Level 3 in HACCP

About a month ago I went for a training course that is mandatory for my work. It was the level 3 course for HACCP, an internationally recognized Food Safety course. So I followed the course for three days and then did the exam. Lo and behold. I passed with flying colors. I passed with distinction.

So what did I learn about myself regarding this matter. First of all that I do have the necessary personal characteristics for completing some sort of education. Secondly I learned that participating in training is a very good way for me for learning because;

1. They are often only for a short period of time which allow me to complete without getting distracted.

2. There is no further relations/obligations with the training center (opposed to a school)

3. The learned knowledge is relevant for what I am working on and can thus be applied immediately

4. There is a certificate is direct proof of the acquired knowledge and skills

So hooray for completing the level three of HACCP. Now this week I am attending with the rest of the HSE department the training for Level 4 in HACCP. It goes more in depth in the principles of HACCP and touches new subjects.

Now I also hope that I can do a couple of other courses such as intermediate and advanced Food Hygiene. It would make me very happy if I were able to complete these as well before I leave Oman. But lets first make sure that I pass this HACCP course.

For the rest... it is raining in Muscat. It really reminds me of when I lived in Suriname. Relatively warm weather and heavy showers raining down and blocking traffic everywhere. But it is a good change. It is really winter here... man it's cold... at night it even drops to about 20 degrees Celsius ;-)

Eid holiday - Sunday

It is Sunday. I am get up. I take a shower and prepare myself for a couple of days in Sur.

Sur is not even that far, and I have been there before but still it feels like going on a holiday. I am going to stay with the Ruzaigi family. That is the family of Khalid, my host, manager and older brother all in one. So I leave at ten o clock and during my drive to Sur I stop a couple of times to take some pictures.

At twelve I arrive at Sur and have lunch with the family. I also meet some guys my own age with whom I will spend most of my time the next couple of days. Lunch of course is extensive and although there are about 15-20 people siting on the floor not many conversations are held. Mazin, Saleh and I leave after lunch to take a tour through Sur. Now Sur is traditionally closely related to the sea and has a long history of naval activity such as overseas trading, fishery and shipbuilding. Therefore we first visit a big old ship displayed at the old harbour, previously used for offloading ships but now turned into a marble paved boulevard. This ship is about 20 meters long and was use I believe for short journeys only. Before they used to build ships that were about 60 meters in length. After this short stop we head to the shipyard were they still built ships. Working on two ships the workers – mostly Indians – still built the ships mainly with simple basic tools. Visiting this smal yard doesn't make it hard to picture the social and economic life of older times in this town to have fully revolved around the fabrication of these ships. So much for culture and history. We continue walking around Sur and the neighbouring town of which I forgot the name but is connected to Sur by a recently opened bridge.

While walking and talking I am surprised about what I learn about the muslim country that I have lived in now for about two months now. I didn't expect to meet so many cultural muslims. Muslims who say they believe in Allah and meet all the religious expectations of going to the mosque and praying but in the end don't really care about it. Very interesting. I hope to investigate the opinions of the people of my age more here in Oman.

Any way, then a plan for the evening is forged. We will go to Ras Al Hadd and do some night snorkling, we'll catch some fish and lobster and then sleep under the bare sky. Good plan. Good plan. We make the necessary preparations and head to Ras Al Hadd, about 50km to the West of Sur.

A little before Ras Al Hadd we find a good location for snorkling, refered to as my Omani friends as diving, and get prepared. Fins, goggles, wetsuit, weights, torch and of course an underwater spear. The sea appears calm so we decide to give it a go. The water temperature is agreable and the visibility perfect. I had never done night diving before so this was a new experience to me. Although it seemed that many of the fish were sleeping there was an abundance of marine life to sea. There were for instance many small jellyfish that lit up in fluorescent colours when shone upon with the torch. And it was very noisy. Many creaking and sizzling noises made by I don't know what kind of creatures.

