Diet

Do you know me? I do not really think so you see until 2 years ago I had been obese for most of my adult life. I had at one point weighed 285 if not more. I had all of the associated medical problems from this added weight. I had very high blood pressure sore back and knees and, I was oddly enough always hungry. I had to lose the weight because my doctor was trying all types of medicines to control my blood pressure but nothing worked. He mentioned that the thing that would really bring it under control would be a reduction in weight.

People always ask me how I had lost so much weight in such a short time. Well there were several things that I did to lose the weight. One of the most effective things that did was to keep a food journal. When I was 285 lbs I went to a medical experiment at Columbia University for Meridia (sp). They would not let me into the group for the medical experiment because my blood pressure was too high. But they explained that the most important part of the medical experiment was that participants had to keep a log of food intake. That is you had to write down everything that you ate and how much of it you ate. You had to keep this log for two weeks before they would even let you into the drug side of the medical experiment. The reason was that most people would be able to correct their excessive eating by seeing what they were eating. I ending up using this myself and found out how much I really was eating. I then started using it to count the number of calories and types of food I was eating. It was very effective because every time I wanted to cheat I had to think I would see it written in from of my face! There was no way to cheat because I had to write everything that was put in my mouth. If I drank coffee or juice I had to put it on my list. I keep this list religiously for 5 months and lost 100 lbs in those 5 months. I then keep the list up for the next 7 months so that my eating style would be permanently changed. It worked great and now I do not keep my food log even though I have stayed close to 190 since 2000.

Now in addition to this I also keep a very strict high protein and high fiber diet. Why Protein? In a diet you want to do two things. First you want to feel full for the fewest calories. Second you want to speed up your metabolism. Lucky enough protein does both of these; it makes you feel full and speeds up your metabolism. It speeds up you metabolism because it is hard to digest and therefore takes more energy to digest. Consider that Sugars are stored as fat, YIKES! While Proteins is stored as muscle. So if you want to cheat chose a Protein item. Beef jerky is great for this, but remember to wash it down with lots of liquid because that makes it absorb the liquid making you feel even more full.
Why High Fiber? First all of that protein you eat does not pass through your system very well so you will need the fiber to help you "stay regular". Second You want to eat foods high in Fiber because it fills your stomach up with space so you do not feel hungry. You do not calories from fiber because your body cannot process the energy in it. You should make sure your diet is high in vegetables and legumes (beans) because they are high in protein and fiber. Finally I use fiber products like Metamucil, I take them with lots of water about an hour before I eat so I feel full/eat less. Fiber is good at absorbing water, which works if you drink lost of water before and after your meals. The water fills up your stomach and you are not as hungry. For high protein high fiber foods legumes (beans) are the best source on the planet and they are also a good source for calcium and B complex vitamins. For high protein foods the best source is baked fish. But you would be surprised how few calories pork has if you cut the fat off before you cook it.

Another strategy that works great for me is reading the labels. There is a lot of information on US labels for food, like calories per portion. Portion size is a big problem in American minds, you see the food makers set portions so that al foods seem to have 100 calories! But the size of that portion can vary dramatically from food to food. For example Coke has 100 calories per portion but that is only 8 liquid ounces. Rice, which many diets tell you to stay away from, also has 100 calories per portion but that portion is a 1/3 cup of cooked rice!! And let me tell you I would feel much more full on that than Coke. Also many things you drink have a lot of calories in them. Back to the Coke example if you had coffee with (powdered) cream and sugar it would only have about 30 calories for the same amount. Also the added caffeine helps to speed up your metabolism and it is a natural appetite suppressant.

Well I hope this helps David Rumptz.

Golf

I started playing golf!! Mostly it is for the fun of hanging out with some buddies from work. It is good as we usually do not have to work much on Thursdays so I can play golf while Tita and the kids are in school.

We have two courses here in Al Ain one is a Desert course where they have just made bunkers and "greens" but no grass on anything. Your bring your own Astroturf to drive off. Then you go to where your ball has; landed and put it on the Astroturf to drive again. I have not played the course yet so I do not know what you do for the "greens" as they are all dirt as well. I cannot imagine trying to putt on them. I am going to go out next Friday with a group that plays and see how it goes. Good news is that the Desert course cost only $13 for 18 holes.

