Category: Nizwa

an array of mosques

January 2, 2020

A mosque is a place of worship for Muslims. Mosques typically contain an ornamental niche (mihrab) set into the wall that indicates the direction of Mecca, ablution facilities (where worshipers wash before prayer) and minarets from which calls to prayer are issued.  Mosques typically have segregated spaces for men and women. They are often decorated with Islamic calligraphy, verses from the Quran, as well as floral patterns or images of fruit and vegetables. These are allusions to paradise after death.  Another symbol is the “cosmic spiral” found in designs and on minarets, a reference to heaven as it has “no beginning and no end.”

In the 15th century, Ottomans introduced central dome mosques, which have a large dome centered over the prayer hall. In addition, smaller domes commonly exist off-center over the prayer hall or throughout the rest of the mosque, where prayer is not performed. This style was heavily influenced by Byzantine architecture.

Here are a collection of mosques from my travels through Spain, Morocco, Oman, Turkey, and UAE.

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Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey

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Sultan Ahmed Mosque, also known as the Blue Mosque, in Istanbul

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Nizwa, Oman

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Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Muscat, Oman

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Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Muscat, Oman

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Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Muscat, Oman

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Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Muscat, Oman

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Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Muscat, Oman

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Bahla Mosque, Oman

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Bahla Mosque, Oman

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Bahla Mosque, Oman

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Mosque in Sohar, Oman

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Mosque at the corniche in Muscat, Oman

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mosque in Muscat, Oman

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Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, UAE

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Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, UAE

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Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, UAE

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Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, UAE

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mosque in Izki, Oman

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Mosque in Sur, Oman

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Mosque in Wadi Bani Kharous, Oman

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Mosque in Wadi Bani Kharous, Oman

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mosque in Muscat, Oman

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mosque in Muscat, Oman

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mosque in Muscat, Oman

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Torre del Aminar, the Baroque-style bell tower built over the Mezquita’s minaret

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Cordoba’s Mezquita

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Cordoba’s Mezquita

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Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, Morocco

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“PHOTOGRAPHY” INVITATION:  I invite you to create a photography intention and then create a blog post for a place you have visited. Alternately, you can post a thematic post about a place, photos of whatever you discovered that set your heart afire. You can also do a thematic post of something you have found throughout all your travels: churches, doors, people reading, people hiking, mountains, patterns, all black & white, whatever!

I am endlessly fascinated by Islamic architecture, so I assembled my favorite mosques from my travels.

You probably have your own ideas about this, but in case you’d like some ideas, you can visit my page: photography inspiration.

I challenge you to post no more than 20-25 photos (I have more here!) and to write less than 1,500 words about any travel-related photography intention you set for yourself. Include the link in the comments below by Wednesday, January 8 at 1:00 p.m. EST.  When I write my post in response to this challenge on Thursday, January 9, I’ll include your links in that post.

This will be an ongoing invitation, every first, second, and third (& 5th, if there is one) Thursday of each month. Feel free to jump in at any time. 🙂

I hope you’ll join in our community. I look forward to reading your posts!

anticipation & preparation: the sultanate of oman

May 24, 2019

On Thursday, September 15, 2011, I would leave Washington for Oman; I’d be on a plane from Dulles International Airport (IAD) at 10:50 p.m. on Qatar Airlines.  After a stopover in Doha, I would arrive in Muscat, Oman at 10:30 p.m. Friday evening. It would be about 15 hours of flying time.

Since I first got an offer from the university in early July, I’d been reading everything I could get my hands on about Oman, which wasn’t much. My friend Ed from the State Department, who was in Ethiopia for a 2-year stint, told me that when foreign service officers were assigned to the Middle East, they hoped for an Oman posting. He said they considered it the paradise of the Middle East.

On Amazon.com I found a number of books about Oman, but was especially happy to find two self-published books by Matthew D. Heines, an English teacher in Sur, Oman from 2001-2003. These books told first-hand the life of an American in Oman, teaching English at a university in Sur (not the one where I’d be of course ~ mine was in Nizwa). In the first book, My Year in Oman: An American Experience in Arabia During the War on Terror, Matthew had an intense romance with an Indian woman who taught at a university in Muscat while trying to navigate through difficult teaching dilemmas with an administration in a privately run college where there was more concern for collecting student tuition rather than providing for a good education. He told of snorkeling adventures (apparently there was great snorkeling all over Oman) and camping adventures in the mountains and wadis. He loved his students, especially the women who worked especially hard since they then had an opportunity to get an education by the progressive Sultan Qaboos. Although Matthew encountered many frustrations and hurdles in teaching, overall he had a great experience.

