Category Archives: Blog

Here’s a photo of my favorite mosque in Harar — such fun to explore (colorful) Islamic architecture in Ethiopia!

All aboard — to Djibouti! I passed by this old train station while on the road in Ethiopia (wish this vintage rail still worked)! In November 2015, a new 756 kilometer railway was established between Djibouti and Ethiopia for commercial trade and food aid. When the railroad becomes fully commissioned and electrified this month, it will allow five trains to run every day carrying about 3,500 tons each.

I love Ethiopia so much I had to give it a hug while visiting St. Mariam Church on Mount Entoto — the highest peak overlooking Addis Ababa…

I feel grateful to live in the Persian Gulf in the Sultanate of Oman — the 6th best country in the world for expats.

I often dream of returning to Syria, where I explored Sufism in Damascus just weeks before the war. A new promotional video from the Syrian government shows off some of Syria’s tourist charms — but makes no mention of the war. Having heard on-the-ground reports while working with Syrian refugees as a professor, yogini, mentor, volunteer, and advocate, I can’t imagine returning to Syria safely any time soon. With mass evacuations intensifying, it’s clear the conflict (and refugee crisis) is not nearing its end any time soon.

When I was exploring cultural Heritage in Xinjiang, I had the opportunity to take a shopping break in the bazaar and photograph the Uyghur and Chinese writing on these pastel colored walls…

Exploring desert dunes (and visiting local Bedouin) is one of my favorite aspects of living in the Sultanate of Oman. Unfortunately, as the Sharqiyah sands continue to draw more tourists, some areas around the tourists camps are becoming noisy and polluted from 4×4 dune bashing, sandboarding, and dune buggy riding (not to mention partying).

Bedouin tribes have brought their concerns about noise pollution to local and governmental authorities, who are now considering curbing tourism in the dunes. Like the local Bedouin, I prefer peace and quiet when communing with nature in the dunes — for me, it’s the perfect landscape for meditation, reflection, and a special peek at paradise…

Tonight I had the pleasure of attending a colleague’s wedding celebration in Muscat — it was especially fun to dance with Omani and Zanzibari women of all ages to rocking rhythms from Zanzibar…

Today I had the joy of watching my Omani students perform as “patients” at our interdisciplinary workshop in Muscat to help young doctors practice and enhance their communications skills. Before my colleagues in the Psychology Department and I conducted this dynamic two-day workshop, I suggested to my students several ways in which they could use this improv exercise to prompt the doctors to become more nuanced and intentional in their reactions, delivery, and care.

The workshop went better than I could have imagined — I was greatly impressed with the acting chops of my students and the compassionate and stimulating discussions of the approximately 150 doctors who participated. At the end of each improvised scene of various medical situations (like breaking bad news or dealing with an angry patient), my students gave feedback to the doctors on what they thought was helpful or hurtful. Hopefully this inspiring and successful meeting that brought together the fields of medicine, psychology, and theatre will bear fruit for many years, as the doctors continue to draw upon the lessons learned in today’s simulated scenes.

If you’re looking for some relaxing fun in the Sultanate of Oman, take some friends and get henna done in al-Khoudh (I got this henna done for an Omani wedding this week).

If you travel to Xinjiang, stop by Heavenly Lake for some breathtaking mountain views & a chance to speak Kazakh…

I’m happy to share with you my new Huffington Post piece, Cultural Heritage in Xinjiang, about the diverse and rich cultural heritage of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in western China. Having spent extended periods of time on the Silk Road researching cultural heritage in all the Central Asian Republics (Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan), I feel right at home in the mosques, mausoleums, and museums of Xinjiang. Thank you for any help in sharing the piece and this special corner of China.

While doing research for my academic journal article “X Marks the Spot: Mapping Malcolm’s Encounters with Sudan,” which was published in a special issue of the Journal of Africana Religions (The Meaning of Malcolm X for Africana Religions: Fifty Years On), I had the opportunity to literally follow in Malcolm’s footsteps in Sudan with his old Sudanese friends in Khartoum. So it was with great interest that I read today about an upcoming auction of Malcolm X’s postcards from his travels in Africa and the Middle East. My favorite line on the postcards available for auction is this: “I’m still traveling, trying to broaden my scope.”

When I was in France last week, I was surprised to see how few tourists were exploring Paris in the middle of August. Earlier this week, France’s foreign minister announced that the number of tourists visiting France has dropped 7% since January due to terror attacks and transport strikes. The concern and anxiety of shopkeepers and hoteliers was palpable while I was there — and many shops that usually stay open in August were closed. It remains to be seen if the almost $1 billion dollar tourism crisis will begin to reverse any time soon.