I cannot say enough about our time in Oman. It absolutely flew by, I cannot believe we are now in Africa. My uncle and his family went above and beyond anything that we could ever expect. Their kindness will never be forgotten and I hope that they know how much we love and appreciate them. I was meeting one of my cousins for the first time and seeing the other two again after a long time. It was great to spend time with them all. We saw the beautiful country of Oman, met some of its people and ate ALL of its food.
Several nights ago, we went to Muscat to shop and hang out. We stopped at a coffee shop by the beach but then left our table to our server's shock at having us walk out without ordering. We had starbucks instead and got home late at night.
Our second to last day, we woke up to the usual spread of lovely fresh breakfast foods already out on the table. We went to the local souq and did some (more) shopping before heading home for a huge lunch prepared by my aunt. We relaxed after lunch watching movies and packing some of our things. We are down to one backpack now for the next three and a half months. We went out to a big swimming pool at a local hotel with two of my three cousins, both my uncles, Tyson and my mother. I forced my mom to come into the water but since she did not have a bathing suit with her, she had to wear Tyson's shorts and a t-shirt. We all played in the water for hours. We raced, fought, drowned each other and relaxed until we were exhausted. My mom's sunglasses broke in one race that got competitively violent between my cousin and uncle. Since my mom is quite scared of water she was holding the life-saving tube in the kiddie pool most of the time. We relaxed in the sauna before leaving back to the house.
We were invited to dinner at my aunt's parent's home which was great. Right before dinner my uncle took Tyson to his restaurant and fed him all he could eat donairs but he still managed to eat more at the dinner. We ate delicious food and enjoyed the company of wonderful people in the clear cool air. We said our goodbyes to all the family there. I got to speak with my grandparents on the phone to catch up after a long time which was nice as well.
At home Tyson let me sleep with my mom and we chatted until the middle of the night. I was not there for this but in the morning Tyson woke up at 4am to listen to the hockey game on the internet. They lost but thankfully we still got to enjoy our last day here. We got up, ate, repacked our bags and head out to get our bag and sandals re-sown by the cobbler. For two pairs of sandals and our backpack strap repairs he charged under $1.00 Canadian. We have not learned too much about the prices here because my uncle has not let us put our hands in our pockets whatsoever but I have noticed that some food and services seem cheaper than Canada but very expensive compared to India (where we just came from). Petrol here is only .25 cents a litre which is dirt cheap and we are jealous!
We ate mystry meat pita sandwhiches from the street vendor and my uncle convinced us it was donkey meat. I am still unsure if that was the truth but it was tasty anyway. We hung out at his restaurant and said some quick goodbyes to the staff there. We went home and relaxed for a while before my cousins got home. We all changed into local Muslim Omani outfits to take photos and then ate another huge and delicious lunch with the family. After lunch everyone slept for a couple of hours and we head off to Muscat around five pm. We stopped and did a lot of shopping at the souvenier market. Everyone bought tons of stuff and I have no idea how they are going to carry it all home. We stopped for Indian food which Tyson and I tried very hard to eat but we are still not over the trauma of being sick in India so we passed on most of it. My uncle kindly noticed this and bought us McDonalds shortly afterwards. We then head to the same coffee shop we had walked out of a couple of nights ago. We sat down but the servers were slow and the mosquitos prevalent, so we walked out on them again. I don't think we are welcome there anymore. We then head to the airport around midnight. The security at this airport is by far the most relaxed of any we have ever seen. My family was able to come in past security and wait with us where usually only flying customers would be permitted. They waited until about 12:45am and then we had the big tearful goodbye. I could not help it, I balled my eyes out while saying by to my mother for the third time this year. It was most difficult however, to say bye to my uncle and aunt. To really be able to express my gratitude and love for them seemed impossible and their kindness had brought me to tears. I was not the only one and even some men were shedding tears by the end of it. People was staring at us but we did not care as we hugged and kissed and loved each other by the exit. They finally left Tyson and I to comfort each other until we had to check in at 2:40am for our 5:40am flight to Johannesburg with a stop in Doha. We did not sleep much before check in but we napped on and off afterwards.
