Day and night

Ramadan continues unabated, and the restricted activity is starting to takes its toll a bit. Things in Muscat would never be described as fast paced during the best of times. Now that its Ramadan, this town is bordering on comatose.

I try to remain as respectful as possible to our Omani hosts during their holy month. I refrain from eating or drinking in public, even though it get pretty absurdly hot driving around construction sites, inspecting things, and generally running around. I try to take sips of water only on open stretches of the highway or in my trailer when I get back from work. They still serve lunch at the project offices, so the food/drink side of the holy month really hasn’t changed things too much (at least for me).

What has changed is the general flow to how you go about your daylight hours. Stores are closed for the bulk of the day, restaurants don’t typically open until 8 PM or so, and everyone acts and dresses a little extra conservatively… Bree and I had a real, actual conversation this morning about whether her work outfit showed too much ankle. I asked her what the other women wore. She said they all wore abayas:

Mostly without the face cover I presume, but still, so much for that as a basis of comparison. She did mention that they are a little more strict with the abayas during Ramadan – the top moves further down the head (covering any hair that may be revealed other times of the year) and women tend to tuck the scarves up tighter such that only the face shows (whereas they may show some of the neck other times). More women also seem to be sporting the full face covering this time of year as well…

Desperate to get out of the house last night, we went to the mall to go to Chili’s for dinner. Everything was open and the mall was packed (during Ramadan night is the new day). I took out my frustration at the general lack of access to food/drink/recreation on my arteries. We commiserated about our horrible suffering over sugary drinks and fried stuff.

Perhaps it was my recognition of the absurdity of the situation (complaining about relatively minor inconveniences despite knowing better), or perhaps it was the rain (thats right I said rain), but by the end of the day today, things were lookin up.

For the first time since I got here in May, I actually saw it rain today (Bree is jealous). I got stuck in a serious downpour, complete with high winds and pelting rain and everything.

It was fantastic.

I stopped the car and got a (not great) picture of the water cascading down the mountain sides:

It was like a thousand rivers sprung up on the mountain side at once. I got out and walked around in the rain for a minute. The temperature dropped by 25 degrees. The air was cleared of dust. On the way home, Bree called to tell me that one of our new friends was coming over for dinner and bringing wine.

Things are lookin up.