Jambo, email part V
Written: January 7, 2006
Dear family and friends,
I hope this email finds you in good spirits. I would like to wish those of you who celebrated the occasions of Idd and Divali, a belated Idd mubarak and Sal Mubarak, respectively. May you all be blessed with a year of spiritual and material happiness, prosperity, peace, love, unity and the opportunity to serve creation. Ameen.
It has been six months since my last email. So that probably means that I have a lot to tell you about. I can just see some of your facial expressions now, oh my god, not another lengthy email by Aziz!
I assure you that my emails from now onwards will not be as long, not because I am getting tired of writing, but more so because the novelty of my stay and way of life in Mombasa have become routine and the experiences are now more emotional and internal as opposed to more tangible. However, I am in Kenya, and that means there are always surprises of things that are taking place and I will do my best to give you an update.
I did come home to Toronto last July and August for about 5 and ½ weeks. It was great to spend time with family and friends. “There’s no place like home!” But time did fly and unfortunately I did not get to meet up with some of you. Inshallah (God willing), next summer we will have to get together. I also had the privilege of attending three weddings of some very close friends to whom I wish will have happy days together always! Weddings and other large events are wonderful because you get to meet many people after a long time; however, the interactions are always rushed, and no doubt there are always people you don’t get to spend time with
The summer holidays for new teachers are quite busy times as we take every opportunity and free time available to plan for the new courses we will be teaching in the fall or spend time doing some professional development. In this department I was somewhat productive. Much of my time each day was spent reading two great books that were recommended by teacher friends. The books were A Suitable Boy, by Vikram Seth (I’ve been told that this is the longest book written in the 20th century and it’s HUGE!) and Sophie’s World, by Jostein Gaarder. I have yet to finish either one and that’s only because I picked up two other recommended books called The Kite Runner and Reading Lolita in Tehran. Out of the four, I have finished The Kite Runner. And just the other day on the BBC news, I was hearing that Hollywood is going to be making a movie out of this novel and the author has also began writing another novel, which deals with Afghanistan and the lives of women.
By the end of August, I was itching to come back to my home in Mombasa. I was looking forward to the starting of the new academic year for a few reasons, one, I was getting an opportunity to teach some new courses and also because I wanted to know what difference having one year of experience would make.
Off course my arrival to Mombasa, Kenya didn’t go as planned. My airline, British Airways (BA), from London, UK to Nairobi, Kenya was delayed due to “some technical difficulties” in the PA system which kept the flight grounded for about 2 hours, and that meant I was now going to miss my connection flight from Nairobi to Mombasa (the last one) that evening, because originally I had about 1.5 hours to catch my connection. I wasn’t alone, Faiza, another teacher at the Academy was also on the plane. And we both had to report to school the next morning at 9 AM for the whole school briefing with the new principal.
The plane finally managed to take off and it arrived 2 hours late. That meant no more connection flights until 7 AM the next morning. But very graciously, BA arranged for us to stay the night at the Hilton Hotel in Nairobi, with complementary dinner and breakfast and they also confirmed our seats on the first flight to Mombasa the next morning. The hotel experience was fantastic; I don’t think I slept much that night. I laid in bed from 12 midnight to 2 AM watching TV in my Hilton Bathrobe and slippers. I was trying to savor this short moment, as we had to be ready to be picked up by 5:30 AM. And all was well because we managed to arrive at school only 15 minutes late.
First day being back also means that we get to see all the returning teachers and meet some of the newly hired members of staff. I was really excited to meet the new teachers because many of them were from various parts of Canada, and one of the teachers coming, Naheed Bardai, was a friend of mine who I hadn’t seen in about 2 years.
Our new teachers in the senior and junior school are South African, British, American and Canadian. Four teachers came from Canada, of which three of them were married and brought their families with them. Most of the new staff has adjusted very well in their respective departments and the moral of the entire staff has been generally quite positive, only a few hiccups. The best times are when all of us Canadian teachers are sitting next to each other (not planned off course) in the staff lounge, there are always sarcastic comments made by others to show their disapproval. It’s a great feeling because we do think alike in many ways!
