My life as a DS in Muscat begins on 11 May 2011. Today, it has been slightly more than two years that I've lived in this beautiful city in one of the oil rich Arabic nations. Yet, I have never grown tired to know more and to explore further about this part of the historic world - the Sultanate of Oman. With an estimated 309,000sq km and a population of about 2.7 million people, there are many things for me to find out and learn from them ...
In fact, last week my ALC friends and I went to visit the Center for Omani Dress (COD) in Mawaleh which is run and directed by a wonderful lady who has stayed in Oman for more than 21 years named Julia Al Zadjali.
According to Julia, the Centre is registered with the Omani Ministry of Culture and Heritage under the name Museum of Omani Dress. The main purpose of the Centre is to preserve the nation's dress identity. She also has written a book The Traditional Dress of Oman which is full of illustrations and full coloured photographs of women adorned in their national dress which is very useful for not only to the locals but to us who are for the time being are residents in Muscat.
In fact, the COD was the second place for Omani dresses which I visited since my arrival to this scenic city. The first was a place called The Ladies of Sidab where I went with my Perwakilan Muscat Ladies and later with the ALC Patrons. It was in this special place also that I had my first taste of trying and wearing the Omani Woman's Dress. My group and I were warmly welcome and well treated by the Omani hospitality with a Fuala, which is a traditional welcome with Omani Coffee known as Khawa, sweet meet halwa and delicious dates.
After we had a fun time posing in some of the dresses which were available across the region namely from Muscat, Sur, Dhofar, and many more, we were invited for a sumptuous lunch including maqbous, a rice dish which has tinged yellow saffron and cooked over with chicken or lamb specially prepared by an Omani cook for us. But, I loved the rukhal bread most - a thin round bread which is baked over a fire made from palm leaves.
Alhamdulilah, all praise to Allah SWT for all his blessings and opportunity that I was able to experience wonderful and memorable moments with the hospitable Omani women that I met at both the COD and @Sidab. Not only it was nice knowing and interacting with them, but most of all for the opportunity and awareness in understanding their cultures and traditions. Amin.
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