Bir Ali

A few days ago we returned to crisp, cool mountainous Sana'a from a beach called Bir Ali in the south of Yemen. Like i mentioned before, at the end of Ramadan there is a big holiday (like Christmas x5 days) to celebrate the end of the holy month--called Eid. Chase and i decided to go along with Hana and Soo Rae (Chase's co-workers, our friends) to the beach...and Soo Rae's Yemeni friend Khalid came along too. We rented a car to drive the 8-12 (several estimates combined...) hours there instead of flying for one hour and driving for one hour. Honestly i thought the idea of driving through a country where you have to have travel permission from the government and where tourists are supposedly a "target" (getting pretty sick of that word), and half of the way would be through mountains (I may or may not have outgrown carsickness)...where bathrooms are holes in the ground and digestive systems might not make it 12 hours without misbehaving. Not to mention how the only cars available to rent were stick and Chase is the only one of us who could drive--meaning we had one possible driver. However, driving was much cheaper, a bigger adventure, and the decision was not mine to make really... I had my reservations, but as it turns out, the drive wasn't so bad and we made it there and back safely without complication.

The night before we left we had lots of errands to run and snacks to buy, so after dinner (still Ramadan, nothing was open BEFORE dinner) we walked to the car place and picked up our new wheels. Soo Rae and Hana decided it would be a good idea to test Chase's driving skills in the city and that it would be convenient to drive ourselves to the grocery store. I guess if you haven't visited a Middle Eastern country, driving in a city sounds like no big deal. HA. driving in the Middle East is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever seen. It's kind of like driving in America...minus the lanes, stop signs, obedience to traffic lights, using your horn only in emergencies, and ....sanity. Wherever you can fit your car is a good "lane" to be in and honking is better than any turn signal or traffic law...in fact I'm not really sure if there ARE traffic laws. The only saving grace of driving last week was that it was the very end of Ramadan and therefore a totally ridiculous amount of cars on the road so there were extra traffic police and no possibility of driving over 20 miles per hour (except measured in kilometers, but i dont know the conversion) at any point on any road. At least we were going slowly. Once we got on the road, we remembered that driving is pretty fun! We could go anywhere and stop anywhere without paying someone! We went to YALI (official YCMES business of Soo Rae), we ate at Hot and Crispy (mmm greasy fast food and 7 kinds of fries), we stopped and bought snorkels (by stopping, i mean Soo Rae and i got out in the middle of the road because we saw the sports store and we weren't moving anyway), and then we bought tons of junk food and put them right in our very own trunk and drove away!! All the while, Chase proved his ability to drive carefully and safely, and most importantly to remain calm and develop a honking reflex. Soo Rae did not and she was banned from the front seat for freaking out.

As we were shopping, we realized that none of us had packed and that we were planning to leave in like 4 hours. Woops! I freaked out a little about the idea of chase driving on few hours of sleep...finally, we went home and packed and went to sleep after deciding to leave later in the morning.



At around 8 AM the next day we shoved everything in the trunk of our Mitsubishi Lancer (barely), picked up Khalid, and headed out on the Yemeni road. In the pictures is Chase driving with his kufiyya on and Me, Hana, and Soo Rae misbehaving in the back seat. I decided to borrow a balto and cover my head for the drive through more remote areas because i thought it would minimize the tourist appearance....but it didnt last long after we left the mountains because it was tooooo hot. The car had air conditioning, but it didnt work well and was not worth wasting gas so we drove the whole way with the windows down. It wasn't long before i passed out and never REALLY woke up for the rest of the day. I'm sure the drive was very exciting, but i didn't see a lot of it. Mostly, i woke up to eat cookies (chips ahoy rainbow chips deluxe, deeeelicious) and Lays potato chips (yemeni stores are full of surprises) and go to bathroom on the side of the road once. Soo Rae convinced us that peeing on the side of the road would be infinitely cleaner than any bathroom we could find at any gas station, hospital, restaurant, or house we stopped at along the way. The picture is of me learning how to pee outside. Good thing i don't leave home in Yemen without "charmin to go". Maybe THATS why no Yemeni car is without a box of tissues. What can i say, potty talk is totally proper in Yemen. When i did wake up, it usually looked like there should be dinosaurs walking around because apparently much of southern Yemen is volcanic. There were several times where we had to stop for donkeys, camels, goats, etc crossing the road.

Also, the fun part about road trips here is that on the main roads through the country (few and far between) there are dozens of check points-- in some places every kilometer. At first, this sounded really scary to me. We are driving through a country with check points? are we in post WWII germany? or present day Iraq? Is Yemen a war zone??? Naw. I dont actually know the REAL reason for check points, but an educated assumption leads me to speculate that it is to control the flow of people through the country and prevent incidents...and of course to protect the VIP tourists. I've heard that they are really closely coordinated and when you reach one check point they call ahead to the next to let them know you're coming. This is also part of the reason that you need travel permission-- so the government can keep tabs on who is traveling and make sure they are safe. We brought 60 copies of our travel permission, and handed one to each checkpoint as we were asked for it. This probably would have taken hours, except we were lucky enough to have Khalid along to make friends with the checkpoints in true Yemeni fashion (everyone is BFFs right away) and convince them that we should keep going. Sometimes they thought he was our tour guide or translator which was probably offensive to Hana and SooRae who speak fluent Arabic, and Hana who has Yemeni citizenship (and family here, though she grew up in California) I'm still not sure why we needed permission and escorts or what could really happen but then again i don't really want to imagine--believing in your safey seems to be half the battle anyway. I liked knowing that there were people with big guns who knew where we were and were looking out for our safety. It was also nice to be able to follow someone who knew where they were and not worry about directions. Or to have someone driving and honking ahead of us going down a mountain on switchback roads like in the picture on the right.


I especially liked when the people with big guns were driving ahead of us and literally looking out in front of our vehicle for our safety. Sometimes we had a police escort...and sometimes (i guess in the more remote areas?) we had a big military vehicle complete with mounted machine gun and AK-47 carrying soldiers. I say this lightly because in Yemen (even in the capital) AK-47's and camouflaged police of some kind (there are several-- blue cammo, green cammo, brown and yellow cow/banana cammo) are commonplace. I don't really believe in guns, and i really don't like being around them, but here it's not a big deal and it's nothing unusual. I think I can be so casual about AK-47s because I really do feel like the guards that stand on every corner of the capital at some government building or embassy are on my side. They don't bother foreigners because i guess we don't look threatening. Anyway, all of our various escorts (they switched off a lot) were as nice as they could be. At one check-point on the way home Khalid asked the guy in charge of the particular checkpoint if we needed to give the escort some gat or money or anything...and the guy replied very nicely (translated to me from hana) something like "nope, what is important is just that you make it there safely" awww.

Twelve hours in the car, millions of checkpoints (or like 20), several escorts, a package of cookies, 3 bags of chips, and 2 pee stops later.... we arrived to a very dark beach. Someone forgot to warn Chase and I that we were actually going camping. I mean, we knew we weren't going to a high rise condo in Destin, but what we weren't exactly told was that there was no electricity and that we would be living totally outdoors for the next 3 days. We heard that we were sleeping in "huts" on beds made of some kind of woven mat, but we didn't know that they would be unenclosed huts that were literally made from mud, or that the only light we would have at night was a little gas lamp that the workers brought out to us after dark. (except for one night when there were enough guests that they turned on the electricity) We got out of the car, were shown to the beach...we saw a shoe box looking building and some nice loungy looking beach chars....and Chase and i wondered to eachother where exactly our "hut" was....until we were informed that it was the shoe box thing. Hmmm. Ok, we're camping. We can do this. THATS why this is $10 a night. Very tired, and in pitch black dark night after living on chips and cookies for a day, i wasn't exactly excited to be there and we couldn't see the beautiful beach for motivation. Its also really difficult to use the hole in the ground potty in the dark....

