Morgan on Cars

Our taxi driver home from the Embassy yesterday spent the entire drive explaining to Nate the glories of Islam, and while acknowledging that Nate was not yet Muslim, was pleased that we have a year left in Yemen, which should be enough time, in sha allah, for Nate to "come to his senses." The driver had 11 kids, and upon finding out that we are as of yet childless, suggested (albeit with a smile) that Nate take a second wife so that he too could have 11 little blessings from god. Other notes on taxis/cars in Sana'a: Many cars have fur glued to the dashboard (think '70s shag rugs, but way longer--Nate thinks it's real goat); we still have not figured out the purpose of this requisite vehicular decoration. We mentioned previously that drivers are crazy here -- I cannot emphasize this enough. Our taxi drives yesterday felt like those carnival rides in the little box cars (usually set in a haunted house) that speed up to doors, and you're certain you're going to slam into them, but miraculously they open at the last minute. Except, here, it's not doors you almost run into, but rather other cars, motorcycles and pedestrians. My final observation about the cars here: most barely run, and approximately 99% of them have some sort of battle scar (for example, our cab yesterday had a piece of thin tin--maybe a flattened soup can?--secured with wire to serve as the outside door handle). Somehow, despite all this, the cars seem to keep running (although yesterday we did see a car have to re-approach a 2" speed bump several times before successfully driving up and over it).