The flight was only one hour to our first stop in Doha, Qatar where we had a brief layover before our eight hour flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. The flight was long but very comfortable, with two meals and an endless amount of movies to choose from. It probably was not smart to watch African gang and war movies when we were already a bit nervous about our next destination. Once we arrived Tyson's distant relative and his wife were waiting for us. We are all unsure about their exact blood relations but it does not matter because they treated us like close family from the first second we met them. As soon as we left the airport and began to drive around the naievity in me began to wonder if our plane had landed in the wrong country. Johannesburg looks just like Vancouver with shopping malls, four lane highways, mountains, greenery and so on. We drove to their beautiful home in the upper class white neighborhood full of gorgeous mansions. I don't know what we were expecting but it definately surprised us. The house is in a very upscale neighbourhood with guards at all the corners and every home has a wall with an electric fence on the top of it. Its not an unsafe area but they have these precautions for insurance purposes. We settled into our bedroom and and had a nice chat with our new hosts until their children arrived for dinner. They cooked us a delicious meal of potatoes, corn, salad, sauasages and Brie (barbeque) steak, chicken and pork skewers. This was followed by a traditional South African cream pie, berries and ice cream. Everyday, while stuffing my face in Oman, I told myself I would lose the wieght in Africa....We talked for a couple hours with the family until we couldn't stay awake anymore and headed off to bed.
The next morning we woke up at seven am to go with Joyce to help her with some volunteering that she does every week. She is part of an organization that helps disabled children learn to ride horses for their enjoyment and also for therapuetic reasons. This was an excellent experience for the children as well as us. They were all physically handicapped but when we put them on a horse they all handled it very well. We walked beside the horses and helped support the children by holding their ankles or waists depending on the need of the child. There was around fifteen students and every one of them was smiling and enjoyed every second of it. Unfortunately once these kids reach around they are no longer able to ride because there is not enough money or man power to accomadate.them. Most of the kids learned Tyson's name by the end of the three hours but nobody knew mine. I'm sure that does not mean anything. Once the class had left the volunteers sat down for a cup of coffee to warm ourselves up. It was a very cold day and I was wearing three layers of clothing plus a coats but still shivering. Apparently this is very unusual weather for this time of year. Coming from forty degree weather to ten was a real shock for our bodies.
We returned home for lunch of ham sandwhiches and spent the afternoon researching what we were going to for the rest of our time in Africa. They took us to a mall where they booked our trip for the four of us to go to Kruger National Park. This is the most famous game reserve and safari area in Southern Africa. It is very kind of them to take us because otherwise I am not sure that we would have been able to go. They have also been there many times and know the place well. At the mall, we also took the opportunity to speak with a few travel agents for local flights. We later met up with their children again and went out for dinner to a Mozambique restaurant. They have one son and one daughter, both a bit older than us. We all get alond very well and the whole family is wonderful. The food was mainly fish, chicken, steak served with peri peri and other types of sauces. We all talked for hours about South Africa and its history as well as a few personal stories of their life here. We noticed the way they speak about other races may be politically incorrect in some parts of the world but in South Africa its imbedded in the people.
One story they shared was when Joyce and their daughter were held at gunpoint outside their home by two black men wanting to take their car. Joyce was having none of that so she started punching and kicking the man holding the gun while screaming at the top of her lungs and honking the horn of the car. He husband was inside the house working and heard the commotion and ran outside to help. When the robber saw Alesdair running toward him he fired a couple of shots at him. Alesdair quikly ran back inside and tried to set the house alarm off to scare the attackers away. Of course the alarm wasn't properly set up to he couldn't set it off. The theives got scared away and within an hour the police had a thearapist to the house to make sure everyone was ok. The experince was very tramatizing as one can imagine.