The property is owned by a nice old man named Abu Bakr, and he had the cooks make us dinner and tea. They also provided us with ice cold bottled water. The dinner was good-- rice, bread, mushekkel (mixed vegetables, kind of like soup or stew), salad of fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, cabbage with lime juice on it, and um...a freshly caught filleted fish complete with head and scales. Good thing i really like mushekkel. After dinner we discovered that the option of sleeping in the mud shelter was eliminated by ants and huge sand crabs with free reign of the beach and everything on it, so we put our foam pads on the chairs above the ground and went to sleep.

The next morning i woke up at 7 something very sweaty/ already wet from the humidity to scorching hot morning sun. I also woke up to our first view of the beautiful white sand, crystal clear turquoise water, and cloudless blue sky of the unspoiled and nearly uninhabited beach...except i thought might enjoy it later after i slept a few more hours in the shade.




top left: the first view of the beach and water. top right: the shoe box hut we didnt sleep in. bottom right: surprisingly comfortable, though slightly sandy bed! bottom left: our rented Mitsubishi Lancer
below: the hut and the little white box is the bathroom and shower it had two "stalls" with the wonderful hole in the ground toilet (why anyone would actually invent a ceramic piece with foot holds and a drain/hole to put in the ground is still beyond me...but when you gotta go and you're in yemen, you gotta use a hole sometimes) on top is the tank that holds the water and there were two outdoor showers on each side. Inside there was also a shower that was kind of over the toilet, or at least the toilet served as the drain.

When we finally got up, we washed our faces and brushed our teeth in the outdoor shower and got ready to go swimming. Of course, i forgot my swimsuit in my 10 minutes of packing...but fortunately i borrowed Soo Rae's top and swam in shorts which i was going to do anyway. The beach was secluded enough (like we were the only humans besides workers and our military friends who stayed in sight) so we could wear swimsuits.
Later when more Yemenis came, women in baltos and niqabs swam in the water with their children and husbands in ...baltos and niqabs. I dont really have a problem with the all of the totally covered Yemeni women in the streets in the city---but swimming fully clothed in the ocean??? I just cant really imagine why that is necessary. Wouldn't it be dangerous to swim with fabric covering everything but your eyes? It was probably wrong to take this picture (its not even mine) much less put it on the internet, but lets call it anthropological. I could see how it would be ridiculous for niqabi women to wear swim suits, but i just found the idea of swimming like this really strange. It is now added to my mental research on how i feel about veiling--i'll let you know when its complete.

You should all (especially my brother and mom)be very proud of me for swimming and snorkeling in the ocean. When we go to destin, I get to be very clean and lazy on the beach and in the pool, but this time actually swimming in salt water was the cleaner option. Very close to the beach was rocks and coral with a lot of fish and other sea life. These big crabs (that could eat a whole bucket of Destin sand crabs)came to shore in big groups several times a day.

The water was very warm and calm, much like swimming in a pool. We were sort of in a cove so the waves were pretty weak especially a little way away from the shore. The sand was pure white like Destin, but softer like flour instead of sugar. In addition to the sand crabs there were also hermit crabs all over the beach. Little bitty ones. No jellyfish, but poor Hana hit her foot on the wrong rock with a sea urchin on it and got five little spines stuck in her foot. It was rather painful, and when they couldn't be easily tweezed out, Khalid convinced her that the solution was to put her foot in hot oil and water to loosen them. It didn't work, but later that night a doctor at a clinic in Bir Ali (5 minutes away) came with some real tools and medicine to do surgery---in the dark, by lantern and flashlight. It was quite the sight, but i think it was successful so she lived.

We spent three nights there, and somehow we thought that eating the provided food that cost $4 a meal would be too expensive...so we brought non perishable foods like raamen and sandwich materials and twix. By sandwich materials i mean peanut butter, honey, nutella, and jam....no such thing as lunch meat here and i miss it dearly. I take that back, you CAN buy canned turkey and i've heard that there is sliced turkey....but i've never had any. Though it was really exciting when we were at the grocery store and we bought sliced bread--which i hadnt seen in like 6 weeks. It gave new validity to "the greatest thing since sliced bread" since i couldnt think of anything better at the moment. We've been told continuously that you can find anything (except pork and booze) here...if you know where to look.

Anyway, so at night when we were too hungry to wait for dinner or were making our own dinner we used a little gas burner that Khalid brought and a pot and a kettle to make raamen and instant coffee (which i am now so addicted to that i'm drinking it as i write, its this delicious packet with coffee, creamer, and sugar all in one and it tastes delish)


Another night we were served dinner (same old rice, vegetables, salad and fish) on a mat on the beach and afterward we were joined by three french men who work at the french embassy and live close to us in Sana'a-- Soo Rae actually kind of knew one of them. Then we were joined by more Yemenis and we had a nice conversation (in English) while we smoked shisha (a hookah). Leave it to Hana and her shisha to start a party :) Then, after much effort and at our request, the Yemenis started a fire on the beach. By then my face was too sunburnt to enjoy it, though.

One day we were taken on a small fishing boat with a motor to an island that isn't good for anything but awesome snorkeling or getting pooped on by a lot of birds (as Soo Rae did). It is totally uninhabited so the coral surrounding it was pretty undisturbed. When the boat dropped us off in the middle of the dark water a little bit away from the island i was a little bit scared. I happen to be sort of afraid of sea life, and i prefer that the water I'm swimming in not be inhabited by fish. However, i sucked it up because it was either jump in the water with my friends or stay in the boat with some Yemenis who would try to talk to me in Arabic (that game is getting old, time for Arabic classes!!) Anyway, i wanted to snorkel...the water was nice and warm and i cant remember if I've ever seen so much coral and fish. The most exciting part was when i saw my childhood favorite fish (what? i had a lot of aquariums)some enormous moorish idols. When we had enough snorkeling because our cheap Yemen-purchased masks broke, we made our way to the shore where the Yemeni's that brought us were chewing gat (surprise!) and smoking Hana's shisha. While Chase and Khalid climbed to the top of the sort of mountain/hill on the Island, the girls stayed behind in the shallow warm water...dodging two little sting rays.

The other exciting event of Bir Ali was our trip to see this volcano with a lake in its crater? It was about as bizarre as it sounds. We were planning to do this the morning that we were supposed to leave to drive back to Sana'a, so we got up early instead of going back to sleep when the blazing sun woke us up. However, when we tried to leave we had to wake up our military escort friends with the machine gun and wait for them to transform themselves from skirt and tshirt wearing Yemeni men into camouflaged soldiers. They told us (so i hear, usually i am lost in these Arabic conversations) that they would take us to the volcano (5 minutes down the road) AFTER they had their breakfast...which was not being cooked yet. Of course something that we learned quickly about getting places in Yemen is that it is likely to take about 3 hours longer than you're told or expected. We didnt have 3 hours to waste since we were trying to start the 12 hour drive back to Sana'a, so Soo Rae and her stubbornness marched right up to the military guys and convinced them that it wouldnt take more than an hour and they would certainly get their breakfast when we come back. It was probably difficult because it was like the second or third day of eid and their arguement was that they didn't want to "fast" anymore because Ramadan is over. Soo Rae won (she usually does) and they led us to the volcano.

We thought we were in for a hike up the mountain, but when we arrived we were told to park the Lancer and get into the back of the truck, ya know, under the machine gun, so the truck could drive us to the top. al-Hamdulillah no hiking! This event was still a little bit awkward because since we were at the beach i just decided to put on a little t-shirt and roll up my jeans for the hike, but instead i ended up in a truck full of Yemenis feeling rather scantily dressed. oops! Once we got to the top we saw a big green lake. Its strange in the pictures because it just looks like a normal lake because you cant really see how strange it feels to be on top of a mountain looking down at a lake? The picture above on the left was taken by Soo Rae who climbed all the way to the top, but I couldn't fit the whole thing in one picture, even with the wide angle lens feature. I have no information on how or why this happened, so i guess it will just remain mysterious. The picture to the right is the guards and Soo Rae, Chase, and I-- which guards insisted we take.

