Wednesday

Today was our final day at the hospital… and it was such a hectic one. I regret deeply not having the opportunity to say farewell to my dear, dear fifth year friend in pediatrics. Although we are friends on Facebook, have plans to Skype, and will hopefully (InshyAllah – God willing) meet again… they have meant so much to me, that not seeing them one more time makes me very, very sad. They were simply instrumental in making my time here incredible. They taught me much, loved me well, and made me feel absurdly welcome. Ahmed also helped me learn more Arabic, so that was incredible (and incredibly funny too.) Anyhow. Claire and I went to the last Morning meeting in Labor and Delivery – were kicked out for the senior meeting, and spent much of the morning wandering up and down the hallway. Soon, Dr. Shahila came out… but then she got lost in the OT. So Claire came with Dr. Evelyn and I… then Dr. Evelyn got lost in the Administration building and so we wandered the halls of the Pediatric ward looking for the Doctors for which we had prepared gifts and thank you notes. It was incredibly quiet, and amusingly, Dr. Shahila was absolutely stunned we were there at all since it was our last day. Even so, at 11:30, the day went from a low, creeping, meandering gear to a running full pace, sprinting, adrenaline rush. Kumait had an appointment with the UK embassy Visa department at 12:30, and we had to leave with him in order to make it to Snorkeling later that afternoon. And so at 11:30, I rushed from the OPD (clinic) with Dr. Evelyn, to L&D to find Claire who had finally found Dr. Shahila, who was filling out the evaluation form for her. Dr. Shahila took her time to evaluate Claire fully and accurately (which is funny to me, since my doctors I think were just being nice and trying to get me out of their hair – so they picked an “above average” number and whisked through the questions…). But soon enough, with completed eval in hand we went to find Salim Al-Khaldi – the man who set this whole things up, found us a hotel and provided us a driver. We owe him a lot. He made for us Certificates of Completion with the official seal (which was awesome) and collected our evaluations to make copies for his records. Trevor and Kumait showed up late and Salim was being very Omani (aka: taking his time)… and with Kumait’s significant glances (that read: Jess, we’re very late), I was mildly going crazy. With a click of a camera of Salim and those crazy American students, we rushed to the car, and made our way to the Embassy.


This is probably an appropriate time to mention that driving here is insane. I’m truly grateful for my trip in Europe which taught me that I LITERALLY have no control and should stop worrying, helping the driver break, providing input or freaking-out-crying-in-the-backseat-peeing-my-pants. I find my happy place. Reflect on my life to be sure I have lived it well, and put my life in the hands of my Creator. He wants me home? Great. I get the chance to stay here? Great. It’s not like I have control over that either. This happy place is CRITICAL because Oman has an incredibly high MVA mortality rate (MVA – motor vehicle accidents). So. if you don't have the happy place, every ride is an ulcer-inducing-stress-storm :)

After the embassy we ran to buy cigars and lunch – wings for me, pizza for Claire and Burger King for Kumait and Trevor, then it was off to the Oman Dive Center.

On the way, a fatalistic dinging began and we realized we were low on petrol (gas). Great. We were late, so we kept going, but none of us knew where the closest petrol station was or if we’d make it home. It was half funny, half awful. Kumait says he likes to live on the edge – I think we were a little close for comfort, lol. Claire and I tried to get him to kill the AC – but he voted no, and so we kept on our way. … AND THEN WE RAN OUT OF GAS!!!!!... just kidding. We actually made it to and from the dive center just fine, and to a petrol station within 10 km of certain doom.

SNORKELING IS SO AMAZING!!!!!! Literally. If I am ever in a bad mood, pick me up, give me gear and drop me in that crystal blue sea. It is definitely my happy place. I’m pretty sure I was supposed to be a fish when I was made, because I’m so contented under the water. If only I didn’t need to come back up. I am a terrible swimmer without fins, I will lose every race in a pool, but give me fins and space to fly and I’m gone. It was fun teaching Kumait, who’d never been snorkeling how to dive, how to clear the pressure and how to swim with fins. I must add that I gained absolutely NO color at all from being out in the sun, it seems all my tan this summer will come from Ohio, which is terribly ironic, but we’ll go with it. We swam for two hours or so, in which time I saw a ray, an eel and a sea turtle. The difference in the temperature was almost unbelievable… the top was hot tub warm – maybe 90 degrees or so, but 2 meters down and the temperature was absolutely cold. It was great!!! It was intense though, when far out from the beach, at maybe 30 or more feet down, I ran out of air and needed to come back up – it felt like forever before the temperature changed and I knew I was close to the surface… that hot water was such a relief. Though the place we went holds no candle to Hawaii, it was beautiful and I’m not determined to get my scuba license.

We went back home and prepared to go to dinner with Dr. Intasar, a resident in Urology – a new friend of Trevor’s, and her sister. Intasar called and said the driver was there, so we went out and saw a car parked parallel to the hotel in the exact place we were picked up every morning. And I thought it odd the driver had a cleaned suit hanging in the window, but we opened the door and went to get in…. and then realized that we had the wrong car. The driver was stunned speechless and we were left backing up and apologizing profusely. Hilarious! Pijo (the driver) came running and escorted us to the right car. I must add that Trevor kept calling Pijo – “Pedro” and when we found out his real name, I made sure to harass Trevor beyond reason. It was wonderful. Eventually we came to Japango where we met Intasar, her sister and Dr. Abdullah – a trauma surgeon. He drives a Mercedes Mclarin SLR 722 edition. Needless to say, I was in love with his car. After dinner he gave me a ride, and Trevor a ride the next day – and it was so awesome. Oh, the perks of Doctor-hood. I need to get me one of those. Anyhow, Dr. Abdullah, was introduced as “the tallest surgeon in Oman,” and indeed he was tall. He was also sarcastic and hilarious. Intasar and her sister were wonderful and Intasar and I bonded over teasing Trevor, instant friendship. At the restaurant, we enjoyed sushi, and Lebanese and more – then they took us to their home and gave us dates, Kahua (coffee) and mangos and more. They have this precious month-old kitten that was so adorable… So, in sum. It was an incredible night. We were out late, packed late and went to bed because we had to rise early the next day.