Screws

In the backcountry of Oman, life is much different from Dubai. Aside from the major cities in the region, most things are slow going. Trying to understand how to live and work overseas is a difficult task, and anybody who has traveled for extended periods of times certainly knows this. Yet even after living abroad for 3 years and specifically in the same town for 6 months, life never seems to get easy. A good example of how complicated a simple errand can be was my quest to find 8 screws to replace my car speakers. Because it's very difficult to get our landlord to do anything to fix up our apartment, we've taken the initiative on everything from cleaning up leftover dust when we moved in, to building shelves and repairing toilets that leak. Not surprisingly, this gives one extra insight into Omani and broader Arab culture.

The first challenge is the timing of local stores. Almost all businesses, except for large stores, operate on a flexible time schedule of 8am -1pm, and then 4pm – sunset or 8 pm. This varies from place to place. Most towns, including mine, have a market for fresh foods, and all of the other stores are grouped according to their goods. Tailors, jewelry, hardware, homeware, and mechanics are all located next to their direct competitors. Though there is a growing number of "hypermarkets" or what Americans call big box stores (i.e. Wal-Mart or Target), most of the shopping is still done through small, locally owned stores.

It's a much more personal way of doing business that allows the customer to interact with the employees or often times the owner of a specific type of store. It fosters good community interaction and almost all people are on a first name basis, much like how I imagine small town America used to be. It also keeps prices fairly competitive for common goods, as all the stores that carry the same items are so close to each other that price comparisons are easy. Most of the time, I enjoy this surviving traditional market.

Yet some days it is absolutely excruciating to deal with, for example, when buying screws. Most of the competing stores in town are stocked with goods from the same supplier, and because the population in rural areas is very homogenous, that means that stores only carry what's popular. Despite the fact that there are no less than 5 competing hardware stores in town, all of these stores only carry wood screws. For those of you who aren't amateur carpenters, wood screws work great for wood, but crack or bend metal and plastic because they are shaped differently. Wood screws have a flat top and a triangular head, while plastic/metal screws have a rounded head and flat bottom, similar to a nut. Now don't say you never learned anything from my blog.

What does this mean and why does it matter though? A lot of things. First, it gives you a good idea of how few people are working with anything other than wood screws, which means that people aren't doing any sort of home projects, they are doing them poorly, or that they travel to Muscat to purchase screws. Also, it means that even though neighboring shops compete, that doesn't necessarily imply that there will be any more products at those stores. Most importantly, it means that I couldn't buy any screws for my speakers and have no music in my car.