Everyone we know in Yemen has a picture with an AK-47. The guards thought it would be funny if we took pictures with the machine gun that, as far as we know, is fully loaded and ready to use. I didn't touch it.

When we made it back down the mountain and back to camp, we packed the car with clothes and probably some sand, showered (over the hole in the ground toilet, but it was the cleanest i had felt in days, funny how that works),and made scrambled eggs for breakfast. Then it was back in the car for another 12 hours to get home. I left Bir Ali very proud of myself for getting dirty, sleeping outside, and swimming in the ocean. After i showered over the potty, Soo Rae told me that i grew a lot on this trip. Haha, its probably true.

And finally, here are some pictures that didnt fit in to my story.

Beautiful Beach Chase and Khalid chewing gat on the beach

Our little camp

Chase and I in the sunset

trying to take a picture of how burnt my face was, but i guess you cant tell


sunset over the water and the mountains


The End.


next: 3 week old kittens (theres one of my keyboard right now :) ), the Movenpick, a trip to the giant new mosque, and a Yemeni wedding.

only in Yemen. OR you know you live in Yemen when...

I know its been too long since i wrote anything really interesting about my daily life here, and I'm sorry if I kept you waiting! I think my excuse would be that i was sick. For a few days i thought i had some allergies or something? but then it got worse and worse and i ended up with a pretty terrible sinus infection or cold or flu? The stupidest part was that among mass of medicine that i brought here, i forgot all of the sinus stuff?

Anyway, it made for an interesting 'life in Yemen' experience because I've always wanted to go into one of the many many pharmacies everywhere...seriously there are at least 3 per street, its ridiculous. Rumor has it, that you can get whatever medicine you want without a prescription. That's probably dangerous, but also convenient if you need some antibiotics. Lucky for me, one of my students is a Doctor., so i told her that i had some gross sinus/cough/head congestion and she asked me about my mucus and said i should get antibiotics. She wrote down azithromycin (in english) on a paper, and i took it to the pharmacy and got some for like $5.

Before i took all of the antibiotics, things got worse and i couldn't go to work...Conveniently another girl that lives at the school teaches at YALI and took the term off, so she was happy to sub for me for two days. Several of the girls in my class asked for my phone number, and text me and call me...so i got some nice concerned texts and calls from them for a few days. I decided i needed additional medicine, so we ventured back to the pharmacy with the ingredients of a decongestant that i always get at home when i frequently have this problem. It was fun to watch them pull all of the random things off of the shelves that contained pseudophedrine and guafenisen and suggest what i should take. Now would be a good time to mention that these pharmacies aren't exactly run by chemists in white coats... more like the same Yemeni shop keeper that runs the appliance store down the street. Well not the same, but same kind of guy. I guess they must know SOMETHING, but i wasn't really convinced of their credentials. His first suggestion was cough medicine with pseudophedrine and codeine in it. He tried to tell me that i wouldn't fall asleep if i took "just a little" during the day, but i didn't believe him. I think i did pretty well, because i left with day time sinus/cough medicine with my favorite ingredients, some codeine cough medicine for night (and to make my mother proud) and some delightful nasal spray.....all for about $7. The codeine stuff itself was about $1.50. Hahaha. Only in yemen.

Then yesterday, on the day of my triumphant return...i had a good five minutes where i couldn't talk in class because i couldn't stop coughing!! I think this really convinced them that i was sick, and i got a lot of suggestions for hot tea, hot food, honey, and some kind of spice that i haven't found yet? Honey is kind of the magical cure-all in Yemen...you should eat it if you have a cold or cough or if you have a stomachache. If you have a burn or skin problem you should put it on your skin. One of my students told me that this is from the Quran? I'm not sure. After my coughing fit, two of my students brought me some magical honey today! They're all really very nice.

To add to my home remedy experiences, yesterday Chase and i thought it would be a fun idea to try making ginger tea...so we bought some ginger, cut it up as small as we could with a knife and put it in boiling water to let it "steep". Then we strained it and added sugar. It tasted like gingerbread cookies. Again, only in Yemen!

So anyway, besides my medical adventure i have mostly been kept busy by my job. This teaching stuff is a little bit scary, but also fun during class. My class has been very kind to me and my sometimes lack of knowledge about what we should be doing-- YALI has a lot of rules. Once i figure everything out, i think the procedures will make it easier. A lot of the time i kind of feel like i don't know what I'm doing...especially when one of my students points out... "how are we going to finish all of this??" Yeah. i know. I'm hoping that this term is just strange because of Ramadan and the different hours and short number of weeks. Maybe next term (if i have a job, inshallah) things will seem less crammed. I would say for the most part i am enjoying it, and i enjoy my students and co-workers. I would like to feel more like i know what is going on, but i guess that's part of this whole being thrown into teaching for the first time thing. It would really be nice not to have so much to do outside of class....i thought i was done with homework!? I'm the TEACHER! man.

The last day of this term is on the 28th, and then the big week long holiday/finale of Ramadan begins on October 1st. Chase, two girls that he works with/we're friends with, and i are going to the beach for the break! It looks really beautiful, so we are looking forward to our vacation. I'm sure it will not be un-interesting....because we are renting a car and driving there? This wasn't my idea, but hopefully it will be a fun road trip and we will see some of Yemen on our way.

That might be close to all I've done recently... but i will leave you with a little compilation/ongoing list of things that remind us we're in Yemen everyday. (All of these are meant to be humorous in their ridiculousness, so don't be concerned.)

You know you're in Yemen when...

…You feel (and probably look) slutty because your collarbones, wrists, and hair are exposed.

…dusty fruit looks edible (after just two weeks)

…you feel hesitant to spend one dollar on something, and you get mad when a bottle of coke costs over 50 cents

…bathroom issues are always an acceptable topic of conversation (ESPECIALLY at the dinner table)

…hearing “Alllaaaaahu akbar” (the call to prayer) makes you hungry (because it’s Ramadan and no one feeds you until the call to prayer at sundown)

…when every step of a walk through the street smells different from the last, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse…

…you’re the only one that gasps when a car moves to the wrong side of the road in the middle of the city to pass the car in front of it…..in the middle of the day with other cars coming.

...when dodging cars and motorcycles in the street seems more appealing than trying to walk on the obstacle course of a sidewalk

…when people drive with their brights on…during the day…and flicker them to excuse their terrible driving (or warn others about it?)

…you drive by a butcher shop and there is meat hanging from the front of the store…complete with a head

...you begin to feel that it might be somehow convenient that the same crap is sold from absolutely every store...especially the ones next door to eachother

…everyone thinks that you are friends (sadiq! HELLOO sadiq!!)

…things are served in notebook paper, newspaper, magazines or on a table covered in a plastic shopping bag

…the guy next to you at your shopping bag covered table offers for you to join his meal while you wait for yours. La shokrun!! (no, thank you)

...your dubab (mini-bus)only ALMOST runs into 4 or 5 things, and nobody blinks

...you don’t even need to get out of the taxi to buy tissues, water, a scary mask, a noise maker, a whisk, bowls, cups, cassette tapes (yep), nail clippers, or balloons because at some point of the ride one of these will probably show up for sale at your window!

the latest

Even though the big news is over, there are some updates on whats going on here. This is the email that the school where Chase works and we live sent to students:

Yemeni authorities have arrested 19 people suspected of being connected to yesterdays attack at the U.S. embassy. The attack killed 16 people, including six attackers. There is no concrete evidence that the attack was the work of Al-Qaeda, and a group calling itself Islamic Jihad in Yemen (not related to the Palestinian group) has claimed responsibility for the attack, which they claimed was a result of their demands for the release of prisoners being unmet.

While the YCMES encourages extra caution and vigilance to be exercised, it does not believe that the welfare and the safety of the students has been compromised as a result of this attack. The administration of the YCMES is in contact with the U.S. embassy and various ministries in Yemen and is doing all it can to ensure the security and safety of students. For the time being, you may continue your daily routine, though we discourage visits to western, Saudi, and Emirati establishments and any visits to the embassy should be official in nature and visitors should use the utmost discretion.