Another story they told us happened to the neighbours up the street from them. The wife came home from doing some shopping and when she opened the gate five men followed her in as the gate closed behind her. As she opened the garage door the massive guard dog ran in between her and the armed attackers leaving her enough time to flee into the house. The attackers didn't realize that they were now trapped inside this compound with a ten foot high fence with another high voltage electric fence on top of that. The husband of the lady ran outside unloaded over fifty bullets into the attackers, killing three of them and wounding the other two. The two wounded men still managed to climb the fence and got out. After the shooting stopped a crowd of people and the police were now outside the house, when one of the security guards noticed that one of the wounded attackers had returned to the scene to see what was happening. The police arrested him and the husband was not charged because it was self defense.
Following these incidents (which all happened at least five years ago), the community has brought in many more watchmen to make the area safer. Tyson and I have not felt unsafe here at all but when we drive by the townships (where the blacks and coloured people live) and we see the poverty compared to the upper class white neighborhoods, we cannot help but understand a little of the crime. We have not walked anywhere at all in the several days we have been here and you will not see any white person walking. The people on the streets are all black. The servers in restaurants, the cashiers at the store, the men who guard customer cars for tips, all these people are black. White people have office jobs and are usually professionals. So this causes the natural seperations in the groups of people that we do not see back in Vancouver.
Today we slept in until about 8:30 and left the house after some computor work. We went to the museam created for the Dutch people who marched to South Africa many generations ago. Apparently this monument and building was almost destroyed when the blacks took back power with Nelson Mandela but fortuantely they left it up. It is very beautiful and tells the story of the power struggle, fights and deaths between the whites and the Zulus. It is an awful story of murder but it is told in a very one-sided way. If one reads it with an open mind then it is very interesting. After that we drove to the Union buildings where the official government offices are. We were not premitted inside but they were having an outdoor concert nearby and the gardens and decor outside were beautiful. The weather today was perfectly clear with blue skies and moderate temperatures so we enjoyed ourselves.
We went to a small bistro for lunch and ate delicious pizzas smothered in mozzarella and huge cheesecake slices. After lunch we went to the prior home of a freedom fighter who died years ago. The current Queen of England had stayed at this home when she visited South Africa when she was just a princess. This was where she had recieved the news that her father had passed away. It was a small but nice home with lovely gardens all around it. After a little bit of shopping at the local Woolworths, we came home for dinner of spaghetti bolognese. Yeah, I'm not so sure of the losing wieght in Africa deal I had with myself.
"If we are not happy and joyous in this season for what season shall we wait"
Several nights ago, we went to Muscat to shop and hang out. We stopped at a coffee shop by the beach but then left our table to our server's shock at having us walk out without ordering. We had starbucks instead and got home late at night.
Our second to last day, we woke up to the usual spread of lovely fresh breakfast foods already out on the table. We went to the local souq and did some (more) shopping before heading home for a huge lunch prepared by my aunt. We relaxed after lunch watching movies and packing some of our things. We are down to one backpack now for the next three and a half months. We went out to a big swimming pool at a local hotel with two of my three cousins, both my uncles, Tyson and my mother. I forced my mom to come into the water but since she did not have a bathing suit with her, she had to wear Tyson's shorts and a t-shirt. We all played in the water for hours. We raced, fought, drowned each other and relaxed until we were exhausted. My mom's sunglasses broke in one race that got competitively violent between my cousin and uncle. Since my mom is quite scared of water she was holding the life-saving tube in the kiddie pool most of the time. We relaxed in the sauna before leaving back to the house.
We were invited to dinner at my aunt's parent's home which was great. Right before dinner my uncle took Tyson to his restaurant and fed him all he could eat donairs but he still managed to eat more at the dinner. We ate delicious food and enjoyed the company of wonderful people in the clear cool air. We said our goodbyes to all the family there. I got to speak with my grandparents on the phone to catch up after a long time which was nice as well.
At home Tyson let me sleep with my mom and we chatted until the middle of the night. I was not there for this but in the morning Tyson woke up at 4am to listen to the hockey game on the internet. They lost but thankfully we still got to enjoy our last day here. We got up, ate, repacked our bags and head out to get our bag and sandals re-sown by the cobbler. For two pairs of sandals and our backpack strap repairs he charged under $1.00 Canadian. We have not learned too much about the prices here because my uncle has not let us put our hands in our pockets whatsoever but I have noticed that some food and services seem cheaper than Canada but very expensive compared to India (where we just came from). Petrol here is only .25 cents a litre which is dirt cheap and we are jealous!
