just be nice

Is anyone else sick of thinking of a title for their posts??

Once upon a time we were staying at Mrs A’s house in Amman for few weeks along with Mrs B and her family. Mrs A had a next door neighbour named Mrs C. Mrs C is an older lady in her 60’s, she lives alone. She is a very nice lady, well educated, speaks English and French. She is well travelled, and overall a very interesting and pleasure to talk to person. Mrs B was somewhat of a snob to Mrs C. Whenever Mrs C stopped by Mrs B would barely utter a very dry hello and go to her room or to the balcony with her argeelah, she never sat and had a conversation with Mrs C, because who the hell was Mrs C, no one important or interesting. I used to like chatting with Mrs C, but sometimes had to leave the room because my kids were being a bit exasperating and Mrs A and C wanted to get to know each other as they have both just moved into the building.

One day, on the day Mrs B and her family were leaving Amman to the gulf country they were living, Mrs C came to say her farewell to them, out of respect to Mrs A.
Mrs C said a polite Hello, Mrs B answered with the driest, rudest Hello back I have ever heard, quickly dismissing the existence of Mrs C and asking her husband about something then leaving the room.

After a few minutes of conversation it came about that Mrs C is a very good friend with a princess from the country where Mrs B and her family are living. Mrs B’s hubby calls her to the room and passes on new piece of I guess important information.

All of the sudden Mrs B lost interest in what she was doing in the other room. She grabed a seat and joined us. Now she was very interested in Mrs C and wanted to be her friend. She gave her their home phone number, her cell number, husband’s cell number, and her daughter’s cell number so she can call the very next time she is in the gulf country they live in, in the hopes that maybe, just maybe Mrs C will introduce them to her princess friend! All Mrs B saw in Mrs C was a new wasta.

Moral of the story: Arabs are weird. Never dismiss anyone as an unimportant person until you know who he or she is and whom he or she knows. Or for god’s sake just be nice and polite to everyone, regardless of who they are, what they do, whom they know and how much money and property they have. Sheesh!