Now I have played on the Palm course and it is a golf resort with a club house and everything. This course cost $54 for 18 holes but that gets you a cart that has a GPS unit. It tells you the distance to each of the holes you are playing. Some of the carts have little Aircon units that blow cold air through a tube to the back of your neck, for when you’re playing in the 120 heat! It has greens, fairways roughs, sand traps, and water hazards!!! It is a nice course but it only has 9 holes they are supposed to open the back nine in a few months.

Then believe it or not we have a 3rd golf course!! Well it is really a pitch and put course in the back of the Hilton complex. I have played that twice and it is a a bit of fun and it is free for me as I have a Hilton membership. I even took eh kids out with me once to bash around on the course they had some fun at it.

Wadi Aboul

Saturdays' trip (October 3, 2009) with the Emirates Natural History Group was to “Wadi Aboul, historically one of the more popular oases to visit for expats living in Al Ain. Faculty from UAEU have been enjoying a day out in Wadi Aboul from the late 1960's.”

This is kind of ironic because when we were on Eid al Fitr break we drove up here by mistake. We had been trying to make the connection between Mahadah to Wadi Sharms but ended up in Aboul instead. We stopped but did not get out of the car had I know that it was as easy and entertaining as it was I would have much rather spent my time at this wadi instead of the Wadi As Sudiyah. Oh well you live you learn.

Well the first issue was getting the family out of the house for the trip they were pretty reluctant to go after spending all Friday in the house playing on the computers and watching movies on TV. But I prevailed even dragging Ttia out of the house.

Once we arrived I tried to take a shot and the battery on the camera was spent. Luckily I was able to take a shot at a time so I ended getting some high resolution pictures to supplement the camera phone shots I had taken.

The walk starts at a gentle slope going up the wadi, at several points you see small pools of water that are “iced” over. In fact they are covered with a film of calcium carbonate (like Tums ant-acids and bones) the water percolates through the lime stone dissolving the calcium and when then it deposits this over the course of the wadi. This is very interesting and in some of the larger pools the bottom of the pool is covered in white – including the plant material that has fallen in.

On the tip we did see some pools that looked good enough for a small group to splash about in. I am not saying it is swimming but it would be a nice spot to have a picnic and I am going to try to convince some of the guys to go out with me there.

On to the Aboul Fort, this place looks great and it is hard to believe that is has not been used or maintained for more than 50 years. The fort is in a great location on a small hill overlooking the formerly large oasis. It is a great place to explore as most of the fort is still in tack and you can get up to the top of one of the towers in the fort. A nice thing about the fort is that it has new occupants. There were several bats and geckos. This was a main selling point to the kids. And we were able to see several bats up close and personal. We got some shots of the bats but he picture I am posting I lifted off a newspaper article about bats in the UAE. One of the nice shots I have is of the interior of the mud brick wall where you can see that they stacked rocks in the wall to make it fortified. It makes sense as the people in the village would come here in times of raiding parties.

Not far from the fort is a village that still has some buildings being used for storage. The village is for me at least your standard mud brick and rock village. Granted some of the building did show signs of cement which according to Brien indicates that they were built or renovated after World War II. Brien indicated that swan lumber and Portland cement did not arrive in the region until after WWII. It was nice village with many houses in a fairly spread out area. The village still has a mosque that Brien says is still in use by the workers in the oasis across the wadi.

On to the Oasis, it is hard to believe how green it is in the working part of the Oasis- several plots on the lower plain of the wadi system had been abandoned due to lack of sufficient water. The Oasis was your typical Omani style with dates, mango, orange, lime, and lemon trees. This particular oasis also had the additional plants of eggplant and okra, which I found rather interesting.

After a walk through the oasis we returned to the cars on the donkey path which is opposite the fort and along the foothills. We stopped along the way to look at a cemetery.
All an all a good trip out, we were home by 7 pm and watching Charlie Chaplin’s “Modern Times.”

Madbah Wadi

September 26, 2009 GPS 24° 5'31.43"N 56° 7'12.99"E

Well Justin found a wadi in his off road book. He was busy on Friday so we decided to go on Saturday. The trip out was nice and easy it was well posted as well so there were no incidents. We did pass the turn off to the climbing wall but we did not have solid directions to the turn off. It is kind of like the Hanging Gardens- We have been to both places with different groups but cannot seem to find our way back to them. Granted we have a listing for the turn off for the Hanging Gardens but every time we are on the road we do not see the dirt track to take. One of these days we will have to make a trip specifically to the Hanging Gardens. Also Justin’s book has a turn off to the Climbing/Wonder Wall so we will have to start looking for that when we go out again.

