Monthly Archives: November 2012

Settling In

25 Sunday Nov 2012

Posted by in American University of Sharjah, Living

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, ,

Well for once this may be a short post.  Less to say must mean that we really are beginning to settle in.  Life has taken on a comfortable routine and we can look forward to predictable days.  That sounds horrible but a little continuity can be good too.

We have been enjoying the excellent fitness and “wellness” services offered faculty and staff here at AUS.  The university has hired half a dozen or more young British folks who run the campus wellness centre.  This means Jaron and Lilli participate in Football, Kirsten takes a Hula class and we all enjoy fun events like monthly fun runs and other exciting challenges.  The Wellness Centre also runs the Epicentre, youth centre, that Jaron wrote about earlier.

Just this week Lisa and I are playing in a faculty/staff softball tournament.  We won tonight 13 to 7.  On Saturday I participated in a “Crossfit Challenge.”  Jaron had a good time cheering me on as I did three continuous  sets of “battling rope,” “clean and press” and plyo squats in a race against the clock.  The winner managed the whole thing in just under 4 and a half minutes.  I think my last set of 15 Clean and Press (only 25lbs) took that long.  I kinda felt like puking when I was done and I’m a little sore today.  It was fun though… no really it was.  Jaron was really excited when they gave him a medal for best cheering – hmm I wonder where he gets that from.

The facilities here are great.  The university has an olympic size pool and faculty and staff get free access to it too.  I’ve been working on my front crawl and managed 2 kilometres the other day.  If only I could afford a nice bike there may be a triathlon in my future.

There really is no excuse to be out of shape when working for the American University of Sharjah.  Okay maybe the cheap and extremely accessible fast food (everyone delivers) and the ridiculously cheap Coca Cola.  Yes, those are good excuses… right?

“Restrictions”

20 Tuesday Nov 2012

Posted by in American University of Sharjah, Dubai, Living, Sharjah, Traveling, UAE

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

I don’t think we’ve really talked about dress code much, and yet it was the topic of a LOT of discussion before coming to the UAE.  Most of the concern was more for my well being.  The popular question involving what my restrictions would be as far as clothing choice.  Though I tried my best to inform my friends and family with the little information I was able to research, I can now tell you with certainty that my personal dress is not any more restricted than it was while living in Canada.  I should make it clear that the religion I choose to follow has standards, similar to the requirements here, for modest wear so the transition has been easy.  Check out this link for more discussion about dress code for women and men in Dubai.

The other hot topic, was the difficulty with getting alcohol.  I don’t drink.  Problem solved.  For any of my friends who are looking for a party trip, think Amsterdam or Mexico or some other “party” destination.  Though it is possible to acquire a “liquor license” to purchase alcohol and transport it, the amount a paperwork, stamps and fees likely involved would not be worth the effort.

Driving in the UAE was another interesting discussion we had prior to coming to the Middle East.  In Canada, we had recently chosen to only drive 6 months in a year.  I know you’re thinking the winter months, but no we only drove during the summer months.  Obvious reasons for doing this are as follows: people drive, and park stupid in the winter; cleaning snow off a cold vehicle; having the car warm up just as you get to your destination; icy roads; buses drop you off at the door (at least wherever we needed to go).  We thought if we could go carless during Canadian winter, we could go carless in the Middle East.  In case you don’t know, the Middle East is in the DESERT.  I don’t know why we thought +50C would be easier to handle than -50C.  In -50C you can put on more clothing, walk faster, catch a bus. In +50 your shoes melt to the pavement the moment you’re out the door, imprisoning you in the glaring sun only to melt away to nothing.  Did I mention that happens the moment you step out the door?  There is no running to your car to turn on the A/C, because the exact opposite happens that you would expect in -50C temperatures.  The interior is likely too hot to sit in (scalding if you have a leather interior), A/C takes just as long to cool down your car as it would take to heat it up in colder temps.  Yet taking off all your clothes (opposed to overdressing) and walking around naked is not an option, in fact it’s illegal, not to mention dangerous for your health (you know, skin cancer and all that jazz).

