CONVERSATION BEFORE I POST RESULTS OF THE MARRIAGE POLL

Y (and sometimes M): "OPNO? Honestly, WHY do you love this country?" More bad things have happened to you here than anyone I know. Who else has been molested on a baiza bus and by a corrupt ROP guy? And who else has been screwed over more by Omani laws?"

OPNO [to M last night]: "I have faith that any corrupt laws will be removed, that the people are good (as you Omanis keep saying, not all fingers are the same), and the land itself is blessed. And didn't I escape everytime? I am very well practiced at jumping out the windows of taxis." [Maybe not OPNO's happiest of smiles and does her uber-fake laugh to cover up all the things she likes to cover.].

M: "Let's trade passports."

OPNO: "Deal. I just convinced a couple to spend their honeymoon here."

M: "?"

OPNO: "You have mountains, and history, and green, desert, and sky and beaches. ....I think the Sultan will change the marriage law for the National Day."

M: "Ha! I've been here 30 years Baby. They won't. If they do, no Omani guy is going to marry an Omani girl. The mahers are too high."

OPNO: "They have no such law in UAE and alot of Emiratis are married to Emirati girls and their mahers are just as high as Omani girls'."

M: "You are a dreamer."

OPNO: "Omani girls would lower their mahers then to compete."

M: [scoffs] "No they won't, Majnoonah."

OPNO: "And... 'some say love is a mirage. But seek it anyways, for all else is surely desert.' By the way, I read a poem in Arabic. I understood the words "butterfly" and "sun"." [I grin because I am proud of myself].