Back to the trip, so we proceeded up the paved road to the dirt road, as I had said the turn off was well marked so there was no mystery to the trip. We drove up the dirt track and took the turn off to the Oasis. There was an actual parking lot of sorts at the end of the trail; we had a nice herd of goats for a welcoming committee in the parking area. We disembarked from the cars and took a short hike up to some pools that behind a small dam. We decided to set up our picnic here at the smaller pools. We dropped off our chairs and food and then I went on a bit further with Justin, my kids and a few of Justin’s kids. Justin has 5 children. He is a Mormon and they believe in having large families – kind of like us Catholics in the 60s and 70s. Tita, Justin’s wife Maya and some the younger kids stayed at the base cap while we explored higher up. Well after about 100 meters we came to the first waterfall / pool. The pool is rather large with lots of space on either side. Well it is split into 2 pools, the lower pool which is about 3-4 meters wide by 1 meter deep and the upper pool which is about 2 – 3 meters wide but and at least 2 meters deep. Also the second pool has a small waterfall that feeds it. Well climbing to the second water fall was a bit a challenge as there is a huge boulder in the path, about 3 – 4 meters tall, and we had to help the young kids over this. Once on top of the bolder the area levels off to a nice plateau with a gentle stream feeding the small waterfall below.

On to the big waterfall, once up to plateau it is a short walk around the corner to the big water fall. The big water fall is at least 4 meters high and very impressive especially considering that we are in a desert! It is amazing that so much water is flowing constantly in these few spots as the rest of the area is barren rock field. Some people say it is like Arizona but I disagree because in Arizona you have all those saguaro cacti so it is not as barren as the Omani foot hills. Well with the area being explored we went back to the picnic area and had our lunch. It was quite windy and after lunch we decided to take the chairs and other picnic items and drop them back at the cars, so that we could go up to the big pools to go swimming unencumbered. Well it was nice easy trip up to the pools and we kind of skipped the sallower pool and went right into the deep one even though some of Justin’s kids were a bit small for it. Not to worry there were areas in the pool that were rather shallow to play in. And after a while Tita and Maya came up and climbed the big rock to go look at the water fall. At that point Justin ferried the smaller kids over across the pool and they went with their mother Maya. Tita and Maya led the smaller kids to the big waterfall which has a smaller pool that is easy for them to play and swim in.

After swimming for an hour our two we were visited by what looked like an Afghani or Pakistani man from his cultural attire. There was bit of confusion as to why he was there checking us out. He hung out for a bit and we felt a bit nervous and awkward but then he left. It was only until when I went down to the lower pool later that I saw he had come with this family and was checking it out as he had brought his young children to play in the lower pool. Actually this made me a bit more anxious to get going as he had his wife with him and she was wearing her abaya (cloak) and shelia (scarf to cover hair). I wanted to give them the area to themselves so that they could have a nice picnic with the worry of us. Well we all got back down from the various pools and waterfalls we were at and made our journey back to the cars. The goats had been eating our leftover food when we came back so they got a lunch out of this as well.

Anyway a great trip and a fun time, cannot wait to go out again, actually we are going today with the Emirates Natural History Group Wadi Nahayan.

More travels Eid Al fitr 2009

More travels Eid Al fitr 2009 Thursday September 24

Mahdah GPS 24°23'57.72"N 55°58'11.39"E

As Sudiyah - GPS: N24 33.173 E 56 07.539

On Wednesday September 23, Andrew went to a 3 day birthday party!! I know it sounds crazy I have to say the parents of the kids must be brave. Well I was worried that Ashley was going to feel less than special so I planed a trip for us on Thursday just for Ashley. Sadly the off road book made the trip seem a lot better than the reality of the matter.

Well we went off to explore the pools of As Sudiyah , the first stop on our trip was to Mahadah Oasis 24°23'57.72"N 55°58'11.39"E. I had been to Mahadah Oasis with the Emirates Natural History Group earlier and though I would manage my way around the Oasis but unfortunately it had been a long time and I did not quite remember the route we had taken. But on the positive note Tita and Ashley got to see the mosque and the working sundial. They seem to still use the sundial to allocate the water that comes into the oasis. Also we heard some men washing – clothes? – in the falaj which has a built up wall to keep them from view. This was interesting as I did not think it was used for washing anymore. Well we did some exploring of the oasis but gave up after a few false starts. We did get to see some stuff that was nice but not the ancient village made of rock and mud brick that lie in the foothills near the oasis. I wrote Brien and got directions to the back of the oasis but I would still explore it before I thought of bringing the family back there. But it does have some potential.

