One of my first amazingly different cultural experiences!

So, when moving to a new place, I now understand that it's so easy to get caught up in the hard feelings of adjusting to a different way of life and dealing with the very strong homesickness. However, today, I had what I thought was an amazing experience that really helped me to realize how blessed I am to be here and to see all of this new world around me.
As I mentioned in a previous post, it is Ramadan here, which means that people fast all day long, completely depriving themselves of even having a glass of water while the sun is out. The fast ends as soon as the sun goes down, which right now is around 6:00-6:15PM. Before, at this time, I went into a barber shop hoping to get a quick clean-up of my sideburns from the barber. When I walked in, he was kind of hesitant to do the job because they were just about to eat, but then at the last minute decided to do so. I felt bad and insisted that I come back after the feast, but he further insisted that I sit down, and so I did. It took him 5 minutes to do my sideburns, and when I was done, he invited me to eat with him and his three friends, and this is where the experience came about.
In the corner of the barber shop they set up a rug on which they had all kinds of food just laying out on top of newspaper. I sat down with them on this carpet on the floor, and we sat Indian style looking at the food silently, waiting for the prayer call to go off. When it was time, we all ate together, right there on the floor. There were four of us, and it was a wonderful experience. The men were from Pakistan, and only one of them spoke English. We discussed their culture and their traditon, and I told them that it was completely different for me to be eating on the floor. In their culture, sitting on the floor makes everyone equal, as there is not even a head of the table as we have in the Western world.
What else struck me about these men was how poor they were but yet how willing they were to offer me food. For us, the concept of eating off of a newspaper would be disgusting (and it probably is bad for you), but to them, it's an efficient way to eat. By the way, no utensils, either!
I also have pictures from my trip to Oman, where I saw some incredible scenery. I wish that all of you could be here with me seeing it! I will post the pictures as soon as possible with more explanation of them as soon as possible!
Thanks and love and miss you all!
- Paul : )