We ate mystry meat pita sandwhiches from the street vendor and my uncle convinced us it was donkey meat. I am still unsure if that was the truth but it was tasty anyway. We hung out at his restaurant and said some quick goodbyes to the staff there. We went home and relaxed for a while before my cousins got home. We all changed into local Muslim Omani outfits to take photos and then ate another huge and delicious lunch with the family. After lunch everyone slept for a couple of hours and we head off to Muscat around five pm. We stopped and did a lot of shopping at the souvenier market. Everyone bought tons of stuff and I have no idea how they are going to carry it all home. We stopped for Indian food which Tyson and I tried very hard to eat but we are still not over the trauma of being sick in India so we passed on most of it. My uncle kindly noticed this and bought us McDonalds shortly afterwards. We then head to the same coffee shop we had walked out of a couple of nights ago. We sat down but the servers were slow and the mosquitos prevalent, so we walked out on them again. I don't think we are welcome there anymore. We then head to the airport around midnight. The security at this airport is by far the most relaxed of any we have ever seen. My family was able to come in past security and wait with us where usually only flying customers would be permitted. They waited until about 12:45am and then we had the big tearful goodbye. I could not help it, I balled my eyes out while saying by to my mother for the third time this year. It was most difficult however, to say bye to my uncle and aunt. To really be able to express my gratitude and love for them seemed impossible and their kindness had brought me to tears. I was not the only one and even some men were shedding tears by the end of it. People was staring at us but we did not care as we hugged and kissed and loved each other by the exit. They finally left Tyson and I to comfort each other until we had to check in at 2:40am for our 5:40am flight to Johannesburg with a stop in Doha. We did not sleep much before check in but we napped on and off afterwards.
The flight was only one hour to our first stop in Doha, Qatar where we had a brief layover before our eight hour flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. The flight was long but very comfortable, with two meals and an endless amount of movies to choose from. It probably was not smart to watch African gang and war movies when we were already a bit nervous about our next destination. Once we arrived Tyson's distant relative and his wife were waiting for us. We are all unsure about their exact blood relations but it does not matter because they treated us like close family from the first second we met them. As soon as we left the airport and began to drive around the naievity in me began to wonder if our plane had landed in the wrong country. Johannesburg looks just like Vancouver with shopping malls, four lane highways, mountains, greenery and so on. We drove to their beautiful home in the upper class white neighborhood full of gorgeous mansions. I don't know what we were expecting but it definately surprised us. The house is in a very upscale neighbourhood with guards at all the corners and every home has a wall with an electric fence on the top of it. Its not an unsafe area but they have these precautions for insurance purposes. We settled into our bedroom and and had a nice chat with our new hosts until their children arrived for dinner. They cooked us a delicious meal of potatoes, corn, salad, sauasages and Brie (barbeque) steak, chicken and pork skewers. This was followed by a traditional South African cream pie, berries and ice cream. Everyday, while stuffing my face in Oman, I told myself I would lose the wieght in Africa....We talked for a couple hours with the family until we couldn't stay awake anymore and headed off to bed.
The next morning we woke up at seven am to go with Joyce to help her with some volunteering that she does every week. She is part of an organization that helps disabled children learn to ride horses for their enjoyment and also for therapuetic reasons. This was an excellent experience for the children as well as us. They were all physically handicapped but when we put them on a horse they all handled it very well. We walked beside the horses and helped support the children by holding their ankles or waists depending on the need of the child. There was around fifteen students and every one of them was smiling and enjoyed every second of it. Unfortunately once these kids reach around they are no longer able to ride because there is not enough money or man power to accomadate.them. Most of the kids learned Tyson's name by the end of the three hours but nobody knew mine. I'm sure that does not mean anything. Once the class had left the volunteers sat down for a cup of coffee to warm ourselves up. It was a very cold day and I was wearing three layers of clothing plus a coats but still shivering. Apparently this is very unusual weather for this time of year. Coming from forty degree weather to ten was a real shock for our bodies.