On to As Sudiyah 24°33'10.01"N 56° 9'11.65"E Well the travel book gave pictures of water and I expected to see pools!! After hunting for the oasis and then finding the flaja, I was able to track it back to the “pools” but sadly the pools were very shallow and hardly a place I would say was swimable. One thing that was nice about the area is that it had a great back drop of mountains. It also had some natural oasis up the wadi some. I went up to see if I would find any more pools. I did not find any more pools but in the natural oasis I found a couple of traps that were handmade. I am not sure what they were trying to trap. I did find one that had been sprung but did not want to open it up.

Well we did a bit of a dip in the pool and made the trip back home without any incident.

Eid ul Fitr 2009Trips part II

Gaff Grove BBQ September 21, 2009 GPS: 24°23'39.60"N 55°39'8.24"E

Well on Monday we took some friends out to the Wadi Subaitah, Oman later in the evening we meet up with some more friends and had a BBQ out in the desert. The place we went to was the gaff grove just past the camel race track in Al Ain. Our family ahs camped here several times and the pictures are from one of those previous excursions. The other people had never been there so it was a new experience for them. The reason I like the gaff grove so much is that well it offer some shade in the middle of the desert!!! This is very nice. Another cool thing is that it is in the middle of a bowl. The sides of the area are sand dunes and the entrance to the area is built up but not as high as the opposite sides. So it is like driving up a small volcano you get to the peak and then drive right in to a lower section it is a lot of fun to drive and as there are several trees in the bowl it is a great place to camp and have a BBQ. I have also gone there and done some 4x4ing with one of my other buddies. I really like this area a lot I have to say it is one of my favorite easy trips out. You can get tot eh sire in 30 minutes and have a great time.

Jazirah Oasis September 22, 2009 GPS: N24 19 13.3 E56 09 06.7

Well we all had a great time on Monday night and I decided to take them to the Jazirah Oasis for a picnic. Again we have been to the Jazirah Oasis several times as a family but I wanted to show the other families this place as it has a great dam and this makes a great swimming spot. Well the drive to the oasis is very cool too it is not really 4x4 but it does get a bit intense at some points.

We arrived at the pool next to the oasis at about 12 and had a picnic lunch. The kids and adults than swam for a while in the pool created by the dam. Then I decided it would be nice to take people on a tour of the oasis. This lead to a false start by me – trying to take the adults before I had scoped out the oasis, well I decided to tour the oasis without the rest of the adults. After getting lost in the oasis a few times I figured out the path we had taken with the Emirates Natural History Group. Of course I had to get some help from the man who was working the oasis!! He led me out of the oasis on a couple of turns where I had gotten a bit confused –NOT LOST!!!

A great thing about Jazirah Oasis is that the buildings are still made of mud brick and except for one rest house most of them are built using the traditional style of mud brick. Granted on one lives in the village any more but it is nice to see the old style.

After finding my way around I came back and grabbed most of the kids and adults to give them the tour of the oasis. Granted I am in debt to Brien form the Emirates Natural History Group because most of what I had to say I learned from him. Well the kids and adults had a great time on the walk and no one got lost!! Not even me.

If you want to see more on the Jazirah Oasis go to my Blog http://travelingrumptzs.blogspot.com/2009/03/jazira-oasis.html

Well that is about it for now I will be sending out more later in the week

As Sudiyah September 24, 2009 GPS: N24 33.173 E 56 07.539

Mahdah GPS 24°23'57.72"N 55°58'11.39"E

Madbah Wadi September 26, 2009 GPS 24° 5'31.43"N 56° 7'12.99"E

Eid 2009 Holiday Trips

Ok we just got done with Eid (religious holiday afterRamadan- kind of like our Christmas & Easter) and over the week break wewent on a few journeys

If you have Google Earth then you can take the GPScoordinates and check out the sites. If you have Panoramaio turned on (UnderLayers > Geographic Web) Then you can find more shots ? you have to zoom inclose to find some of the shots.