I guess since that was written, BBC has published an article saying that even more people have been arrested.

Here is the less sensationalized article with better details from the local English newspaper :


Smoke rises from the U.S embassy in Sana'a

SANA’A, Sept. 17 — At least sixteen people have been killed, after two cars carrying a suicide bomber and armed fighters attacked the US Embassy in Sana’a, this Wednesday at 09:15 am. The attack killed four civilians including an Indian, six security guards and six of the attackers.

A source in the security forces of the embassy has confirmed this, adding that three other security guards were injured.

The US embassy said none of its staff had been hurt.

Eyewitnesses stated that the two cars were seen passing by the embassy. The first one, which was carrying individuals dressed in military uniform, opened gunfire at security while the second car, carrying the bomb, tried to enter the embassy but blasted in front of the main gate leaving part of the building on fire.

An eyewitness also said a big explosion was heard followed by heavy gunfire after which a fire brigade and ambulance raced to the embassy. “After that, we heard three other big explosions and then the military police came and cordoned the area,” the eyewitness added.

A fierce battle erupted between the terrorists and security forces and lasted for about 15-20 minutes.

The spokesman for the US embassy confirmed to Reuters that the blasts were caused by car bombs and that there were reports of casualties. "This morning a car exploded at the main gate of the embassy in Sana’a. There was an initial explosion and several secondary explosions," a US embassy spokesman told Reuters via telephone.

Residents in the neighboring area said that the Yemeni police started searching the neighboring houses for terrorists and weapons, and hundreds of heavily armed troops have now surrounded the embassy building, which is strafed with bullet holes.

A group calling itself ‘Islamic Jihad in Yemen’ claimed responsibility for the bombing and threatened attacks on other embassies including those of Britain, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

The group had threatened in a previous statement, released on Tuesday, to launch a series of attacks unless the Yemeni government met its demands for the release of several members from jail.

"We, the organization of ‘Islamic Jihad in Yemen’ declare our responsibility for the suicide attack on the American embassy in Sana’a," according to a statement released on their website.

"We will carry out the rest of the series of attacks on the other embassies that were declared previously, until our demands are met by the Yemeni government." it added.


Yesterday was a little bit surreal, and the mood in Sana'a was strange and subdued. There was extra security everywhere and it seemed like everyone was a little bit on edge. Things feel like they have calmed down today, and everything has returned to normal. In my class today, one of my students that is an emergency room doctor said that she couldn't make it to class yesterday because she was busy at the hospital with the victims of the explosion. :(

Alive, safe, concerned.

Hi everyone,
I've received a lot of concerned messages about what happened today, but you should know that i'm fine, even if I'm not well..... because i think i have a sinus infection.

I actually heard the explosion from my bathroom, but i thought maybe it was a door slamming....or an explosion. Yemen is fulllll of funny noises, so i don't think a lot of people really noticed right away, though I'm sure everyone in Sana'a could hear it because the city is a little bowl surrounded by lovely mountains. Actually my first thought was that the ridiculously large and western hotel that i can see clearly from my window (though it is like 30 min away) was bombed, because it looks like a big bulls eye. Then i looked just to the left of it and saw a cloud of black smoke. I thought that was odd, but again....you just never know in Yemen. Someone could have been burning a lot of trash.

I forgot about it until Chase called me from work before i had left for work and said that the news was on al-Jazeera that there was an explosion close to the Embassy. Uh oh.

You should know that I live and work pretty far from where this happened. I could only see smoke because i live on the fifth (yes, i think we've decided fifth) floor of a building with windows facing the right direction.

My internet sucks so i couldn't even see the headline before i had to leave for work. On my way to school nothing seemed out of the ordinary....When i got to the school where i work a guy pulled a car up in front of my taxi and an official looking guy got out with a cell phone and talked to our guards. The school has a lot of security because its sort of an American institution, or at least everyone knows it as "that American school". The building is not marked and the road in front of it is blocked. Next to the school is a truck with a mounted gun and several military looking guards. To get into the school students absolutely must have an ID, their bags are checked, they walk through a metal detector, and sometimes they're patted down. Cell phones, cameras, and Jambiyyas (ceremonial swords, hehe) are not allowed beyond security. There has never been a threat against the school, but precautions are taken to prevent anything crazy. Anyway, all of the students are very excited about English and loooove that I'm an American (22 yr old, blonde) teacher. We talked about the attack in both of the classes i taught today and all of my students made an effort to explain that the people who would do something like this are A. NOT following Islam--- "this is haram teacher, forbidden in Islam" and B. that they were crazy, and it made them upset that a few crazy people make an entire religion and country look bad. I could not agree with them more.

In my short month in Yemen, i have felt nothing but safe and welcome. The Yemenis that i have met and talked with have been kind and honest. The whole society seems very "down to earth" because they don't really have a lot to be ...not down to earth about. There have been several times when i thought about how interesting it is that people who have nothing (at least by my standards) are much more giving and open.

I'm completely baffled by the idea that a religion and a society that doesnt really even have a word for hello, but greets strangers and close friends alike with "peace be upon you" and leaves with something like "i leave you with peace" could be used to do something so horrible.. The correct response to "how are you" in Arabic is "thanks be to god! how are you??". Cab drivers try their best to talk to me and ask me about myself and America and teach me numbers..... Then again, murder, robbery, rape etc. are commonplace in "peaceful" American society...if not more often than here.

Yeah, i was definitely a little shaken by the reality of my embassy being bombed in the city where i live, but mostly I'm upset at the conflict i felt between feeling so safe and welcome in a place where groups like this exist...and act. The saddest part for me was the feeling of mistrust that i had when i was out in the city today. For the first time, i saw Sana'a through the media/my American eyes. Things like this only back up intolerance and damage trust. That's not what I want from this experience.

But neither is getting hurt or killed, and I promise everyone that i do take precautions to make sure that I'm as safe as possible. The places that i live and work consider my safety at all times.

Please don't think that I'm taking this lightly, it is certainly a scary event. I've been to the embassy. I've met marines that live there...several of which are friends with people that we are friends with. I've probably spoken with (ok maybe not WITH) some of the guards that were killed. Its definitely close to home, but you just cant live in fear or the crazies win. Also, please don't let this incident decide your opinion of Yemen as terrifyingly dangerous "ancestral homeland of Osama bin Laden" (only half true). The groups that do horrible things like this are certainly the (though i acknowledge very dangerous..) exception to an otherwise kind, interesting, welcoming society as i have experienced it.



In other news!.....four little kittens were born in the mafraj (living room) the day before yesterday. They're really precious and sweet and I love them a lot! Mumkin i will steal one and keep it in my giant rooom :) You probably would not find their names humorous right now, but perhaps i can discuss them in the future.

dont drink the water

Of course in a country like Yemen the local water is absolutely disastrous to a tender American....gastrointestinal system. Everyone here calls the delightful sickness that people get from the water "amoebas". I'm not sure if that is because there are actual amoebas IN the water, or because its funny....or scary! Anyway, i've avoided the tap water as much as possible because there is no way that i want MORE and potentially permanent stomach problems. Supposedly Yemenis don't even drink the tap water...Right, because all of the other ways that they eat and drink don't spread germs (with your hands, out of the same dish as everyone else, with a communal water cup)

A big part of the reason that water here is so un-drinkable is that..well, there is no water system in Sana'a! My favorite fun fact is that all of the running water that comes out of sinks and showers and toilets and wherever else in the city comes from water trucks that pump water into a metal tank on top of, next to, or below a building. I think this is really amusing and creative so i took a picture of the water truck from our window! You can see the hose that comes in through the gate behind the truck and all the way through the courtyard to the tank in the back.



