This academic year is going very well for me. Term one will be over in a few weeks and we’ll be able to have a nice 3. 5 weeks of December holidays. This year, we have balanced our 180 days of teaching (contact days) and professional development days, including non-contact days, within the three terms as compared to last year, when term one was almost 20 days longer than term 2 and 3. That means less of us are burned out. However, all teachers know that end of term always means a very busy time. I have just finished writing all my report card comments and by next weekend I will have to have exams for my 5 classes ready to be checked by my head of department and head of school. This year we have also decided to have students write their term one exams in January (just before the beginning of term 2), after the December holidays. Last year the students wrote their term exams at end of the term, just before they left for the winter (here in Kenya its summer) break.
This year I have the opportunity to teach Grade 7 Biology, Grade 8 Chemistry, Grade 9 Biology, Grade 10 (IGCSE) Chemistry and Grade 11 (IGCSE) Biology. Our school school has decided to teach the sciences (Chem, Phys and Biol) as discrete subjects in Grades 7 – 9, using the British Key Stage 3 curriculum. This May, my grade 11 students will be writing their University of Cambridge International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) examinations, which is a culmination of the 18 month IGCSE curriculum. Their results will determine their placement into our IB Diploma Programme. But they will be given conditional acceptances into the IB DP programme based on their MOCK examination results which they will write at the end of January.
During our half-term break in mid October, I went on a short trip, about 5 nights, to visit my friend Khatidja in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Khatidja is from Vancouver, Canada and she is doing an internship with Save the Children Canada. I had a wonderful time in Addis; Ethiopia is a great country, waiting to be discovered!
In my next email I will try and describe my experience of Addis and off course send lots of pictures.
As I write today, Monday November 21st, I am at home because today is a public holiday. It’s a public holiday because Kenyan citizens are having a referendum. The referendum is asking all Kenyans to vote whether or not they are in favour or opposed to a new constitution. The ballots are very interesting. A favourable vote (YES) to the new constitution is represented by a Banana, and the opposition vote (NO) against the new constitution is represented by an Orange. On the actual ballots, there are visual aids of a banana and an orange. But the ballot can be misleading as one of the boxes says, ‘In favour of’ (and there is a picture of a banana) and in the other box is written ‘against’ (and there is a picture of an orange). For the last few months there have been many rallies held across the country, either Banana campaigns or Orange campaigns. The rallies for the most part have been peaceful with the exceptions in a few places like Kisumu, Likoni (very close to our school) and others where people have been killed or hurt. During the last week, there have been several debates broadcasted on TV and radio to ensure that Kenyans are well informed before going to the polls. But because there has been some incidents occurring during the rallies leading up to the voting day, the Kenyan President Kibaki declared today and tomorrow as public holidays, so that citizens will take the time to vote and once the votes are counted that evening or the following day on Tuesday, just as a preventative measure from eruptions of violence, people can take the appropriate steps and stay home.
Here where I am staying, in the Tudor Khoja Flats, the risk management teams have been preparing for several days by ensuring contact numbers and other information is collected from all of us, there are 5 – 6 empty buses ready to shuttle people incase of emergency, there are extra security guards, there are numerous volunteers taking information of vehicles that are leaving the compound so that they can be accounted for, and procedures have been set in place incase there is an emergency. At school, we have been given a list of ‘safe houses’ in various areas around Mombasa incase individuals are stuck during an emergency. I must say that the planning by the risk management team in the community has been exceptional. The Canadian Embassy also kept us informed as to the steps to take incase of emergency. As I write to you and watch the continuous coverage of the referendum taking place across the country, it seems that the voting time at polling stations has expired and the government officials are commenting to various radio and television stations and asking them to ensure that as the counting begins, they should only report official statistics and not speculations. The comments are also appreciating the peacefulness in the conduct of all the citizens throughout the day. So far so good. Let’s hope that as the results are announced tomorrow that we continue to have peace across the country.
