Sonia,
Major big Good On You!  100% of what I do centers on trust, and you have hit on some Big Insights in this blogpost.

1. The best way to get someone to trust you is to trust them.  You is overt in your second question, and provides a big part of the answer to the first.  Trust is a reciprocal relationship between one who trusts, and one who is trusted.  One leads, the other follows, then the roles switch.

2. Your rephrasing away from 'if' to 'how' is also very right.  "Trust" is not some static quality; we all engage in dozens of things every day that either create trust or leave things alone (less frequently we engage in things that destroy trust).  All your 'how's' are challenges to get proactive rather than passive.

3. There is no trust without risk.  If you always avoid risk, you will never create trust.  But in your numbers 5 and 6 begin to get at this.

In my own work (I co-wrote The Trusted Advisor, wrote Trust-based Selling, founded Trusted Advisor Associates), I helped develop the Trust Equation: trustworthiness is a function of credibility, reliability, intimacy and low self-orientation.  Read more about all that (and find out your Trust Quotient) on the site trustedadvisor.com.

I applaud your courage and insight in tackling the Middle East trip with the spirit you did.  You not only learned from doing that but you have taught from writing about it.

Thanks!