Once We Know One Another...

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Anything's Possible

Yesterday morning, a group of Oman Air flight attendants and I shared a ride from the Trivandrum hotel lobby to the conference center, where I was dropped off, and they kept going, to the airport.

"Which airline do you fly for?"

"Oman Air."

"Are all of you from Oman?"

"I'm from Morocco, but the others are."

"I've never been to Oman or Morocco or Saudi Arabia."

"Oman is the second cleanest country, after Singapore."

"It's probably gorgeous. I did live in Jerusalem for a year during college, so I have been to the Middle East, just not to your part of it yet. I loved it. I was at Hebrew University. Have you heard of it?"

They nodded yes.

"I have lots of family there, too...not in Jerusalem, but in a coastal town -- my grandparents and aunt and lots of first and second cousins."

One of the female flight attendants: "Isn't it dangerous there?"

"Yes, but when you're living there, you don't feel it in the same way as the media portrays it."

She responded, "There are two things that I always want to avoid: War and Illness."

"Like bird flu?"

"No, cancer, HIV...."

"Ah....I remember very few words in Arabic, but I know 'Salaam Aleikum, shukran' and 'knafeh' ['Peace be with you, thank you' and a luscious Palestinian pastry]."

"Then, you know the important words," said the war-and-illness-averse flight attendant, and all of them smiled at me kindly.

Later, I was telling some Indian colleagues about the quick, friendly exchange, and how I hesitated for a moment prior to telling them about my Israeli relatives.

"We have tension with Pakistanis, but there are all sorts of examples of kindness amongst Pakistanis and Indians."

"Yeah, it's so ironic. We're all Semites -- Arabs and Jews -- just like Indians and Pakistanis are essentially akin."