AlAin Oasis September 19, 2009


We really these are shots from the JimiOasis as we forgot to bring our camera on the Al Ain Oasis trip. This was anice trip that we took on last Saturday. It was good to get out and see theworking ?farm? right in down town Al Ain. The thing that surprised me the mostwas the city of Al Ain has 400,000 people. It seems like a much smaller citybut when you consider all fo the workers it is not hard to believe. They haveworkers everywhere. There are guys who put in flowers in all of the mediansjust to come and rip them out and then put new flowers in a month later.

The Oasis in the UAE are all monoculture date palm plantations. Granted there are several variety of date palmsin each oasis. As Brien the leader of the walks explains think of how manyvariety of apples we have.

After the Oasis we went and spent therest of the day at the Hilton. We are starting to sue our membership there morenow. We even spent the afternoon thereon Sunday after we got abck from our scouting trip to Subaitah.

WadiSubaitah, Oman September 20 & 21, 2009 GPS: 24°15'53.86"N 56°9'40.21"E

We missed the walk with the Emirates Natural History groupon Saturday so we decided to do the trip by ourselves. Luckily the leader ofthe group gives good directions and we found the site easily. It was a fundrive with a bit of 4X4 action to it.

Well Subaitah is an amazing oasis. It is truly a wonder toexplore and the real joy is that it is so small. The place is about 100 meterswide by 200 meters long. The walk into the oasis starts with a nice area thatis a tunnel created by over grown trees. After that you are on the cliff of thewadi (ravine) with the Oasis clinging to a small plateau on right side of thewadi. The Oasis is a typical of Oman having several species of plants in growthhere. There are mango, guava, lemon, and orange trees there are even somebanana plants as well, and of course the ubiquitous date palm.

Once in the heart of the oasis you come to a small villagethat has no electricity until now. You find some of the old (ancient) mud brickbuildings, several abandoned buildings and we were lucky enough to find the oneperson who still lives there. A worker from I am guessing Afghanistan orPakistan by the style of clothing worn. As I do not speak much Arabic and he does not speak much English wesmiled and said hello.

On to the falajah!!! The falajah is a blast as it hugs closeto the wadi cliff face. It is by walking this cliff face that you get to theswimming pool. There are some parts of the walk that you have to hug the cliffwall to make it past. It is a bit of a rush the first time but easy after that.It is not a long walk and then you are on level ground again and it is time toswim in the narrow but at times very deep pool.

One of the cool things about the pools are the DR fish. Youput your feet in the water and they eat off the dead skin. It is not unpleasantbut it can bet a bit unnerving as they can fight over who gets to eat you.


More to come!!!!

Jazirah Oasis GPS: September22, 2009 GPS: N24 19 13.3 E56 09 06.7


As Sudiyah September 24, 2009 GPS: N24 33.173 E 56 07.539


Madbah Wadi September 26, 2009 GPS 24° 5'31.43"N 56°7'12.99"E

My Family

For me my mom has always been the more important of my two parents. I am have always honored and respected how hard my mom tried to raise us and go out of her way to make sure we had what we needed. She even took on a job to help pay the bills, which at that time in the early 1970s was not normal. My mom also remains one of my best friends I remember taking to my mom about things that you would not normally talk about with your parents. For example I remember telling my mom jokes that I heard at school. Even to this day I like to talk to my mom about problems I am facing and tell her jokes that I have heard. She is a wonderful person and I only wish she could spend more time with me her in the UAE and where ever I might travel.

My Name

I am the youngest child of 6 in my family. When my mother was pregnant with me Batman was a very popular television show (1965). All of my brothers wanted to name me after Batman. If you do not know Batman?s ?real? name , after he takes off his mask, is Bruce Wayne, so my brothers ( I do not think my sister voted for it) ?named? me Bruce Wayne Rumptz. Luckily for me some one, I am not sure if it was my mom or my dad, had the sense to change my name but they did not change my middle name, and so I remain David Wayne Rumptz.

Easter Camping Trip

We went camping for 3 nights and 4 days over the Easter break it was good but Tita could not come so I was a bit lonely. The kids had fun and we got to see a bit of Oman. We went camping with a buddy from work and his 2 kids, so there were no wives- just dad’s and kids.

We went to Turtle Beach but there were no turtles there this time I guess laying season is in July and hatching is Nov-Dec. But Chris (the other father on the camping trip) said he came there in December and the kids did see turtles. I will have to figure out a better time to go so we can all see the turtles.

