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