Getting to the actual driving part.  We had read many forums on this topic discussing the craziness that takes place on the roads here.  You really have no idea until you experience it.  It’s not just the crazy drivers (though they definitely contribute to the stress) but stop signs, yields and left turns are a rare site here, as well as stop lights.  The system here thrives on U-turns, and round-a-bouts.  This makes straight shot routes unheard of, and can be devastating if you miss your exit adding minutes even hours to your trip.  Sometimes this can lead to more of a push your self in front kind of thing to move yourself across the 4 or 6 lane highway at crazy speeds.  If you’re not “on the ball” you’ll find yourself at the back of the line, or getting passed by.  This seems a common theme in this culture.  I only say that because we’ve been slow to move a head in check-out lines and lost our place.  That’s not to say anyone is rude about it, there isn’t any shoving involved, just more of a “snooze you lose” notion. Even when we are constantly getting honked at on the road, we have had to change our thinking.  They honk to let you know where they are on the road, or that they have noticed an opening you haven’t, or that the light changed 2 seconds ago.  If only we could instantly send our intentions digitally so that others might understand our motives.  Where’s the app for that!?

So James has only been driving for the last month off and on.  To get a license as a Canadian you only need a valid driver’s license from your country of origin, copy of residence visa, two photos, a letter (in arabic) from your sponsor (employer or spouse), copy of local ID, eye exam, blood test, an application for a local driver’s license in arabic (mostly) and AED 560 ($152 CA).  We originally thought I would need “permission” to drive from James, but it turns out he had to get permission too (from his employer).  Really this process isn’t too bad.  When James did it, he had everything on him and the whole thing took 45 minutes to hand in.  Others are not so lucky, and are required to take a driving exam here.  I’ve heard from a few people that it takes several attempts, sometimes more to pass the exam.  Of course, that requires repeated costs in money and time.

The most obvious restriction for me, and I’m sure James, right now is the language.  Though most communication is in English, the quality of English is lacking.  It’s one thing to have the ability to understand English then it is to actually speak it.  Most other people speak Arabic but not always.  As a family, we are all enrolled in an Arabic class of sorts (James through work, me and the kids through K12 icademy) so we’re trying to help ourselves out in this area, but it is slow going.  There are many different dialects to this language, and many different ways to say or spell the same thing.  There are also many Indian, Filipino and Asian folks here as well all in the same boat as us, trying to get around, work and learn the common languages.  Being in such a diverse community, I’m embarrassed to say, I sometimes cannot notice the subtle differences that may clue me in to what language I should be attempting to speak, or when practicing my Arabic might be the best choice for communication.  I hope my mind will open as we settle in further to our surroundings.  There have been many dropped calls on the phone, or frustrated taxi drivers due to our handicapped methods of communication I can only continue to learn and hope that some of it sinks in enough to get me around.

At the other end of the spectrum I would just like to make note of one of the biggest non-restrictions we have here.  Eating out, has turned to eating in.  Every fast food place here delivers.  You can order right on line, or view the menu and call in your order.  This has been fantastic so far as we have had difficulty keeping our fridge and cupboards stocked with familiar foods.  This has also been detrimental to all the progress we made those last few months in Canada eating at home, and eating healthier.  Its not impossible to do that here, but we are definitely needing to relearn some things now that we’re here.  Sorry Darci, this has been the biggest nemesis to me keeping my goals.

Eastside

16 Friday Nov 2012

Posted by in Traveling, UAE

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

, , ,

Thursday was the Islamic new year.  So we got the day off.  Shortly after the Oman trip I picked up a off-road map book of the UAE.  Sadly it turns out that just about all the cool wadis are in Oman.  I wasn’t relishing a long drive and crossing the border again so we just had to find something to do here in the UAE.  I rented a car and we made plans with our friends the Anderson’s to find a beach on the East coast.

