Omani hospitality

Yesterday we were treated to another display of hospitality by the Omani people. We were visiting the oasis Birkat Al Mauz (Were you’ll see new houses standing very close to old abandoned houses, who were traded in for the new more comfortable ones, with running water and electricity.) and he came up to us started to ell about the oasis he lived in and then invited the entire group to his house for coffee and would not take no for an answer.
So we went and were shown the sitting room, which consists of tapestry and pillows, very comfortable by the way. After we had all settled we were treated on Arabic coffee (very strong, just the way I like it), fresh dates (fresh from the palm tree) and oranges. After about an hour of talking and meeting his wife, children, mother-in-law and sister the visit approached his end when he gave us a glass of water. We extensively thanked him and since he didn’t want anything in return we all gave the children some pocket money, because we were not counting on this visit and had no proper gifts.
What you should know though, if you ever visit an Arabic family, are some basic rules. One bottom feeder in our group refused to, but we told him off. Always take your shoes or what ever footwear you’re wearing off, sit down and make sure you don’t show the soles of your feet, never refuse food and if you’ve had enough then just hold the last thing you were given in your hand until the water arrives (to clean your hands) and make sure you eat with your right hand, the left one is used for other things (you know what I mean).
It was a really nice day and we loved it even more because of the visit, the day had one more surprise for us, a humongous thunderstorm. At the end of the day we where in Nizwa and about 17.30 hours when we where walking trough the old Souq a thunderstorm broke lose. So everybody fled in the bus and we went back to the hotel. Very slowly by the way because of the huge amounts of water everywhere you looked.