I am happy to note that all of the days that have passed by since the voting day have been very peaceful. The citizens of Kenya rejected the proposed constitution that was being pushed by the President. In response to the rejection, the President delivered a speech whereby, he, representing his party accepted the decision of the people of Kenya (mind you that his own party was divided on this referendum) and said that it will be a new beginning for his country as they try and move forward to draft another constitution. The following day, he also announced that he has sacked about 20/24 cabinet ministers, excluding the vice-president and the attorney general. This came to everyone’s surprise as it was a very strong stance the president had taken since arriving into office in 2002. And after about 9 – 10 days of hiatus, he has appointed new cabinet ministers, which already 8 of them have declined the offer of appointment because many feel that the ministers are still not a representative of the people’s voices. Many Kenyans feel that this type of politics is healthy as the country tries to move forward. So many are watching their government very closely as days unfold.
Things here in Kenya are going well for me. This year has been better because of the one year past experience. I know my way around Mombasa better and have learned to manage expectations better. Teaching is always fun as you get more comfortable trying new teaching strategies and actually have time to create rubrics for various assessments.
I am also co-supervising an inter-faith dialogue club with about 9 diverse students in terms of grades and religious background. It has been a great experience; you never know really how to begin or where you’ll end up. We have discussed what ‘inter-faith’ means to each of us, we have discussed and compared influential women from different faith denominations who have demonstrated service to humanity in different forms. We have also watched a movie called 'the power of one'. A great film on how individuals have the power to change the lives of peoples and it takes place in the context of South Africa during the apartheid and the trouble between the British and the Afrikans…a must see for all! The students have just finished a service project to create 14 gift bags for Christmas that will include school supplies and lots of sweets for 14 orphaned girls. These were presented at our end of term 1 assembly to a faculty member who is the coordinator of this particular orphanage.
So that is an update of this last term, from September to December.
Let me now tell you a little bit of what my experience of going to Muscat, Oman during March 2005 was like.
Just to recap, I had the opportunity to attend the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program workshop to become trained to teach Biology at the Diploma level. There were 2 other colleagues from the Academy, Zubair Kassam and Helene Caillet, respectively that also attended the workshop for different subject areas. We spend 4 nights in Muscat. The workshop was held at the American-British Academy, Muscat. We met many participants at conference who had come from various European, African, Middle-Eastern and a few South Asian countries.
Geographically, Oman is situated east of Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Its eastern most land borders the Gulf of Oman and the mountainous terrain of Muscat resembles much of the terrain found on the southern tip of Iran, perhaps evidence that it was once all one land mass. Oman is also surrounded southwardly by the Arabian Sea. So the expected weather in Oman is considerably very warm and humid (at times). We coastal people from Mombasa found Muscat enjoyably dry during our stay in March. We were told that in contrast, the humidity was about 85%.
First and foremost, I must tell you that the Omani Riyal (OMR) currency is worth, are you ready for this, almost THREE!!!!!! times as much as the US dollar! So we knew that we were going to a very wealthy country.
We arrived late morning in Muscat and were happily surprised to see a Dairy Queen in the airport. As we drove to our hotel, we realized the ‘heat was on’, and by mid-day the thermometer would continue to rise.
Within the 15 min taxi ride to our hotel, by a gentleman named Ali, we quickly observed some noticeable differences from Kenya such as, the city was just newly developing, not many inhabitants in the main city, it was VERY clean, all the taxis were the 2004 editions of Toyota Camry and painted white, the cars were not releasing polluted air through the exhaust, drivers and pedestrians were all following the rules as cars were driving in their lanes, most of the residential homes were beautiful and 2 stories high and painted white also. We managed to also see some beautiful mosques and a spectacular Bank building. We were thrilled and could not wait to spend a day or two at least around the city.
After arriving at our hotel and having thoroughly enjoyed Ali’s company, good will, conversation and commentary we decided to continue our friendship by asking him to be our primary guide during our stay in Muscat and he pleasantly agreed. Additionally, Ali also spoke urdu and I also speak urdu, that made our friendship much more comfortable. This way he was able to explain to us some of the history in his native language and also perhaps ‘open’ up to us about the way of life in Oman.
Spending a few days in Muscat we made some additional key observances such as:
1. Many locals spoke urdu fluently – the reason being because many of the working class were immigrants from the Pakistani province of Baluchistan but they have been settled here for at least one generation and many of them say that they are Omani, not Pakistani. The only way to tell is by the urdu and Arabic accent. This was a tremendous bonus because we were able to bargain around the city.