I should pause for a moment and mention something about renting a car here.  I decided to rent from the airport because it is really close to the University.  So I got online and made a reservation with Budget.  When the cab dropped Lisa and I off at the airport we figured Arrivals was the place to go for the car.  We were right but all the rental companies are behind security!  There was no apparent access from outside security.  I tried going in the wrong way and was stopped by an Emirati fellow. He sent me on to security and then they sent me back to him… You get the idea.  Eventually they brought us through security and we made off with our rental.  Really though – who keeps all the rental companies behind security?  Apparently you are not allowed to rent a car unless you are arriving by air.  You’d think I would have learned by now…

The drive to the East side of the UAE is quite quick.  We were spotting the Gulf of Oman within an hour and 30 minutes and were parked at the beach in less than two.  On our way we passed through “Friday Market.”  Open air shops stretch along either side of the highway selling rugs, pots, pottery and fresh fruits and veggies.  We stopped only briefly though.  Just long enough to buy some too ripe kiwi and cotton candy and get back on the road.  If a person is into markets that would be a place to go.

We decided to head for a spot called Sandy Beach – I mean the name sounds great.  According to the off-road book there is an island (more like a giant rock) called Snoopy Island just off the beach and there is some great snorkelling there.  The book was not wrong.  We setup on the beach amongst the folks who appear to have camped their the night before (something I intend to do at some point) and quickly made our way into the waves.  This is not our first time to the beach but the other beaches have been in lagoons that are practically waveless.  This was a treat.

The kids had a blast in the waves and of

course the sand.  Jaron spent the entire day covered in sand when he wasn’t in the water. Lilli set to work on a sand castle and had a great time building an elaborate mansion with all sorts of rooms.  Kirsten couldn’t help but pick up every shell she could find.  Some even included inhabitants.  Of course we didn’t find out there were still crabs in a couple shells until we got home and they decided to come out.  It freaked Kirsten out something good and I think she still feels bad that she killed the little guys.  Lisa contented herself with wading in the water and playing with the kids (ours and the Andersons’)

I on the other hand just had to get out to that island and have a peak.  It was awesome.  Schools of brightly coloured fish darted around me and there were a thousand things to see.  This was my first “snorkelling” adventure – though I didn’t have a snorkel.  I didn’t stay long at the island because these things just are not that fun on your own.  The island was probably a little less than a kilometre away.  I didn’t want to freak Lisa out too much.  I suspected she couldn’t see me from the beach especially after I got up on the rocks and signalled but couldn’t get a response from them.  When I did get back they confirmed they couldn’t see me.

Whoops someone was still home.

I was a little sad that Lisa had no desire to swim out to the island and that Kirsten simply wasn’t a strong enough swimmer for me to risk taking her out there.  Then we had an idea.  If Kirsten could fit Jaron’s little life vest it would probably be just the right amount of assistance for her to cross the distance.  You can see Jaron wearing it in the picture above.

The vest was too small for her to zip it up but and it made it too awkward to swim.  Then we thought of turning it around backward.  That was better but with her arms through it swimming was still too awkward.  She tried using it as a paddle board but that wasn’t much good.  Finally we wrapped the vest around her middle and zipped it up from the back – like a girdle.  This made me happier since it wasn’t going to pop off of her and while it was really tight she had full range of motion with her upper body for swimming.  Oh how I wished we’d taken a photo – it was pretty funny.

Kirsten, Yvonne Anderson and I swam back out to the island.  The Anderson’s had a couple snorkels.  Kirsten used the snorkel on the way out there but got frustrated with it and made me take it.  Snorkels are awesome.  I now understand the appeal of snorkelling – I just didn’t get it before.  I think I may have to pick up a snorkel set.  Flippers would be pretty sweet I think.  Time for some lung training too.  A minute of air is just not long enough.  If I could get that up to 2 or three minutes that would be something.  The other item on the shopping list is a waterproof camera.  I just don’t have the vocabulary to describe how fascinating the marine life was.  This is also the third time I’ve really wished we had a waterproof camera.

