Barziman

Over the weekend we took a camping trip to Barziman, one of the parts of the Wahiba Sands Desert. Yet, the weekend was much more eventful than just the camping trip.

Early in the morning on Thursday, Sami, a local friend of ours, just comes into the house and asks everyone what their blood type is. Supposedly, one of Sami's friend's sister is in the hospital needing blood urgently except the blood bank is completely out. In the end, two guys and myself went to the hospital to donate blood. When we arrived there we found out that this particular woman needed specific type of blood that was a perfect blood match. None of us were compatible. This weird story was interesting for two reasons- why was there no blood in the blood bank, and the hospital. It was interesting to find out that the blood bank here is commonly empty and that there is always a shortage of blood. As an American, I would assume that such dire needs for blood would be reported on the news or written about in the newspaper. This definitely was not the case. When we arrived at the hospital it was eerily empty. A large, modern hospital with a lack of patients, a lack of people and staff. Why was a hospital built if there is obviously no need for it right now. I guess this is one of those things about Oman. The Sultan does a lot of good things and he has improved the economy by leaps and bounds, but sometimes I wonder about his priorities. Currently, he is building a classical music theater, but the roads are not well built or thought out. It is good that he is looking at the future, and realizing that more people will be coming into the country, but it is also like he is neglecting some of the urgent needs now.

Anyways, I ended up not donating blood since I wasn't a match and it was a bad idea to donate blood before being outside in the scorchign desert. We ended up going and having a traditional Omani lunch and then heading out. Upon arrival, we met up with a local bedouin, Hamden, who was a personal friend of Jihad's. We saw some racing camels that were going to be racing tomorrow morning and then headed to Hamden's family house. The house is actually a combination of two main houses surrounded by a gate. One of the houses is where people live, while the other is solely a majillis, a place where you host visitors. The majilis was nice and large and we had a good time chatting and eating delicious local fruits. I got to eat some really good pomegranates and a banana just plucked from a tree (it tasted slightly different than the usual one bought in a grocery store.) Hamden is a bedouin, but he was able to go to school and ended up going to university in Muscat. He speaks English well, but much worse than an Omani in Muscat. He got a degree in some type of business and now works back in the bedouin village raising racing camels. The camels can cost up to 1million OMR (2.6 million USD) although on average it seemed like they cost 200 thousand OMR. Still a pretty penny. Also, the girls were invited to go to the main house to meet the women of the family. We met an assortment of female relatives of Hamden. The most interesting thing that happened was that one of the women had just given birth to a baby. She introduced the baby and let us hold it, and then she took it. She started talking to us through Hamden (the only one of them that knows significant amounts of English), and midway she sticks out her boob and gives it to the baby. Right in front of us, the guy, and all the other girls.

Afterwards we chose a goat to slaughter for dinner, and tried a bit of completely fresh goat's milk. It was yummy although slightly fatty and had a gritty taste. We drove to the area which was chosen for us to camp at. The goat was slaughtered halal, and then skinned and cleaned and put into a large pot with water and rice. After 2 hours or so it was done. The meat was very good, although greasy and oily. It was interesting to eat something that had just been alive 3 hours ago or so. We had the option of either sleeping outside with sand blowing in the wind or cuddling up with people in small tents. I ended up sharing a tent with Katy and her bf Houssem. Surprisingly it was actually cool outside, and felt very nice compared to the blistering heat just couple of hours before.

After 3 hours of sleep or so we were woken up and we headed to the camel races. They were interesting and fun. The camels are lined up and then slapped with remote controlled whips that are attached to their backs. They start running and are kept on encouraging to run by cars that keep on screaming and honking their horn from either side of the track. They run really funny. Definitely cool to watch. We were also able to try some "extra-fresh" camel milk. It was mild and almost tasted like simple 1% milk except had an interesting aftertaste. Then we went and started to catch our lunch- local omani lizards. These lizards live in holes in the ground and you come up to the hole and insert a pipe of CO2 (attached to the exhaust of the car) and kinda smoke them out. They were small disgusting things that had extremely sharp tails and fluid bellies.

That was pretty much the highlights of the day in a way. The small highlights along the way were driving related usually. The total number of people that went on this trip was 15. A HUGE number, and definitely too many for us to try to attempt to find 4WDs for. So, we had one car that was 4WD and the rest were crappy Yaris's and one Corolla. These cars were definitely not meant for off-roading. It was scary to feel the rocks hit the bottom of the car as we were driving, and then some fo the cars would end up getting stuck in teh sand. We would just have to lift the cheap car out but it still took up a lot of time.

In the end, I fully realized how much I hate taking trips with large groups. The inefficiencies were really starting to get to me towards teh end. I had a good time, but never again will i go on a trip with so many people. Most of this trip was waiting for people to gather or getting cars out of the sand. If anything, I was able to finally get time with the rockin MC.