At the end of Matthew’s first book, his Indian girlfriend left him for an arranged marriage insisted on by her parents back in India. This despite assurances she had given Matthew from the beginning that she would never submit to an arranged marriage.

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Wadi Shab

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camels in Salalah

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Salalah

In his second book, Another Year in Oman: Between Iraq and a Hard Place… (American Experiences in Arabia), Matthew continued to suffer heartbreak from his Indian girlfriend and then began a clandestine romance with an Omani woman, which really amounted to rarely meeting in private, a lot of intense phone conversations, and meeting “by chance” in the local souq (market). He had more adventures and a slightly more positive teaching experience.  Through it all, he loved his students.  He left Oman at the end of his two years, knowing that his Omani girlfriend would ultimately end up in an arranged marriage with her cousin!!

I loved reading these stories because they were told from an expatriate’s viewpoint and he was a university English teacher, as I would be.  I couldn’t wait to experience Oman for myself and create my own adventures!

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palace of Sultan Qaboos

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Omani boy in Nizwa souq

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young man in Nizwa souq

Another book I read was Oman – Culture Smart: a quick guide to customs and culture.  This book gave me a good, but brief, overall guide to what I could expect culturally when I got to Oman.

In talking to an English teacher who had been at the university for a year, she told me that we would be provided a one bedroom apartment with a king-size bed, a living room with couch and TV, and a fully equipped kitchen. She said they would show us several apartments from which we could choose.  She also informed me we should wear long-sleeves or 3/4 sleeve tops, long pants, and would want to wear sandals year-round.  She said there were about 70 English teachers in the university and there were many new ones coming in as enrollment had increased quite a bit for the coming school year.  She said she was 62 and that there were lots of teachers there in their 50s and 60s; this made me happy after my year in Korea, where I was by far the oldest teacher there!

goat in Wadi Bani Awf
Ibra ruins
Ibra ruins
Al Areesh desert camp

I would take a number of other books along with me to Oman, including Lonely Planet guides to Oman, UAE and the Arabian Peninsula, Dubai, and Middle East.  I hoped to explore all over Oman and UAE while there.  One book was about living and working in Oman, which I would begin reading on the plane on my way there.

In a nutshell, here were my goals for my time in Oman:

1. Continue my Arabic studies and try to use the language as much as possible wherever I go in the region. Aim to achieve some degree of fluency.

2. Make some good Omani friends, as well as fellow expat friends. Love my students!

3. Save money and pay off debts.

4. Explore Oman’s nooks and crannies, mountains, wadis and beaches.

5. Explore UAE, including Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

6. Delve deep into the culture and learn to wear it like a second skin.

7. Read the Quran. Try to learn as much about Islam as possible.

8. Write a lot of blogs.

9. Take a lot of pictures!

10. Take two trips during the year, one to Jordan and one to Greece.

11. Revise my novel. Begin working on another book.

12. Try to learn as much as possible about teaching in an Arab country and add a year of university teaching to my resume. Be the best teacher I can be and establish a great rapport with my students.

These were my goals for my first year in Oman.  My time there stretched into two years, but that wasn’t planned at first. 🙂

hotel on Jebel Akhdar
Nakhal Fort and palm plantations
Nakhal Fort
Royal Opera House in Muscat

*Thursday, September 15, 2011*

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“ANTICIPATION & PREPARATION” INVITATION: I invite you to write a post on your own blog about anticipation & preparation for a particular destination (not journeys in general). If you don’t have a blog, I invite you to write in the comments. Include the link in the comments below by Thursday, June 27 at 1:00 p.m. EST.  When I write my post in response to this challenge on Friday, June 28, I’ll include your links in that post.

This will be an ongoing invitation, on the 4th Friday of each month. Feel free to jump in at any time. 🙂  If you’d like to read more about the topic, see: journeys: anticipation & preparation.

I hope you’ll join in our community. I look forward to reading your posts!

the ~ wander.essence ~ community

I invite you all to settle in and read posts from our wandering community. I promise, you’ll be inspired!

  • Sheetal, of sheetalbravon, wrote with much enthusiasm about her first ever international trip to Italy and Sweden.  You’ll want to go along with her!

Thanks to all of you who wrote posts about anticipation and preparation. 🙂

call to place: the sultanate of oman

May 23, 2019

Sometimes, our destination is handed to us. We’re offered a job in a new city, or a new country.  This is how I was called to the Sultanate of Oman.  To be honest, I’d never even heard of Oman when I was called there.  So, it was a surprise that I ended up staying two years.