Kirsten was afraid of stepping on the sea urchins that littered the rocky shore but she stepped carefully and we scrambled over the little island to its far side.  On the far side of the island was a small beach created no doubt by powerful ocean waves eroding the rock over eons.  The beach was of polished smooth stones of various sizes and a million seashells.  Kirsten would have taken the whole lot home if only she had a front end loader and a dump truck.  We picked through the rocks for a while and spent some time diving around the island taking in the marine life.  There is a giant sign at Sandy Beach which says fishing is prohibited.  A spear gun is temporarily scratched off the shopping list.

By the time we left the beach we had all had too much sun.  Poor little Jaron’s face was as red as a tomato.  No one is seriously burnt but had we stayed much longer things could have been ugly.  Spray on sunblock and popup beach tents are definitely on the shopping list now.

Camping in Oman – Part 3

09 Friday Nov 2012

Posted by in Oman, Traveling

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, ,

Well we are on to the last leg of this adventure.  Our friends, it turns out, also wrote about the trip: the Andersons and the Palmers.  I found it interesting to read about the same trip from another’s perspective.  A big thank you to both the Palmers and the Andersons for such a wonderful time.

On the last day we planned to visit Wadi Damm and the Beehive Tombs.  The Andersons decided to get home early so headed straight out after our stay on the mountain.  We couldn’t blame them, Matt had to work the next day.  I hate pulling in late after a vacation and having to get up and go to work the next day.  It simply does not leave any time to relax.  So it was just us and the Palmers.  We realized after Wadi Damm that none of us had the energy to visit the Beehive Tombs.  These tombs are a UNESCO World Heritage site and probably would have been fascinating.  It gives us a great excuse to go back to Oman though.

Wadi Damm was a fantastic adventure.  I will pause here for a moment to share something I’ve avoided talking about, garbage.  It is likely that garbage, litter, waste, refuse and their cousins are a Middle Eastern treasure and protected by some unknown cultural law.  Everywhere you look there is trash.  It wasn’t uncommon to head out into the woods in Canada and find a party site where thoughtless folks abandoned their beer cans and other waste.  There are selfish jerks everywhere.  Here though trash is a part of every landscape and scene.  It surprises me how little of it shows up in the pictures we take.

The trailhead at Wadi Damm was covered in trash.  Wadi Shab was no different.  Wandering through the village on Jebel Akhdar I was shocked at the trash lying about.  Thankfully, with the Wadi’s the further you hiked back and the farther you got from the beaten track the less trash there was.  It seems the litter bugs are also too lazy to go too far beyond the comforts of the trail head.  It makes me a little sad to see it all and I suppose I will never get used to it.  I’ve thought a few times about buying gloves and garbage collecting sticks and making my kids pick garbage around AUS when we take the dogs for a walk.  Enough about the garbage.

Wadi Damm was pretty fantastic once you got away from the first pools and the trash lining the first part of the trail.  Set in an enormous canyon the Wadi wound its way back in the shadows of monstrous rock walls.  The trail crisscrossed back and forth across the sometimes dry “river” bed.  The water from the Wadi springs fully formed from the rock and is worth the rugged walk to get to.

There is a dam at Wadi Damm, go figure.  I’m not sure if the locals use the reservoir for irrigation or some other purpose but the reservoir was dry when we crossed the small dam a few hundred meters from the start of the trail.

When we reached the first pools we were shocked at the cool or cooler temperatures of the the water.  Wadi Shab felt like a warm bath.  The water here had a bite to it.  I wish I had a thermometer to take the temperature of the water.  It probably wasn’t as cool as it felt.  Once you were in the water you could stay as long as you wanted.  There were fish in the pools too.  it was surreal to swim through the schools of fish.  The fish ranged in size from little minnows to 6-8 inches long.  They were grey and silver and reminded me of trout.  I wonder how they got there – I suspect it is stocked.

