… of how visitors are treated here, something interesting happened to me tonight. I went to a juice stand to get some chips and a strawberry juice. The clerk was distracted, with this back to me. I said, “Slaam aly koom” to him rather loudly, but he didn’t notice. Another man in the place started yelling at the clerk and really gave him hell. The literal meaning of the greeting “Salaam aly koom” is peace be upon you. The response is, “wa ally koom salaam” which is and peace upon you. It’s an automatic thing, when you say one, the other person says the other. Well, if you don’t give the appropriate response it is considered quite an insult. This other guy was quite upset that the clerk had “done” this to me and gave the clerk an earful. The kid looked pretty sheepish as he apologized to me… Anyway, people take hospitality quite seriously here…
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