Sabbatical in Geneva - More on Oman

Service of a local treat

  In my previous post I mentioned that while in Oman we were treated as VIP guests and served Arabian coffee or tea with every gathering and on the above occasion, we were given a local favorite sweet treat. It is a combination of sugar and flour that apparently is boiled to death until it becomes a sticky paste and then nuts are added and the entire goop is congealed in a bowl with the consistency somewhere between jello and mousse. You eat it with a small spoon which everyone does from the bowl. It was great. After I found out it takes about 3 hours to make, I felt even more like a VIP. During our entire meeting, the fellow serving us stood in the background on the ready with more coffee as the cups are small and need frequent refilling.
  After returning to Geneva, I read an article about Oman with information I would like to share here. The country is a monarchy ruled the past 40 years by His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said who took over the rule from his father. His picture is everywhere from the Interstate crossings, to the clock faces, to being in every government office. It is always the same solemn picture except at the airport where he is smiling and waving goodbye when you leave.  Forty years ago, the capital of Muscat was a small walled city where at night a cannon was fired at dusk and anyone found roaming around outside was subject to being shot. There were only 6 miles of paved roads in the entire country, only a small number of boys receiving any education, and they were isolated and fearful of outsiders. They believed radio and TV were the work of Satan and most of the population lived as they always had and were uneducated. It was an extremely conservative country. The Sultan Qaboos opened the country up and declared that all Oman citizens, men and women, would be provided a free public education which was a radical departure. Now Muscat is a growing modernizing city with satellite dishes sprouted all over the landscape, the overuse of cell phones like everywhere else, traffic congestion on the Interstate, English as the second official language, the government is friendly with their neighbor Iran, and they are pro-western with good relations with the US and Europe, and it is obviously a prospering economy.  An amazing transformation in just 40 years. It is no wonder that the recently freed American female hiker who was captured and held by Iran was released to Oman on her flight home. Their neighbor to the east is Yeman which is still more like the Oman of old and a hotbed of terrorist training. The point made in the article was that the policy the US has had toward the middle east has relied on war and bombs to solve problems and it has been unsuccessful. Oman is an example of what education of the population can achieve. Yet, even though Obama pledged two billion dollars in educational aide in the middle east and apparently has not lived up to that pledge, we are spending ten times that on implements of war. I haven't checked out any of these facts but it does play into my belief system that more can be accomplished with education than war.

Oman Bizarre

We were shown and shopped in the new American style malls that rival anything back home. However, we were more intrigued by the old style bizarre in the older part of Oman. There were numerous entries into the bizarre and it kept separating into different alleys and side streets so that we were good and lost in short order. The vendors have small open stalls mostly off the walkway and in some, they opened up into larger warehouses in the back. The picture to the left is a typical scene other than the bizarre was as full of women as men which this picture doesn't show. We were there early evening and the longer we stayed the more the business picked up. The fun thing about the bizarre was that you can haggle over the price, the bad thing was we were never sure we did well. Our guide and friend Salam Salim Al Kindi advised us that whatever price we were told to offer half or less and work from there. I bought several things including an Omani hat like the men on the left are wearing. I had seen them in the mall for 20 to 30 rials so I was not surprised when the merchant I was talking to asked for 20. I offered 8 and he countered. I ended up paying 12 and the samefelt pretty good about it. As we were walking through another section, a vendor called out to me to buy Omani hats for 3.50 Euros, around $5.00. The ceremonial Kandjar knife is a possession of all Omani men and is now strictly ceremonial. It actually is a poor quality knife in an elaborately decorated silver scabbard. The picture below shows a collection of older ones from one of the many shops we visited that sold them. They are a great tourist sell. Come by the office and I'll show you.

Kandjar Knifes

Sabbatical in Geneva - The Sultanate of Oman

Receiving a Welcome Gift from the Rehab Center Director

  In the work of the International Labour Organization, a unit of the United Nations, different countries, businesses, and organizations support their work through country dues or donations. Countries can make requests of the ILO to help out their country in any area of need related to labor such as vocational training or vocational rehabilitation. The ILO has it’s headquarters in Geneva Switzerland and has a series of regional offices in Beirut for the Middle East, Peru for the Americas, in Bangkok for the Asian countries, etc. The overriding purpose of the ILO is to work with governments, employers, and labor to promote decent work in the member countries. This would be work with a decent wage, decent working conditions, that is distributed fairly to all participants in society, and provides protection for the most vulnerable. The unit concerned with disability used to be a separate department but has shrunk to two people assigned to the skills and employment department. In responding to a country’s request for technical assistance, the ILO can hire technical consultants and/or send their staff to work on the problem in what they call a mission.