A few times along the trail we had to pass either over or under massive boulders.  You can imagine that Jaron was in seventh heaven.  When I got looking back at pictures of the trip though I had to laugh.  There is a picture of Jaron crossing over a rather large boulder at Wadi Shab that he could easily have gone around.  Then the Palmers caught a picture of me climbing over a much larger boulder at Wadi Dam that I could have easily gone around – but jumping from that rock to the pool below was just too tempting for me.  I guess like father like son.

Jaron going over a rock at Wadi Shab

James going over the rock at Wadi Dam

I think we had nearly as much fun scrambling through the rocks as we did jumping into and swimming about the beautiful pools.  I should point out that before I jumped off that gargantuan rock featured above I went for a swim in the pool below to test its depth.  The water is quite clear in many of the pools.  You can see right to the bottom but often it looks deeper than it actually is.  This pool was plenty deep.

The final pool at the end of the hike features a small waterfall.  Water courses over a moss and shrub covered rock and rains down a few feet into the blue green pool below.  You can swim beneath the ledge of rock among the silver fish and enjoy the beauty of the scene around you.  Where the water comes out of the rock to feed the wadi is a sole palm tree and long green grasses.  Both Wadi Shab and this Wadi reserved their most beautiful scenery and exciting features until the end.  There is a great life analogy there that brings me to moments of grateful reflection.  I can’t help but believe that God has created these remarkable places for his children.  This is muslim land; how deeply He must love them.

Determination

As we neared the last pools we came across a good size tree growing from a thin crack in an otherwise seamless rock.  It made me think of one of those motivational pictures.  The word determination came to mind and I asked Lisa to try and capture it with her camera.  She took a few shots but with just her little point and shoot she was sad that she couldn’t capture the beauty of that tree amongst the rocks.  I was sad too. I’d have liked to put it on my wall.

A picture may be worth a thousand words but it is a pale reproduction of reality.  This trip to Oman was beautiful not just for the sights and sounds but for the time spent with my family and our new friends.  I hope by writing about it I can revisit the memory decades from now and be grateful for my time with them.

The Epicenter

08 Thursday Nov 2012

Posted by in American University of Sharjah

≈ 3 Comments

If you go out my front door and turn left and walk straight for a little way following the sidewalk and turn at the cross walk you will arrive at the gate to the Epicenter.  What is the Epicenter you ask? The Epicenter is a little building that was built for all the kids who live at the university.  When you go inside you have to sign in.  You can also sign up to climb on the indoor climbing wall.  The climbing wall is my favourite part of the whole Epicenter.

There is more than a climbing wall in the Epicenter.  There is a craft area where you can colour and paint and even draw on the whiteboard.  There is a library where you can do quiet things like read books, play chess and Battleship and build with blocks.  There is a chess club too and I am a member.  The chess club has only met once but I won my first game.  The Epicenter also has a ping pong table, air hockey table, Foosball table and a pool table.  There is an Xbox and Wii too.  My favourite Wii game is Mario Cart and my favourite Xbox game is football (soccer).  There is even a kitchen in the Epicenter where they have classes to learn how to cook.  There is a skate park for roller blading, skateboarding and biking.  There is a theatre room and they say that soon we will have movie nights.  There is even a music room with a piano.

We go to the Epicenter almost everyday.  My football coach is one of the people who runs the Epicenter.  Parents can visit but they don’t encourage the parents to stay.  The Epicenter is for kids.  I got a cool Epicenter t-shirt and an ID card with my picture on it.  I’ve made lots of friends there.  The Epicenter just opened a few weeks after we got here.  I think we are really lucky.  I have included some pictures of the Epicenter here.  I bet all my friends back home would have lots of fun here too.

