I left Salalah a year ago and am still processing that loss. I miss my friends and so many aspects of Dhofari life, especially:
- Long conversations – When you sit down to talk to a friend in Oman, it’s expected you will talk for hours. I miss having coffee with a female friend for 2 or 3 hours; picnic dinners with the research guys which could mean 6 or 7 hours of chatting.
- Gorgeous Nature – Pristine, empty beaches; snorkeling over reefs; boat rides, skimming along next to pods of leaping dolphins; sitting in the desert or on a beach with no ambient lights so you could a dark night sky full of stars; green mountains in the monsoon season
- Animals – lizards and chameleons; seeing foxes, hearing wolves; the parrots which came to my guava tree; flamingos; camels, especially baby camels
- Plants – palm trees; banana trees; lemon trees; fig trees; my gardens with papaya trees, henna trees, neem trees, olive trees, hibiscus, bougainvillea, oleander, gardenia, jasmine, aloes, lemongrass, yellow trumpet flower
- Food – fresh coconut milk, schwarmas, fresh Yemeni bread, lobsters cooked over coals, fresh fruit juice, Balbek (if you know, you know), fresh lemon and mint, fresh fish
- Teaching literature and 98% of my students – Although it cost me $100s a year, it was fun buying and reading books as I searched for new poems and stories to teach. It was a joy to craft syllabi with texts from different time periods and cultures with similar characters, plots and/ or themes and then the best part, talking about these texts with students who had great insights and could make connections to other texts and their own lives. Some classes were an uphill climb but in some classes we laughed all semester.
- Discussing religion – Everyone I knew believed in God and was up for talking about religious beliefs; I could say, “I will pray for you” and ask, “Will you pray for me?” as a part of ordinary conversations
- Multi-cultural everythings – Walking through the grocery store and not knowing what I was looking at: new vegetables, new fruit, words I didn’t understand on jars; all different kinds of clothes and fabrics
- Active ethnography – I was always watching, listening, trying to figure out what was going on: What was that word? Why did that person do that? It was exhausting but always interesting
- Constantly learning – students were always teaching me new expressions and gestures; the research guys teaching me how to how to drive on sand (only getting stuck three times!), up steep inclines and over rocks
- Language barriers – Being able to go through the day without understanding most of the conversations around me was relaxing; now I constantly overhear people venting when I walk home or sit in a café
- My truck – Driving in Oman is so fun on flat desert roads, twisting mountain roads, roads that curve along the shoreline
- Houses – High ceilings, archways, lots of counter-space in the kitchen, well-designed bathrooms
What’s nice about where I am
- Being able to easily see/ talk to friends, my mom and family
- Working with kind and competent people: no lying, no back-stabbing, no drama and every single person says “Hello”
- Flower stores, especially Kendall Flower Shop, Brattle Square Florist and Petali
- Breakfast sandwiches, pizza, salads and ice cream without freezer burn
- Not sharing my apartment with mice, spiders, bees or armies of ants – quiet ACs
Practicalities of Moving to the Arabian Peninsula: Using the Arabic Language
Ethnography – Finding the Middle Ground, part 1 of Discussing Photographs
Come From Away 
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