The most fun we had was meeting a local family who were wading in the Arabian Sea, searching for a specific shell. Collecting the shells was not only fun-we had to dig the shells out of the sand with our toes while waist deep in the warm water-but it was providing supper for this family. The shells would be cooked over hot barbecue coals later-and although we could speak very little Arabic, the idea was to find the biggest shell.
Our Kiddo No.2 managed to find the biggest one! For a moment she was tempted to keep the shell as a memory for the day, but when she saw the look of delight on the face of one of the local boys, she graciously placed the shell in the bucket, along with the rest of the days findings. It was a proud moment, to see this.
I can honestly say that this was one of my most favorite days spent in Oman. My only regret is that we were not able to take photos of this beautiful family. It can be seen as culturally insensitive to photograph young women in this culture and we did not want anything to spoil this most beautiful of days.