I've heard that the tank here at the dorms is enormous and buried underground or behind the building. I've also heard that most water tanks don't get cleaned out ever, but the one here is drained and cleaned 4 times a year. Before we got here i heard that the water is really terrible, but actually it doesn't smell and i don't think it would taste bad. Its crystal clear, and besides coming from and being stored in strange places, seems pretty drinkable! There is no way I'm going to find out how it really tastes, or what it would do to me if i drank it.

The reason that the water comes into the city on trucks is that there isn't really any water in Sana'a. There is a rainy season where streets flood (because of engineering failure and lack of urban planning), but i think that just contaminates the water...and everything else. The other day i found this really silly video in a BBC article about Yemen's public campaign to conserve water. I think i heard it will run out in like 10-15 years. Yikes!! I better take shorter showers. Click here to read the article and watch the awesome public service announcement song!

Further Observations...

I just returned from my first day as an English teacher at YALI. Class went fine (its over, anyway) and I think teaching English will be quite the experience. I have a job for sure for the next three and a half weeks during the Ramadan term. I will teach one class for 2 1/2 hours every day for 6 days a week. If i do well this term, Inshalllah, i will have a job next term, and for many following.

It's nice that all of my students have chosen to take the classes because they WANT to learn. They all seem really nice and very eager, and they aren't there because someone is making them finish their education or take a class for credit. Some are sponsored by their companies...1 of my students works for the government, 1 works at a police station i think? and one is an ER doctor! She busted out the word neonatal on the first day. I have 17 students on my roster, and i'm teaching an intermediate level. I was surprised today when the class was about half girls and half guys!

Teaching English, or any language i guess, includes teaching culture. I would rather not be the agent of American culture (I ran away!! I live in YEMEN!!), but the books we use are clearly American, and the school is still affiliated with the American Embassy. For example, on my first day of teaching in YEMEN, the unit was on what people look like! Half of my class (the women) wear the full balto, hijab, and niqab!! That means that they wear a long black robe (over other clothes) and cover their head and everything but their eyes!! I thought it might be awkward to talk to them about how they look, but i guess they still acknowledge that they have hair, and the girls described themselves to each other and to me so i guess it was ok. To make things more interesting, the listening exercise from the tape that comes with the book was about a guy named Randy who was talking to Emily (his sister?? friend? classmate? other wife? haha) about his new girlfriend Ashley. I wondered if this would be awkward since there is no such thing as dating in Yemen, in fact I'm pretty sure it is forbidden, but definitely uncommon and maybe top secret. Also, the conversation was about how "gorgeous" Ashley is and how she wouldn't tell Randy her age. I had a good time explaining to one group of guys about how American women don't like to tell their age after... 30?

I was also surprised when i handed out some magazine pictures for them to describe and no one immediately recognized George Clooney, Brad Pitt, or Natalie Portman! By surprised i don't mean disappointed. I'm glad that my Yemeni students had better things to do than keep up with their American Celebrity gossip, but i thought maybe those faces would be recognizable since there entire stores of (totally legal) pirated DVDs everywhere. The one guy who knew Brad Pitt knew that he was with Angelina Jolie. Ew.

The most awkward moment of the day was, at the very beginning of class, when i thought it would be a fun idea to play "two truths and a lie" as a get to know you game. It's where you say three things about yourself-- 2 of which are true and one that is not. Well, it sounded like a fun game until we were about to start and one girl raised her hand and said that she wasn't allowed to lie because it is Ramadan. Aw crap. I knew i should have had a back up game!!! One girl disagreed because it was just a game and it didn't matter, but i didn't want to make anyone ruin their fast. So we just told about ourselves instead. It was way more boring. Maybe i will think of a different game later. The unit on how to order food is going to be REALLY fun during Ramadan. sigh.

Speaking of Ramadan. Chase and i don't think we like it. I guess fasting isn't really supposed to be fun, but we had just gotten used to eating at ALL in Yemen, and now food is hard to find and really rude to eat during the day. And when we ARE offered food during the day (yesterday we were walking around and a restaurant/hotel told us it was ok to eat) we refuse because we are trying to respect those who are fasting. It was especially miserable yesterday when we were in the Old City (taking pictures like tourists) and realized that it maaay have been a bad idea to walk around with long pants and sleeves in a desertous mountain region in the hottest sun of the day when drinking water is forbidden in public (and private, but who would know? besides God.) It was only like 82 degrees! It got worse when we bought some delicious cold water and had to carry it around until we got home. THEN we finally got home and we only had junk food to eat!! The nutritious selection of food that we have in our room includes: German cookies, Turkish cookies, American cookies, Gummi Bears, Lays salt and vinegar Potato chips, peanut butter, nutella, honey nut cheerios, and frosted flakes. Really, Ramadan is making us eat junk food. I thought maybe i would try to fast, but its really really hard. Oh well, I have much more respect for the people that are fasting.

Besides making us hungry, Ramadan is really strange in other ways too. Things start late in the morning, and when we get up at 8:30 there is nobody in the streets. No honking, no motors, no sounds from our window--which is really strange in Sana'a where it is normally very loud (ESPECIALLY the cars). Things open up around 10 or 11, and stay open until 6. Around 5 or 6, the whole atmosphere of the city changes. The Minarets start their Quranic recitations (very nice singing to listen to) for about an hour and people are off of work buying food for Iftar (dinner that breaks the fast after sun down) and heading to their Mosque for prayer. When the call to prayer sounds just before sundown everyone deserts the streets and heads to prayer. Literally everyone everywhere disappears. Cabs park on the street and the driver leaves. The doors that line the streets are closed and locked. One time we saw a camel tied up all by itself to a wall with its big saddle still on. Chase and i have, probably every night, made the mistake of leaving for dinner when the call to prayer starts...and then we end up trying to find a taxi in a ghost town while there is literally no one around anywhere. Its really surreal. After prayer, everyone slowly reappears and starts rushing to wherever they are eating. Eating!! yay its dinner time! The tone of the city turns from tired to hurried to totally deserted to very spirited in about a 2 hour span. People pass us and wish us Ramadan Karim! (kind of like wishing someone a Merry Christmas) and sometimes ask, like last night, "How is Ramadan? Good!?" No. we want to say bad, because we are still hungry because the taxis just started driving again and we still have to figure out where to eat.

After dinner, things are open very late... like 2 or 3 am. It is interesting how culture and traditions adapt. No one can eat during the day, so not a lot happens during the day. At night everyone has been fed, feels happy, and has a party because work starts late tomorrow... Little kids are usually running around at night, but during Ramadan they stay up even later AND.. they have small fireworks. This is bad because they throw them at doors and windows and people. Oh Ramadan.

We also realized that we don't know where to eat? I'm currently really enjoying the amount of 50 cent felafel i've been eating, but i'm not sure how long that will last. We have tried a couple of restaurants, but we cant eat out forever (or can we? it costs under $$5-8!!). Last night we made "burgers" from frozen patties on a pan on the stove with 2 other Americans and a British girl who are students. They invited us to their "American" dinner with Burgers and chicken and mashed potatoes, so we thought it sounded like a good idea. Cooking anything here is still complicated and confusing to us between the ingredients, the gas stove and oven (SCARY!) and the odd array of supplies provided by the half clean shared kitchen. For example, we used frozen beef patties from the grocery store, but we had to cook them in a pan, which needed oil so they wouldnt stick. We had some French's mustard and some Heinz ketchup and Kraft cheese slices...but no buns. So we used pita bread?? By the time we got potatoes after the shop re-opened, the burgers were cooked and the potatoes had boiling to do. We can buy frozen pizza, but we cant work the oven? Yep, eating out sounds better.

The nicest thing about Ramadan is that it is kind of weird to everyone. People are used to the fasting part, but they are still hungry! The month of Ramadan is from the Lunar Islamic calendar, so it changes every year. Sometimes it is in the winter, sometimes the summer. In Islam this is seen as a gift, because it changes the burden of fasting every year to a different season. Before it started, no one that i could ask knew for sure when it is. And even when i asked what day Eid al-Fitr was (the big feast holiday at the end), still its not for sure...maybe depending on the moon? I still dont know. I thought it was 27 days, but then it started on the first and YALIs term ends on the 28th, so its probably October 1st.

