Divali, Eid, and Halloween - Treats, Treats, and MORE Treats (and a few tricks too!)

Trick or Treat, Smell Our Feet Give Us Something Good for Eid!!

Ah, Fall Solstice, the new moon, and the end to Ramadan's fast and sacrifice!! You've gotta love it! Autumn is really starting to shape up around here: humidity is dropping (pshaw! Humidity around here is a joke said the Texan!), the temperature is dropping--highs in the mid to upper 80's or so, and people are beginning to get out and about. It's time to do some camping! School's in full swing and going great as well; no complaints here!

I want to start off with some random pictures from the past three weeks or so, just to catch you up on our pasttimes:

Does anyone know how to break the pacifier habit?



Kai, having a real ball in Oman!



Washing the Nativa (you have to almost daily around these parts--dust accumulates quickly and police issue tickets for dirty cars!!)




Another Roadside Attraction!









Peek-a-BOO! Emma!

















Fall Fest and Halloween

TAISM puts on a Fall Festival each year to allow faculty, staff, students and parents to dress up in costumes, trick or treat, and enjoy a multitude of activities on campus. It was a blast, and a great time shared between parents and teachers. Emma was a ladybug, and Kai was Thomas the Train Engine (a MAJOR hand to Shawna for creating the costume!) I was the anchor-man in the sponge toss booth, and Kai and Emma made out like bandits with bags of candy!

Our little bug-child (Franz Kafka would be inspired!)



Conductor Kai!! TooT, TooT!


And when Halloween arrived, the Early Childhood and Kindergarten classes all dressed up and paraded around school during class time. It was so cute!!











That night, we had trick or treating at the on-campus housing (our pad included), and the High School principal and his family opened up their home for a Halloween party and the traditional viewing of, "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!!"

Look kids! It's the Great Pumpkin!!












8:30 or so was the "witching-hour" and we shut everything down, tricked and treated out. The next couple of holidays were just around the corner--Eid and Divali.

Eid Mubarak!!
Eid is the end of Ramadan, marked by great festivities and gift giving--much the same as Christmas, but 10 days long this year for the general public! We only had 5 days off (TAISM is considered the "private sector" of Muscat--drats! The Ministry had the whole 10 days to fest away!), but we made the most of it. Coincidentally, during this time was Divali (pronounced either Divali OR Diwali, depending on what part of India a person is from), or the Indian Festival of Lights. Taken from www.pranavashram.com, "DIVALI or DEEPAVALI means “a row of lights”. It also commemorates that blessed day on which the triumphant Lord Rama returned to Ayodhya after defeating Ravana." Essentially, it is a day of prosperity, sort of like our New Year. So there you go, two events to celebrate, so we decided to head to the beach!! Back to Asaylah point!!

Eid Break Camping Trip--Saturday, November 5th

We headed out at 5:30 a.m. for the four hour trek across the northeastern part of Oman, back to the point break I surfed in September. We were meeting some other surfers, including the guy I went with last time, for three days and two nights of camping "relaxation", to just "get away from it all"--yeah right. Kai was completely amped to go, so much so that, that morning, was ready and rearing to hit the "tarmack" (that's what people call paved roads around here!). He and Emma whooped and hollered and fought and screamed and had to go to the bathroom every 5 minutes (Kai's figured out the way to get me to stop for a few minutes, crafty devil!) the ENTIRE drive. Fortunately for us, we'd changed travel plans at the last minute--we were supposed to actually drive to another beach 7 hours away; WHAT were we thinking! We finally (well, barely!) made it there at about 10:30 in the morning. There weren't any other people on the entire beach, not even fishermen yet, so we pitched camp and had lunch. I missed the surf that day due to an extreme low tide. Oh well, the next two days were supposed to be better anyway (little did I know!), so we had a family day at the beach, playing under the shade and in all of the tide pools revealed by the low tide.

Nice do, Kiddo!


We were greeted in the evening by Joe and Kirsten, a couple from Muscat. They've been here 7 years and have no plans to leave. We decided to surf in the morning when Mark and another guy named Bruce (Kai called him "Bruce, the friendly Shark"--HA), and spent the evening settling in for a quiet, peaceful night on the beach.

Well, to make it short, the solar shower fell apart about every way you could imagine (thus, no shower), we could not load the fuel canister into the butane lantern (thus, no light), and, attribute it to the surging sounds of the ocean and all the water moving around, Kai had an accident and pretty much flooded the tent and all of the bedding (thus, no place to sleep the next night). Shawna and I crawled, as from a tomb, out of the tent at 5 a.m., kids up and ready for the beach, and decided to let me surf and head back to Muscat. But we still had the day to go, and what a day it was (see the following pictures):

Beautiful sunrise over Asaylah point and 300 meter long waves


It was a very pleasant morning: cool temps, incredible morning light show, roaring surf...what more could ask for after the night we had?!







Pt. Asaylah with Shawna, Kai and Emma

(note the set of the day firing off in the background!!)











Brady, early into one of extended rides of the day (I rode so far inside the cove after this that I had to get out and walk back up to the point! That's how I know what wave this is!!)



Unfortunately, Shawna only got one shot of me surfing--you try to wrangle two little squid AND snap a quality shot! I surfed 3 1/2 hours, then we packed up and headed home.




Oman National Day is in a week and a half, so expect something then...

More to come!