ONE YEAR IN OMAN!

In all the excitement with our trip to Dubai and the end of Ramadan, we completely forgot to celebrate our ONE YEAR back in Oman! I suppose it's a good thing as it means it's home here and we are no longer looking at our time here as newcomers.
It's been a fascinating first year back. Like life anywhere, there have been lots of joys & sorrows, ups and downs, and waitings. But I think we can say that we are glad to be back here. The waiting for visas meant that for a while it was not really home here. Now we are in a more functional house for the varied aspects of our life here, and it feels good.

It is not an easy place to live, despite the beauty of the mountains and the desert.  I think in looking back over the year there is a sadness that some people we wanted to reconnect with have been distant.
In moving back to a familiar place, there are expectations that we can pick up where we left off in terms of our life here. Even our kiddos have found it hard to reconnect with their old friends.
People move on I guess. They fill the void with new friends and it's not always easy to fit back in to their lives.
But we have made new friends and connected with people we knew from the past but didn't have the chance to spend time with before. It's been fun having reunions with folks as they come back to Oman for visits.

My hope for the next year is that we can reconnect with old friends, now that we feel more at home and relaxed. But part of me is reluctant. It's hard to trust. The international culture here is a very strange one. People form cliques, spread rumors. So people quit being friends because of false talk. It's rife here.
Yet we love this place.
We have found some amazing new friends and are slowly reconnecting with those old ones that mean so much to us. Sometimes it just takes time.