Goodbye beautiful Rwanda

After almost two months in Rwanda (with a short break in Oman) my time in this incredible country is sadly coming to an end.

The past couple of years I've been so lucky to see a lot of wondrous places, but Rwanda has really left an imprint on my soul. I've made many Rwandan friends in my short time here. Through them I've witnessed a resilience of the human spirit in spite of overwhelming tragedy.

I will really miss this country and am already looking forward to coming back here in the summer.

I've gone through two of my previous sets and replaced a bunch of pictures with what I think are better, more recent, ones.

Please take a look:

Rwandan faces of sadness.

Rwandan faces of hope.

Fishermen at Seeb and the Grand Mosque

I've made it safely back to Africa and I've gone through my remaining pictures from Oman and added them to my existing photo set from last week.

There a lot of Mosque shots and a few portraits of some elderly men in Seeb.

Have a look: Samer says goodbye to Oman.

Wetting my pants in Oman

I've landed in Oman again, my second trip here in about six months, to hang out with the family. Usually I find Oman unbearably hot this time of year, but this week it's been incredibly mild. Perhaps I've just become accustomed to African temperatures.

I've spend too much time indoors but I managed to sneak out for a few pics, including taking some of the fish market in the old part of the city. It's a great place to take photographs, although I provoked one of the locals after taking his picture (despite the fact that he was posing for my cousin's camera at the time) and he decided to wet my pants with a cup of water. Considering he had no front teeth and looked close to 90, I decided to let the matter slide after briefly voicing my discontent. The last thing I wanted was to be humiliated further by having a frail 90-year-old beat me silly with a pair of fish. We left shortly after and I hoped the sun would dry out my crotch, but the water was still visible after an hour. I silently wondered how many people who saw me thought I had soiled myself. At least my cousin got a good laugh out of the whole thing.

I am leaving to Rwanda again in a few days. In the meantime, check out my pics from my return to the Middle East (with a few extras that I took in April): Samer wets his pants in Oman.

An African Christmas without snow

The holidays are already here and this year I'll be spending them in Africa, away from everyone that I love. But at least I have some of their photos to keep me company. Here's a small selection of family portraits i've taken in (mostly) the last year:

Samer's family pix for 2007.