Still, after being here for 2 1/2 weeks, we have started to feel like we live here. Our room feels less and less like a hotel, and more like a home. I took down a mattress and made a couch and a drying rack for the laundry.
We bought some $8 speakers for movies and music on our computer.. which, after a second try, work nicely. We brought the first ones back because they were horrible, but i guess thats what you get for $6. The $8 ones are much better. We have been out with friends, and stayed in to watch movies or TV alone or with them. Currently there is a Heroes marathon going on.

The streets are becoming familiar after many taxi rides and a lot of walking around trying to figure out where we are or where a restaurant is. It doesn't help that every time i go to or from YALI (or anywhere else), the driver takes a different combination of little side streets. I do, however, recognize some of the main streets and the places on them. I knew where i was for like half of my ride today, and that is progress. I usually find my cab rides very entertaining, and i'm glad that i have the 15-20 minutes to see the city. The other day i saw goats being herded down the street? Today we were at a stop light (or maybe just in a traffic jam) next to a bright orange Porshe SUV. Chase gets to walk 3 minutes to work, but I'm going to know my way around better :). My cab Arabic is getting better. I can negotiate a price, (usually 1.50 each way) and tell my two favorite destinations (sitawa'ashreen september karib men midan tahrir= 26th of september street near Tahrir Square is where i live) and i can also give the location of YALI and i even direct the driver sometimes when we get close. (right, keep going, here, yes, no)

Last week i yelled at my driver because he took me the stupidest way and charged me three times what i should have to pay!!! Some of the newer taxis have fare meters, although most don't. I got excited about the new metered ones, UNTIL this day when my driver got on a "highway" for a few minutes, then did a u-turn, then got on another one, then did another u-turn. Then he exited and was in some neighborhood that i didnt recognize and he tried to stop somewhere? When the meter made it to 300 (what i usually pay for the whole ride) before we made it very far from YALI, i figured he was lost, taking a different way (wouldnt be unusual..) or that he was screwing with the white girl who didnt know her way around. I thought maybe i was interpreting the situation based on my pre-conceived idea about how it would be a good idea for the drivers to take the long way in the metered cars and make more money...so i tried to give him the benefit of the doubt. After all, i dont really know my way around here. (Soo tortilla curtain, huh Levy?) So far all of the drivers i have encountered have been very kind and very honest about the price. I was also a little bit worried because he was in control of the car and i didnt know where i was? So when he pulled over, i said LA TAHRIR!!!!! (meaning, this is not my stop!!!!!!!!!) and also pointed to the meter with a confused/very angry white lady face and said THALATHA'MIA!?!? which means 300 when the meter said over 600..trying to tell him that i knew what was up. Turns out i have ridden a taxi before. So as he stopped and said something that i didnt understand, i decided it was time to take a new cab. I got out and slammed the door. It would have been a good idea to walk the OTHER way, but he caught up with me after about 10 steps and was like ... Umm YOU HAVENT PAID!!!!! I pointed to the meter again, and told him that i was still NOT in Tahrir Square. But then i got back in. Magically, after i proved that i was not to be messed with (i like to think) he took me straight to the square. He still didnt take me directly home, so i got out angrily when i knew where to walk and tried to pay him 500 instead. He didnt like that, and at that point i was sick of the whole ordeal, and also a little shaken by the idea of being lost in Sana'a...so i just threw 1000 at him, got my change and slammed the door withOUT a Masalama. On my walk home, people stayed away from me because i had my very angry white lady face on.
Sounds pretty dramatic, but i made it home, and it only cost....$4.

The more all of these strange things become familiar, the more comfortable i am getting here. Some of my very favorite things about Yemen are how friendly people seem to be. Cab drivers always have nice conversations with chase, and people offer us things all the time, we dont really get a lot of crap for not fitting in and even the occasional HELLO MY FRIEND! WHERE ARE YOU FROM!? seems to be innocent hello or fun.(it miiight get old). The one thing i'm really missing out on by moving to Yemen, is the kitten i've been meaning to get for....well, years. But dont worry, this place is full of kittens! And while i cant touch them (Mom, i swear, i dont!!!) and they are a little dirty (but so is Sana'a), i still talk to them and i still feed them :) There are some catas (arabic) that live at the school. Not really because anyone wants them to, but more like because no one has stopped them. There is one that is very friendly and probably pregnant. A girl told me that she was just a kitten last year. She followed me up the stairs to my room one day, and last night i coaxed her down the stairs and fed her the food i bought. There is also a very small kitten that has been sleeping on the couches at the entrance to the building-- though it is currently a controversy. Another girl and Chase and I think it is precious and i fed it some good Whiskas the other night, but everyone is saying now that they got rid of it :( If that is true, i'm very sad. Maybe i will print this picture and put up Missing Kitten posters:


There are two other kitties that are always around, one of which is named Adolf because he has.... a little mustache.




I know that animals (like cats, and especially dogs) aren't really enjoyed or wanted around here, but they are pretty well fed at my building....and I enjoy seeing them everyday!

That is about it for my life the past week i think! Thanks for the comments!

Ramadan Karim wa Masalama!

Pictures!

I finally got a call from YALI that i have the teaching job. I start tomorrow, so i am busy preparing for my first day of class! I have lots of comments about how strange Ramadan is as well as updated thoughts about how strange Yemen is. For now, i'm just going to leave you with Chase's beautiful slide show:
(if you double click it takes you to the website, otherwise it doesn't show the whole pictures)



Sana’a



Also, you can read his half of the Yemen opinion at chaseinyemen.blogspot.com
though he has been working since day 2 so he hasnt had a lot of time to work on it!

Thanks for everyone's comments and thoughts! More Tomorrow...

Ramadan Mubarak!

So today marks the beginning of the month of Ramadan. I have learned several times (at least 4) about Ramadan in classes about Islam, but as I have been finding my way through an Islamic society, I realized that I have much to learn from seeing its practice in action. Like I expected, it turns out that there is a difference in learning something from a book in America and knowing few people that actually practice the religion, and living in a world where cultural norms and daily life are shaped by Islam. It only started this morning, so I still have a lot of observation to do. Still, I wanted to write about it now because a. I don’t really have much to write about for the past 2 days and I’m supposed to hear about my job today, so all of this free time might be ending (inshallah) …and b. if I’m going to bother to write a blog I want it to at least provide some sort of insight into the culture that I’m living in, especially since most Americans have no idea where or what Yemen is…(don’t tell, but I had to look it up myself) or might have little information or mis-information about Islam (from the media)

As a refresher from all of that book learning I just did for 20 years, I looked up some information in a book that I brought with me called “What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam”. It explains things very simply, and I own it because of Dr. Ates and the Islam and Politics class I took last year. It says:

“…the Fast of Ramadan occurs once each year during the month of Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic Calendar (lunar) and the month in which the first revelation of the Quran came to Muhammad. During this month-long fast, Muslims whose health permits must abstain from dawn to sunset from food, drink, and sexual activity. Fasting is a practice common to many religions, sometimes undertaken as penance, sometimes to free us from undue focus on physical needs and appetities. In Islam the discipline of the Ramadan fast is intended to stimulate reflection on human frailty and dependence upon God, focus on spiritual goals and values, and identification with and response to the less fortunate.

At dusk the fast is broken with a light meal popularly referred to as breakfast. (this meal is called iftar in Arabic) Families and friends share a special late evening meal together, often including special foods and sweets served only at this time of the year. Many go to the mosque for the evening prayer, followed by special prayers recited only during Ramadan. Some will recite the entire Quran (one-thirtieth each night of the month) as a special act of piety, and public recitations of the Quran can be heard throughout the evening. Families rise before sunrise to take their first meal of the day, which must sustain them until sunset.