  My main assignment on this sabbatical working with the disability section of the ILO is to assist them in developing an online training program for their staff, interns, and others related to disability. As a coincidence, the ILO received a country request for the Sultanate of Oman for assistance in modernizing and improving services in the Al Khoudh Care and Rehabilitation Center located in the capital city of Muscat. There had been a previous rehabilitation mission in Oman that recommended work be done with the Al Khoudh center because they only serve two impairment groups and train them for one of six occupations and the previous consultant felt they need a vocational evaluation program and to modernize their services. Since this exactly fits my background, I was asked to go on a mission to Oman with Debra Perry, senior disability specialist from the main office and Mary Kawar, a regional ILO employee from the Beirut ILO regional office.  The three of us formed a mission team to answer the request from Oman that was submitted by our contact, Salam Salim Al Kindi who had been the director of the center and now is the ILO project manager for this project working for the Oman Ministry of Social Development.

  Oman is a country of 3,000,000 inhabitants of which 1/3^rd are ex-patriates brought in the country to work, which include mostly Indians with small percentages from the various Asian countries. It has been led the past 40 years by the Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said who has dedicated himself to improving the standard of living of all Omani’s through modernizing the country and diversifying the economy from primarily oil production, farming, and fishing to other venues such as tourism and manufacturing. Oman is located beneath Saudi Arabia on the Gulf of Oman at the Strait of Hormuz next to Yeman and a short distance across the Gulf from Iran and Pakistan, above the eastern end of Africa and near the Western end of India. It is close to Aubu Dhabi and Dubai located above it in the UAE. Oman is a small desert country with sand mountains that roll down to the sea. We did not get to see it but inland there are natural springs, more desert, mountains, and a variety of differing scenery, unusual animals, and fruit production. Oman is on a the same latitude as Central India, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii so that it is tropical hot but in their desert country, it is extremely hot rising to over 125 in the summer and up in the high 90’s in October. Because of this, the Omanis often work until 1:00 pm, take a break until 4:00 pm and return until 8:00 pm. It was pleasant to be out in the morning and evening but blistering hot and bright in the afternoon when we were there in October. Like the southern USA, they have air conditioned everything and need it.  Oman is an Arab country with English as the second language everyone takes in school and my experience was that there was more English spoken than in Switzerland. Being a Muslim country, large Mosques are scattered around the city that broadcast the call to worship five times a day. We visited the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Muscat, a magnificent marble and sandstone structure surrounded by green grass and trees making it appear an Oasis. It boasts the largest crystal chandelier in the world weighing over 8 tons and the largest hand woven carpet in the world.  A typical Omani male wears a long white tunic over white cotton pants and a tee shirt with sandals. They uniformly wear either an embroidered pillbox hat normally, or, for more formal occasions, a turban that is used much like Americans put on a tie. For even more formal occasions, a black open front robe is added over the white tunics decorated with the Kandjar knife on the front waist held in a distinctively curved ornate silver scabbard that is ceremonial. The women wear a black floor length tunic with a black headscarf and a few also wear the face vale (not a Burka) with just their eyes showing. In the modern mall, some teen girls had their tunics opened on the front to reveal torn jeans and a tight shirt or tee shirt typical of U.S. teen garb. Others wear more western clothing. I found the Omani people to be proud of their country that is modernizing on every front including massive building all through the town of Muscat. The Omani’s treated us as special VIP guests and did everything they could to make us feel welcome and special from providing us a driver full time to serving us sweets and Arabic coffee or tea multiple times during the day. I was told this was done for special guests rather than being an everyday occasion.

 Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque

  Our purpose was to look at the rehabilitation center but prior to that, we visited with staff from the Ministry of Social Development, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Labor, the previous head of a disability advocacy group, and toured a renovated vocational training school that is just now allowing people with disabilities admission for training. They seem to have fully bought into Inclusive education and services in regular and vocational education. As we rolled up our sleeves and began work at the rehab center, I was struck that after a day at marveling at our differences, the same issues, students, and concerns showed up as at any other rehab center I’ve been in. The clients were curious about us and talked with us as we toured the six training areas and general literacy programs. We had a number of recommendations to help them modernize and fit within the Omani school and work structures as well as some recommendations on improving their tests and testing procedures even though we found they are doing a great deal of assessment in the right vein.

  Unfortunately, we were unable to get to the interior of the county and have to contend with books that show those pictures. I felt that in the few days we were there we made good friends with several Omani’s and I would welcome and relish the chance to return or have them to the USA. It certainly wasn’t like being in Alabama.