We started our hunt. Bahgwan, one of the guys demonstrated t me how to spear lobster and cuttlefish properly. Now the thing with cuttlefish is that, like octopuses, the excrete some cloud of ink when threatened and turning the water around you completely black. An interesting experience. When starting to hunt I felt kind of apprehensive and hestitant because it is not a daily thing for me to take the life of lobster and cuttlefish. It was not so much that I felt bad for the creatures, they were going to serve a good purpose in being our dinner, but more of the fact that it was not experienced in it. We spent about an hour in the water during which I saw a couple of rays, murene eals and a sleeping meter long turtle in a big crevice. The gain of the hunt was about twenty five cuttle fish and I guess about twenty lobsters.

The rest of the guys had aready started a fire that had turned into coals. Perfect for barbequeing the lobsters. We spend a couple of hours sitting under a beautiful clear sky, eating the fresh lobster from the sea and enjoying ourselves in random conversations.

Then our group of about ten guys broke up in two. With three other guys I went to one of the beaches where turtles lay there eggs. Testing our jeep to the max by driving over/through the sand dunes we reached the beach. No sight of big turtles laying their eggs but we did find some small hatchlings that were actually stuck in the nets that fishermen had carelessly had left behind. Filled with care for these small fin flapping sea creatures and as any responsible citizen would have done we freed them from the nets and set them free. I would have expected a little more intellegence from these 'wicked dudes' (you must have seen Nemo...) cause we had to correct them three times before they headed in the direction of the sea; a beautiful place of both freedom and danger. How small the chances that they might come back at exactly this beach in so many years to lay their own eggs here (provided that they were indeed of that gender)!

Then we continued to the final chapter of our day. Making our camp for the night at Ras Al Hadd to wait for the sunrise to come. Baghwan knew a place away from the crowded places where many Indians and Omani spend Eid holiday on the beach. In a small shelter, probably normally in use by fishermen we rolled out a mat and reposed ourselves for a couple of hours. The House of the Rising Sun... but not really. Now Ras Al Hadd means Head of the Edge and it is a place of specific significance. First of all because it is the place furthest in in the Middle East and thus the place where the sun can be seen first in this part of the world. Also it is important because it is the place in the sea where the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea converge. This contributes to climate that is very much more pleasant during the hot Omani summers.

Having slept about two hours I woke up by the sound of my alarm, set for the witnessing of the sunrise. I looked around and the light in the sky announced the birth of a new day. I waited halve an hour and then the sun made its shining appearance. Indeed a new day had come. The Father who by the power of his life giving Breath and the speaking of his Word had created the sun so long ago be praised for this daily miracle.

Eid holiday - Saturday

Eid holiday was a bliss. Taking rest and not experiencing any stress from work. Great.

Although I got sick at the end of Eid it was a great time to meet (new) people, see some things of the country and like I said, take rest from work.Friday, the first day of Eid was for me a day to go to church and spend some time reading. I was reading 1984 by George Orwell. I never knew that book was so good. And Church is always good too. Weekly I go there to take communion and spend time in prayer and worship with my fellow brothers and sisters: all honor and glory to Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Anyway, Saturday I left in the morning to go to Abdullah, my coworker who lives in Shinaz, about 3 hours to the West of Musqat.

Arriving at his house I was welcomed in the guest room, the only room I would be seeing that day

. This is typical for Omani hospitality; receiving guests in the guest room. No tour du maison or meeting any of women. We sad down to have water and fruit and afterwards some qa'awa and hahloawah. That is coffee and sweets. The Omani coffee is coffee with cardemom and served in tiny cups. The sweet is a very very sweet almost jellylike substance served traditionally at

eid (although you can get it al throughout t

he year).

Having sat there for a while and having met Abdollahs older brother Khamis we went to collect the result of a daylong cooking process. We went to collect the goat that was killed the day before at eid. What they do to prepare it for dinner is cutting it in pieces, wrapping it in some sort reed protective and draining it in water. After this is is put in a hole in the ground (about 1.5 meter/ 5 feet) and cooked/smoked over hot

charcoal. Result is a delicious tender piece of goat meat with a strong smokey flavour. This was our lunch. It was really good.

