tales from the tarmac: decorating like a [Western] Omani

This is my own tales from the tarmac story. Even after knowing all I do about Omani history and culture, sometimes it still happens, that some ridiculous supposition reveals how little I really understand in the end:

MOP: "Habibti, what are you doing?"

[OPNO is hanging a broom made from date palm leaves on a wall in her home like an ornament.]

OPNO: "It's like a cute Omani cultural decoration." [She smiles at him, knowing MOP loves anything from his own culture that she had adopted as her own.]

[MOP shakes his head.]: "In Omani culture we don't hang dirty old brooms on the wall as art."

OPNO: "This one is clean. I bought it for a rial."

MOP: "I could buy six of those for 1 rial." [OPNO too, does indeed get ripped off.]

OPNO: "You don't like it?"

[MOP demonstrates his point, taking the dust brush and mop from OPNO's laundry room in hand]: "Say I am making a traditional American house. I am taking this broom and mop as part of your American culture. I nail the broom to the wall, and hang the mop from a peg. Is this what you would do in your country to decorate. Cuz I've never seen it in 'Architectural Digest'?"

[OPNO regards the ridiculous mop hanging from the wall by MOP's hand. There is a mop hanging from the wall like a framed photograph. She immediately feels very stupid. The two laugh. End of cute story, moral being, don't hang cleaning objects on your walls and call it an Omani traditional;p]

Posted in: for expats,the omani home