I had scheduled today as a time to conduct a four-hour workshop with senior staff at the school. However, this plan had to be abandoned when it was learned that the Omani Government had mandated today as one half of a two-day mid-term holiday for all staff in schools across the country. The school I am working with keeps different term dates, being an international school, and only returned from its winter break two weeks ago. Nonetheless, a mandate is a mandate, and so plans were changed.
At one level this was fortuitous because I had two Zoom calls with Australia scheduled for early in the morning, so these were able to be conducted with less pressure of time. I set my alarm for 6:00am, had an early breakfast at 6:30am, and then spent a couple of hours on my Zoom calls and the follow-up correspondence.
Knowing that I would have another early start tomorrow to catch an early flight, I decided to top up my rental car’s fuel tank in preparation for returning the car as quickly as possible on my way to catch the flight. That provided me with a bonus couple of hours to catch up on some correspondence before I was collected by the Principal of the school at 1:15pm for a debriefing lunch.
This was both a productive and a thoroughly enjoyable time. As with all my dealings with Al Sahwa Schools, the Principal was exceptionally gracious and generous with his time, taking me to an area of Muscat I had not previously explored.
We drove to the west of Muscat Airport, taking a turn to the shoreline at Al Hail North Beach. It was immediately obvious that in spite of widespread construction, this was a more traditional (though not historic) zone of Muscat than the more central areas where I had spent most of my time. The beach was lined with several kilometres of straw-roofed shelters protecting fishing vessels, making it very clear where the district’s prime income earning work was focussed.
We continued to the north-west into the district known as Seeb. Seeb used to be a discrete urban settlement, but the growth of Muscat has now absorbed Seeb in the process of conurbation. We paused a couple of times on the drive to Seeb to see the fisherfolk bringing in their huge nets of fish, being hauled by 4WD light utility vehicles on the sand. We arrived at the tail end of the process, but we were in time to see the fish being packed into large white ice-lined containers, with seagulls flying in a dense formation ready to clean up whatever was left behind. There were even a few local people buying fish from the boat owners (freshness is obviously important to some people), while other people were gleaning leftover fish that from the sand or that had been wrapped up in the nets. It was a fascinating mix of an ancient technique with modern technology.
We parked the car near Seeb’s central market and souq, hoping to find a coffee or tea shop. However, almost everything was closed as we were there during the afternoon siesta, which seems to last from 11:30am to about 4:00pm. Most shops were closed, and there was an almost post-apocalyptic torpor in every direction.
After quite a bit of searching we found one place that was open, the Umma Veedu Restaurant in Wadi Al Bhaiyas Street. I noted after our visit that it ranked 4.4 out of 5 stars on Google, which I though was a little generous given that only about 10% of the menu seemed to be available – no fish, no meat, no vegetables, no breads, but chicken in almost any style you wanted as long as it was spicy – and amazing mango juice. The food was actually very good, and it provided an excellent venue to debrief my work with the school which has been a major ongoing project since October last year.
We finished our meal with quite interesting and energetically made small cups of karak tea and returned to the car through the souq. We made one final stop at the Fish Market, but although the building was open it was completely empty apart from the empty concrete stalls and the surprisingly fresh aroma of fish.
Returning to the hotel, I realised I really hadn’t done enough walking today, so I went for a 50 minute walk around the streets near the Convention Centre. The weather today had warmed up considerably since last week – today’s maximum in Muscat was 25°C, so my later afternoon walk was quite balmy, though fortunately with quite low humidity and a much appreciated fresh breeze.