(photo's: the wicker basket with in the pot the heads of the goats. On the plate the prepared meat. yummy)

Having had lunch with the family (and again... of course only the men were there, because it is improper to meet the women in the family in their house) Abdullah and I went for a d

rive to Shinaz. There we found that the weekly bullfights were about to start. Normally these are on friday, but because of Eid they were postponed a day.

Since the famous bullfights were on my list of things that I would like to see in Oman I was feeling happy to be able to witness this

cultural event, charactaristic to the west of Oman. The bullfights are pretty gentle in Oman. Nothing bloody or really agressive. More of a challenge and short struggle to see who is the strongest of the two fighting bulls. As we arrived at the 'arena', an open field of about 40x40 meters, we saw about 30 bulls roped to poles encircling the battlefield. Some of them making load roaring sounds, probably showing somesort of displeased attitude, and other bulls were scraping the ground with there hooves (or what ever sort of foot it is that bulls have) causing dust flying around. The bulls were not really big though. The back was probably about 1.5 meters high. Yet they were able to show enough strength and toughness to intimidate me and all the rest of the people watching. But I guess that is the idea of the thing.

And then the fighting started. First, two bulls were distached from the poles and led to the centre of the arena. There they were placed at about 2 feet from eachother facing eachothers' ferocious (well, not really) looking horns. Then the fight began. There were a couple of scenarios. In scenario one, the first bull was scared of the other and ran away. Not really a big show, although at one occassion, one bull almost ran into the crowd of spectators. But of course we were not there, nor was it the point of the bull fight, to see the crowd being torn to pieces by a bull that was almost wetting his pants. Then in the second scenario the bulls didn't really care about eachother and were just looking at one another with the greatest amount of indifference. Too bad, no show. But, of course, the third scenario was what we were hoping for. A great display of power in a struggle to dominating the other bull.

Mainly what happened was the bulls beating their head against the each other and trying to

subjugate the opponnent by pushing its head to the ground. Most of the time these fights only took about 30 seconds upto two minutes. At the end, the ropes that were still attached to the necks of these 'behemoths', were grabbed some Omanis that had the job of controlling the beasts after the fights and the bullls were brought back to their place outside the ring. Most of the time

I had no idea how to determine which bull had won in the end. Sometimes the game just ceased and the bulls were seperated. But anyhow I really enjoyed this old Omani tradition. Reflecting on it the fact that these battles were pretty docile might be related to the friendliness of the Omani people... who knows.

After the game we went back to the house. I wanted to go home, because I had a long way to go and had to get up early in the morning, but of course I had to stay for dinner. I could not just leave like that. Dinner it should be and dinner it was going to be. So I stayed for another meal and then headed back to Muscat to take rest before my next adventure in Sur began....

(to be continued)

Last week and this week

Moi! Alles goud? Lekker guhsloap'n...? I had a guest over last week. From Winsum, Groningen, of all places. He was here for a week to built a new sort of Portacabin that one of our sister companies is developing. Basically the concept is a regular Portacabin stucture, but the walls and ceiling are made of EPS; Styrofoam oftewel, piepschuim. More energy efficient because of high the isolation value. Anyway, Romke was here and he stayed in my appartment since I have a two bedroom appartment. It was very interesting to have a Dutch guy over in the house for a week. Very different from me; it was good to have some companionship. His remarks on things like burka's and arranged marriage here were very interesting. Personally I can easily accept those things here because it is not my country and not my culture. Although in my own life I would not approve of it I guess. I mean, not that I am going to run around in a Burka, but you know, if that would happen in my family ... Anyway Romke, he couldn't accept it which led to interesting situations. He for instance was really shocked when he saw a lady in a totally covered burka, the ones that veil the fase entirely so also the eyes. “dat is toch niet normoal! Dat ken toch neit!” Also he learned that it is hard to work with Indian laborers. No intrinsic motivation, only work when there is a supervisor. They did not even start building the framework needed for his work. It gave a three day delay. And that while he was only here for a week. Anyhow, we visited some sites in the area here and last Friday he went back to Holland.