We got to Turtle Beach on Easter Sunday at about 6 pm after driving for 8 hours. The kids were very good about the drive. We stopped at the huge and imposing visitor center as we were stopped from camping on the beach there by a park ranger. The information center was nice and spacious inside and looked nice from the inside BUT it was quite imposing on the outside. It has to do with the way they put the windows on a 45 degree angle to the face of the building, so it looks like a big prison. Anyway the only opening they had for turtle sightings were at 4 am on Monday or 9 pm Tuesday we took the Tuesday spot. Then we went off to camp at a public access beach right around the ridge from Turtle Beach. It was a small secluded spot. There was a small village up the dirt road from the beach. We stayed up late the first night looking for turtles but did not see any. On Monday we played on the beach all day. The kids had a great time and I did as well. I went snorkeling most of the time. There were not a lot of fish or coral but I still had fun swimming around. Granted the waves were quite strong, so I got bashed by the rocks quite a bit.

As we were making dinner a police / park ranger came up and told us we had to move. It was 6 pm and the light was fading so I asked him why. He said he did not speak English. I was quite perturbed as it takes at least an hour to pack up, another hour to unpack, and I had just finished cooking dinner, so that would mean we would get resettled at a new camp site at like 9 pm. Well we just ignored him while we ate dinner and packed up most of our stuff. I had figured if he was serious he would come back. Luckily he did not.

We went to bed kind of early on Monday it had been a long day of sun and fun. Unfortunately, the kids were not the best at applying sun screen though we did pester them. They all had sunburns of some degree or another. It was strange as I had thought erroneously that Andrew was too brown to get sun burnt. Andrew had gone to the beach with his class in the Marshall Islands and spent the whole day on the beach and did not get sunburnt. But this time he was qute pink and complained about his sunburn the next day. In fact on Tuesday night I guess Chris’s son was so sunburnt that he had to sleep in a camp chair for part of the night to keep the sunburn cool.

We ate breakfast and finished packing what we had left out the night before. We were on the road by 7 am. On the way we decided to stop in Tiwi the travel book said it was a good wadi to visit. Well the travel book did not lie it was a very cool wadi and we drove up into it for 4 km if not more. It was an amazing drive and I do not think we were going to make it as the road was so tight but there was traffic and a few times we had to pull to the side so that other cars could pass us. It was an amazing side trip and I only wish that I had taking more pictures.

Off to Al Sawadi (I think I forgot the name of it) there were two reasons to stop Al Sawadi first there is a 4 star hotel on the beach and second the marine life is supposed to great. Al Sawadi has a few small islands right off the coast and if you take a boat out to them. The original plan was we would drive up from Turtle Beach and then spend another day exploring. But it was obvious that the kids were getting a bit tired of all the camping. Oddly enough if you would ask them they would say they were having a great time, but in reality there were signs of frayed nerves on all the kids (and myself as well). We arrived in Al Sawadi at about 2 pm and decided to hit the 4 start hotel for the day. We got a day pass for just over $10 per family and although the facilities were not what I would consider 4 start it was nice to go in fresh water and to have use of the facilitates. We hung at the hotel until about 5 pm and it was off to the public beach to set up camp.

Camping on a public beach is a bit strange, but it was good as it had nice shade and the kids needed that after being in the sun. While I cooked up dinner Chris took the kids to the beach to have some more fun in the water. The beach here was a shallower than on Turtle Beach the kids could walk out quite far and it was still shallow so it was not as fun of a beach.

After diner we decided to turn in early as the kids need some time to mellow out. Now is when we realized it was strange to amp on a public beach. Once night fell the young men of the town started to hang out on the beach, driving and walking up and down the small strip. It was a Tuesday night so it was not too loud but it was strange to see all the boys hanging out. Strange as there can be no women out without the family so it was just a bunch of young guys hanging out.

The night progressed and we all fell asleep. It was not noisy, nor very busy but there was a constant din of cars and faint music for most of the night. I think they stopped coming at around 3am. At one point a car came quite close to our campsite, but they did not come over and bother us.

Jazira Oasis

Today we went to the Jazira Oasis which means island of green. We had been to the oasis on one of our first trips out with the Emirates Natural History group and we had a good time. First we went and hiked part of the wadi leading up to a small dam. It is an easy hike and there are some cool plants and bugs to see. Like the water scorpion – which is not a scorpion it is a cool looking bug and the neat thing is although it lives completely in immersed in water it still breathes air. It runs a long spin out of its back side and keeps this above the water so it can breather. This is the part that makes it look like a scorpion. The next cool bug was the water bug it is a big one too. Now this bug does live under water but it has wings I guess it flies off to new pools if the one it is in dries up. It is quite large and kind of creepy.

