Photos From Salalah

The picture of the women in abaya is a group of my classmates at the alleged tomb of Job. Job, the Old Testament (and Quranic), figure of patience and utter faith, is supposedly buried in the mountains northest of Salalah. The photo of the grave, about a hundred years old, (note, we are currently in the Hijri year 1428)--when I first saw the numerals on the grave I thought it was from 1317 AD--then I remembered the Hijri year. This grave is outside the tomb of another important figure, not a prophet like Job, but someone important, (couldn't get a satisfacotry answer on this). The photo of the door shows an example Oman's national symbol; this possibly will be involved in my research. Despite Oman's declared peaceful nature, the symbol is a "khanjar" dagger, (Sam, remember the dagger you got from Yaya and Tata? It is Omani, if I remember it correctly). Men carry these for any formal occasion. The symbol asoo shows crossed swords, and a ceremonial belt. The symbol is everywhere: on the seats of Oman's airline, on clothing, depicted in homes and schools, and of course the flag. The Sultan's picture is nearly equally ubiquitous. The next photo shows a Baobab tree--one of the only places they are found outside of Africa. The man walking in front is Ghalib, one of our guides, (he helped me book the flight I will take to Yemen after the program ends; I leave the morning of December 13th.) Photos to follow: the interior of an abandoned house; many of the old houses are made of limestone and disintegrate unless regualrly repaired. With current imports of concrete, the older houses are usually left to melt in the monsoon which makes Salalah green during the "Kharif" season, (although I named my blog "Kharif" because it means "autumn" in Oman this refers to the summer monsoon in Dhofar). The photo of the rock with the barely discernable writing is from Samaharam, an ancient sea port for the export of frankincense. Steve, Annelle, Katie, and Amir on the edge of a sea cliff, the sea cliff and town of Tarqah. (we watched dolphin in the water belw; Erick found the casing of a bullet that looked to be around 30 years old; the cliff, and many of the areas we visited, had been the site of major battles in the Dhofar War, though our tourguides would/could not talk to us about this, and physical evidence of the war had been actively destroyed by government decree.)
Much of the trip to Salalah felt fake. Well, packaged. We rode around on a bus and filed off and took pictures. And though we had enthusiastic guides, they could not answer most of the questions on the issues we really wanted to know, i.e. related to the war. I was wonderful to see green though, and camels are fun of course, (we saw herds of THOUSANDS). And bargaining for frankincense in the market was fun, though none of us have the Omani knack for it.
Great, the photos aren't uploading. I will try again later.