Speaking of Holland, today I missed Holland. I wanted just to go there and spend time with my beloved friends and familiy. Visit Wicher in Rotterdam, Roel Henk Jelmer en David in Groningen and of course my family in Overrijssel. Ik mis jullie om me heen. On the other hand. I am happy that I am here. The weather is gorgeous now. Like 28 degrees celcius and a nice breeze. Perfect beach weather. My apartment is nice. And I am well taken care off.

And of course, which you probably don't know, it is Eid holiday here. A week off! Hooray. No work. This is the second eid after the ramadan and starts about 70 days after the end of the ramadan. The first eid, Eir al Fitr, is directly after the ramadan. This eid is called Eid ul-Adha and is the Festival of Sacrifice. I believe the origin of the name is related to Ibrahim in the Quran (Abraham in the Holy Bibe) who was willing to sacrifice his son. In the Quran version of this story it is not Isaac btw, but Ismael that fulfills this role. On this eid muslims traditionally slaughter a goat I believe it is, and eat it with the family. I don't exactly know though.

So during eid, actually this Saturday, I will go with my colleague Naseem and his family to visit Abdullah, who lives like 3 hours from here and have lunch with him and his family. And on Sunday I will be going to Sur, you know that place where I was treated as a royal guest before, to stay a couple of days at Mr. Khalids family house. No idea what is going to happen, but I bet it is going to be a good time. And then after there I will go to Badar. He comes from a Bedouin family and I will spend some days there. In the middle of nowhere. A big adventure also. And then probably the week will be about over after that and work will start again.

Ow and of course my plans for around new years eve I will be in the States to celebrate the reunion with my friends from GMS. I am so pumped about this and cannot wait for this to happen. I am lucky that they gave me off at work. So I can stay there for about 10 days.

So after eid I will definitely post some pictures and have great lenghty stories to tell.

Ma-salaam!

De Woestijn

Boven de woestijngrond wevelt 't zand.
Opgejaagd.
Door dorre droge lucht.

---

Hier en daar een bosje
met een enkel blaadje misschien.
Het smeekt om water.
Volgend jaar misschien.
Of niet.

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Zand zover ik kijken kan
Zand overal.
Zoveel nakomelingen?

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Ik zie een meer.
Dat zeggen mijn ogen.
De lucht trilt boven het zand.
Mijn ogen liegen.
Ze zijn bedrogen

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Vonnis: Schuldig bevonden voor het staan op sigarettenpakjes.
Straf: levenslang in de zandbak

Guess what I did today?

Guess what I did today?

Feeling good

Last week I was feeling stressed and drained. I felt pressure from work as some problems with a client presented themselves. I felt overly responsible and didn't really know how to deal with the pressure. But since yesterday the sun is shining again. Again I went swimming in the afternoon. In the evening went to a wonderful bible studies. I feel like I have energy again. That feels good. I feel blessed. Just now, this afternoon during my lunch time (remember that we have a 2 hours break from 1-3) I went to "Mandi" to eat Yemeni food. Biryani rice, with chicken and mutton. Really good. And after that we went to a coffee bar to have turkish coffee with seeshah (hookah/waterpipe). It was relaxing. Now I feel like sleeping. But there is a lot of work waiting for me and the HSE team. Plans for tonight. Go to the mall and go to bed early.
I'll try to post some more pictures too soon.

And by the way the Hanze Hoogeschool asked me to write something about my experiences. So pick up a HanzeMag if you are in Groningen on the Hanze next month.

Love you all! Gods bless to you all!

Business cards

Finally I recieved my business cards. It took some time but know I got them. Yeah!
I also had a meeting with a senior HSE officer of Galfar, one of our clients, today. Working together with people from all these different organisations and companies gives me energy. I like it.

For the rest. I am still trying listen to myself and also relax; that is not easy cause I learned that in a formal environment I find it hard to doing so, I often feel confined by it. It is good to know this about myself. But dealing with it is alway a second, and harder, step to take.

