Our Travels

Counting down the days, the hours and soon the minutes to our trip home to our Mommas and Dadda. We're heading home at the end of next month to revisit our homes and to see our families. We're looking forward to all the little ones who have grown an inch or two since last time and who now have a few too many words in their vocabulary and lots of ideas on what we could get up to. Of course we will also greet the new members of our families (babies) who are due in April and those who were born while we're away. My two sisters are due in April and Alex's cousins have had a few babies in the past year. So, its exciting. Of course I dread being asked over and over when we're starting our own team but well that's what families are all about: to love, to cherish and annoying at times. Our dear families and friends who read this: We'll be in Samoa from April 5th to the 15th and in Wellington, NZ from the 16th to the 22nd, we'll be in Hamilton and Auckland for th...

So another week has ended and whew what a relief. I'm now tutoring history to a teenager in the afternoons and I'm sort of enjoying revising what we learned back in High School. The student has to sit his O level exams this year so I hope to help him pass his exams so he can get on with his life. The week has been hectic. Being a new teacher certainly has its trials and tribulations. Like any other job one learns as you go along. Somehow for me it feels harder than it should be. I wonder if its to do with the fact that I've been out of a job for awhile that's making this working life seem harder than it is. Basically I'm being a B!G B@BY. But hey its my life and my free space so I'm going to howl as long and as loud as I want. heh heh! I don't even have time to go to the gym these days. I'm a night person, all my family are(I think) and while I was loafing at home (pre-job, post-uni, desperate housewife) I stayed up late and slept in. Now I'm trying ...

What a stressful week it has been for me. I am teaching a new class this week and boy were they giving me a hard time. Amazing how they act like little children. Well I have to say I lost sleep over it last night but today I regained my grounds and had a fabulous class. This week the Director of the institution I'm teaching at decided to put another teacher in my class for dual teaching. Of course they told us this on the afternoon of the day. Basically we were told that the Teacher coordinator was coming to teach with us. She would teach some parts of the class too! I'm like what the heck??? That is weird. As it was too late to do anything about it, I taught the first day and the coordinator came in to "help" me. Of course the students did not understand why there were two teachers. Anyway as I had dreaded there was already a muck up of when I went to check the students' work and the answer I gave was different from what my colleague gave. So I tried to explain t...

Our Samoan rugby team won the cup at the Wellington Rugby Sevens tournament last week-end. They beat Fiji 17-14 who were the finals favourites. Fiji gave New Zealand a good beating at the semis 34-0 and everyone thought they had secured the Cup. With a bit of strength, technique and throw in a lot of heart, Samoa came away the winners last week. A big congratulations to them for the great effort. They are now heading for San Diego for the other tournament there. We hope to watch them again at the Hong Kong sevens in March! A bit of fanaticism? Maybe just patriotism!

Supersize me is also found in Arabic. That's the Omani flags hanging from the building. Last week was the Gulf Football(soccer) tournament and Oman made it to the final. They lost the final to Emirates but wow we saw some real fans in this place. Oman won all their games leading up to the final so every time they won all the youngsters drove around the city beeping their horns with flags all over the cars. Some sat on their car windows barely hanging on and shouting as they drive along. Mind you all this is done on the highway as well. They stop at the roundabouts and play their music and just jump around for joy. It was something else. We just avoided going out when the football was on. I managed to snap a picture of my workplace from the highway. The white building behind the trees!

The lights of the festival. For the whole of January the city of Muscat hosted a festival which showcased local culture. It also included displays from different countries but mostly from around the region. We went to have a look and were quite impressed with what was on display. There were stalls from Egypt, Morrocco, Syria and Yemen. There were dancers from China, Iraq and the locals of course. There was also a Malaysian section. The Malaysians served their local food which was delicious. All over the grounds were little eateries of kebabs, popcorn, fries there were also coffee and tea places. It was very impressive and the carnival atmosphere was everywhere. The government had also imported animals and made a little zoo. There were four venues with with similar shows and entertainment. It was really nice. We had a lovely time there bargaining with the Egyptians and the Morroccans and then there were the Bedouins from the desert who would NOT bargain at all. It was take it or get los...

Alex Behind me is a cactus... never mind :) A funny sign at the zoo. A pelican in the small zoo. A couple of female cops. A caravan of horses, people and camels. A twist. A camel rider checking his mobile phone... hilarious. With friend Lize from South Africa.