“2 events 2 Special Seats “

Muscat, Oman

The day after the goat auction, Aida was so kind to arrange tickets to the opera house. Aida said, “I reserved special seats for you”. Sounds good, I thought. This show was going to be outdoors and was the first time they had ever done an outdoor production. There is a dress code so to make sure we were respectful, we dressed accordingly and got dressed up.

The instructions were to go to the opera house and to call her friend, he would escort us to our seats. When we arrived we could not reach the friend but were escorted to an area with grey seats which was fine for us, we thought. This friend of Aida’s called us and said they wanted us to sit in a different area and insisted we come meet him down on the marble floor. We did as instructed and were then escorted to the red plastic theatre seats facing the front of the performance area instead of the side seats.

Just before the performance began this friend came to us and told us we needed to follow him. We were not sure what was happening but we got up and followed him around the back side of the seating area. Then he started walking up the red carpet stairs into the area where royalty and ministry officials were sitting. There were probably 30 red velvet comfortable chairs and this was where the “special seats had been arranged”. The four us were amazed by this. WOW is all I can say.

The performance theme was the history of Oman and it was spectacular. I have never seen such a production. People in the air dancing, large boats floating in the air, Mother earth balloon, where a woman was dancing while hanging from the ballon. There were holograms on the walls, people on stilts with incredible costumes, I could go on for awhile.

I was sitting next to a conductor, I think. We kept smiling and laughing while looking towards each other and I’d say things like “wonderful”. He would say, “thank you”.

There was a photographer who took photos of him and the people behind me. After the show I was standing and talking to the gentleman sitting next to me and then turned to the men behind me (who had bodyguards next to them) and said to them, “it was magnificent! The choreography, costume, music, props. What a wonderful production.” They all smiled and thanked me and said, “we are pleased that you enjoyed it”. Then they motioned for us to leave before them. Off we went back to our flat across the street.

When we got back to our flat Stewart realized he had forgotten his water bottle, so he took off to go back and get it. I was talking with Andrew on the phone and did not go along. Although I had thought of it, but didn’t. Well, I had wished I had.

When Stewart got over to the Opera House a women was standing at the stairs with his water bottle. She had been told to wait there because we’d come back for it and to relay a message. We had been invited for dessert from the gentlemen I have just mentioned. By then it was a little late. Stewart was told where they were but it was not clear to him where that was. He came back to the flat with this huge smile on his face and told me about the invitation.

Too bad I didn’t go with him, but it’s the thought that counts. I keep saying how the people here
are so genuinely kind, friendly and hospitable. This was another example.

During the performance Stewart took a few photos without flash. You can get an idea of what it was like. Just had to share this story it was so exciting and what a contrast to the day before at the goat auction.

Environmental days in Muscat

Due to the fact that Stewart is working for the Ministry of the Environment and Conservation (MECA) I get the opportunity to learn about interesting projects and lectures. There are mangroves in the middle of the city of Muscat in a park called Qurm Nature Preserve which abuts the beach. Since 2008 MECA has been working on this mangrove project with Bader Al Belushi from Oman and Tomoo Shoji from Japan. They developed a nursery to raise more trees to help expand this small grove. The day I was there they had invited college students, 4th thru 6th graders, people from MECA and the public. Everyone was put to work and they planted 1,000 trees. I had planned on helping plant, since we all know it’s right up my ally. But I got involved talking with Tomoo. He was explaining to me about an invasive plant that is killing the trees in the mangrove. I got a private tour of the area and while I was listening and observing I came up with an idea. So I introduced my idea to him and he became very excited because he had not thought of that. So we will now be doing some experimenting and see if it will work. I now hope to be a part of this experiment to help out.

After speaking with Tomoo I went back into the mangroves to see the activity and there I saw some men cutting back this invasive plant so I went down and talked with this one man about this invasive plant. We talked for awhile and then walked back to the shaded group area and visited more. Mohammed is his name and he is going to the University in Muscat studying marine biology and will graduate this fall. He was a delight to meet and offered to give Shira and I a ride home. At some point during our visit he explained to me where he lives and how their village has some of the largest date palm trees in Oman and is a major area for the date industry. He then invited me to come and visit.

The younger students’ teachers invited us to visit their school, the Ahmad
Bin Majid Private School, the following week for their Earth Day program. The students were going to give presentations of their experiences at the nature preserve and what they were learning in school about the environment. So last week Shira and I drove over to their school. I’m so glad we went. The children were in awe of us. Inside the auditorium 3 walls were covered with posters they made. The teachers encouraged us to view the posters and then they escorted us to the front row as their honored guest. We listened to the students’ power point presentations, speeches and some dancing, all about the environment and presented in English.

Afterwards we were invited to go outside and help them plant 5 Neem trees which we did. The Neem tree is where neem oil comes from and is what I use as a safe insecticide on shrubs and other plants in the US.

The Omani tradition is to honor guests by sharing tea, coffee, biscuits and dates. Shira and I were invited to the school library where we sat with a few of the teachers and principal, we all chatted for a short while and were asked if we’d come back to their school and we agreed to do so.

When we left the school we were so pleased we had visited. There were supposed to be people there from the Ministry of the Environment but they were too busy to make it. We were considered their replacement. So that day we represented the Omani government and the USA.

So proud and look forward to the next visit.