A note from dad: The wall is not high enough for ropes but it is a bit high for a little guy like Jaron to fall from – even if it is to a padded mat.  One of the staff was giving parents a tour and when they asked about little kids on the wall the staff said the little ones are too afraid to go that high but then pointing at Jaron said “except that one.” When Jaron gets on the wall he goes right to the top and when its time to get down he just falls off without hesitation.  The others his age don’t go far and have a hard time jumping down.  The kid has the fear centre of his brain turned off.

Camping in Oman – Part 2

03 Saturday Nov 2012

Posted by in Oman, Traveling

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, , ,

The last post concluded with our first morning in Oman.  Friday in the Middle East is the sabbath and so off we went to find the little branch of the church that meets in Muscat. It was about a 2 hour drive from our campsite on the beach outside of Tiwi.  The branch meets in a villa just like it does in Sharjah and practically everywhere else in this part of the world.  The first meeting house in the Middle East is actually nearly complete.  It is in Abu Dahbi. I haven’t been by there yet though I’ve seen pictures of the building under construction.

The branch in Muscat is very small.  It turned out we were not the only visitors to the branch that Friday though.  There were folks from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia as well as the 15 of us from the UAE.  We more than doubled the numbers.  After services we had the pleasure of visiting with everyone at a great potluck.  With the branch president’s permission we planned to stay in the branch’s villa overnight.  A couple other families stay on Friday nights too.  One family drives over two hours to meet there each week and can thankfully stay at the villa overnight before making the trip back.

Just before dusk we all drove into Muscat to explore the corniche (a corniche is a road cut into a cliff side along a coast) and wander through the famous souk (a souk is an arab market place or bazaar) there.  Since it was the sabbath many of the shops were closed but we weren’t there for the shopping anyway.  I am not a fan of souks; burning incense everywhere and sweaty people bustling through tight spaces while vendors shout and stuff merchandise into your face is not my idea of fun.

There were thousands of people along the corniche and in the souk.  Strangely there were very few women around.  I assume it was so crowded because of Eid weekend but I have yet to puzzle out the lack of women on the street.  I was a little taken back though by all the men holding hands (interlocking fingers) and then cuddling up to one another with arms around shoulders as they sat along the sea wall.  Strange I thought that a country with laws against “public displays of affection” would certainly not tolerate such displays between two people of the same sex.  The Palmers had a great laugh at my expense later when I brought it up.  It turns out this is normal heterosexual behaviour here in the Middle East.  I was wondering when I might experience a little culture shock.   Well there it is; I’m shocked.

Overlooking the corniche was an ancient looking brick fort complete with guns and flags.  There was a long abandoned staircase carved into the cliff wall that appeared to take you up the cliff to the fort.  So we ducked under the fences and scrambled up a short rock face to make the staircase.  There were several other people doing the same so it seemed safe enough.  The stairs were littered with broken rock and climbed steeply up in a serpentine route to the base of the fort.  We had quite the view from up there and Lisa managed a couple excellent photos.

I would be lying if I didn’t say that my heart was not in my throat a few times with the kids up there.  Jaron simply has no sense of fear whatsoever.  Needless to say we didn’t stay long on those stairs.

A panoramic view of the corniche in Muscat. Taken from the base of the brick fort that overlooks it.

That night we took over the home of some local members of the church for dinner. They were very kind to let us use their kitchen to whip up a big pot of stew.  It was great to meet them. Hopefully we’ll have a chance to visit again and perhaps we could entertain them if they ever come up to the UAE.  We headed back to the church for our overnight stay despite our new friends insistence that we could stay with them.  I just didn’t feel right cramming our 9 kids into their home.  Jaron was pretty eager to get back to the church too as he’d made a couple little friends who were staying the night there as well.  They had built a fort in the primary room and he had high hopes of finishing his laser gun battle with them.

The next morning we left the church villa bright and early (okay it was about 9am) and headed up to the mountains – Jebel Akhdar in the Al Hajar Mountain Range.  As we drove through a couple small villages to get there I was grateful to pass a garbage truck as they picked up the last of the remains of slaughtered goats from Eid celebrations the night before.  There were only rust coloured blood stains along the roadways to mark their recent removal.  While I did explain to the kids the sacrifice portion of Eid celebrations I was glad they, nor I, did not have to see it.