Sadly as the wadi is drivable people come often and leave their trash behind. It is just annoying to see all the trash left behind but what can you do. Andrew did a bit of clean up, he pulled all the trash he found out of the water. We did not have bags to collect the trash but it was a noble idea to at least do some clean up.

Then we went on to the cool oasis and it has some very old buildings in it and it is very traditional. After exploring the oasis we went down to the gorge and the kids went swimming. I thought it was a bit cool so I had left the swimming suits in the car. Funny thing is I had also left the keys in the ignition of the car the whole time we were gone, so the car had sit in the parking lot of the Buraimi Hotel for 6 hours and no one touch it. The doors were open so all they had to do saw sit down and drive away. Andrew was great at spotting cool thing and he found a butterfly lying its eggs and a scorpion – a real one this time. Anyway the oasis is most spectacular for its variety of plants. They have mango trees, banana plants (lots of them too), orange trees, date palms (of course). Also it is on a cliff about a huge gorge. We go down to the bottom of the gorge to go swimming at the end of the trip.



Another neat thing was the destruction that was wrought upon Buraimi on Wednesday night’s storm. I guess the hail was quite fierce and lasted for 20 minutes. It did a lot of damage and though it is not a good think it sure was cool checking out all of the destruction. Brien the leader of the journeys said it was the closest he had gotten to a hurricane, water coming in from the Air Conditioner and water all over the floor. I had to remind him that a hurricane last for 8 to 12 hours but still in the middle of the desert to be hit by a storm like that is surprising.

The Offer(s)

CHRISTIANS HAVE ONLY ONE SPOUSE. THIS IS CALLED MONOTONY. > This one sounds like it is from one of my Muslim students who are constantly offering their hands as my second wife.

I think I am a normal looking guy. I know I have some good parts of my looks but I do not think I am all that handsome. I hate to admit it but I have a very low opinion of myself I guess it is what is still left over from failing 3rd grade anyway that is not the point the point is that I get propositions for marriage from my students. As referenced in the above quote.

The part that gets me is they are willing (vying) to be second wife, like that is a non-issue. What the HECK? I mean honestly that is the part I cannot understand. And to tell you the truth I have a hard enough time keeping one wife happy I could not imagine trying to keep two women happy. Furthermore, did I tell you the way they constantly pester you... mister mister me me I need help help me or why do we have to do work at school etc. I would go crazy being married to one of them. They are very high maintenance, and like I need to be around a 20 year old for more than 4 hours a day at work I am WAY too old for that.

No, I have no interest in it. I believe in the sanctity of love and marriage. My days of running around were over a LONG time ago, I am older and somewhat wiser.

Still it boggles my mind when they say "We are Muslim it is OK." How could you sell yourself short like that?

I would ask one of my students about it all (to get a better understanding of their thinking) but then God forbid she would think I was asking her to marry me!

Most language "problems" are really cultural not language related.

And if men can have 2nd wives can women have things on the side as well? Again, I would love to ask one of the women about all of this but I fear for my safety.

Long time no post

Wadi Shik hike

I know this sounds lame but we go on so many great hikes I should keep better records of them and be better about recording the dates and places we go. It is even stranger to think that we only go on ½ to ¼ of the hikes they have every month with the Emirates Natural History Group. But I believe we need to do this for the kids I mean this is some of the best education that my kids can get and it is all free. They see and learn so much every hike. I have so many pictures of the kids listening to Brein (the larder of the trips) it is just unreal. I just feel so lucky to be here in Al Ain and in the situation we are in where I do not have too stressful of a job and the same is true with Tita. Speaking of Tita she totally bailed on us today it was just me and the kids. The thing is we went out on a hike with the group a couple of weeks ago and the hike was LONG and I mean I thought it was long for me.

Today’s hike was long but not that long the big problem was it was about an 1 1/2 - 2 hours drive into Oman. It was a nice hike but we did not get home until 6:30 considering we left at 1 pm it was a long day out.

Anyway I am going to try to possibly start to write down the hikes in a journal of some sort and be better about writing them up when we do go out.

Tomorrows hike is supposed to be harder than today’s but Brein says there is a Wadi that has a big pool so the kids and I could hang there while the rest of the group hikes around.

