guys b/c it helps me feel connected. I may not be able to respond one-on-one, but know that I am reading them all!!

Attached is a picture of the guilty camel. You can tell by the look on his face that he is about to go postal on me.

Love to all,
Susan

1/28/08

More Oman pics!

Enjoy!

Lots of Oman pics!

Enjoy!

Finally, I can blog again!

Hi you guys!

Sorry for the delay in posting to my blog. I haven't been able to because the headers are all in Arabic, so I couldn't figure out how to log in. Somehow I figured it out tonight, so yay!

Due to security reasons I won't be able to blog about the specific spiritual aspects of my journey as I had hoped. But I CAN use it to post pictures and tell you about the touristy stuff we do.

Muscat (the cap city of Oman) is very beautiful. It's a coastal city with absolutely perfect tempertatures in the high 70s right now, although in the summer it often gets up 120. It kinda reminds me of a middle eastern La Jolla, California. Everything is super clean and nice, in fact, people can get ticketed if their car is too dirty! All the cars look normal and people drive normal... I even drove a couple times since I'm one of the only ones who can drive a stick shift.

All the buildings are white, many with beautiful intricately designed doors, windows, and gates. Most of the homes are huge, since extended families tend to all live together. There are virtually no poor people, becase Oman is an oil rich nation. It makes getting the gospel into this country even more difficult. The people here are very comfortable in every worldly way. One of the benefits of their wealth for us is that we can freely eat the food and drink the water without fear of getting sick. That's been nice and has alleviated some of the culture shock I experienced in Africa and Panama.

The major culture shock here is in the male/female relationships and the way I as a woman have to dress and act. The females in our group have chosen to respect the local culture of the Omanis and "cover" ourselves as much as possible, unlike most American tourists who come here and don't care that they are completely offending the locals. This means that we mostly wear long loose ankle-length skirts and long baggy shirts. If we wear pants we wear shirts long enough to completely cover our butts and crotch area. That's a big deal here. When we visited the Grand Mosque this morning we were required to cover our heads, wrists, and ankles. Many of the westerners who showed up to tour the mosque were denied admittance because of how they were dressed.

The other thing we have to do is avoid eye contact with Omani men as much as possible, unless they are working at a store or at the festival, then we can talk about that and exchange pleasantries like "Salaam Alekum" (peace to you). More than that is considered inappropriate and loose. The weird thing is though, that we CAN make eye contact and talk to the many Indian and Pakistani men who live and work here. At first we were all like, how on earth are we supposed to know who is Omani vs. Indian vs. Pakistani??? In America we are taught NOT to racially profile, but here it's a necessity. Basically, you can tell who everyone is pretty much by how they dress. The Omani men wear the starched long white (occassionally brown) robe called a Bid-Bid with a cap that has beautiful intricate embroidered designs. The Indian men dress like westerners, and the Pakistani men look like they are wearing pajamas -- long flowy pants with long flowy knee-length shirts.

At the Muscat Festival the other night we got some food and had a good time laughing and joking with the Egyptian food vendors. They are Muslim, but not as strict, and because they were vendors we were able to be more relaxed with them. But then we had to go sit on the "women's side" of the eating area. When we bought tickets for the rides there were separate men's and women's lines.

With few exceptions the women here all wear long traditional black "abayas". All of them cover their hair completely, and some cover their entire face except for the slits of their eyes. We've seen a few who actually wear a complete face veil that they can see through but we can't see in, not even their eyes. It's kinda creepy looking, but you get used to seeing it and now we even comment on how beautiful and different certain abayas are. We're told that women here claim to love "covering" and say they choose it because they prefer it and feel more "free". Hmmmmm, I'm not sure I'm buying that!

I could talk all night about the dress and the male/female thing. It's been a major thing to get used to. I'm just not used to rubbing elbows with people who look like sheiks!!

I'm running out of time on my prepaid computer card and want to post some pics, so GOOD NIGHT!

Love,

Sooz