There is a guarded checkpoint at the bottom of the mountain road.  The climb is steep enough that only “4x4s” are allowed up the mountain.  In the little all-wheel-drive Honda CRV we had there were many places where I had to put the vehicle in first in order to make the climb.  Up we went and there were spectacular views in all directions, that is of course when you could see over the massive concrete barriers lining the roadway.

The further we went up the further the mercury plummeted.  By the time we made the top the temperature was in the low twenties.  I could hardly believe it when I stepped out of the vehicle to a cool mountain breeze.  We drove for a while with the windows down until the wind got annoying.

Unfortunately the camping spot the Palmers used the last time they were there had been taken over by the national defence.  A sealed gate now stood where once there was an open road.  Jeremy spoke with some locals and they directed us to a suitable camping spot.  We camped in a small mountain valley.  Tall Junipers (excellent climbing trees) dotted the dusty landscape.  Wild donkeys roamed the area too.  The first place we chose to setup camp was occupied by one of those donkeys, its carcass anyway.  So we couldn’t spare the children from dead animals completely.  We found another spot much better than the first just down the road a ways.

Once camp was setup it was time for a bit of a hike.  This hike takes you through a little mountain village where people still live what appears like an idyllic life.  The village is beautiful with its terraced gardens of fruit trees and vegetables.  The short 40 minute hike took us up and down the terraced gardens, passed a beautiful mountain pool and through the narrow passages between the adobe and wood beamed buildings.  Walking the trail you feel as though you have stepped back in time.  I imagined aloud with the kids what it might be like to live there.  As passages darted off to the left and right and we crossed through roofed tunnels we mused at what it might be like to play hide and seek in the dark here with little light pouring through the occasional windows along the paths.

There was a staircase etched out of the rock that would take a brave explorer around the edge of a pinnacle to some unseen destination. I imagine that grown men have soiled themselves climbing that staircase.  As I have only small shreds of dignity I didn’t take the risk of losing it by venturing up those stairs.  I couldn’t help but wonder though at the immense intestinal fortitude it must have taken for the villagers to build that staircase let alone traverse it.  Unfortunately it doesn’t appear that Lisa caught that particular staircase with her camera.

At the end of the hike the locals invited us over to see their giant underground oven where they were preparing to roast a variety of meats overnight.  The pit was sweltering hot and the men were all preparing to toss the meat wrapped in green (some herb I suppose) woven baskets into the furnace.  They would then cover it over and let it cook for 24 hours.  Sadly we wouldn’t be around for the feast.  Though as we walked away clearly someone had not wrapped a basket tight enough as goat parts lay all over the road.  Hey dad is this the severed ear of a goat?  By then the kids were okay with the gore… we’d passed the severed head of a cow a little further back on the trail.

That night as we sat around the campfire we were all in search of sweaters and blankets.  I would guess that the temperature was somewhere between 10 and 15 degrees celsius overnight.  The little firewood we did gather burned long though.  I managed to snap a thick dead branch from a Juniper and it burned for hours.  Lisa prepared the best hotdog feast for our evening meal.  Giant beef hotdogs with cheddar cheese slid into a slice down the centre which was then wrapped in bacon and then in tinfoil.  We froze them before we left and kept them in the cooler.  They turned out marvellously.

Kirsten was a little disappointed by the lack of a swimming hole on this third day of camping.  She followed that up with a cold uncomfortable night on the mountain.  The other kids seemed just fine.  Kirsten seems to have taken to the hot weather quite quickly to the point where she complains it is too cool at 25 degrees.  She may have difficulty adjusting back to Canadian temperatures in the future.  It was a beautiful starry night though and we made up for the desert camping the next day with our trip to Wadi Damm.  I’ll leave that to the next post though.