Job Discussion Forums

[flutterbayou]

Hawthorne is staffing at the College of Education in Rustaq. Has anyone ever seen this town to be able to give a description?

Better yet, are there any teachers from the College who can pm me about daily life there?

[Flat Capped]

I passed through Rustaq recently - it's quite well-known as it has an interesting old fort. The town is tiny, though, and there didn't seem to be much going on (although it was Ramadan). You'd be within a couple of hours' drive of Muscat. I think boredom could be a major issue there.

[flutterbayou]

Thanks for sharing. I couldn't find anything on Rustaq over the Internet, except for a few photos of the Fort.

[Flat Capped]

To be honest, I don't think there's much more to the place!

[Geronimo]

I've visited Rustaq a couple of times to view the fort....After all, it's the fort that counts... Rustaq is a quiet, quaint old town surrounded by some fine scenery. The drive from Rustaq to Nakhal, for example, is very pleasant. But there is not a great deal in the way of entertainment facilities in Rustaq itself - unless they are extremely well-hidden.

With regard to Rustaq College of Applied Sciences, I believe that the training of all the Omani trainee English Teachers will be concentrated there from 2008/09 onwards. If so, the more highly qualified staff may be drawn towards that College for the purpose of training them.

[flutterbayou]

And THAT is something I wanted to read. Thank you very much.

On the other hand and at the end of the day when classes are over, it is probably fair to ask what community resources are available to teachers to maintain a healthy balance between job and personal life.

If someone at the College could pm me, it would be helpful.

[Neil McBeath]

Rustaq is a town of about 25,000 people (including outlying villages) situated at the foot of the Jebel Akhdar mountains.

It is primarily famous for its 17th Century fort, but there are also some hot springs that seem to be on the itinerary of most tourist buses.

So far as communications are concerned, Rustaq is at the centre of a web of roads - North to the Batinah coast; North East, through Nakhl to the Batinah coast again, and South West, through the mountains, to Ibri and the UAE.

In the summer, Rustaq has the advantage of being away from the humidity on the coast.

There isn't a great deal for expatriates to do in Rustaq - I would suggest that you could try learning Arabic, (but I would probably be flamed by a particularly tiresome serial poster to this site). You are not far from the Suwadi Beach Resort, however, and that offers the fun-in-the-sun that some expatriates find indispensible.

So far as amenties in Ristaq itself are concerned, there's a fully equpipped modern hospital, a reasonable range of small supermarkets and local shops; quite a good friuit suq and the usual Police Post and an Army Camp (Sultan of Oman's Paratroops). There's also a reedgulart bus serrvice to Muscat, and a constant stream of taxis and minibuses that go down to the Batinah Highway.

Providing you have a certain amount of resilience, and some way of moving around, you could do a lot worse.

[flutterbayou]

Thank you, Neil:

There seems to be a mix at this place; it's away from the hassles of a large metropolis like Shanghai, but is more than a bit off the beaten path.

I gather this assignment might be better suited to a married couple, who can take off together to discover the countryside. I was originally attracted to the job offer because the College remains the only teacher training institute in Oman.

If anyone would share light on the educational program there, please let me know.

[temujinsky]

Ask veiledsentiment for all information on this topic.

[flutterbayou]

Poster has deleted all positive comments on abdul majali

[Neil McBeath]

Sur is perfectly pleasant. It's on the coast and so it's ideal for people who like water sports.

There's a "Beach Resort" that supplies recreational facilities for expatriates, but the main drawback with Sur is that it is a LOT further from the Muscat "Capital Area" than Rustaq.

From Rustaq you could probably be into the Capital Area in about 90 minutes; from Sur it would take you more like four hours - and that's driving quickly.

If you're in a leadsership role at the moment, you almost certainly would not be offered a similar position in either Rustaq or Sur. On the other hand, you might find it relaxing just to take a back seat for a while, and let other people worry about the politics.

[flutterbayou]

Neil, you make sense AND know the area. How nice for me.

You know the issues involved with moving to a new country and culture: one faces change and, possibly, temporary setbacks... both which are difficult to justify when life is pretty good at present.

Just lately the idea of living under clear blue skies and enjoying a slower pace of life seem more important than the excitement of living in an exciting Asian mega-city that runs 24/7. . . and this thought brings to mind a question I've been meaning to ask EFL'ers in the Gulf: Why do you choose Oman over other placements?

Responses would be of interest, in general.

[Neil McBeath]

I first came to Oman in January 1981 on a three year contract with the Royal Air Force of Oman (Sultan of Oman's Air Force in those days). At the time, I had every intention of completing three yeasrs, taking the money, going back to the UK to do a Masters Degree, and then looking for a better job.

And I got seduced. I got seduced by the pphysical beauty of the country; by the open friendliness I met from most Omanis; by the nature of the job - where you could start teaching a group of total strangers and end up with a group of friends - and by the fact that the nature of woirk was always changing - I had the freedom to augment, supplement, improve core courses and introduce ideas which I thought were applicable to my own students.

And it stayed that way until 2005.

There was then a glitch, when the Directorate of Education and Military Culture was persuaded by some self-promoting expatriates to write an in-house course. I stated that their product was partially plagiarised, self-indulgent, over-illustrated and unteachable. I have since been proved correct. Two of the triumverate have already left the Sultanate, the third one is leaving soon, and the entire course is being revised - 500,000 rials and seven years too late.

In the meantime, I left Oman for two years and worked at BAE Systems in Saudi Arabia. In August I retuirened, to work at the Sultan Qaboos University. The same Omanis who saw me off from Seen Airport in 2005 welcomed me back in 2007.

Oman has become my home.

[lall]

Refreshing post, from the heart, Neil.

Guess that's the way it is with most of us, getting seduced by the country and more importantly, by the open friendliness of the Omanis. May God bless them!

Good luck, Flutterbayou.

[veiledsentiments]

I don't miss the long flights or the summer heat of Muscat, but I sure miss the Omanis. They made coming to class every day such a pleasure.

VS