Leuke link

Mijn lieve moeder stuurde me een interessante link:

Http://www.nieuwekerk.nl/nl/index.htm

In de nieuwe kerk in Amsterdam gaan ze namelijk binnenkort over tot prediking van het in Oman gepractiseerde Ibadisme nadat voorganger zich na een bezoek in Oman zich daartoe heeft bekeerd. Uiteraard is dat maar een grapje van mijn kant. Maar er is wel een expositie over Oman. Misschien leuk om naar toe te gaan. De site geeft een uitgbreide beschrijving van Oman, de cultuur, historie etcetera.

Comments

Okay, now I changed settings on my blog so everyone should be able to post comments. I heard that many people had problems doing so.

Wadi Mussallem

I spent three days in one of the kitchens that I think I wrote about earlier. With two Philippino colleagues (Sam and Salvador) I went to Wadi Mussallem, the name of the camp. I felt honestly bad for the supervisor there. The kitchen was just a mess and was so dirty. The stoves for instance were creating big black fumes. Terrible. Rajesh, the supervisor, was pretty desperate about it.

Anyway, after taking rest for one night we started working in the morning with the observation phase. Having collected the data we analyzed the most urgent problems and drew up an approach plan. This we discussed with Rajesh. He was happy we were there.

And in the afternoon the fun part started. We sat together with the entire crew and explained the program for the next couple of days. Since I don't speak Hindi very well and they only speak "shuee shuee" English, Rajesh was translating. But there is this big language problem so communication goes slow. Funny also. Then after the meeting Sam did a basic training on personal hygiene and food training. We introduced basic things like the "clean as you go" cleaning concept. In the evening at 9.30 we started to do a deep cleaning of the kitchen. This took to 2.15 am. And not even halve of it was done. But it was a good start that helped to clean the kitchen and reorder it. They day after we focused more on hygiene practices in the kitchen and training the supervisor. I enjoyed it very much. I took on the attitude of being strict and patient at the same time. It worked very well, I hope... It was for me a great experience. It is harder to instill change in people's behavior. I tried to give Rajesh some good tools to work with for the future. I just hope he succeeds. That will make me happy to :-) So that might give you some idea of what I am working on here in Oman. I'll post some pictures of my work soon too.

Ow. A nice thing. This weekend I am getting new furniture for my apartment. I am looking forward to sitting on my sofa with a good cup of coffee...

Even ventileren....

O man, wat zijn Indiers soms toch ook irritante mensen. Komt er een supervisor van een van onze locatie omdat ie problemen heeft. Dus bel ik met onze client om zijn kant van het verhaal te horen. Krijg ik een woordenvloed van onverstaanbaar Indiaas engels over me heen. Dus vraag duidelijk aan die man om rustig te praten. Dit houdt die man twee zinnen vol en rammelt dan weer door in onbegrijpbare kreten. Naja, wat een gedoe heey. Het frustreert me wel hoor maar ik sla me er door. Uiteindelijk heb ik niet het idee dat er iets zinnigs uit is gekomen. Ik moet gewoon nog leren omgaan met Indiers. Rare jongens zijn het. Maar aan de andere kant ook wel veel spanning aan mijn hoofd hoor. Het werk is wel een uitdaging maar niet makkelijk. Ik begin nu ik ook echt in de organisatie aan het werk ga dat er echt een gebrek aan organisatie en samenwerking is. Naja. beste beentje voor. Ik ga er voor. Bid maar voor rust in mijn hoofd. Alle lof aan God!

