Our Oman: ‘God bless His Majesty. He opened the door for us’

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Muscat: “If you close your eyes and open them, you would see something new,” said Hayat Al Barwani. “What His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has done to this country within a few years, I haven’t seen anything like it.”
Al Barwani was living with her children in a remote village in Kenya called Malindi when she heard the news on July 24, 1970.
“At that time I was in Kenya in a remote place called Malindi,” she said. “I had my children around me. It was a lovely place, but also lonely because my family was scattered here and there. The news came from my brother who was in Mombasa, which was 75km from Malindi,” said Al Barwani.
“At that time, we were having lunch, and then he came and said, ‘Wow, here you are. You are getting what you wanted. HM, God bless his soul, has opened the door for all Omanis around the world to come back to their country where their great-grandparents are, where they can be with their whole family.”
Al Barwani arrived in Muscat in 1976, and was amazed at how different Oman was compared to all the stories she had heard.
“When I arrived, it was completely different,” she recounted. “I was in a very remote place. We had electricity and everything, but definitely when I came here and [saw] the difference between what my father and grandfather were saying about Oman from a long time ago, I was wowed. I never thought that it would be as beautiful as it was.”
“Oman, being just six years old and having gone through the changes it had, was unbelievable,” she remarked. “I did not expect that. God bless His Majesty. He opened the door for us. To do what he did in those six years was unbelievable.”
“I am in my country now, where my grandfather and great grandfather were born,” said Al Barwani.
“Although I am not in Ibra [her village in Oman], I am in Muscat enjoying my life with all the facilities that His Majesty has opened to us, to everyone who ever came from East Africa, London, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain. All our families were scattered, but here we are, given everything.”
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“Before I worked for the Ministry of Information, I was with Gulf Air for a few years,” she shared.
“Then I was asked to join the ministry and I did join. I worked happily with a few Omanis and a lot of foreigners, but within no time Omanis were everywhere, in every section and every part of the ministry, there were men and women working together as a team.”
Since the Renaissance, His Majesty Sultan Qaboos has been working hard to ensure that Omanis are given the foundation to start their lives.
“Everyone was given a plot to be able to settle down peacefully and happily in this country,” said Al Barwani.
She added that at that time, they were told that whoever wanted a plot of land just had to apply for it.
Al Barwani and her siblings applied for a plot and “we were all given our share without any difficulty,” she said.
The Renaissance did not only affect the younger generations that were born outside the Sultanate but also the older ones.
“Before they died, they had the chance to live happily without any problem or difficulty,” said Al Barwani, referring to the people who migrated back to Oman at an old age.
Working at the Ministry of Information, Al Barwani witnessed first hand the development of television, radio, and news in the Sultanate.
“If you close your eyes and open them you would see something new,” said Al Barwani. “What His Majesty has done to this country within a few years, I haven’t seen anything like it.”
“May God give him a long life and keep him with us,” she added.