Near the end of Ramadan (the 27th day) Muslims commemorate the “Night of Power” when Muhammad first received God’s revelation. The month of Ramadan ends with one of the two major Islamic celebrations, the Feast of the Breaking of the Fast, called Eid al-Fitr, which resembles Christmas in its spirit of joyfulness, special celebrations, and gift giving.”

Personally, I didn’t get up and eat at 4 am for the call to prayer this morning (nor did I even hear it, thanks to my ear plugs), but it would be really rude for me to eat, drink anything, or even chew gum in the streets during daylight this month, so I will have to be sneaky or eat quietly in my room out of respect for those who are observing. This past week has actually set me up quite nicely for Ramadan since with my weird eating schedule I haven’t really been eating lunch anyway. The sun sets around 6 or 7, so I have been eating dinner after sunset anyway. Since pretty much everybody in the country is fasting right now, work and school hours are a little bit different. Chase didn’t have to go to work until 10 this morning (or for the rest of the month), and I’ve heard that things will be open very late at night because iftar (the meal that breaks the fast) is a big celebration at the end of the day and the city sort of turns nocturnal. I’ve also heard from some of the Americans I know here that the end of Ramadan, before the Eid (festival) gets pretty miserable because everyone is hungry and needs a cigarette and some gat. Also, people are grouchy because they’ve been spending lots of money of special gifts and new outfits all month….remind anyone of between Thanksgiving and Christmas?? At the end of the month for the big holiday that lasts 3 days (Eid al-Fitr) Chase has a week off of work, and if I’m teaching English the term will be over. There is no work that week because everyone visits their family which, in Sana’a, means that everyone goes home to their villages in other parts of Yemen. It’s a week because time for travel is factored in addition to the 3 days of holiday.

While I’m talking about Islam, I may as well say something about the call to prayer---which is actually ringing through my open windows as I type. Everyday, five times the muezzin gets on the loud speaker that is projected out of the minaret (the tower that’s connected to mosques) and sings or chants that God is great and everyone should come to prayer, you know in case anyone forgot. This happens at dawn (4 a.m.!!), around noon, in the late afternoon around 3, and at sunset and then again after sunset. It’s quite loud because there are mosques on every corner and it becomes sort of a cacophony as every minaret joins in. The words that are said are standard depending on which different branch of Islam the mosque belongs to. I think in Sana’a there is a majority of Sunni mosques and a few Zaydi Shi’a mosques. Chase googled a nice link that has a sound file and you can read the words in Arabic and English: http://balaams-ass.com/alhaj/calltoprayer.htm although the explanation is someone’s personal story.

Or I found this YouTube video of some morning person that made a video of the really early call to prayer in Sana’a…that very well could have been filmed from my roof (but probably wasn’t):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnIwOqYgWdg&feature=related

If you’re REALLY interested, there is one on YouTube from Mecca (spelled Makkah) that is quite lovely.

When Chase and I were in Cairo, we got excited every time we heard it because it is really kind of pretty to hear. Unfortunately, Yemen is supposed to be known for its less pretty call to prayer—theres one muezzin that screams more than sings. Nevertheless, it still reminds me where I am 5 times a day!

Since this is kind of boring without pictures...here is all the food no one will be eating during the daylight:



Some things we found while grocery shopping and couldnt pass up!! Betty Crocker Pancake Mix, "American Garden" syrup, Danish Havarti!!!! peanut butter?



Bert and Ernie on a bag of "Anees Cheese Flavored Corn Curls", something like cheetos. Made in Sana'a Yemen. They cost 10 Riyal, i think that is less than a cent.

Manakha

(click on the pictures to see them bigger)

Yesterday, we went to Manakha- a small city about two or three hours outside of Sana’a. (in the picture above) We were invited by Sabri (chase’s boss, the president of the school) who is from Manakha to go with him. So it was Chase, Omar (another student/employee), the driver, Sabri and I until we picked up Sabri’s friend who is something like in charge of telecommunications in Sana’a… We took our road trip in Sabri’s Toyota Land Cruiser, which is known in Yemen by the name Monica….as in Lewinsky…because they arrived in Yemen during the Clinton scandal and as Sabri put it, the back looks like her big behind.

Government check points are set up all over Yemen to control the flow of people throughout the country and to help keep it safe, especially the capital. Both times we went through one Sabri explained that we were with the Yemen College of Middle Eastern Studies, and his passengers were American students and employees. They looked at us through the back windows, but didn’t really worry about us. I guess we aren’t who they are looking for.

When we made it past the two checkpoints, we found ourselves in some small town/village market. Sabri said we would eat breakfast along the way, and after we had already stopped to get some roadside grapes, pomegranates, and water, which I thought was probably breakfast, we stopped again at what looked more like a restaurant. There were little cows tied up out front and a raised platform with several men chopping meat on top of a block with very large knives. Behind that was several long tables and chairs and a couple of cooking stations- one for bread and one for meat. I soon realized that we were going to be eating those little cows for breakfast!! At this point, you would think that I would be freaking out…I didn’t even EAT cows until college and I certainly would never want to see them alive, or think about how meat does in fact come from cute little cows before I ate. However, I kept my cool somehow. Maybe because I was hungry or because I am in Yemen and when in Yemen. Or, perhaps more likely, because I didnt really have a choice! I guess if I had gotten upset I could have politely refused and just had some bread to eat—I do loooove bread. Sabri stood at the butcher stand and collected our meat and soon it was cooked and sitting in front of us. Traditional Yemeni meals are eaten with the right bare hand (the left is reserved for…. cleaning... and is thus considered unclean). You tear off a piece of bread and then use it to pick up the food. The meat was cooked with some onions and other seasoning and served in one big shared pan with a small bowl of pink “hot sauce” beside it. We were also served delicious sweetened chai-tasting tea and later a bubbling pan of bean dip called fuul (said fool). It was actually really delicious!! It tasted like tacos, and actually it was comforting to know that the meat was fresh and recently cooked—welcome to the developing world, huh?

Towards the end of our meal I guess the meat choppers ran out of meat and needed more. Did they have to go to the grocery store or the restaurant's freezer? NOPE. They picked another cow and slaughtered it right there beside the road. I was facing the direction of all of the action and had a heads up when the cow was lead away from the others, so I made sure not to look where they took it. Sabri informed us that they were slaughtering another cow, and I refused to look but let Chase take a picture with my camera (that i will not be posting because it is a little bit gruesome). If you know me well, you should be really surprised that I wasn’t crying and running away, as I am very surprised myself. It was quick and I didn’t hear any sounds from it, though I did see the massive amount of blood and the cow being carried over to the stand. I guess it seemed ok because the cows were not being treated badly, and I knew that it wouldn’t be wasted—In Islam it is forbidden to play with or waste food, and for the meat to be Halal (something like Kosher) it has to be slaughtered humanely. Also, even more surprising is that while we were waiting to eat and wanted to take pictures, Sabri brought me over to the cows and made me stand by them and touch them for the picture. (i wasn't making friends with them, i knew better!) Oh well. There are a lot of things that I couldn’t handle in the US, but in Yemen I have to adapt to the way things are done…at least most things.

After breakfast, we waited for the telecom guy (that I mentioned in the beginning) in front of the town's post office? We ate the grapes that had been purchased by the side of the road after they were rinsed with bottled water…I hoped that I wouldn’t die (or worse…) every time I put something in my mouth all day. Road trips are already potentially very embarrassing for me because I get car sick, and being “foreign country” /“revenge of Bilkis” sick would be a million times worse.(Bilkis is better known as the Queen of Sheba...in Yemen!)

Finally we were on the road. By on the road…I mean on the winding mountain road in a Monica going…fast enough, without working seat belts, hoping and praying not to fall off of a cliff. I tried to distract myself from the fear of death with the mountain scenery. It turns out, Yemen’s countryside is really beautiful and mountainous. They aren’t huge mountains, but as we wound through them we were completely surrounded. I fearfully thought about how we were going to have to do this again, and realized that it would be very dark on our way back!!!