2. Many of the working class in Muscat are from South Asia, including Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan and some also from South East Asia. They have come to Oman to earn whatever they can and send money home every month for their wives and children. However, most of the middle-upper class people are expatriates (mostly Europeans and Middle-Eastern).
3. Ali mentioned to us that all the development we are seeing around Muscat is due to Sultan Qaboos, the current Sultan of Oman. And all the development has taken place within the 30 years, since the time that the current Sultan of Oman deposed his father. During his fathers reign there was almost nothing. Now, there are several schools, residential housing, infrastructure, and parks in Oman. The current Sultan, studied at the University of Oxford and brought with him about 20 000 British Expatriates to help him develop Oman with the intention that each year, approx 1000 Expats would be replaced by the local people. The result, a strong and healthy economic society with beautiful and environmentally friendly landscapes and the opportunity for further development e.g. continue to build on its existing strong tourism industry. During our stay, there was a continuous flow of visitors enjoying themselves around the city. There seems to be heavy investments into hotels by the Kings of UAE.
4. Culturally, much of the architecture found in Muscat, especially near the Corniche (Muttrah Souk), looked identical to old town Mombasa. This was expected as it was the Omani Arabs who defeated the Portuguese in the early 17th century from the Coast of Mombasa and thereby influenced its further development with culture and language. Nonetheless, I was proud to recognize the connection and briefly pondered about the implications to ones identity; the feeling of comfort in appreciating the contributions of various cultures to our lives, in particular contributions from your own tradition. I know this sounds confusing, but I can explain more individually.
During our stay, we were privileged, thanks again to Ali, to see some distinctive sites that gave Muscat its own fragrance. The Places included: 1. the Muttrah Souk near the Corniche, which is a traditional market that sells, fruit, lots of clothing, shoes, gold jewelry (bracelets, anklets, rings, necklaces etc), antiques, Iranian paintings (some original some copied), day to day household items and the fresh spices with its aroma that fill the market ubiquitously. 2. Al-bustan, the six-star hotel with its majestic and grandeur lobby entrance. Here we were also treated to a dinner as part of the conference. The dinner took place in the hotel’s open grounds that were filled with musicians, dancers, and camels, and tents (with floral designed cushions and pillows) that were set up where we enjoyed some traditional cuisine. 3. Shopping center with a Nandos restaurant where we ate one night. In the shopping center there was a jewelry store that was a selling a 22K gold necklace and a head piece that had a mass of about 600+ grams for about 15 000 USD. The three of us who saw that were speechless with our jaws open! 4. Fortress, jail and the palace of the Sultan. 5. And lastly, an exquisite mosque called the Grand Sultan Qaboos Mosque. Don’t worry I have taken lots of pictures.
All in all, the experience to Oman was incredible and humbling, considering the opportunity for IB DP Biology training. A spectacular place with continuous development and spectacular attractions and is filled with genuine people who will go out of their way to ensure you the best experience. You must travel to Oman if you have the opportunity.
Stay tuned for the next couple emails as I will try and describe my experiences of Mumbai, India and Addis, Ethiopia.
Thanks to my friend Alim Somani, I have finally managed to have my own e-blog site, check it out.
Today is December 13th. Therefore I would like to wish all those observing this festive day, Khushiali Mubarak to you and yours, and Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone. I pray that may we all develop the capacity to better understand our actions, may we have the tolerance to accept the differences in others, and may we continue to serve creation to the best of our abilities. Ameen.
I am leaving for Egypt tomorrow. I will be meeting up with my brother in Cairo and we will be backpacking around the country for about 17 days. I will off course try and share this experience with you when I return. Our term one end on Friday December 9 and term two will resume on Thursday January 5th.
I look forward to your comments, good wishes and updates on emails.
Happy holidays,
Aziz
p.s. Go Leafs Go!!!
p.s.s. the Hockey world better watch out as the Canadian team gears up to defend its title at the Winter Olympics in 2006!!! The question remains, will the rookie Crosby get a spot on the Canadian team….???