We returned home for lunch of ham sandwhiches and spent the afternoon researching what we were going to for the rest of our time in Africa. They took us to a mall where they booked our trip for the four of us to go to Kruger National Park. This is the most famous game reserve and safari area in Southern Africa. It is very kind of them to take us because otherwise I am not sure that we would have been able to go. They have also been there many times and know the place well. At the mall, we also took the opportunity to speak with a few travel agents for local flights. We later met up with their children again and went out for dinner to a Mozambique restaurant. They have one son and one daughter, both a bit older than us. We all get alond very well and the whole family is wonderful. The food was mainly fish, chicken, steak served with peri peri and other types of sauces. We all talked for hours about South Africa and its history as well as a few personal stories of their life here. We noticed the way they speak about other races may be politically incorrect in some parts of the world but in South Africa its imbedded in the people.
One story they shared was when Joyce and their daughter were held at gunpoint outside their home by two black men wanting to take their car. Joyce was having none of that so she started punching and kicking the man holding the gun while screaming at the top of her lungs and honking the horn of the car. He husband was inside the house working and heard the commotion and ran outside to help. When the robber saw Alesdair running toward him he fired a couple of shots at him. Alesdair quikly ran back inside and tried to set the house alarm off to scare the attackers away. Of course the alarm wasn't properly set up to he couldn't set it off. The theives got scared away and within an hour the police had a thearapist to the house to make sure everyone was ok. The experince was very tramatizing as one can imagine.
Another story they told us happened to the neighbours up the street from them. The wife came home from doing some shopping and when she opened the gate five men followed her in as the gate closed behind her. As she opened the garage door the massive guard dog ran in between her and the armed attackers leaving her enough time to flee into the house. The attackers didn't realize that they were now trapped inside this compound with a ten foot high fence with another high voltage electric fence on top of that. The husband of the lady ran outside unloaded over fifty bullets into the attackers, killing three of them and wounding the other two. The two wounded men still managed to climb the fence and got out. After the shooting stopped a crowd of people and the police were now outside the house, when one of the security guards noticed that one of the wounded attackers had returned to the scene to see what was happening. The police arrested him and the husband was not charged because it was self defense.
Following these incidents (which all happened at least five years ago), the community has brought in many more watchmen to make the area safer. Tyson and I have not felt unsafe here at all but when we drive by the townships (where the blacks and coloured people live) and we see the poverty compared to the upper class white neighborhoods, we cannot help but understand a little of the crime. We have not walked anywhere at all in the several days we have been here and you will not see any white person walking. The people on the streets are all black. The servers in restaurants, the cashiers at the store, the men who guard customer cars for tips, all these people are black. White people have office jobs and are usually professionals. So this causes the natural seperations in the groups of people that we do not see back in Vancouver.
Today we slept in until about 8:30 and left the house after some computor work. We went to the museam created for the Dutch people who marched to South Africa many generations ago. Apparently this monument and building was almost destroyed when the blacks took back power with Nelson Mandela but fortuantely they left it up. It is very beautiful and tells the story of the power struggle, fights and deaths between the whites and the Zulus. It is an awful story of murder but it is told in a very one-sided way. If one reads it with an open mind then it is very interesting. After that we drove to the Union buildings where the official government offices are. We were not premitted inside but they were having an outdoor concert nearby and the gardens and decor outside were beautiful. The weather today was perfectly clear with blue skies and moderate temperatures so we enjoyed ourselves.
We went to a small bistro for lunch and ate delicious pizzas smothered in mozzarella and huge cheesecake slices. After lunch we went to the prior home of a freedom fighter who died years ago. The current Queen of England had stayed at this home when she visited South Africa when she was just a princess. This was where she had recieved the news that her father had passed away. It was a small but nice home with lovely gardens all around it. After a little bit of shopping at the local Woolworths, we came home for dinner of spaghetti bolognese. Yeah, I'm not so sure of the losing wieght in Africa deal I had with myself.
"If we are not happy and joyous in this season for what season shall we wait"
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