Confessions of a Former Outlaw

Yes, former!  I am no longer illegal - I get to truly live within the law!  This is my first blog post as an official and legal resident of Oman.  Whew!

So - to do some more catching up:

1.  I awoke one morning about 2 or 3 weeks ago to find a bird in my kitchen.  Did you get that?  There was a BIRD IN MY KITCHEN.  It was fluttering and flapping at the very much closed window, desperate to get out.  Thankfully, I have a door that leads to a tiny balcony just next to the window and the bird, so I opened the door and out flew the bird.  I have no idea how long it had been in my apartment, but it was there long enough to leave traces of itself in half of my apartment.

2.  I finally got my hair cut.  My last hair cut was in February - and it was disastrous.  Kind of made me gun-shy, or scissor-shy, if you will.  But, it was time, and I feel much better.

3.  Rain.  And More rain!  We've had lots and lots - and more than ever I saw in Dubai.  Torrents and torrents of rain.  And, since the ground is so dry that it won't absorb the water, it floods.  My poor little rental car has done a lot more offroading than it should - through silt and actual mud, and then through flooded sections of road that have no alternative other than plowing straight through.  Two Fridays ago was the worst (for me, at least).  I was supposed to speak in church in Muscat (2 and a half hours away without flooded roads), so I left half an hour early.  I arrived an hour late.  I got stuck behind two wadis (ravines) that were flooded and were washing over the road.  After a time, there were enough cars the size of mine that passed me and made it through, so I braved both of the flooded wadis.  I shouted at the cars in front of me, the water, the people watching the wadis, my car - basically, my heart raced each time.  I really, really, really hope I never have to drive through a flooded wadi, river or stream again, unless I'm in a Hummer or a tank.

4   The Music Assembly - things went pretty well.  I had everything timed and planned, and then life happened.  We went 10 minutes over - and that meant school let out 10 minutes late.  Thankfully, everyone seemed gracious and not to mind.

5.  Gaining Omani Residency - this was an adventure.  So, my paperwork has been in Oman since May.  That really doesn't mean much.  It was jus now processed. I've been here on a tourist visa, which had to be renewed once, then I had to do a border run and get a new tourist visa.  Well, my visa was expiring, but I was told not to leave the country, it wouldn't be an issue - I wouldn't have to pay any fines because my work visa was being processed.  Then comes the fateful day - I and another new teacher had to go across the border -we had to leave the country so our current visas would be cancelled, and then we'd come back in and receive our resident visas.  We got to the border crossing at 7:30AM, waited for our contact to arrive, and then got the visas cancelled.  Oh, and I had to pay fine.  10 Riyal a day, which equalled 60 Riyal (that's $156).  I had thought that we'd just go over the border and then come right back.  Nope.  Our contact told us it would be 1:00PM before he'd be back with the right paperwork.  Great - see, because the school is so small, I don't get a substitute teacher, which means none of the classroom teachers scheduled to come to music that day got their prep time.  And the kids missed music.

Well, nothing I could do about that, so - Day trip to Dubai!  We ended up at the Dubai Mall, and walked around.  My colleague is not a shopper, nor interested in all of the many delightful restaurant offerings, plus he was anxious that our contact would call and say our visas were ready, but we'd still be in Dubai.  So, we spent 90 minutes at the mall and then headed back for the border.  We made it to Hatta, the town on the UAE side, and called our Contact.  It was 12:30.  He'd be back at the border crossing at 4:00.  Well, we drove around Hatta for a bit, then decided just to head back to Oman and wait at the border crossing.  So we did.  And at 4, our contact came, we got our residence visas and all was good!

Until the next day, when we had to have our medical checks.  Not an experience I care to remember.

The day after that, we had to go to the government blood withdrawal place.  At least the hospital the night before had been relatively clean and somewhat modern looking.  The government place was, well, think of any news report you've seen of medical facilities in third world countries.  Got it?  That's pretty much what this place looked like - oh, and I was the only woman there, among hundreds of Pakistani and Indian men.  Thankfully, they didn't need to draw my blood - our contact had contacts.  You know?

So, later that day, we went to the official resident Card issuance place, where again our contact had contacts.  We got to jump the queue - which actually didn't sit well with me - here were all these people who had probably been there for hours, were just getting to where they could see the end and then in come these people, cutting in front of them and making them wait longer.  On one hand, I'm grateful to not to have waited for hours; on the other hand, it didn't feel right.  So, picture taken, fingers - printed, and I am now a card carrying Omani resident.

Now, I just need to apply for my driver's license, a bank account, land line and internet connection.  And it's only taken 3ish months!