Dear family and friends,
I hope this email finds you in good spirits. I would like to wish those of you who celebrated the occasions of Idd and Divali, a belated Idd mubarak and Sal Mubarak, respectively. May you all be blessed with a year of spiritual and material happiness, prosperity, peace, love, unity and the opportunity to serve creation. Ameen.
It has been six months since my last email. So that probably means that I have a lot to tell you about. I can just see some of your facial expressions now, oh my god, not another lengthy email by Aziz!
I assure you that my emails from now onwards will not be as long, not because I am getting tired of writing, but more so because the novelty of my stay and way of life in Mombasa have become routine and the experiences are now more emotional and internal as opposed to more tangible. However, I am in Kenya, and that means there are always surprises of things that are taking place and I will do my best to give you an update.
I did come home to Toronto last July and August for about 5 and ½ weeks. It was great to spend time with family and friends. “There’s no place like home!” But time did fly and unfortunately I did not get to meet up with some of you. Inshallah (God willing), next summer we will have to get together. I also had the privilege of attending three weddings of some very close friends to whom I wish will have happy days together always! Weddings and other large events are wonderful because you get to meet many people after a long time; however, the interactions are always rushed, and no doubt there are always people you don’t get to spend time with
The summer holidays for new teachers are quite busy times as we take every opportunity and free time available to plan for the new courses we will be teaching in the fall or spend time doing some professional development. In this department I was somewhat productive. Much of my time each day was spent reading two great books that were recommended by teacher friends. The books were A Suitable Boy, by Vikram Seth (I’ve been told that this is the longest book written in the 20th century and it’s HUGE!) and Sophie’s World, by Jostein Gaarder. I have yet to finish either one and that’s only because I picked up two other recommended books called The Kite Runner and Reading Lolita in Tehran. Out of the four, I have finished The Kite Runner. And just the other day on the BBC news, I was hearing that Hollywood is going to be making a movie out of this novel and the author has also began writing another novel, which deals with Afghanistan and the lives of women.
By the end of August, I was itching to come back to my home in Mombasa. I was looking forward to the starting of the new academic year for a few reasons, one, I was getting an opportunity to teach some new courses and also because I wanted to know what difference having one year of experience would make.
Off course my arrival to Mombasa, Kenya didn’t go as planned. My airline, British Airways (BA), from London, UK to Nairobi, Kenya was delayed due to “some technical difficulties” in the PA system which kept the flight grounded for about 2 hours, and that meant I was now going to miss my connection flight from Nairobi to Mombasa (the last one) that evening, because originally I had about 1.5 hours to catch my connection. I wasn’t alone, Faiza, another teacher at the Academy was also on the plane. And we both had to report to school the next morning at 9 AM for the whole school briefing with the new principal.
The plane finally managed to take off and it arrived 2 hours late. That meant no more connection flights until 7 AM the next morning. But very graciously, BA arranged for us to stay the night at the Hilton Hotel in Nairobi, with complementary dinner and breakfast and they also confirmed our seats on the first flight to Mombasa the next morning. The hotel experience was fantastic; I don’t think I slept much that night. I laid in bed from 12 midnight to 2 AM watching TV in my Hilton Bathrobe and slippers. I was trying to savor this short moment, as we had to be ready to be picked up by 5:30 AM. And all was well because we managed to arrive at school only 15 minutes late.
First day being back also means that we get to see all the returning teachers and meet some of the newly hired members of staff. I was really excited to meet the new teachers because many of them were from various parts of Canada, and one of the teachers coming, Naheed Bardai, was a friend of mine who I hadn’t seen in about 2 years.
Our new teachers in the senior and junior school are South African, British, American and Canadian. Four teachers came from Canada, of which three of them were married and brought their families with them. Most of the new staff has adjusted very well in their respective departments and the moral of the entire staff has been generally quite positive, only a few hiccups. The best times are when all of us Canadian teachers are sitting next to each other (not planned off course) in the staff lounge, there are always sarcastic comments made by others to show their disapproval. It’s a great feeling because we do think alike in many ways!