I felt kind of bad today as we were going home Brein’s car got a flat. We all stopped and check it out. But after I was it was just a flat I told him I was going to get going. He said it was cool but the other people were hanging out with him. Hey it was late and I had 2 kids in the car who had been out all day there was no way I was going to make them sit for an hour in the car then go home. Not going to happen. If it did there would be a lot of pain and screaming and crying and the kids would probably be upset too. Brein said to go and he I thing understood that it was going to get ugly.

Oops I forgot to mention the bees. We stopped by a bee farm under a Acadia tree on the way back to the cars. I was a nice seen and Andrew got some of the bees to land on him. It was cool but Ashley was scared. The cool part in the last picture is the swarm of bees in the tree out of the hive. Brein said that the bees will leave the hive on any sign of distress and then the swarm near it until the drones find a new home.

David Rumptz

Friday, December 12, 2008- Fossil Hunting

Fossil Hunting

Well we have not yet gone camping on our Eid break- This is the second and more important of the two Muslim Eid holidays. During this Eid Muslims make a hajj or pilgrimage Mecca. Anyway we had just gotten our apartment two days before the vacation so we knew we would be spending a lot of time getting the place together during vacation but we also wanted to do some camping. But so far we have not been able to organize this part of this is my fault for not taking the lead.



What we did was go over to the hills in Oman to do two day trips. On the first trip (I think it was Sunday) we got a late call. It turns out my buddy from Abu Dhabi I thought I knew the area and was expecting to meet up with us out there. Anyway we ended up meeting up with them for lunch at a nice spot in the hills. It was a neat spot because you got the rocks and hills but you also had some nice sand dunes tucked right up to the hills. So the kids could play on the sand dunes and we could see the hills. We let the kids play for a few hours while we ate and chatted. I did some minor rock climbing up the hill but nothing serious. After a while we went over to the valley that had the fossils. Fossils were easy to find and the finds were nice we picked up a half a dozen fossilized shells. Then we went exploring the waddi. Wadis are dry river beds that cut into the hills and plains of the region. When it rains they run fast – I hear as it has not rained since we got here in August. Well the Wadis can be pretty boring like the ones in town or they can make these canyons which are very cool to explore. So we explored tow of these. One of the kids out made me look I was under control she was all over the place and it was difficult at times to keep my eye on her and the other children as she was much faster. But in the end it was nice explore and I have attached pictures of the hike.



On the way back we took a different border crossing and went over to the Al Ain gulf club, which consist of a dirt track of land with 18 holes of golf. It was kind of surreal as it is a “golf club” with no grass. I guess you have to bring your own green to play. You lug around a piece of Astroturf to hit your ball. Well we Had a few beers here and then as it was cold and I had shorts and a t shirt on I decided to go change before we went on to food and more drinks. But as is usual once you break out of the group things tend to fall apart. In the end we dashed around looking for them but gave up and went home and had Pizza Hut.




Shark Tooth Hunting

A few days later we meet up to go shark tooth hunting. Now this place was pretty easy to find and I will probably go back and take some other families with us. The fossil hunting place I would not find again on my won but then again you are not supposed to go on your own as your car can get stuck and you need someone to help get it out. Anyway we spent the morning slowly climbing up the hill looking for shark teeth at first it was hard as I did not know what to look for but now it is easy you kind of get used to seeing them. We found about 12 teeth we could easily chip out and take home. We now have a nice collection of them.



The best part of this trip was the ride home. Again we went to the border going to the golf course. Oman is not as concerned about its border with UAE, so many places you can cross into the UAE and not pass an Omani border patrol. I guess just a few years ago the UAE did not have border patrols there either so you could drive in and out of the countries without even stopping.



So we are at the border and the place is looking pretty empty but more so than usual. We get up to the guard and he tells us to go inside. Strange as usually they just do it right there. We go inside and find two guys just watching videos on the computer. They tell us to sit down. It is a strange because this looks like a real border with lanes and booths for the border patrol to sit in and process your visa BUT no one is there except the two guys watching videos. About 5 minutes later the guy who told us to go inside comes in and tells us to follow him. We follow him out to the booth he came from (outside- drive up kind we started at) and then proceeds to process our paperwork while we are standing in the drive thought lane. I guess he was bored and wanted to play a game with us or something because it was a complete waste of time. Not complaining I thought it was a lot of fun.


Hope you enjoy the photos added to this one.


Rumptz