This is my written statement that I gave to the head of the camp about an... incedent, that I had the other night.
15-Mar-07
At about 1AM this morning, I was woken up by a man opening the door to my room and looking at me. I asked him what he was doing and he told me "I see you walking around camp" and "I love you". I told him, I have a boyfriend in the US and I'd like to go to sleep. He just stood there, I don't think he understood me. Then I said "please leave" a few times, and he did. I hadn't locked my door at the beginning of the night, but I locked it then.
I can't remember very clearly what he looked like. What I do remember - he was dressed in white, and wearing a hat, not a turban. He was a pretty average build. He looked pretty young, not a lot of facial hair.
Friday, March 16, 2007
Camp Move in Oman
***** 14 Mar 2007 *****
Hi,
So i experienced a camp move today. We loaded the entire camp onto huge trucks and drove about 20km to a new location. Watching them load the "skids" was impressive. They are at least the size of double wide trailers, maybe bigger. A trucks front wheels would lift a good 5 feet into the air while loading. Then they had to transfer the skid from one truck to another truck. When a skid was finally loaded it stuck out on either side, it was more than three times as wide as the truck, and it would slowly wobble back and forth perpedicular to the truck. And by seeing how just how slow it wobbled you could get a feel for just how frikin heavy it was (physics!), and that made you really hope it didn't fall. Actually, one skid had some trouble when it was being tranfered from a loading truck to the driving truck. A cable on the driving truck broke, and the skid got pulled sideways and almost fell off the truck. Exciting...but then it took almost 2 hours to fix. And that was just one out of 20 some skids. And then we drove to the new campsite and did it all in reverse. So it was a long day with a lot of waiting.
While waiting I learned how to tie a turban properly from an authentic Omani while sitting in a truck waiting. I heard stories about how this Omani's mom got mad when his dad married a second wife...because people do that in Oman sometimes. I took a nap on a pile of reciever cable, and because i was so tired (from waking up at 4am) it was the most comfortable bed I've ever slept on. I fed a camel several apples...I got to see its tounge. It was wearing either a jock strap or a bra, depending on whether it was a woman or a man. Some piece of fabric was wrapped around it to protect its underside. AND I got to drive one of the trucks... off road! I never thought i'd get to do it so soon! I only got to because I had to go to the bathroom horribly bad, and there were no bathrooms, so Keith the head mechanic lent me his truck to drive out in the desert and pee. I'm so glad I learned too drive on a stick shift. And then when I peed, the pee landed about 6 feet down wind of me because it was blowing like a @$#%@$!
Finally we are back in the office, with lights and computers and air conditioning. We managed to unpack everything in an hour or two...a lot quicker than it took to pack it all. It's been a pretty exhausting day, but interesting. So i thought I'd share.
Love,
Selah
Hi,
So i experienced a camp move today. We loaded the entire camp onto huge trucks and drove about 20km to a new location. Watching them load the "skids" was impressive. They are at least the size of double wide trailers, maybe bigger. A trucks front wheels would lift a good 5 feet into the air while loading. Then they had to transfer the skid from one truck to another truck. When a skid was finally loaded it stuck out on either side, it was more than three times as wide as the truck, and it would slowly wobble back and forth perpedicular to the truck. And by seeing how just how slow it wobbled you could get a feel for just how frikin heavy it was (physics!), and that made you really hope it didn't fall. Actually, one skid had some trouble when it was being tranfered from a loading truck to the driving truck. A cable on the driving truck broke, and the skid got pulled sideways and almost fell off the truck. Exciting...but then it took almost 2 hours to fix. And that was just one out of 20 some skids. And then we drove to the new campsite and did it all in reverse. So it was a long day with a lot of waiting.
While waiting I learned how to tie a turban properly from an authentic Omani while sitting in a truck waiting. I heard stories about how this Omani's mom got mad when his dad married a second wife...because people do that in Oman sometimes. I took a nap on a pile of reciever cable, and because i was so tired (from waking up at 4am) it was the most comfortable bed I've ever slept on. I fed a camel several apples...I got to see its tounge. It was wearing either a jock strap or a bra, depending on whether it was a woman or a man. Some piece of fabric was wrapped around it to protect its underside. AND I got to drive one of the trucks... off road! I never thought i'd get to do it so soon! I only got to because I had to go to the bathroom horribly bad, and there were no bathrooms, so Keith the head mechanic lent me his truck to drive out in the desert and pee. I'm so glad I learned too drive on a stick shift. And then when I peed, the pee landed about 6 feet down wind of me because it was blowing like a @$#%@$!
Finally we are back in the office, with lights and computers and air conditioning. We managed to unpack everything in an hour or two...a lot quicker than it took to pack it all. It's been a pretty exhausting day, but interesting. So i thought I'd share.