This academic year is going very well for me. Term one will be over in a few weeks and we’ll be able to have a nice 3. 5 weeks of December holidays. This year, we have balanced our 180 days of teaching (contact days) and professional development days, including non-contact days, within the three terms as compared to last year, when term one was almost 20 days longer than term 2 and 3. That means less of us are burned out. However, all teachers know that end of term always means a very busy time. I have just finished writing all my report card comments and by next weekend I will have to have exams for my 5 classes ready to be checked by my head of department and head of school. This year we have also decided to have students write their term one exams in January (just before the beginning of term 2), after the December holidays. Last year the students wrote their term exams at end of the term, just before they left for the winter (here in Kenya its summer) break.
This year I have the opportunity to teach Grade 7 Biology, Grade 8 Chemistry, Grade 9 Biology, Grade 10 (IGCSE) Chemistry and Grade 11 (IGCSE) Biology. Our school school has decided to teach the sciences (Chem, Phys and Biol) as discrete subjects in Grades 7 – 9, using the British Key Stage 3 curriculum. This May, my grade 11 students will be writing their University of Cambridge International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) examinations, which is a culmination of the 18 month IGCSE curriculum. Their results will determine their placement into our IB Diploma Programme. But they will be given conditional acceptances into the IB DP programme based on their MOCK examination results which they will write at the end of January.
During our half-term break in mid October, I went on a short trip, about 5 nights, to visit my friend Khatidja in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Khatidja is from Vancouver, Canada and she is doing an internship with Save the Children Canada. I had a wonderful time in Addis; Ethiopia is a great country, waiting to be discovered!
In my next email I will try and describe my experience of Addis and off course send lots of pictures.
As I write today, Monday November 21st, I am at home because today is a public holiday. It’s a public holiday because Kenyan citizens are having a referendum. The referendum is asking all Kenyans to vote whether or not they are in favour or opposed to a new constitution. The ballots are very interesting. A favourable vote (YES) to the new constitution is represented by a Banana, and the opposition vote (NO) against the new constitution is represented by an Orange. On the actual ballots, there are visual aids of a banana and an orange. But the ballot can be misleading as one of the boxes says, ‘In favour of’ (and there is a picture of a banana) and in the other box is written ‘against’ (and there is a picture of an orange). For the last few months there have been many rallies held across the country, either Banana campaigns or Orange campaigns. The rallies for the most part have been peaceful with the exceptions in a few places like Kisumu, Likoni (very close to our school) and others where people have been killed or hurt. During the last week, there have been several debates broadcasted on TV and radio to ensure that Kenyans are well informed before going to the polls. But because there has been some incidents occurring during the rallies leading up to the voting day, the Kenyan President Kibaki declared today and tomorrow as public holidays, so that citizens will take the time to vote and once the votes are counted that evening or the following day on Tuesday, just as a preventative measure from eruptions of violence, people can take the appropriate steps and stay home.
Here where I am staying, in the Tudor Khoja Flats, the risk management teams have been preparing for several days by ensuring contact numbers and other information is collected from all of us, there are 5 – 6 empty buses ready to shuttle people incase of emergency, there are extra security guards, there are numerous volunteers taking information of vehicles that are leaving the compound so that they can be accounted for, and procedures have been set in place incase there is an emergency. At school, we have been given a list of ‘safe houses’ in various areas around Mombasa incase individuals are stuck during an emergency. I must say that the planning by the risk management team in the community has been exceptional. The Canadian Embassy also kept us informed as to the steps to take incase of emergency. As I write to you and watch the continuous coverage of the referendum taking place across the country, it seems that the voting time at polling stations has expired and the government officials are commenting to various radio and television stations and asking them to ensure that as the counting begins, they should only report official statistics and not speculations. The comments are also appreciating the peacefulness in the conduct of all the citizens throughout the day. So far so good. Let’s hope that as the results are announced tomorrow that we continue to have peace across the country.
