7.4.2013 – Muscat, Oman
Lost in the Muscat Souk at Mutah, I found myself wandering, aimlessly, through the tumble down residential area. A car driver pulled up alongside me and, in broken English, asked what I was looking for.
“The Big Mosque,” I replied, hoping for eloquent directions. I was sadly disappointed! He quickly gathered what I was looking for but was unable to articulate how to get there. In the end the chap gestured to his passenger door and said ‘get in.’ It was one of those ‘do I or don’t I?’ moments. I got in and there started my first adventure.
The chap – just a local, not a taxi driver – was so proud of his city. He took me to the ‘Big Mosque’ and spent the next three hours ferrying me around Muscat to the Sultan’s Palace, along the new motorways, of which he was particularly proud, and, towards the end of our short friendship, he asked if I would like to come back to his house for lunch.
At that moment, the cynic within me took over. “What will I be getting into? What’s his angle? What’s all this going to cost? But I needn’t have worried. He duly deposited me back in town and as I turned to ask him if I could give him something for petrol, he smiled and said: “No charge, my friend. My gift to you.” His offer of lunch had been genuine. How sad that I missed out on his other ‘gift’….the chance to eat with a Muscat family. May Allah be praised for here was one of his true subjects, a follower of the Koran and a man eager to help a stranger abroad.
I duly made my way to the internet cafe and agreed $1 for an hour’s connection, only this time the chap asked for $4 when I’d finished. A row ensued and I walked out having paid $1. I was a tourist, he was an opportunist.
At the next ‘venue’ a fruit drink bar – alcohol is at a minimum in the Arab States – I offered to pay in dollars – quite normal in many areas. We drank two beautiful fruit juices which, in local money, should have cost $5; we were asked for $11. The situation was sensitive, I paid, I felt ripped off; another opportunist.
I experienced both kindness and cunning in one day, however, the alternative was to have ‘played it safe,’ to have remained in my shell. But, had I done that, I would never have met my wonderful Muslim friend, and his gestures outweighed by far, the opportunists keen for their double dose of dollars. Life without trust is no life at all. Do your clients trust you? Do you trust them?