I found encounters with children on the photo trip I took to Oman in Feb. 2020 to be especially poignant.  We didn’t have many. My sense is that children are kept at home with their Mothers, maybe not having as much freedom as some children in the world. 

It is always wonderful to have interaction and capture images with children on trips.  Probably my all time favorite was in India in a village of UnTouchables.   

I’d like to share my experience here in Oman on a Jim Cline Photo Tour.  

First, this one.  She’s a sweetie who doesn’t look very happy.  We were at the Sultan’s main residence in Muscat, a big grand showy affair.  We weren’t allowed to tour inside instead, we walked around the large square outside.  It was the middle of the day and not many photo opportunities. 

But I spotted this young lady, sitting apart from what looked like her parents.  I liked the reflections of her and  I wonder if they had had a disagreement.   She doesn’t look very happy.   I hope things improved.  

However, this young lady absolutely charmed me at a small guest house where we stayed in the mountains.  The basic no frills guest house was built into the side of  a hill.  We slept on mattresses on the floor and shared bathrooms, but had a great view from the roof top dining area.  

Dinner on the roof top was great but I also like the cosy space where we met in the morning for coffee and tea and great breakfasts.   It felt like a treehouse.  

But back to the young lady.  I was hanging around waiting to leave.  Our luggage was being taken up a steep hill to the vehicles so I had a little time to kill. She appeared and seemed very happy to pose in the window of the guest house in her fancy attire.  

My assumption is that she was with her family also guests.  No one was near so maybe they were paying their bill or packing up.  

After enjoying taking her picture, I got a kick out of this sweetheart.  She donned her Mother’s hat for the photo, shyly backing away as soon as I finished.  

Aren’t these boys cute?  I spotted them at the Goat Market in Nizwa.  More on that experience in a future blog.  We had a marvelous time there.     I love the way these boys look like miniatures of their fathers. 

 But probably the most interesting experience was at a small village near the huge desert where we stayed in comfortable tents for two nights.  

Our tour company took us to a nearby village late in the day where we thought we might catch the mosque in the setting sun, but the angle and timing wasn’t right so we explored a bit.  

Now, in many countries, during this time of day women and children would be out and about, visiting, shopping, etc.  Not in Oman. We rarely saw that happen. 

But we did see a handful of kids in this village.  But, my gosh, they were shy.  While I think a lot of tourists come to this area for activities on the dunes (camel rides, dune scooters, camping, etc), they probably don’t get into villages like this so these children would find us very strange. 

When I first saw these three youngsters we were quite a distance apart. Sensing their shyness, I simply stood still and waved at them, trying to project my most grandmotherly “safeness.”  

They waved back.  

I waved back.  

We repeated this for about ten minutes.  I slowly started walking towards them.  They didn’t run away like they did earlier when one of the other photo tour participants approached them.  

Slowly I made my way. Soon we were close enough to talk.  I pointed at myself and said my name.  And then gestured to see if they’d share their names.  Soon they did with lots of giggling.  

Then a few more children joined us, clearly curious.  

Then, Randy, a very friendly gentleman in our group came along and was able to coax them to stand against the door to one of the village homes.  We loved the blue design. Great backdrop. 

But the most fun was yet to come.  Randy coached the most outgoing of the girls to run up against the wall, jump and then collapse in giggles.  We had a blast capturing her athletic antics.  

No language was needed.  Just pure fun for all of us.  

Later I saw these kids congregated together and wonder what they might have said about us.  

I hope they had as much fun as we did.   

Changes with DesignDestinations. org

I have decided to make some changes with  DesignDestinations.org  Given the lack of travel opportunities and the strange time we are in, it makes sense to me to take the pressure off coming up with original weekly posts.

My plan is to mix older posts with new ones with the goal of continuing to post every Monday.

Please be aware that you can go back and travel the world with me by going to the top of this blog (called the Header) and use the pull down menus to discover what my guest bloggers and I have shared with our readers.  We have over 600 posts so you won’t run out of places to visit with us.    I hope you enjoy and make comments in the comment section at the end of the blog.

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