An Omani Family celebration

Muscat, Oman

We had a wonderful opportunity to have dinner with an Omani family at their home. Aida works with Stewart and David. I met her in Barcelona in November. You may have seen the photo of her, Stewart and me on the Barcelona blog. Aida’s brother (Omar), has just won an award for his work. He is a mechanical engineer and invented an electro – mechanical arm that mimics the movement of the other arm.

They whole family wanted to celebrate this award and invited us to join them. What an honor.
When invited to an Omani home for dinner you are to bring a gift. We had sent packages to Muscat from Tampa with the gifts for us to give when need be but the packages still had not arrived. So we brought cymbidium orchids and special cookies with different date fillings in them. YUM!!!

Of course the first thing I think of is what am I to wear. I knew I needed to be covered to ankles and below wrist and not tight fitting clothing. So I put on my outfit and pull on my boots and off we went.

When we arrived to their house I realized I needed to remove my boots before I walked into the house. I was carrying flowers, camera and bag and wearing my boots; not slip ons. Not such a graceful entrance, is all I can say.

When they open the front door the first thing I noticed is that the room was smoky and smelled of something like frankincense but not as strong. The room was simple but ornate,with intricate carving borders and chandeliers. There was an Arabian style couch that sat along 3 walls of the room with beautiful embroidered material, 2 small tables and a beautiful Persian rug. Some of the family were sitting there,l dressed in their traditional clothing. The children were so quiet and peaceful and looked marvelous in their fine clothing and caps. We all sat around and got to know one another. The adults are all well educated went to school in America, Ireland, Italy and not sure where else. Everyone spoke english and work in interesting jobs.

It was time for dinner and we were escorted through another room and then out into the back courtyard where our shoes were waiting for us to put on. So I again struggled to put on my boots. There was a long table low to the ground setting on a carpet with a long thick padded pillow and individual pillows for each person to sit on. There was a huge spread of food all Omani and they graciously explained to us about all the different foods and made sure we tried everything. Which I did. I loved the lamb and asked Aida if she’d teach me how to prepare it. While eating, there were so many different conversations happening and the children were now running around and playing with each other I felt as though I was at my family Thanksgiving dinner.

Back to my boots— I had to remove my boots before I stepped onto the carpet the table was sitting on and then put them on to go to the buffet table, I took many visits to the buffet making sure I tried all the different foods. What was I thinking wearing those boots? Now it’s time to say good bye and I’m carrying my boots because we were going back into the first room we started in. On the small square table was a tray with small intricate bottles on it. At first I thought it looked like cordials which I knew they weren’t because they don’t drink alcohol. They were bottles of perfume. A tradition in Oman is to share these fragrances with special guests before they leave. We all sat around the room and Aida’s sister in-law went around and gave everyone a squirt of hand lotion. Then the men received their perfume that went behind their ears and then another type of perfume for the ladies. Then they lit an incense that was like frankincense that was smoky and put it under the mens shirts and held it there a few minutes and then the ladies. I did everything in my power to not cough or sneeze.This was a very special honor to me. This family was so generous and grateful to us for sharing the celebration with them. Now I went out the door and for the last time put on my boots. It did become a joke. I just laughed about it and everyone understood and laughed along with me.
PS: I am now looking for a pair of slip on shoes so when I visit other homes I’m ready.

Shira and I are now invited to their cousin’s wedding in February. This will be a traditional Arabic, Muslim wedding. There will only be women there. Of course I’m so excited about that…. Now I’m looking for a dress to wear. Let me know what you think when looking at the photos.

We have also been invited to go hiking in the desert with Aida’s brother in law who grew up in the desert south of Muscat. I did bring my hiking boots. But I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m told they don’t wear boots in the desert. This will be a great way to experience the desert being with a person with life time experiences.

Our next adventure was to go to a goat auction in Nizwa out in the mountains. When we arrived we started walking towards the auction. We looked up and down these small alleys and corridors and could see other activities and strayed through an entrance to see what was happening. There were many small cages with birds and chickens and rabbits all for sale. Many of the merchants were young boys. They did not want me to take their photos and it was very crowded so I was ready to go through another entrance where there was produce being sold. At this point I was not comfortable photographing people so I’d ask or just avoid the shots I would have liked to get. Now I’m seeing the salt of the earth. We wandered around for a short time and then went next door to the goat auction. What a sight. The faces of these farmers showed a hard life style. There was one man that really caught my attention, I asked if I could take his photo and he said no. Looking into his eyes I knew to stay away from him. There were plenty of opportunities to photograph the auction. After observing for awhile I figured out the process and was totally entertained by it all. There were some cattle and camels for sale.We could have bought a camel for $350, go figure. I noticed there were women who also bought and sold goats. Some of the goats were huge, I’ve never seen them so big.

The auction closed down and we wandered into the souqs where we meandered in and out of corridors looking at all the stuff for sale, at one point a corridor brought us to an opening. There were many men standing in groups talking loudly and seemed excited. I stretched my eyes to see what they were doing. I saw guns. Yikes. I guess this is were these people buy guns. I don’t know much about guns but some of them looked really old. Not sure if they would even work. I kept moving along, I felt like that was not a place I wanted to hang out. At some point I realized I had no idea were Stewart was, (by the way he tends to wander off). So I back tracked and there he was with all the men in groups but he was looking at knives and pocket knives but there were daggers of all sorts and rusty swords and I don’t know what all. Stewart purchased a very small pocket knife. I was ready to leave that scene.

It was getting time to leave but I noticed so many men all cleaned up and walking the same direction. We all noticed they were going to the Mosque. We watched them for awhile walking by. I felt I was watching a peaceful parade. Young boys with their special clothes walking near their fathers. We finally started walking towards the car and had to walk past the mosque. I could not believe how many shoes were all over the side walk and steps. The young boys were outside of the mosque kneeling waiting for the chanting and prayers to begin.

We crossed the street and sat behind a tree and watched a little more. The calling to prayer chant began and I sat next to Shira as we took it all in.

I’m going a little off the subject now but it’s important to me. I had found out that morning before we took off on this adventure that a dear friend of mine, Beth Willhoit had passed away. So the opportunity to sit and watch these men going in to pray and listen to the chanting was just what I needed to remind myself of her. I cried for some time next to my friend Shira. I was thankful she was there at that moment. I’m crying now thinking of how touched I was at the time. I told Beth to follow the angels that they will guide her. I was brave enough to video this so you all can see and hear what I was experiencing.