Girls Learning to Sew

The Shrinking American Dollar

  I suspect somewhere on the news it mentioned that the dollar has devalued again. This is the second or third time in the two months we have been in France/Switzerland. Apparently, many countries are encouraging weakening their currency and the USA has been printing more dollars to help the dollar devalue so that our exports will be more attractive as a way of stimulating growth. Generally, I pay little attention to this but it's killing us living here. Living in France, the French require that you show proof of renter's insurance and to purchase it, we went to one of our local banks where it only runs a reasonable $50.00/month. In order to get it however, the bank requires that you open an account with them which I did with the idea that it would also help reduce the $80.00 I've been paying each time we do a wire transfer from my Auburn bank to the landlord or school or anyone here we make payment too big to go on the debit card. Thank goodness, I transferred a large amount of money to that account a few weeks ago before the dollar devalued again. When we arrived the Swiss Franc was worth .96 cents, it is now worth $1.05. The locals tell me that it used to be 12 Swiss Francs to the dollar. The Euro was worth $1.24 when we arrived in August and today it's worth $1.41. In practical terms, this means that our rent went up about $250/month from just the dollar devaluation. Had I paid Chris's school tuition in August, I would have saved $1,400 from what it costs today and unfortunately I only recently paid it. The good news for the rent is that I do have the money stored in Euros now so I'll benefit there but things I'm paying here on my AuburnBank ATM are steadily rising.
  Things just are more expensive in this part of the world. Beyond the dollar devaluing, everything is more expensive here. Most Swiss live in rental apartments and the ones we looked at ran $3,500 to over $4,000 for a two bedroom 1,000 square feet place. Interestingly, in France and Switzerland near Geneva they are building apartments as quickly as they can. Unfortunately for as beautiful as their old architecture is, these modern apartments are large cube or rectangular cement structures that are extremely unattractive - kind of like the rush them up condos at the beach during that boom. While I've been told that most Swiss don't own their own home, there are many homes for sale in France due to the same housing problems here we have been having in the U.S. The prices seem to run $600,000 to millions for what looks to me like a plain small three bedroom home on a small lot. How do they do it? The bank will finance your home here for 100 years and apparently this type of loan is popular.  Food is high particularly eating out that costs $50 to $100 but even at the grocery store food is high. And for the ultimate high, gas is $1.96/liter or slightly less than $8.00/gallon.  Another practical example, I was looking for a small backpack and our local sports store sells Dakine brand packs. The one I was interested in was 55 Euros. That is $77.50. I checked the catalog stores and in the US, the standard price for that backpack is $45.00, a 42% difference. Guess I don't really need it.
  In some ways living in Switzerland since I work there and Chris goes to school there might have been easier. Switzerland didn't join the EU so they maintained their own currency. France, of course, is a big EU member and thus uses the Euro. This means that we have to have Euro's and Francs at all times as vendors in each country will not take the other currency. I'm heading to Oman tomorrow and need to get Rials to spend there so I'll be toting three currencies next week. As I've said before in these blogs,  Visa Carte du Credit is the ultimate equalizer of currencies. As is typical, my Visa debit card from my French bank costs $100, what did yours costs from your bank?
  On the other side, Wines, bread, and cheese are fabulous and we rarely pay over $10.00/bottle of wine. Now that's a bargain. Wonder if I can get it home for Christmas presents?
 

Zurich

Switzerland is a small country anchored by Geneva on one end and Zurich on the other and it only takes three hours on the Interstate to drive between the two cities but as a friend said " the Swiss look at traveling between the cities as a major excursion." Our trip actually started at Chris's school during his discovery week. It is a week in September where the kids do something entirely different than regular school with some going off to other countries to live with host families, some taking on new week long courses, and other signing up for an experience, such as cleaning up the town. Chris wanted to take hang gliding so I signed him up. In filling out the form I asked what should I put down for his second choice. He wouldn't respond and after multiple times asking him, he said to just put down anything. I did and he got it - Salsa dancing for an entire week for six hours a day, I've never seen him so tired. From that he was telling me how much he enjoyed dancing to Santana and of all coincidences, Santana is on tour and appeared this week at the Zurich arena.

It also was my birthday so a Zurich Santana trip was on. On the way, about an hour out of Geneva we passed through a series of tunnels. As a detour, the Europeans love to have tunnels and we've been through them all over western Europe whereas in America we seem to just bulldoze down the mountain. Not sure what that means other than it is an interesting difference. We came out of these tunnels and our old familiar Exit ramp sign which is Sordie in French was replaced by the more guttural Ausharft. We had crossed into the German Swiss area that encompasses more than 70% of the country where we were to find that more than the language had changed. Switzerland has four official languages based mostly on the geographic location to another country. In our area, Geneva, we are surrounded by France and the French language, customs, and traditions are prominent. Towards Zurich are the German Swiss and there are Italian Swiss and a small group of Romanian Swiss. I was told that each region studies their regional language for six years of school and the remainder of the time they study English so that they all can speak English. Not necessarily so.

In our area, there are many English speaking Swiss but I find as many that do not or will not speak English so we struggle along with our French which actually is good for our learning. I was surprised to find in Zurich that everyone we talked to spoke very good English with us. We couldn't be more delighted because while our French is limited, our German is almost non-existent. So Roads which had been Rue's became Strasses and the entire sound of the language took on a different flavor. Additionally, we ran into the Germanic rigidity and high standards of which the Deutch Swiss are famous.  It really paid off in our room which was scrubbed sparkling clean, spacious, quiet, with the European style of two single beds pushed together with down duvets instead of sheets and blankets. The best was the breakfast delivered to our room and a total feast: several kinds of cereals, a basket of breads, meats and cheeses, yogurt, pots of coffee, hot and cold milk, etc. It was spectacular. At the hotel, there was a key to do everything including unlock each floor on the elevator and enough rules to need a book. The people were gracious and kind and it all made for a great weekend birthday experience. Oh, and Santana was in excellent form too, a great concert!