I am happy to note that all of the days that have passed by since the voting day have been very peaceful. The citizens of Kenya rejected the proposed constitution that was being pushed by the President. In response to the rejection, the President delivered a speech whereby, he, representing his party accepted the decision of the people of Kenya (mind you that his own party was divided on this referendum) and said that it will be a new beginning for his country as they try and move forward to draft another constitution. The following day, he also announced that he has sacked about 20/24 cabinet ministers, excluding the vice-president and the attorney general. This came to everyone’s surprise as it was a very strong stance the president had taken since arriving into office in 2002. And after about 9 – 10 days of hiatus, he has appointed new cabinet ministers, which already 8 of them have declined the offer of appointment because many feel that the ministers are still not a representative of the people’s voices. Many Kenyans feel that this type of politics is healthy as the country tries to move forward. So many are watching their government very closely as days unfold.
Things here in Kenya are going well for me. This year has been better because of the one year past experience. I know my way around Mombasa better and have learned to manage expectations better. Teaching is always fun as you get more comfortable trying new teaching strategies and actually have time to create rubrics for various assessments.
I am also co-supervising an inter-faith dialogue club with about 9 diverse students in terms of grades and religious background. It has been a great experience; you never know really how to begin or where you’ll end up. We have discussed what ‘inter-faith’ means to each of us, we have discussed and compared influential women from different faith denominations who have demonstrated service to humanity in different forms. We have also watched a movie called 'the power of one'. A great film on how individuals have the power to change the lives of peoples and it takes place in the context of South Africa during the apartheid and the trouble between the British and the Afrikans…a must see for all! The students have just finished a service project to create 14 gift bags for Christmas that will include school supplies and lots of sweets for 14 orphaned girls. These were presented at our end of term 1 assembly to a faculty member who is the coordinator of this particular orphanage.
So that is an update of this last term, from September to December.
Let me now tell you a little bit of what my experience of going to Muscat, Oman during March 2005 was like.
Just to recap, I had the opportunity to attend the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program workshop to become trained to teach Biology at the Diploma level. There were 2 other colleagues from the Academy, Zubair Kassam and Helene Caillet, respectively that also attended the workshop for different subject areas. We spend 4 nights in Muscat. The workshop was held at the American-British Academy, Muscat. We met many participants at conference who had come from various European, African, Middle-Eastern and a few South Asian countries.
Geographically, Oman is situated east of Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Its eastern most land borders the Gulf of Oman and the mountainous terrain of Muscat resembles much of the terrain found on the southern tip of Iran, perhaps evidence that it was once all one land mass. Oman is also surrounded southwardly by the Arabian Sea. So the expected weather in Oman is considerably very warm and humid (at times). We coastal people from Mombasa found Muscat enjoyably dry during our stay in March. We were told that in contrast, the humidity was about 85%.
First and foremost, I must tell you that the Omani Riyal (OMR) currency is worth, are you ready for this, almost THREE!!!!!! times as much as the US dollar! So we knew that we were going to a very wealthy country.
We arrived late morning in Muscat and were happily surprised to see a Dairy Queen in the airport. As we drove to our hotel, we realized the ‘heat was on’, and by mid-day the thermometer would continue to rise.
Within the 15 min taxi ride to our hotel, by a gentleman named Ali, we quickly observed some noticeable differences from Kenya such as, the city was just newly developing, not many inhabitants in the main city, it was VERY clean, all the taxis were the 2004 editions of Toyota Camry and painted white, the cars were not releasing polluted air through the exhaust, drivers and pedestrians were all following the rules as cars were driving in their lanes, most of the residential homes were beautiful and 2 stories high and painted white also. We managed to also see some beautiful mosques and a spectacular Bank building. We were thrilled and could not wait to spend a day or two at least around the city.
After arriving at our hotel and having thoroughly enjoyed Ali’s company, good will, conversation and commentary we decided to continue our friendship by asking him to be our primary guide during our stay in Muscat and he pleasantly agreed. Additionally, Ali also spoke urdu and I also speak urdu, that made our friendship much more comfortable. This way he was able to explain to us some of the history in his native language and also perhaps ‘open’ up to us about the way of life in Oman.
Spending a few days in Muscat we made some additional key observances such as:
1. Many locals spoke urdu fluently – the reason being because many of the working class were immigrants from the Pakistani province of Baluchistan but they have been settled here for at least one generation and many of them say that they are Omani, not Pakistani. The only way to tell is by the urdu and Arabic accent. This was a tremendous bonus because we were able to bargain around the city.
