Hi,

Okay, the background... which is, I suppose, a trifle odd considering my origins. First off, I was born and raised on a ranch (!) in western South Dakota, where I lived until I went off to university at 18. Started at a small state school in Aberdeen, SD, majoring in German, which led on to a couple years at the University of Salzburg (Austria). After returning to the SD, I didn't quite last a year in that stultifyingly anti-intellectual environment, and ran off to Europe again, but wound up in Iran teaching English due to a chance meeting with an Iranian Jew in Iceland (Back then, Icelandic Airlines was the cheapest way of getting across the pond.). I was in Iran off and on from late 1969 until 1972, with bouts of on-the-cheap, Hippie-style, overland travel sandwiched in there. Made it all the way to Singapore overland, actually, except for a flight from Calcutta to Bangkok because Myan Mar (then Burma) didn't allow travelers to cross their frontiers overland. Also spent considerable time in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India, too, of course, not to mention an overland return to Austria by train from Tehran via Yerevan, Moscow, Minsk, Warsaw, and Prague. Parenthetically, here, I should add that the Iran-America Society, a USIS-funded language institute, for which I taught, was structured in such a way that one could teach for two or three months, take off for six-eight weeks, return, and resume the job.

Anyway, I returned to the US in '73, went back to university, and received a BA in German Lit from the University of Minnesota, later to be followed by an MATESL from St. Michael's College in Winooski, VT. Finished that in '81 and in September '82 I found myself in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia teaching at King Saud University, where I stayed for 6 years. In '88 I got the job here at SQU, where my wife and I have lived ever since. During those years, we've traveled extensively throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, and, more recently, in Southern Africa.

We're both pretty well addicted to travel. Among the more ambitious trips we've made were a 6 1/2 month overland odyssey from Mexico City to Buenos Aires; a 6 week overland trip around northern Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia; extensive driving/camping trips throughout western and "new" (read: eastern) Europe. During one of those runs, we camped beside an East German family in Hungary; we were the first Americans they had ever seen, let alone, met -- July 1986, I should add. Well, we stayed in touch, and in July '89, they arranged a visitor's visa for me for the German Democratic Republic. I flew to Nuremberg, picked up the visa from one of their relatives there, and drove north into the GDR. Little did I know then, in July 1989, that the Wall would come crashing down a mere four months later. In retrospect, that was one of the most fortuitous trips I've ever made because it deepened my understanding of Germany and the Germans in a way that would not otherwise have been possible.

I expect I've nattered on long enough! I hope this little narrative has been at least interesting, if not helpful.

Cheers!
Virgil

Hi,

My wife is here with me. And yes, we do get back to the U.S., once, occasionally twice, a year. As for missing it, well, for me it's sort of yes and no. I miss the scenery in the west and New England. I miss certain people. Can't say as there's much food other than cheap bacon and pork (it's available here, unlike in Saudi or Kuwait, but it's gold-plated, a 200 gram package going for about US$4 a pop). The only time I really wish I were there is during the holidays, but that's not usually possible because final testing for the first semester inevitably falls just after Christmas. As for missing the "freedom" or the "life style," that falls flat for me. Ironically enough, I feel freer here than I do over there, possibly because, as a foreigner, I'm automatically viewed as being beyond the Pale, so it doesn't really matter what one does, so one can be as free to be as eccentric as one wishes. I discovered that years ago in Iran... Basically, here in the Gulf, as long as you don't involve yourself in local politics or try proselytizing, you're fine.

As for Western women traveling here, there's really no problem as long as you don't run around in short shorts, tops with spaghetti straps, or smoke on the street. That's true, at least, in the villages. Here in the Muscat Capital Area, you can do all that sort of thing in up-market parts of town. It basically depends on the kind of locals you're likely to encounter. As for swimming, two-piece suits are really not on anywhere except on beaches near the major hotels like the Al-Bustan, Shangri-La, The Chedi, Grand Hyatt, or the Intercontinental Muscat. One-piece ones are okay on more remote beaches, though it's probably not a wise idea to spend a day at the beach alone anywhere, really. But that's true elsewhere, too, by and large.

One of the remarkable things about Omanis is their extraordinary tolerance, due in large measure, I suppose, to their long trading -- and even colonial -- history. For centuries Omanis had trade relations with virtually everyone around the Indian Ocean Basin, from Indonesia, Singapore, China, and Malaya in the east to the coastal areas of Africa from Ethiopia all the way to Mozambique. Indeed, they controlled most of what is now the Kenyan and Tanzanian coasts throughout much of the 18th and 19th centuries. with the result that even today many Omanis still speak Ki-swahili as a first language. The coastal East African Arab, the sort one meets in places like Mombasa, Dar-es-Salaam, and Zanzibar is more likely of Omani origin than anything else. In any event, these people quite happily allow churches, gundhwaras, and Hindu temples to be built, something you'd never ever find in Saudi Arabia or Kuwait. They're even quite thin on the ground in the Emirates which has the reputation of being the most liberal country in the region. In all the years I've been here, I've never once been encouraged to become Muslim, which used to happen with some frequency in Riyadh. Oman is, at the end of the day, quite a remarkable place. By the way, take a look at this link: members.tripod.com/vvwilliams where I have a fair number of photographs posted. It'll give you some sense of what's here.

Talk to ya later!
Virgil

Hi,

I've never, ever experienced anything remotely anti-American anywhere in the Middle East or in the Muslim world in general. Now, granted, I haven't been in countries like Pakistan or Jordan or the Palestine (i.e ., the West Bank) since the 9/11 and this preposterously named "War on Terror", but I wouldn't be afraid to go to any of them. I've most certainly never had any trouble here, but then I don't run around being blatantly and bombastically American, either. Even in Europe, I'm rarely recognized immediately as one -- except for when I'm in the UK or Ireland, in which case the accent gives me away instantly, of course.

As for being all of 130 miles away from Iran, it doesn't bother us a bit. And if it weren't for the difficulty US passport holders have getting visas for the country, it would be my destination of choice because I love the food, the people, and still speak more Farsi than I do Arabic. I know numerous westerners who have been there in recent years, and everyone, to a man, comes back raring to return. And that includes a couple of Americans, too, who managed to wangle visas.

As for teaching, it's English. Incoming freshman students who need to be prepared to function in an academic environment that is mostly English-medium. Education and Islamic Sciences are the only two areas where lectures are held in Arabic, so for the lion's share of SQU students, English is an essential. Imagine if a US student had to walk into a (let's say) Spanish-speaking classroom.... quite a daunting task, especially when one considers how much different Arabic is from English. At least in Spanish, an English-speaker has lots of hooks to hang things on. That's not the case for Arabs! BTW, here's the SQU link if you want to take a look: www.squ.edu.om

Olberman? Oh yes.. we get him, albeit recorded with a time delay of several hours. Same with the Sunday talk shows. Also get Fox, though I can rarely stomach more than 30 seconds of those Kool-Aid drinking lunatics.

Talk to ya later!
Virgil