My dad asked me via email if I knew, geopolitically speaking, where I was. We are in Dibba, Oman, on the eastern coast of the Musandam peninsula. We constantly cross the border between the UAE and Oman. When we go to “town” to use the internet café, we are in the UAE. Dibba is in Oman. We are a 10 minute bike ride from the ocean. To our north-ish (I don’t have a compass) there is a substantial mountain range. We live just at the base of it (literally) If you take the road past our house and then take a right you will start weaving through the mountains. There is a large wadi (dry river bed) that runs through our part of the mountains. Native people used to live in these mountains, and there are signs of their presence everywhere. Ali was actually born there in a little hut. In the 60’s the government offered free land and support in the flat lands so most of the mountain people moved. They didn’t want to part with their land so they left their goats here. Someone from each family comes in the evening to feed and water the goats. Often, families come on weekends to have a barbeque. The goats up here put our scrambling and climbing skills to shame. They are extremely agile and climb steep slopes and large boulders easily.
These mountains are completely rock and rubble. There is very little vegetation, mostly small acacia trees. There is climbing to be done literally everywhere. We frequent a substantial boulder field and several sport climbing routes nearby. After our swim in the Indian Ocean, we decided to go have a look at the boulder field. We also needed to see how long it would take the kids to bike there. Jesi, Micah and Will took the bikes and I drove the support vehicle. Devan joined me in my Tahoe and served as my tour guide. We beat the others to the boulder field and had a look around. The boulder field rivals everything I’ve seen in the states. There are literally hundreds of boulders in that field, and thousands in the immediate area. Devan walked me through the field and pointed out problems the kids could probably do as well as larger boulders they planned to bolt. After a thorough look through the field we headed to the nearby sport routes. Devan told me while we were walking that Iranians frequently take a speedboat across the water and get dropped off in the mountains to walk through Oman to the UAE. The mountains here are incredibly rugged with pretty much no water and very little vegetation. The deadly heat makes the trek deadly during the summer; so illegal immigrants take advantage of the mild temperatures and higher levels of rainfall during the winter. Devan told me that you’ll see these people once in a while, and they will often approach you for food and water. He recommended always bringing extra of both to give them because if you don’t give them what you have, or don’t have anything to give, they will attack. We see military helicopters flying low over the mountains frequently. We assume they are looking for illegal immigrants.

Two days ago, Will, Jesi, Micah and I decided to ride our bikes to the ocean to go for a swim. We had to sneak into a resort so that Jesi and I could wear normal swimsuits. Otherwise, we would have had to be covered from elbows to knees. We are swimming in the Indian Ocean, and more specifically, the Gulf of Oman. I have now been in 3 oceans! Atlantic, Pacific and Indian! Because the weekend here is Friday (or Saturday, I can’t remember) we had the beach to ourselves. Waterproof cameras always ensure silly photos are taken:

Our new friend Ali (not me) was nice enough to take us to a local Muslim wedding. He was born in the mountains here in Oman and knows pretty much every local in Dibba. His family has been here forever and is a very integral part of the very tight knit community here. It is because of this we were allowed to go to the wedding. We missed most of the wedding, and got there in time to still see the men celebrating. Men of all ages (literally) were dancing in circles to the songs of singers and the beats of a drum circle. The weilded swords which they frequently threw into the air and caught, and AK47's which they liked to shoot into the sky. Non-dancers stood around the circle and observed. We were really appreciative to have such an intimate view of life around here. Will got some decent photos and took a video which I'll try to publish when I get back. YouTube is blocked here.
After our short time at the wedding, we went to Paul's house to have food and sheesha. In the photos you'll see Ali (in purple) Devan, Jesi, Micah and Will.

***NOTE: I had to manually input the photos because the blogspot photo loader is now not even showing up when I click the button, and for some reason they are cropped, at least on my computer. Hopefully next time I'm in the cafe blogspot will be running smoothly and I'll fix these photos***

Several days ago we had our first day of work. We had a large group of 40 or so students from a local private school. Many of them were from the region with a few from other places like Australia and the United States. In the morning, they rock climbed indoors, took on the Jacob's ladder and did a low ropes course. After lunch, we lead them in a few initiatives. The kids are pretty much just like kids back home and did pretty well at all the challenges. Here's a few photos of our first group:

My coworker, Will, took some awesome photos of our little house next to a mountain in Dibba, Oman. Most of our neighbors have goats and donkeys. We constantly mimic the goats, laugh at the donkeys and watch the goats climb trees! Down the street there is a very small mosque and several times a day a man sings prayers over the intercom. There are only 4 or 5 families on our street and we are surrounded by mountains. Life is very calm and serene in our area. There is a mountain behind our house and the beach is just a 15 minute bike ride away. There is an amazing climbing location with a big boulder field and lots of sport climbing a longer bike ride away. For now, here are some photos of our little house. Jesi and I share a room, and the boys (Micah and Will) share a seperate room. We have a big screen TV (like huge) in the living room, a kitchen and a bathroom. We have a pretty sweet outdoor porch/living room and a fire pit. Since we've been here, we've run a program for a local school, explored the local fishing village, gone to an Arab wedding, had dinner and sheesha at our friend's house and explored the town of Dibba nearby. Today we planned on going climbing but rain kept us insiside. By the way, these photos and more are on my facebook under the UAE and Oman album.
come on in!

href="http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs166.snc3/19376_722053122813_22205445_40929996_1305603_n.jpg">

As most of you know, I left for the United Arab Emirates on February first. I flew from Raleigh to DC and then from DC to Dubai. North Carolina was cold, with a couple inches of snow and ice on the ground. I have lots of photos to upload, but I'm having problems with the internet here. Flikr, Google Chat and Skype are all banned. The blogspot up-loader won't load the photos. So far it looks like I can't upload any photos. This is extremely frustrating. I know there must be a way.
When I landed in Dubai, it was quite warm and humid. I flew United Airlines the whole way. I got really lucky and had a window seat on both flights. On the long flight, no one was seated next to me, so I could lay down and sleep. I was picked up at the airport by a hotel employee and taken to the Holiday Inn Express. Everyone thought I was a guy (the porter and the front desk) until I arrived because David had given them my nickname (Ali) instead of my full name. I stayed at the hotel for two nights. My second day they took me to a mall where I could people watch and get some food to eat and do some shopping. Wednesday morning I was picked up to go to the Dubai Women's College to meet up with Jesi, Mikah and Mike. We led local school kids through a full day program of indoor climbing, an indoor jacob's ladder, low ropes challenges and then initiatives. The program went over very well and the schools will be hiring David's company to do programs with even more kids in the future.
Then we drove 2 hours away from Dubai to our house. I thought we would be just outside of Dubai, but We drove through the dessert and I saw lots of camels! ( are actually in Oman. Dibba, Oman. We have a little house that's right next to a mountain and a short bike ride to a town with a nice beach and some shops. Our neighbors have donkeys and goats. This morning, we saw a goat high up in a tree eating leaves! The mountains are very strange looking and rocky. We took a long bike ride today to see the plantation where we'll be doing lots of programs, the beach and the small town. All the locals here are extremely polite and helpful. If I ever need help, I just ask. Men here treat us very well and with the exception of the airport, I don't get stayed at rudely. There is a large bouldering field, lots of sport routes, mountain biking and kayaking to do. The people I'm here with are ready to leave the internet cafe so I guess I'll sign off for now. Hopefully I'll be back in a couple of days and able to update you guys with a bit more detail. I plan to write it in microsoft word first so I can just copy and paste it here.
Look for another post in a couple of days!
Ali