Badr and Water & seeing the dam in Quaryat

Being from one of the most water-rich places in the entire world, I am quite amazed by how people react to water in a desert-country.

Story number 1: Driving to UAE to renew my passport stamps AGAIN I fall asleep while my trusted taxi driver (not all of them are scary) Badr drives us up to Al Bahrimi. Fast asleep I am shaken from sleep by an excited cry from Badr: "Water!" I expect a flood, rain, even another Gonu, but I am staring out the window, and I see nothing. I am mystified (and still half asleep) as Badr pulls over to the side of the road. Maybe it is going to start raining. Omanis don't drive in the rain as a rull. Badr gets out of the car and makes me do the same. Way on the other side of the road is a kind of a puddle, complete with algae and bugs. Badr, LOL!, takes out his cellphone and take takes a picture. Also, later, when we stop for Mahndi (a Yemeni meat dish on a plate of rice) for lunch, I am given a HALF AND HOUR video of a very sad excuse for a waterfall to watch for entertainment. Gotta love Badr and the way he loves water hehehe.

Story number 2: Driving up to the village of Qurayat an Omani friend is VERy excited because we are given special permission (through wasta) to see Oman's dam. It has, I am informed, 6kms of water. It is all very pretty you know, and while we are up there, we even had a sprinkle of rain, but lol, it was nothing compared to the two dams I grew up around, and one I saw on a drive with my parents when I was young that had 300 km of water hehehe. Omanis and water is a very special thing. It is like when you give a kid a box and they like to play in it mashaAllah. It makes me happy.