I became interested in the Middle East after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. At that time, I am ashamed to say I didn’t know anything about Arab culture or Islam.  I started reading profusely and studying Arabic. I wrote a novel in which one of the main characters was an Egyptian man.  I’d never known any Egyptians nor had I ever traveled to the Middle East. My interest expanded to international affairs and I started a Master’s program in International Commerce & Policy at George Mason University in September of 2006.  Between my two years of study, in the summer of 2007, I went on an Arabic study abroad program to Cairo, Egypt.

After I completed my Master’s degree in May of 2008, I wanted to get a job in international development.  I was particularly interested in democracy-building or women’s empowerment in the Middle East. However, I applied for over 250 jobs and came up empty-handed.  I would never know if potential employers were put off by my age, which at that time was 52; the fact that my career had been in an unrelated field: 15 years in financial services (I was a stockbroker, and before that a banker – loan officer & credit analyst); or the fact that I’d been a stay-at-home mom for the previous 15 years.

I eventually decided I could get to the Middle East by teaching abroad.  I had no qualifications to teach English as a Foreign Language, except for my B.A. in English (literature). So, I spent a year in South Korea (at ages 55-56) teaching under EPIK (English Program in Korea) with the Korean Ministry of Education.  I was told they’d hire anyone with a B.A. in any subject. As soon as I put in my year there, and concurrently got the online TEFL certification, I started searching for jobs in the Middle East.

I found an ad placed by University of Nizwa on Dave’s ESL Cafe, the source in which I’ve found all my teaching abroad jobs except the first one in Korea, which I found through the Canadian recruiting company, Teachaway.  It was early summer of 2011, after I’d spent my first year teaching abroad in Korea (catbird in korea).

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Nizwa souq

On July 5, 2011, after a phone interview with three Omani men on America’s Independence Day, I received an offer letter to teach English as a Second Language at the Foundation Institute of the University of Nizwa in the Sultanate of Oman.  During that same week, I also received a job offer to teach at King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.  The salary offered by the Saudis was about $700/month higher, but after reading about Oman and learning about the pleasant life I could have there, I accepted the offer from the University of Nizwa.

On July 16, I sent the requested documents to the university and the university sent those on to the Ministry of Higher Education for its approval.  After more back and forth and more requests for “experience certificates,” I was apparently approved by the Ministry of Higher Education at the end of July.  On the morning of August 20, I received my work permit!  I really was going to live and work in Nizwa, Oman in mid-September of 2011!

To put on the final touches, on August 22, I received my plane ticket.  I had told the Human Resources Department that my nearest airport was Dulles International Airport (IAD) near Washington, D.C.  The ticket, however, had me flying out of Dallas/Forth Worth (DFW) in Texas!  Dallas/Dulles ~ only two vowels off!  Ah, the perils of communication when working and living abroad…  🙂  Two days later, I got the corrected ticket.  I would leave from IAD late on Thursday, September 15, arriving in Muscat, Oman late Friday night, September 16.  I was told that “someone” would meet me at the airport.

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Wadi Bani Khalid

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Balad Sayt

The University of Nizwa was established in 2002 by the Decree of His Majesty the Sultan Qaboos as the first non-profit university in the Sultanate of Oman; it remains the only institution of its kind in the nation. On October 16, 2004, the University of Nizwa opened the doors to its inaugural class of 1,200 students, 88% of whom were Omani women. The current campus is located near the base of the famous Jebal al-Akhdhar in Birkat al-Mouz, 20 km NW of Nizwa. The construction of a new campus, located near the new Farq-Hail highway began in March of 2010.

Though the student body comprises native Arabic speakers, the official language of academic instruction is English, making the university a bilingual institution. English language proficiency is achieved in a year-long intensive course as part of the academic General Foundation Program.

The Foundation Program is the University preparatory program for entering students.  According to the guidelines established by the Ministry of Higher Education, it offers English Language, Computer Literacy, Mathematics, and General Study Skills.

Misfat al Abriyyen
ruins of Adam
Sur

*Wednesday, August 24, 2011*

a nomad in the land of nizwa

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“THE CALL TO PLACE” INVITATION: I invite you to write a post on your own blog about what enticed you to choose a particular destination. If you don’t have a blog, I invite you to write in the comments.  If your destination is a place you love and keep returning to, feel free to write about that.  If you want to see the original post about the subject, you can check it out here: imaginings: the call to place.

Include the link in the comments below by Wednesday, June 26 at 1:00 p.m. EST.  My next “call to place” post is scheduled to post on Thursday, June 27.

If you’d like, you can use the hashtag #wanderessence.

This will be an ongoing invitation, on the fourth Thursday of each month. Feel free to jump in at any time.  🙂

I hope you’ll join in our community. I look forward to reading your posts!