About an hour later, we stopped at a place called Hajjara that is apparently a big tourist destination, I’m still not really sure why, except that it’s a very nice view and a very old village with “one gate, one gate into the city”. As soon as we got out of the car we were surrounded by little boys who spoke English (and several other languages they said) to “guide” us. We refused because we were just making a short stop, but walked to a point where we could take nice pictures. In the pictures, Chase and i are standing in front of the village itself, and the other one is facing the left where you can see all of the terracing that is used to grow things on the mountainside.

After we left Hajjara, we drove back a few miles to Manakha and parked the car…”Now. We walk.” So we followed the large group of Yemeni men we had acquired at that point… up the rocky hill/mountain. Sana’a is high enough altitude that it hurts to climb the 5 flights of stairs up to our room, and this mountain was even higher elevation, so it was also rather painful—for the white kids. The property that we were climbing up belonged to Sabri, and we knew there was a house on the YCMES website that was intended as the future site for part of the college, so we figured we were climbing to this lunch we have been promised. This almost motivated us as we hiked, but when we made it to the top….Sabri explained that this was the site of the 17 story house he wanted to build! No food? So then we sat for a few minutes and walked the steep “path” back down. Hamduillah for the Chacos and jeans I wore that day or I would have had been in trouble! Add hiking and eating/watching the slaughter of cows to my list of accomplishments please.

Finally we got back into the car and drove to Sabri’s friend Ahmed’s house where we were going to eat this lunch. Without being there for very long, we were ushered into the dining room where food was sitting on a mat of the floor. Along with eating with your hand, traditional Yemeni food is eaten from the floor. Hey, I just graduated from college, I like eating with my hands on the floor, I could get used to this! This lunch was really more of a feast. There were like 15 guys and me, and two little kids. The 10 year old daughter sat next to me (women sit together), and none of the other women were present although we knew that someone had to be cooking this meal.

Everything was eaten “family style”. First, we ate injeera (pourous, stretchy flat bread from Ethiopian cuisine) covered in yoghurt sauce and vegetables (cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, parsley? Etc.) on top. To eat that we just used a spoon to get it directly from the round pan into our mouths. Then a kind of bread that tasted kind of like pancakes but was thicker and soft in the middle but kind of crispy like pastry on top which was doused by Ahmed in honey from some region in Yemen that has famous honey. We ate that with three fingers and licked the honey off as we ate. Then it was time for the rest of the meal which was already present on the mat. Large pieces of bread were served that Sabri called “home bread” I think…that were meant to be used as “utensils”. We tore off bread with our three eating fingers and used it to pick up potatoes (delish) and meat out of bowls. As we were eating the Saltah was served. Saltah is the one Yemeni food that I knew about, and it is a watery stew kind of dish that is made of meat broth with pieces of meat and vegetables at the bottom. When it was placed on the mat it was green and bubbly and then Sabri showed us how to fold a piece of bread and stir it through the mixture to pick up the sauce. I missed the fact that there was more at the bottom. It tasted like meaty-sauce I think, pretty good. The scary green color went away a little when it was stirred. There were a couple of other dishes mixed in too. One was chunks of meat with bones—mutton I think. Another was a dish with seasoned meat pieces and maybe some vegetables with hard boiled eggs sitting on top. There was also a small cup of soup that Sabri started to explain as something having to do with a sheep and how it was made, but he stopped and I didn’t quite catch the ingredients, so I tasted but didn’t drink much of the cloudy liquid with white chunks? Anyway, most of this description is from my lack of knowledge about what I was eating. In the future, I might know more about what exactly all of it was and I will be sure to let you know. Most of it was really good, and we were grateful to be served some very traditional Yemeni food in someone’s home.

From top to bottom: 1. The food on the table as it was layed out when we sat down,
2. The delicious honey bread, with honey in a water bottle being poured
3. Saltah...green and bubbly. mmmm

After lunch, everyone (all the men and i) went into the Mafraj for a qat chew--did I forget to mention that we made another stop on the way to pick up some qat… a lot of qat.. Qat (gat) is a leaft green plant that, when chewed, releases a stimulant drug. Its totally legal and extremely prevalent in Yemen. Yemenis chew it all day everyday, alone, while driving a taxi, or in big groups as a social event. I’m still not sure exactly what the effects are because I have been told a number of contradicting answers. It sounds like stories about gat are kind of legendary around here, and its hard to get the truth. This might also be because there are lots of varieties, and it affects people differently. I have now tried it twice (out of politeness and a little bit of social coercion) and haven't felt any different. I’m probably doing it wrong. There are also all kinds of rules/norms about how to chew in a group. I’m sure that as a western woman I get to break all of them, but for men the one I know of is that you must lean to your left with one leg folded in front of you Indian style and one knee up. That makes my legs fall asleep, so I pretend that I’m sitting like a woman, however that is. Chase and I had trouble knowing which parts to put in our mouths, so Ahmed and our driver helped us out and picked out the good ones for us. You take leaves and the top part of the stem and chew them up in your mouth and store it in your cheek. The juices are swallowed and are the part that gets you…whatever gat does. I think its difficult to chew and keep stuff in my cheeks simultaneously, so I did a lot of spitting which is also totally allowed and I was even provided with a mini silver spittoon. People around me tried to give me instructions, but I think I did ok. It tastes really bitter, kind of like you would expect a green plant to taste. Supposedly after you chew for a while (like a few hours) the bitterness goes away. Somehow, people also manage to drink soda and water while chewing which changes the taste as well. I cant say I’m a big fan, and I’ve never felt the affects…I don’t think? I guess I’m not Yemeni yet.

A little while into the gat chew, Chase and Omar moved to the other side of the long rectangular room to practice their Arabic. I just stayed in my seat in the middle and hung out, continuing to try to succeed at chewing and storing leaves in my mouth. Sabri told me that I should go visit the women downstairs. I was apprehensive at first because I know very little in Arabic, and I’m not really sure how to fit the pieces I do know together. However, it was the second time he suggested it, and the young boy who had been trying to talk to me and serve me tea (after gat only, so I spit it out) took me downstairs. I sat down in a room with Ahmed’s wife and daughter and the little daughter that I sat by at dinner who had been running in and out of the mafraj, and the youngest boy. I said hi in my best Arabic and they welcomed me to talk to them. They showed me family pictures and explained that three sons were present and one was studying in Malaysia. One of the daughters is married, one is not home, and the other two were sitting next to me. The littlest, Arwa, who is 10 gave me a picture of herself all dressed up. The second oldest, unmarried sister spoke a tiny bit of English…about as much as I speak Arabic, so she helped explain. The boy that brought me to the basement is studying English in school so he brought one of his school papers written in English and Arabic so we learned together a little bit---though I immediately forgot. The 18 year old daughter pulled out a little English reader and read it to me as I corrected her and she translated to teach me some Arabic. I learned pen, pencil, this and that. I forgot pen and pencil, and this and that are the same. Still, it was nice to have something to talk about. I thought it would be awkward, but I really enjoyed being the only guest that was allowed to be a part of both the men and women’s worlds. As a western woman, I’m not quite held to the same standards of customs as Yemeni women are, so I am allowed to talk to everyone. They fed me sweets that one of the boys brought back from Aden (the port city on the red sea) and as I left another little girl put a necklace on me and one of the boys gave me a straw hat. It was nice to be welcomed into a place where none of the other guests were, and I left feeling like I had been let into a secret club, which really, i kind of had.

The drive back in the dark wasn’t as bad because everyone drives more cautiously at night. (and i couldnt see the cliffs) The sun set very quickly, and I couldn’t keep my eyes open at all so I had a nice nap. I’m really proud of myself for not getting car sick and not freaking about about the cow. I ate and hiked and survived the strange activities of the day in general. I didn’t really have a choice about any of it, but I really enjoyed learning about traditions on our most Yemeni day yet.