Gorgeous day (last weekend)

It is seven o clock. My alarm goes off. I want to stay in bed but I won't. Today is Thursday and I have taken the morning off. Andy – who I met at Church before - is taking me on a trip to visit some different nice Omani sites. We meet up at somewhere at at the Sultan Al Qaboos High way and start our trip in his 4x4 Daihatsu Terios. Our journey plan is to go to Wadi Shab, a supposedly a beautiful place with palm trees and pools right in the middle of the valley (a Wadi) in the mountains. Also we want to go to the so called “sinkhole”, a big hole close to the sea that holds beautiful blue green water and fish that nibble your feet.
We drive out of the parking spot leaving my car behind and heading in the direction of Sur. We drive through the mountains near Muscat and there is little traffic. The mountains are beautiful, very rocky and and have deep red brownish colour. We talk about life, church, christians, apologetics and arrive at a town called Quriyat. A small town at the Arabian sea. We take some pictures of some nice old forts (it's Andy on the picture) and drive further along the coast.
My phone goes off. It is Mr. Khalid. I tell him that I am heading in the direction of Sur. Immediately he responds by saying that this is his hometown and that I will go to Sur to meet his family and have lunch there. Later I talk to his older brother Mr. Mussalem on the phone. We are expected at two in the afternoon.

Next stop is the sinkhole in the Dibab area. And yes, it is beautiful. More than that. A nice park surrounds the deep basin which is about 40x25 meters in diameter. A starecase with remarkably big steps leads down to the pond that has many blue and green colourations. Before descending I watch an old Omani slowly finding his way downwards, his walking stik in loosely in his right hand and at every step he takes his left hand gently pulling his Dishdash to give his legs a bit more space. It is said that people used to believe that Demons used to house this pool and call it Afreet something something. A name having to do with demons. Superstition you think?

I make my way down and find myself looking at this marvellous water. I take of my shoes and take a step in the warm water. Another step. As soon as the whirling sand settles small little fish gather around my feed and start nibbling, my toes and feet. The first minute it tickles terribly, then it becomes more of a natural foot massage. I reckon about 50 guppy-like fish are indulging on what ever substance, smell or taste it is that they make them become attracted to my feet. I sit down on a rock and enjoy this natural wonder of feet nibbling creatures. We leave this place with great satisfaction. I want to go back here sometimes.
We move on and drive further East and stop a couple of times, for instance at Fins. We take pictures enjoy the warm sun, spectacular beachview sites and when it starts getting too hot we get back in our mobile refrigerator. Oman with AC is a bliss. Before getting in the car I find a piece of coral and take it with me to put it in my appartment. I don't think I can take it back to Holland through customs though. Too bad.
We don't take the main road straight to the Wadi Shab near Tiwi by the way. No we take the old road that leads through the local villages. This is the real Oman. At one point we find ourselves in the middle of a group of Omani having a barbecue on both sides of the street. Strangely they look at us as we pass their local gettogether, they don't seem bothered by us though. We keep driving and all of a sudden the road is so steep we start wondering if the car won't tip over. It does not. Luckily. And as we start wondering how to continue now, we see the sign for the Wadi Shab right there.

Now we are standing at the foot of the mountain range and about 200 meters behind us we can

see the sea. In front of us is the opening, the end of a gorge. This is an amazing canyon with jade coloured pools and streams and typical palmtrees. Entering this gorgeous place we look at the beauty of all the rich and abundant colours. The walls of mountains that we see on both our right and left hand vary from a rusty brown-red to pale orange, sandy yellow beige and almost chocoate brown and as the sunlight casts its presence over parts of the mountains, the contrasts makes it look like this place has come alive. We are astonished and overwhelmed by the beauty of this natural miracle.

In the heat we try to walk as much as possilbe in the protection of the shadow of the date palms which have already given their fruits during the summertime. Here and there we see some old palm trunks and we are told later that a couple of years ago a terrible storm had caused a destructive flood that swept away halve of all the vegataion in the area. During our hike we meet some people from various countries that are also here for recreation. They point us in the right direction and tell us that after an hour hiking there is nice natural pool. Full

of anticipation we continue hiking. I wrap my t

owel over my head to give me some protection from

the hot scourging sun. Each of usonly brought one small bottle of water so soon we start getting a little thirsty. But since we also have to make our way down we safe some of our water. Anyway, having hiked for

at least an hour – we take pictures around every corner, at every new rocks and stone and flower that we see – we reach the point were we can go no further without swimming. Therefore the bag stays at this point and Andy and I surrender to the water of this natural tropical pool. What makes it so special is that the water is warm, and it is so bright and that there are caves that in which you can swim. So there I am, in the water, looking up and it all around me is mountain and lightbeams enter the cave through cracks in the ceiling. Magnificent.

