Shangri-ME-LA

MELA 4: PRE-START

Oman is a fabled land of forts and frankincense, famous for its curved khanjar daggers and woven kuma hats, with a history of maritime trade and cultural exchange stretching from India to Zanzibar.  

The capital Muscat is an ancient city. Rooted in the living rock, it is like a wise seer of old who has absorbed much change and witnessed much history.

Shangri-La is a fabled utopia, a mythical place of harmony and happiness. Existing out of time, isolated from the real world, it can have no bearing on human history or the course of affairs.    

Nevertheless, there is something fresh and exciting brewing at the Shangri-La Barr Al Jissah Resort...

Something stirring and fermenting at the Shangri-La Barr Al Jissah Resort...!

Something boiling and bubbling with such vigor and vim that may we perhaps dare to hope one day the history of Muscat will have another entry in its index? A modest but significant reference under the letter "M":

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MELA 4 opens on 7 March in Muscat, Oman, but as usual staff and facilitators are on site days beforehand for the preparations.

Amy Kam, SIBF Program Manager, leads this year's administrative team. Hard to believe that this scruffy piece of real estate is the future site of a glorious, shiny MELA 4 office! 

MELA Program Manager Samer Ebbini sets to work. He's the foreman.

MELA moguls Jim Crupi and Bill Starnes review the blueprints for the MELA 4 development.

More builders: Sami Ammous, Devyn Williams and Tim Bednar.

The symbol of the staff's cool professionalism. Even if the duck's legs are working furiously under the water, all that the observer should see is serene gliding on the surface.

After five days of labor and seven liters of elbow grease, the finished product is here: the gleaming MELA 4 Office. (Did you think it had appeared out of thin air?) Up and ready to serve participants!

No participants yet.

Meanwhile in the ballroom, facilitators undergo two days of intensive top-up training and review in preparation for the start of the program.

It's "back to school" for Dan Ciprari, Andrea Bednar and Faye Crupi. They're the talkative ones in class...

By contrast, Vickie Neighbour, Brice Bay and Susan Simons are quiet, zealous types. These teacher's pets enjoy studying and reading. And they simply adore doing their MELA homework...

Sajjan Agarwal absorbs information about the participants and latest developments in the Middle East.

But – where are the participants?