Shortly after the Eid Al Adha holidays came the 41st anniversary of the sultan's reign after deposing his father in 1970. This meant less than a week of work in school, then a 'national day' for the kids and 3 extra days off- hoorah for the Sultan! The official National day was the 18th of November, but as this fell on a Friday (the equivalent of a Sunday here) the school decided to have theirs a little earlier...
National day in the school is a big deal, the kids all come in their national dress which includes:
For the boys; Dish Dasha and Kumma/Moussa for Boys with Khanja(ceremonial dagger) strapped around their waist( older boys were allowed to accompany theirs with a traditional walking stick).
Al-Mohannad - one of the boarding boys and a year 1 boy in a Dish Dasha in National colours!!
Year 5 boys
For the girls; either a combination of trousers and long decorative top, or a long dress, can be accompanied by a traditional bedouin face mask (shown below)or a silk face covering.
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| One of the girls from my Year 10 drama class wearing a traditional Bedouin mask |
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| Me and the girls from my year 5 Arabic class |
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| Year 2 doing National Day activities! |
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| My year 5 Arabic class |
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| The kids playing in their finery |
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The boarder's brass band- nervously waiting to play the National anthem to the whole school |
After a whole school assembly in which the kids sand the national anthem and a song called 'Omani Flag' (to the tune of waving flag by k-naan'), the primary kids had activities and a half day, and the sixth formers arranged their own party over lunch in the tent below. One of the guys carved a goat and served amazing food as they all chatted and danced to drums, it was fantastic to see, and definitely not a sight you would see in a British school!
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| Goat with head and tongue intact! |
It was an amazing day, we learned a lot about the history of Oman and different types of dress; and the boys and I really enjoyed getting involved and dressing up:
After this we had the weekend- and never wanting to be idle I took a trip to the Muttrah souq with some of the ladies from the school, arranged by my surrogate Mum out here Semantha:
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| Semantha in Ali Baba's, the most wonderful shop crammed with bits and bobs (including a claw of some creature hanging in the right hand top corner!) |
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| Usual shop decoration- Alligator head! |
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| The ladies perusing the items for sale! |
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| Sorry Semantha, I had to do it! |
It was wonderful to spend some time with ladies instead of the boys all the time, and also to browse in my own time and haggle for x-mas prezzies for you lot.
We spent the next day visiting Al Hoota caves near Nizwa on my brother Jack's recommendation, and it was fascinating! the cave is 25km long with underground lakes and strange wildlife. The tourist centre there also has the only train in Oman, which travels around 200m to take you from the centre to the entrance of the cave. We were given a tour by an Omani guy who told us that the cave was discovered when a goat fell down a hole into it, interesting info! He was very informative, but very strict on the no photos policy- luckily I
hung out at the back and managed to take these snaps:
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| Lion roaring!! |
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| Oman's first and only train! |
Surprise of the week: Children bringing daggers into school!
Discovery of the week: cigarettes cost around 1.20GBP for a pack of 20- don't worry Mum, I'm not smoking!
Signing off, expect another post quite quickly, I have a lot to tell!
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