Here is a small collage from the few photos I took with my phone during our flat-tires-adventure.
The man in the brown dishdasha was there straight away and the man in blue was walking by. On the second picture a man who was going to visit a friend stopped and was clever to find videos of how to get the spare off.
Then a car with 3 young boys stopped. I was amazed that they all 3 were willing to help (without asking).
Sometime later another Omani stopped by. Because we needed another tire and the shop would only open at 4pm, he took us to his house and arranged for the car to be fixed.
The last picture is of our lunch. I asked if it was ok to take a picture. The gentleman was the father of the man who took us home. He was a retired English teacher and owns a farm now. The meat was a very special dish called "Shuwaa", only eaten on special occasions. We were explained the whole process of preparing it and as said yesterday this included a short video of the goats walking on the farm...
Around 4.15pm our car was ready. It had 4 working tires again! The whole family (and that was a big family - every time someone peaked into the room we were sitting the gentleman told us it was a son or a daughter and on top of that I counted at least 7 children under the age of 6), waved goodbye and told us to stop by anytime.
Also the guy who fixed the car was super friendly. Obviously I wanted to pay for it, but they didn't want to hear about that. They pointed out that I was now driving on the spare and an other old tire.
Yesterday the car got 4 new tires, but that was not for free...
Oh my! That really is an adventure you both had and I'm glad it all ended well. I've since read your post yesterday and I can understand why Yelena felt she'd been transported into a movie. Everyone was so helpful. I'm not sure that would be the case here. I did chuckle that the man tried to identify which goat you were eating too!
Wow, what an adventure 👍 dit deed me denken aan een bezoek dat we ( mijn man, onze zoon en ik) brachten aan een collega van mijn man in Oman, we werden zo gastvrij onthaald , hartverwarmend maar op een gegeven moment werd ik naar de dames-kamer gebracht waar mijn handen met henna werden versierd, elk meisje en vrouw in het huishouden zat om me heen en ik verstond letterlijk niks van al het gepraat om me heen, niemand sprak iets anders dan Arabisch ; ik had kramp in mijn kaken van het glimlachen 😉
What an amazing adventure. You met so many beautiful people that you don't see like them in the West. When my son was continuing his studies in the UK we rented his house and a Libyan family that lived there for a year, maybe two, was very friendly, too.
What a beautiful adventure, Ingrid. Is it their custom that you would now have to entertain the man and his family? What lovely people you encountered!
@momamo Je hebt het plaatje goed! Hartverwarmend is inderdaad het juiste woord. Dit was dus allemaal spontaan en we hadden heel veel geluk dat er 2 redelijk engels spraken.En een paar andere probeerden Engels. Ik ben al een jaar met Duolingo Arabish bezig. Niet dat ik enig Arabisch kan, maar het hielp wel enorm om het gebroken Engels beter te begrijpen.
@louannwarren I am not familiar with the customs and will ask my local friend when I see her in the new year. It would definitely be nice to do something as a 'thank you'.
You might be familiar with the Mexican family structure - if you invite 1 child to a birthday party, you have a big chance that parents, brothers and sisters and even grandparents turn up.... Here the families are even bigger as brothers and sisters with their partners and children often live in one house. This was definitely a big family and we were told that everybody in the village was knew each other and was actually related - cousins, aunts, etc.
So I hope we do not need to do something for the whole family ;)
@serendypyty@onewing@wakelys@momamo@sangwann@louannwarren@bigmxx@dutchothotmailcom@monicac@thewatersphotos Thank you for your comments! Omanis are known for their friendliness, but it was amazing to experience it this way.
We lived in quite a few places across the world and I cannot imagine this happening in Europe or the VS. Even in South America or Asia it would be rare, unless, maybe, you are in a very rural part and people are curious.
You might be familiar with the Mexican family structure - if you invite 1 child to a birthday party, you have a big chance that parents, brothers and sisters and even grandparents turn up.... Here the families are even bigger as brothers and sisters with their partners and children often live in one house. This was definitely a big family and we were told that everybody in the village was knew each other and was actually related - cousins, aunts, etc.
So I hope we do not need to do something for the whole family ;)
We lived in quite a few places across the world and I cannot imagine this happening in Europe or the VS. Even in South America or Asia it would be rare, unless, maybe, you are in a very rural part and people are curious.