Love,
Selah
famous quote (not yet but someday)
"...and because we cannot make a profit, our company does not drill baby camels for oil" --Selah Lynch(1983 - present)
camel spider
***** Mar 6 2007 *****
There are these things called camel spiders here. They are about a foot from front leg to back leg. They actually have 10 legs, not 8 so they are not technically arachnids I guess, but they are still scary. They aren't poisonous, but they like to chew on flesh. And they will chase after you.
How scary is that?!
I havn't seen one yet, but I've been told that they are quite common and I definitly will see one before I leave here.
I'll bring you one if you want.
Love,
Selah
How scary is that?!
I havn't seen one yet, but I've been told that they are quite common and I definitly will see one before I leave here.
I'll bring you one if you want.
Love,
Selah
barbacue
***** 2 Mar 2007 *****
.......
We're having a barbacue today, and they just lit the fire, it is Texas worthy. It's burning in old rusty barrel halves. You are supposed to wear a loud shirt to this barbacue. I'm going to wear my don't mess with TX shirt, coupled with my TX flag bandana.
There are two older British grass farmers living in the desert somewhere that have showed up for the barbacue. They are friends of Crew 52 that show up from time to time, especially for barbacues. I met them in the bar trailer...they are funny. They have character. I think you have to have character to move to Oman half way through your life and be a grass farmer.
.....
All in all it's been a special day, and I'm enjoying it.
Hope you are having a good day too.
Love,
Selah
PS Carolyn and Beca, yesterday I saw a camel skeleton, and I touched real crude oil. It was shiny and black and the consistency of mollasses, just like you would imagine it.
.......
We're having a barbacue today, and they just lit the fire, it is Texas worthy. It's burning in old rusty barrel halves. You are supposed to wear a loud shirt to this barbacue. I'm going to wear my don't mess with TX shirt, coupled with my TX flag bandana.
There are two older British grass farmers living in the desert somewhere that have showed up for the barbacue. They are friends of Crew 52 that show up from time to time, especially for barbacues. I met them in the bar trailer...they are funny. They have character. I think you have to have character to move to Oman half way through your life and be a grass farmer.
.....
All in all it's been a special day, and I'm enjoying it.
Hope you are having a good day too.
Love,
Selah
PS Carolyn and Beca, yesterday I saw a camel skeleton, and I touched real crude oil. It was shiny and black and the consistency of mollasses, just like you would imagine it.
I JUST PET A CAMEL
***** Mar 1 2007 *****
I pet a camel !!!!
Finally, it didn't run away. It was a big mama standing right outside of the "bar trailer". It let me come right up to it and pet it's side and its neck and it's chin and it's legs. It was wonderful. yay.
Have a fun weekend!
Selah
I pet a camel !!!!
Finally, it didn't run away. It was a big mama standing right outside of the "bar trailer". It let me come right up to it and pet it's side and its neck and it's chin and it's legs. It was wonderful. yay.
Have a fun weekend!
Selah
crude oil and dates
*****Mar 1 2007*****
I got up close and personal with real live crude oil today. It looked like crude oil. Flawlessly black. The consistency of molasses. Wonderful. I jumped in and rubbed it all over my body to reap the healing benefits. Well not really. Anyway...the rest of that was true. I wish you could have been there to appreciate it with me. I like crude the way I like cows...very much, and no one else understands.
I spend about three hours driving all around seeing the field operation. I think I had a misscommunication with someone. Before I thought I was just tagging along for a ride, but now I think they thought I hadn't been out to the field before so they were being nice and giving me a tour. Well it was fun. AND I got to try a new kind of coffee, omani coffee. Its a lot like starbucks, but they put our favorite, saffron, in it along with cloves. And they drink it out of teaglasses the size of double shots. So myself, Ali Al Malki and Nilesh had a nice afternoon snack of coffee and dates in the middle of the desert, not too far from a camel skeleton.
We have two extra people in the office doing computer stuff, so that's livened it up. I started reading a book The God of Small Things. Ever hear of it?
Have a good morning.
Love,
Selah
I got up close and personal with real live crude oil today. It looked like crude oil. Flawlessly black. The consistency of molasses. Wonderful. I jumped in and rubbed it all over my body to reap the healing benefits. Well not really. Anyway...the rest of that was true. I wish you could have been there to appreciate it with me. I like crude the way I like cows...very much, and no one else understands.
I spend about three hours driving all around seeing the field operation. I think I had a misscommunication with someone. Before I thought I was just tagging along for a ride, but now I think they thought I hadn't been out to the field before so they were being nice and giving me a tour. Well it was fun. AND I got to try a new kind of coffee, omani coffee. Its a lot like starbucks, but they put our favorite, saffron, in it along with cloves. And they drink it out of teaglasses the size of double shots. So myself, Ali Al Malki and Nilesh had a nice afternoon snack of coffee and dates in the middle of the desert, not too far from a camel skeleton.
We have two extra people in the office doing computer stuff, so that's livened it up. I started reading a book The God of Small Things. Ever hear of it?
Have a good morning.
Love,
Selah
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