Yesterday a small miracle happened as I was setting forth for my biweekly trip into the desert, it started raining. Yes, you may argue that ‘rain’ may be a strong word to use in this case, perhaps ‘a slight show of precipitation’ would be more accurate but when one is living in the desert rain is rain. Sometimes when I’m walking along the streets of Muscat I wish for a deluge of water.
So having finally crawled my way out of the city I made my way out to Sifah beach to the Lupp construction site. Again, I feel a bit of background history is required for my next anecdote. Flesh is a rare commodity in these parts. Naked skin is akin to white gold. It’s got to the point where I almost feel naughty wearing a strappy top in my flat. Both men and women cover every inch of themselves and the longer one lives in this society the more accustomed one becomes to this particular aesthetic. Sifah is remote, other than a handful of German engineers etc there are no people living there other than the locals. One can then imagine my surprise when driving along the coastline to have a near naked person amble onto the dirt road. A near naked German person, wearing hot pants. A very unattractive near naked German person wearing hot pants and sandals. The sight was just too much for me, to see that much white wobbly flesh squeezed into the most disgusting speedo was terrifying. We are not talking Daniel Craig here,
So having finally crawled my way out of the city I made my way out to Sifah beach to the Lupp construction site. Again, I feel a bit of background history is required for my next anecdote. Flesh is a rare commodity in these parts. Naked skin is akin to white gold. It’s got to the point where I almost feel naughty wearing a strappy top in my flat. Both men and women cover every inch of themselves and the longer one lives in this society the more accustomed one becomes to this particular aesthetic. Sifah is remote, other than a handful of German engineers etc there are no people living there other than the locals. One can then imagine my surprise when driving along the coastline to have a near naked person amble onto the dirt road. A near naked German person, wearing hot pants. A very unattractive near naked German person wearing hot pants and sandals. The sight was just too much for me, to see that much white wobbly flesh squeezed into the most disgusting speedo was terrifying. We are not talking Daniel Craig here,
Think more along these lines...
Apparently the German man is a relative of one of the engineers. He continued to walk around the site in his toit pant for the rest of the day. This story really shows how everything is relative. In South Africa this would be a completely common sight, bare breasted women are a common sight, but here flesh has been made into something else, something sordid and disrespectful. I am almost angry at myself that I had the kind of reaction I had, I like to think that if I saw a German in hot pants in South Africa my reaction would have been the same, I hope so, I would hate to be turning into a prude.
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