Habibi & the kindness of strangers

Habibi is a term of endearment used to refer to a loved one in Arabic. And no, this is not a love story per se. It is the story of how strangers become friends, it is a story of kindness.

Forrest Gump’s mom said that life is like a box of chocolates and I like to think travelling is the same: we never know who we will meet or what we will face. In Oman we decided, once more, to try workaway out and stayed with Hassan, the person with literally the best references we had ever seen on the platform. We now call him Habibi.

Even before arriving in Oman, when we started talking to him while in Uganda, he was unusually helpful and clearly wanted us to enjoy our time in his country. “You are welcome to your Omani home” he said and in total honesty it was a touching thought.

As I’m sure you know, Oman is an Arabic country and as we arrived there we were a bit unsure how close we (mostly A) would really be able to get to Hassan. The answer was there from the moment we jumped off the bus and were received with smiles and hugs.

Sharing stories over a meal is probably one of the most ancient customs of mankind and Habibi made sure that our first meal would be memorable. We soon found ourselves sitting on the floor eating a gigantic plate of chicken with rice with our bare hands while sharing our stories and tales. It immediately made us feel like we were bonding. Still little more than perfect strangers, Hassan insisted in understanding us, the things we are interested in and in figuring out how he can help us enjoy our time in the best possible way while in his country. All with a smile on his face and while taking a few dozen selfies!

Side note, selfies and photography are definitely a thing for this man! He literally took thousands of pictures with us and we now call the selfie shot with food “Hassaning it!” Indeed it seems to have rubbed off on us as we “Hassan” meals all the time!

Back to the story, at the end of the meal, and indeed for every meal for at least 3 days, we were not allowed to pay a single Omani rial. It is the Omani way and we were hard pressed to show our gratitude.

But sharing stories and meals was not the only way in which we were showered in kindness. Every day Habibi made sure to free himself from his work and either take us or direct us to somewhere new. Malls, mosques, parks, the seaside, the souq...

Looking back, it is amazing how easy it was to hit it off with him, his friends and his family.

We had heard that hospitality in the middle east is an extraordinary thing and the people that we met proved it true over and over again!

Hassan’s friends in Muscat treated us like brothers, his brothers invited us over to their house and cooked for us and if all of that wasn’t enough, his friends in Iran insisted on hosting us once they heard we are interested in visiting the country. All of this essentially without knowing us.

And the truth is that none of this is due to us being in any way extraordinary. Habibi has hosted over 4000 people throughout the years and stories of kindness to all of these strangers seem to be commonplace for him and those around him.

During our short time in Oman, we were both struck with food poisoning and B cut his foot on a rock at the beach. At our time of need we were treated as if his own children and brought food and drink to bed. Infinite in patience, our dear friend made sure to nurse us back to health, to help us plan our trip and to keep our spirits up.

Oman was an eye opener for the both of us regarding societal interactions.

In most of Europe you’d be hard pressed to see people smile on the streets. To see people helping perfect strangers for the pleasure of helping, to make new friendships outside pre-existing circles of friends.

In Oman, and indeed most other places we visited in the middle east, befriending strangers seems to be the easiest and most natural thing in the world. Somehow I think that in this they have a better take on the world than western society…

Irrespective, our time in Oman was memorable for the friendships we made and the kindness we were shown by people who started as perfect strangers and ended up as close friends.

Shukran Habibi!