But then it is time to go back. We are already late for our lunch appointment but there is no reception here so its not possible to call our hosts. With this great experience we decend quickly and go back to our car. Mavi Mushkallaah, is the respons when we do finally call Mr. Mussalem.That means “no problem”. We are still more than welcome in his house in Sur. With a hungry stomach and directions to where we meet we rush to Sur. In Sur Mr. Mussalem has a warm welcome for us. He receives us in the guest room. A beautiful colourful room with a couch al around the room. It can easily hold 30 people. At one of the walls hangs a nice depiction of a boat. It is a Boum, a traditional Omani boat, that is however not being built anymore. On the background we see a house which is the familiy house of the Al Ruzaiqi familiy. Lunch is served and we replenish our bodies with delicious, fish, chicken, rice, fruits, dates and I don't know what more. After the lunch we continue with drinking suleymanie tea and

Omani coffee. This is sweet moderetely strong coffee served in very tiny cups. In Omani tradition this is served at arrival of the guests. The hosts stands and the guests sit and being served the coffee. New coffee is given as long as the guests wishes to get a refill. If he is done he is supposed to gently sway the cup signaling the host no new coffee is wanted. Normally people drink about three to four cups but coffee addicts will cause the host to stand on his feet for a long time since it is not considered polite to serve full cups. Only a small sip is served per cup. Go figure if you're used to drinking a venti coffee at your local Starbucks. Then it is prayer time. No problem Andy and I think, we'll wait here. It happens often that I need to wait before a meeting or whatever cause people need to go to prayer. But on this occassion our host rolls out his mat in direction of Mekka and just does te prayer in front of us. Feeling slightly uncomfertable and awkward, staring at our cups of tea I think what to make of all this. The praying ritual involves standing, kneeling, bowing, and silent prayer. I am happy we are not invited to partake in this prayer. Although, if he would have asked, I would have probably said that I would pray to Jesus instead. Anyway, after prayer we are drive to the family house, a couple of blocks away. There we meet the second to oldest of al eight brothers, Mr. Abdullah. We spend about 15 minutes there. We talk about Islamic believes and Omani culture. Mr. Mussallem explains that if a unannounced guest arrives at his house he would have to take care of him for three days without asking what his business is, or waht the reason of his stay is. Then after three days, he can ask, what is your business, what's the deal? But not earlier than having taken care of him for three days. After visiting this house we go to the farm house. This is where the familiy usually stays the other halve of the year. The house and garden are under construction. Some thirty goats, fifty chickens and two bulls are there livestock. The bulls are being held to be slaughtered at Eid, one of the Islamic holidays at the end of November. I actully may spend Eid there. The sun has set already and we need to make our way back home. But of course we cannot leave empty handed and both Andy and I bring home a bucket full of the best dates that were grown on the farm here. Delicious.
On the way back we are both exhausted and amazed by this beautiful day. Oman is a gorgeous country. The people are very hospitable. And I am having all these great experiences. I mean, look at the picture. But also I know that my position here is based on social inequity, injustice. and favoratism They way I live has a price that is paid by so many people that are less fortunate. This topic I must explore more. But not now. Now is the time to sleep, I feel tire. Good night.

Today I moved to my new apartment. I left the guesthouse. This is a nice apartment and we are still working on furnishing it. I picked some nice stuff from a local furnishing company here. The kitchen and bathroom are in need of some remodeling so I hope that that will happen soon too. But things tend to take a little more time here than I am used to. But hey, maavi mushkaalaa; no problem.