2. Many of the working class in Muscat are from South Asia, including Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan and some also from South East Asia. They have come to Oman to earn whatever they can and send money home every month for their wives and children. However, most of the middle-upper class people are expatriates (mostly Europeans and Middle-Eastern).
3. Ali mentioned to us that all the development we are seeing around Muscat is due to Sultan Qaboos, the current Sultan of Oman. And all the development has taken place within the 30 years, since the time that the current Sultan of Oman deposed his father. During his fathers reign there was almost nothing. Now, there are several schools, residential housing, infrastructure, and parks in Oman. The current Sultan, studied at the University of Oxford and brought with him about 20 000 British Expatriates to help him develop Oman with the intention that each year, approx 1000 Expats would be replaced by the local people. The result, a strong and healthy economic society with beautiful and environmentally friendly landscapes and the opportunity for further development e.g. continue to build on its existing strong tourism industry. During our stay, there was a continuous flow of visitors enjoying themselves around the city. There seems to be heavy investments into hotels by the Kings of UAE.
4. Culturally, much of the architecture found in Muscat, especially near the Corniche (Muttrah Souk), looked identical to old town Mombasa. This was expected as it was the Omani Arabs who defeated the Portuguese in the early 17th century from the Coast of Mombasa and thereby influenced its further development with culture and language. Nonetheless, I was proud to recognize the connection and briefly pondered about the implications to ones identity; the feeling of comfort in appreciating the contributions of various cultures to our lives, in particular contributions from your own tradition. I know this sounds confusing, but I can explain more individually.
During our stay, we were privileged, thanks again to Ali, to see some distinctive sites that gave Muscat its own fragrance. The Places included: 1. the Muttrah Souk near the Corniche, which is a traditional market that sells, fruit, lots of clothing, shoes, gold jewelry (bracelets, anklets, rings, necklaces etc), antiques, Iranian paintings (some original some copied), day to day household items and the fresh spices with its aroma that fill the market ubiquitously. 2. Al-bustan, the six-star hotel with its majestic and grandeur lobby entrance. Here we were also treated to a dinner as part of the conference. The dinner took place in the hotel’s open grounds that were filled with musicians, dancers, and camels, and tents (with floral designed cushions and pillows) that were set up where we enjoyed some traditional cuisine. 3. Shopping center with a Nandos restaurant where we ate one night. In the shopping center there was a jewelry store that was a selling a 22K gold necklace and a head piece that had a mass of about 600+ grams for about 15 000 USD. The three of us who saw that were speechless with our jaws open! 4. Fortress, jail and the palace of the Sultan. 5. And lastly, an exquisite mosque called the Grand Sultan Qaboos Mosque. Don’t worry I have taken lots of pictures.
All in all, the experience to Oman was incredible and humbling, considering the opportunity for IB DP Biology training. A spectacular place with continuous development and spectacular attractions and is filled with genuine people who will go out of their way to ensure you the best experience. You must travel to Oman if you have the opportunity.
Stay tuned for the next couple emails as I will try and describe my experiences of Mumbai, India and Addis, Ethiopia.
Thanks to my friend Alim Somani, I have finally managed to have my own e-blog site, check it out.
Today is December 13th. Therefore I would like to wish all those observing this festive day, Khushiali Mubarak to you and yours, and Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone. I pray that may we all develop the capacity to better understand our actions, may we have the tolerance to accept the differences in others, and may we continue to serve creation to the best of our abilities. Ameen.
I am leaving for Egypt tomorrow. I will be meeting up with my brother in Cairo and we will be backpacking around the country for about 17 days. I will off course try and share this experience with you when I return. Our term one end on Friday December 9 and term two will resume on Thursday January 5th.
I look forward to your comments, good wishes and updates on emails.
Happy holidays,
Aziz
p.s. Go Leafs Go!!!
p.s.s. the Hockey world better watch out as the Canadian team gears up to defend its title at the Winter Olympics in 2006!!! The question remains, will the rookie Crosby get a spot on the Canadian team….???
posted by Batada's Traveling Adventures... at 5:26 AM
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