Job Discussion Forums

[La Reve]

I loved living in Oman from 2000-2012 (with one year off in 2004-5).

I loved the weather. Sandals 24/7/365. I'm now retired and my feet do not like shoes of any kind. No winter here, but still, it's not warm like Oman.

I loved the culture and the friendliness of the people. I was invited into Omani homes and often played UNO and Skip-bo with some of my landlord's 20 kids. On some weekends, I would pile seven of the little ones into my car and drive for ten minutes to a nearby park. The kids would run around the green park, play on the slides, and, using cardboard, slide down a large grassy hill, giggling and laughing. I pushed them on the swings and taught them how to pump their legs so they wouldn’t need a push. Once I even helped a distressed little girl how to find her footing through a rope part of a jungle gym. We’d get back in the car, drive to the nearby little store, and I bought them all ice cream as a treat. I often marveled how easy it was to make seven people happy.

The little ones let me take their photos and loved seeing themselves on the digital camera immediately afterwards. Eventually the teenagers joined in. I printed many of the photos with pictures of them all and put them into a family album – something I had rarely seen in Omani homes. I also put the photos on CDs for them.

I loved the food, except for Bryiana served EVERY DAY in Salalah's cafeteria, and with generous amounts of rice. I later learned only the rich could afford rice years ago, so the copious amounts given with the chicken was a way to take care of young people.

Even chicken sharma sandwiches were great. Omani/Arabic spices with food were marvelously tasty. On a visit to the USA, I found some cardamom I use with my vegetables.

I loved getting in my car and driving around, exploring, photographing.

After a typhoon or some great storm, cars doubled in price from $5,000 to $10,000. THAT was not fun, but gasoline was always priced low when in the States it was going up to nearly $5 a gallon.

As I told many people, if you want an enjoyable teaching experience, go to Asia - but you won't have much fun outside the classroom or with housing. If you want the culture to be good, go to the Gulf - but you won't have good students, but you will have large apartments.

After the Arab Spring, with so many disinterested students enrolling, the teaching became more difficult. My last posting at the Univ. of Buraimi was horrifying.

However, I do not regret the years in such lovely weather, with a good salary which I put much into my American pension plan, the freedom of a car and the open desert roads. I respect and love the Omani family that became mine.

The only real city in Oman is Muscat. I spent all my years in small, isolated towns, with few friends. Luckily I can amuse myself, and eventually found an excellent friend for four years in Shinas.

The small towns are slightly better now, with shopping. However, the social isolation can be extreme in some of them. Trying to find compatible people as friends - not just as acquaintances - was always a major problem. That is the worst part of living in Oman.

Yes, I miss the weather, food, salary, my car, tailors who made my clothes, Indians who did the ironing, and a few interested students.

I do not miss the craziness and incompetence of colleagues and administrators, nor their insanity and lack of professionalism. I had thought South Korea was bad, but Oman was usually pretty crazy.

I'm just glad I no longer live there - although I miss the weather terribly. I am also surprised things have not improved much, but simply gotten worse. I had thought the Omani teachers in the colleges - some of them brilliant - would effect changes - that the Ministry would have listened to the locals as they provided the same feedback as the foriegners had. Wasta prevailed, and seriously flawed locals became administrators.

Oman's isolated, small town colleges are not easy to live in. It certainly helps to have a rich inner life, and not be socially dependent upon others for amusement. Unfortunately, for many male teachers, alcohol becomes their favorite companion.

I only regret that one year in 11 years - the final year at the University of Buraimi. Other than that, I really enjoyed my years in Oman.

[rustyrockets]

OMG! This made me feel so nostalgic! I wish I could go back to Oman, the people there were amazing and I made a ton of friends at SQU, I miss the lack of crowds, the good affordable food, the safety and the quietness. Of course, this is not for everyone but to me it was perfect. I tried to go back there as a teacher but unfortunately I don't have the qualifications or the appropriate nationality for their jobs, however there is not a single day in which I don't think about how awesome it would be to go back to Muscat (especially when the weather is nice). What happened in Buraimi though? I went there a couple of times and it seemed nice, it's a shame that there is a bad place...

[veiledsentiments]

Check the thread on the university there...

VS