Also today I had diner with Naseem , Senior Personnel Manager (blah blah titles...) and his family. They are so kind. His brother in law was also there. Mehmood. Great guy, 28 years old, intellegent, so perfect for discussion and interesting conversations. We talked about Islamic beliefs and how it differs from the Bible. It is actually quite puzzling to me. They believe in Jesus Christ as a prophet of God and not as his Son. Of course I knew that, but I didn't know that they believe that is will come back on Judgment day. There, from what the tell me, He will have victory over the anti christ. Also they told me that they believe that the Bible is not true because it was altered. And of course the Qu'ran is not. What I didn't know was that for Muslims it is okay to marry a Jew or Christian and it is not necessary for them to convert to Islam, since they believe that God is the same as allah. I don't know though what to make of all this. I am interested to knowing whether that argument of the altered Bible is widely accepted and what the content of that argument is. So who changed what etc. Moreover, it is weird hearing Muslims speak about Jesus Christ to. Like they also know him. But different. Almost like, hey, your not supposed to know anything about him because "Jesus belongs to us"...All in all, for me it makes it all much more relevant to learn more about Jesus Christ. In a strange kind of way it seems to become more relevant to really finding out what Truth is about God. I mean, with people that don't believe in God at all, I experience the discussion to be so much more different. I'll keep you posted on this.

Yesterday by the way, I met two people at the Food expo. They are from Italy and I had good contact with them soon after meeting them. We had some laughs and it was good spending time with them. Afterwards we had a great seafood diner at the adjacent hotel. Very nice. So thanks to Elena and Flavio! They made the day yesterday.

Btw. My story of last weekend is still in progress.

Food Expo

Today, and the next to days, there is a Food Expo in Muscat. They, some department heads, decided that Al Athnain needed to be there too. So in a rush a stand was arranged and some decorations were made. I nice effort :-). Also Vegetable Biryiani (an Indian Rice dish) was served for visitors. A nice teaser to attract visitors. Still a lot improvements to be made. But I like expo's. You always meet new people, get to know the industry better and the atmosphere is also pretty relaxed. Anyway, just another day in Oman ;-) ... like life is boring here. Haha, definitely not. Actually sometimes it is a little bit too much and I do have quite some responsibilities here in the hygiene department. I will try to write a little bit more about that later. Ow, and I also want to write something about social inequality/ (in)justice. Man, there is just so much to write about :-).

To close this ongoing rambling of mine let me say. Things go well here! Gods Bless!

Just saying hi

Hi!

I am working on a long post about my experiences this weekend. But since it is not finished I'll just leave a short note here. Last night I asleep and I don't really know what happened but I was very fast asleep. Then I think I had some very weird dream and I remember that I tried to get out of it. But I couldn't. At least at first. And then when I finally did wake up I had no idea where I was. I was staring at the ceiling in the dark and I had to tell myself that I was in Oman and that I was in my bed room. Very weird. Well what you gonna do about it.

And here is a teaser for the story about this weekend:

Kitchens in the interior

19/10/09

Today I took the bus to somewhere in the middle of nowhere. So now I am at a construction camp in the desert. I will do some auditing on hygiene matters in kitchen around the sites here.

20/10/09

I visited three camps today. The second camp, in Wadi Musallem was terrible. It is pretty remote from the already remote area of Qar Na Alam, where we stay overnight. The kitchen was understaffed, a mess and and not well equipped. I feel sorry for the su

pervisor there. But it doesn't seem to be a location with a very high priority for both the client and my company. The kitchen here though is definitely the best I have seen here in the interior yet. Well equipped, well maintained, well staffed.

But of course you are more interested in reading adventurous stories about traveling through the great hazardous desert and wilderness.

Well I have took some nice pictures as you can see

About the one with the exhaust pipes here, I figure that has something to do with the oil production in the area.

he picture of the sun was taken from our car and

it is actually the same the sun as you have there.

The one with the camel made me smile. I am still waiting to see a camel with a car on its back... En voor alle mensen die denken dat ze een onderscheid

maken tussen Dromedarissen en Kamelen, vergeet het maar. Het heet hier gewoon een Kameel. De twee bultigen komen niet eens in de Golfstaten voor, daarvoor moet je meer naar kouder Azie.

And the one with the desert. Well, what can you say... It's a she... and her name is Sandy