Bruno

I just watched Bruno tonight. It was very provocative, disturbing, embarrassing, profound, good and bad mixed together. It is about this gay guy from Austria who presents himself being uber gay which is very provocative and evokes high emotions. There are some really sick and explicit scenes in there that really grossed me out. And supposedly this is all real life and not staged, although in some scenes it is not really that convincing.

Anyway, if you are ready to shocked... watch this movie (don't watch it with your parents though...), it is amazing how someone can assume a role so consistently and convincing. Anyway, if you have seen it I am interested to finding out what you think...

update on what's going on

Hey who ever it is that is reading this,

I just wanted to update on what is going on in my life here in Oman. Like a couple of months ago I am writing from the desert. I have spent the last couple of days in the Quarnalam area doing site visits with our General Manager and spending mainly our time talking to employees. Key element in the discussions with employees is that they want a raise in salary and that they are working to many hours a day; I don't blame them for it though. Every site that we visit also has some Food Safety issues (that is my job) that I need to take care of and I discuss them with the supervisors who most of the time are quite cooperative. Camp bosses, who are responsible for the camp from the client end, though tend to be less helpful. After making appointments and plans they don't normally follow up on it. Sometimes that is really frustrating but I am also learning to let go of things that I cannot control by myself.

So I go back and forth between being annoyed by how things go here and not really caring about it. It really is a good experience here in Oman, but I think I have written that before. Every day I know that from beginning and end my Father is in control and although I don't always feel that way I know that this is the Truth.

HaCCP exam continued

Had the exam today. I just hate exams. Maybe it was that I just had not studied enough, or that I didn't really understood the material well enough (although I don't really believe that that is true) but taking that exam was the worst. I hate the time pressure and I have always had this problem with exams. I was always the person handing in the exam at the last moment. It is frustrating. It is a combination of confidence and peace of mind/heart that is lacking when I sit down and feeling this pressure. And when I read the questions my mind is just not triggered. I find it hard to connect with the text and I don't know how to change that. Not good. But anyhow, I don't need to have a perfect score. Each question should have at least a 50% mark and the over all papers (there were two) should be 60% to pass. We'll know in about two months.

Tomorrow we're planning to spend the afternoon on the beach with my team and have some fun. That will be sweet.

Love. Harmen

HACCP exam

Tomorrow I have an exam on HACCP (Level 4)... sounds pretty cool right. Anyway, I hope I will have the peace of mind to successfully complete the exam. Pray for me :-)

For the rest work is going better. After I came back from the States I figured not to worry too much about the work. I mean... come on, it's only work... So I am trying just to enjoy my life here. That is for me the best way to be able to be effective. Just enjoy it, then things will happen by itself (I don't know if this is actually true but it I guess how I think I (would like to) see things).

Talk to you later.

Jihad talk over Coffee

My Omani friend Saleh lives and studies in Salalah (South Oman) but was around for a couple of days in Muscat, so we went for coffee. At the Al Shattie (which means 'beach') Starbucks on the beach boulevard we sat down for coffee. Since they sell real Dutch Stroopwafels (Caramel Waffles) there I had to teach him how to eat them the best way: placing it on top of your steaming hot coffee for a minute, and when the waffle is soft and has absorbed the coffee flavour it tastes absolutely amazing. But anyway, we had an interesting conversation about the position of Jesus Christ in the Muslim religion and Saleh tried to explain to me what exactly the Jihad is. In addition to that I already knew that Muslims don't believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, I learned that Muslims believe that Jesus Christ is still alive and has not died and that he will come back to earth. According to Muslims he will eventually die though and that after that Judgement Day will come (although I don't know how long the time in between will be). I also asked about how God forgives, but I didn't really get a clear answer on that one. I guess I should have asked more about the role of 'sacrifice' in that regard. (So Saleh, if you read this... please fill me in...)

And then we talked about the Jihad. I thought that meant Holy War, but Saleh said that it didn't and now the "Real Source to all Knowledge" a.k.a. Wikipedia tells me it actually means 'Struggle'. The fact that I thought it meant Holy War probably says more about my own prejudices. And it just has a bad taste to it when I say it; 'Jihad'. It just has a bad connotation to it in my mind. It makes me think of suicide attacks and harming innocent people. Probably and apparently a pretty limited view. I wonder what it is based on...?

So Saleh and I talked about the Jihad in terms of the spread of Islam throughout the world and the different (not necessarily violent!) way of doing that. Jihad, another thing that I need to read more about in order to get a real and better understanding of what it means.

Anyone any comments?

USA and back in Oman

I returned to Oman the day before yesterday after having spend a wonderful two weeks in the USA. I spend time all over the country and visited my dear friends there. I first spend Christmas evening at my friend Katie in Connecticut, after having been held in immigration at the US border for an hour and a halve. Then on the 25th I flew to Chicago, to meet up with my friend Nick. That was sweet. I am always amazed by the hospitality that I experience when I visit friends in the States. People have been some welcoming. Anyway, after Chicago I went to the GMS reunion. How good it was to see my friends from the Summer in Vermont. Amazing to spend al this time with people that I had lived with for two months. Weird how normal everything was.

After the reunion I spent most my time with my dear friend Jason. And then when I headed to JFK he and Cassie drove my there. We crossed right through Manhattan, which was pretty amazing to do by car!

Now back in Oman. I have a purpose here. Graduation. I had kind of been putting that of in the months before I went to the USA. But now I will start working on it. But first I have the HACCP level 4 exam in a couple of days. Let's see how that will go.

Cheers!

I hate it

I hate it when you write something and then it disappears... I wrote a long story and now it shows that it is not on my blog.... bummer...

Love you all.

Harmen