In Overwhelming Oman

It’s 6 a.m. in Oman, and it’s sweltering hot! A few of us try to step out for an early morning stroll beside our hotel, the beach a welcomed change, but we can barely stay out for 5 minutes. By now, it’s beyond our understanding how Sadhguru is riding in this heat. He leaves Dubai early morning to reach Oman, and the first thing he does after removing his helmet is pour water over his head. To say we are humbled would be an understatement.

The volunteers are just amazing. There’s so much joy, so much energy and so much devotion. Zaynab is from the live translation team. She says she was overjoyed when she was assigned the live translation work. “I remember I was dancing in the hall of the hotel, running back and forth and crying and you know, like, I’m doing this because it felt like I’m really being part of this movement,” she says grateful for the opportunity. (For someone who’s never done live translations before, we must say that’s quite a joyful leap of faith into the unknown!)

Zaynab couldn’t really understand that soil could become extinct till she heard of the Save Soil Movement. “I have never heard about soil extinction because I live in a village in south Lebanon where trees are normal to see,” she says. “You know, we’re always surrounded by trees – during my childhood, we were always playing in fields of olive trees, of other fruit trees, so I never understood what does soil extinction mean.”

After she started educating herself about the Movement, watching videos, reading the statistics, learning about global soil health, she was shocked. “I’ve never thought that we are really in such bad situation when it comes to soil, and I didn’t know that soil can be the solution for other ecological issues,” she admits. Zaynab says she is more grateful now for the food she eats and resolved to never take its availability for granted.

What made her decide to support the event in Oman? “When I heard the Conscious Planet campaign and Sadhguru are reaching Middle East, I said ‘Ok, I cannot go,’ because it was really difficult for me to travel,” she explains. But when she heard that Sadhguru will be in Oman, something shifted within her. “The moment I heard Oman, something told me I need to be there although I’ve never been there, I don’t know anyone there. But every time I hear ‘Oman,’ something tells me, ‘You need to be there.’” She’s scarcely able to believe it herself, much less articulate it.

And how was her first experience of live translation? “Although I can say that I was able to translate only 40-50% of the whole event, I was so overwhelmed and so happy; even though I wasn’t able to translate 100%, it was my 100% and I gave it with total joy and total care, and it was really amazing, it was a beautiful experience to be part of this,” she narrates enthusiastically. “It really taught me what does it mean to do what’s needed rather than to do what I like, so it was a very growing experience for me.”