magic lighters

Nate's new lighter:

But this is not just any lighter. It has a flashlight on the bottom. And when you shine the light, a little picture illuminates the room:

camel in the city

a few blocks from our apartment

blue skies over the old city

weekend fun

Tzara, smoking shisha in a burkah.

new pet for bits

Morgan will be checking the shoes much more closely from now on in the morning.

fancy hotels

Last night we set out on an adventure with a few other students from SIAL. As Yemen was celebrating Independence Day, we decided to celebrate as well. And so with Taiz, Bill, and Fernanda, Nate and I hopped into a cab and requested the driver drop us as "Tourist City." Tourist City isn't as much a City as it is a small area of Sana'a, perched on top of a hill, completely surrounded by a massive wall and armed soldiers. The "City" boasts a Sheraton, an apartment complex that is rumored to house exiled Iraqi generals, and the infamous Russian Club. The name, "The Russian Club" is also a bit misleading---it's not so much a Club as it is a small, dark hut that serves alcohol to westerners (and exiled Iraqi generals?). The driver dropped us at the entrance to Tourist City and we meandered our way through the apartment buildings to an overgrown lot housing a small, dark, and very closed Russian Club. Two men walked up to us (Jordanian plane engineers), and after telling us that the Club is closed during the month of Ramadan, invited us into their apartment to share one non-alcoholic beer. Being on a mission for some nightlife, however, we declined their invitation, but did exchange numbers so that we can visit them in Jordan later this year. Feeling confident the Sheraton would at least have a small offering of wine or beer, we trekked to the top of Tourist City into a very empty Sheraton. Although their bar was also closed (damn this month of Ramadan), they did have a tent set up outside showcasing a singing duet. Rules for entering the tent were, however, too strict we decided: an entrance fee of $5, enforced dress code, no cameras, and (our favorite rule) "No Dancing!" Not giving up, we left tourist city and took a 4 minute cab ride even further up the hill to the Movenpick, Yemen's nicest hotel. Security at the hotel is strict, and our cab's undercarriage was swept with a mirrored wand for bombs prior to entering, much to the delight of Nate and our driver who, to the defense of the security guards, looked much the part of an angry Yemeni terrorist: approximately 80 years old and 95 lbs, cheek stuffed with massive ball of qat. The Movenpick has a gorgeous infinity pool and is perched at one of the highest points in Sana'a, offering an incredible view of the city. Although their bar was also closed for the month, we were able to purchase a feast of ice cream, fries, and fancy sandwiches (pictured). We decided that, should possible plans to travel over Christmas fall through, we will all get rooms at this fancy hotel and treat ourselves to a night of luxury: swimming, bloody marys, and ice cream sundaes.

warm fries (hard to find in Yemen), and a grilled halloumi sandwich


in front of the Sheraton

friendly neighbors

Nathan has made quite the impression in our neighborhood. We like to call him the Pied Piper of Sana'a. Every time he steps outside, about 20 to 30 small kids swarm my tall, blond husband and follow him around as he smokes, goes to the store to buy water, or heads to school, practicing their English the entire time: "Hello! I love you! What's your name? F--- You!" This odd assortment of nice (and the occasional naughty) words is learned, we think, from the odd assortment of old American movies that are constantly shown on (free) satellite t.v. here. Nate now has his own self-titled "personal assistant," who also likes to aid as a translator; however, as he speaks little to no English, he translates Arabic-to-Arabic, repeating verbatim Nate's Arabic requests for, say, 5 bottles of water and a pack of Karaman smokes, in Arabic to the shopkeeper, the shopkeeper already handing the requested items to Nate.

Although the kids know that it is forbidden to knock on our door, they frequently test our limits and come pounding late at night (as it's Ramadan, most kids stay up until at least 4:30 a.m.) So the other night, when we heard a rapping on our door, Nate jumped up, ready to pounce on one of the tykes for disturbing our peace. Throwing open the door he found, indeed, one of the neighbor kids, but Mohammad was not at our house to request that Nate buy him a "Bebsi" (no "p" sound in Arabic) or fireworks; instead, Mohammad came with an armload of treats for us to "break our fast" (during Ramadan everyone fasts during the day....except naughty Americans). His mother had prepared a small feast for us, as pictured below: mashed potatoes fried in filo dough, spicy bean & scallion cakes, and a bowl of dates.

headed to ethiopia!

We just bought tickets for our first vacation (while on vacation).
Ethiopia, here we come! We will be traveling with our friends Bill (from the UK) and Fernanda (fellow American) in a few weeks (leaving October 10th). If anyone has any experience in the region and has recommendations of "must see" towns / churches / bars, please send them our way.

nate on teaching

Our first English class was a success! We had three students: Fahid (28) is a dentist, Malik (25) is a computer engineer, and Isham (29) is SIAL's computer engineer. Fortunately they all have a solid foundation in English, so we can focus on speaking (rather than basic grammar, for example). Last night we discussed our jobs, families (Isham has 11 siblings), and goals for the class. We spoke at length about dentistry, which is incredibly cheap here; to fill a cavity with composite it costs around 3000YR ($15), which we might have to take advantage of soon (Morgan's tooth had a run-in with a bone fragment hidden in a hamburger last night). We discussed the effects of qat on teeth, and Fahid informed us that the pesticides, not the qat itself, destroy the tooth. He also told us about the miswak, a kind of branch Yemenis use as a toothbrush. The stick is about the size of a middle finger and can be chewed on or used to rub the gums and teeth. It's minty-flavored and has "120 health benefits." And with the engineers we discussed Windows Vista (and how much it sucks), Apple computers, programming, networking, computer history, and the like. Each night we will pick a different topic and will focus on idioms, vocab, pronunciation, etc. Tonight's topic is the history of Yemen, which is a bonus for me as I only have a western view of the history and it will be nice to hear about the civil war from people who were alive during the time (all of our students were all in high school). I think that the class will be a lot of fun for all of us; these guys have a great sense of humor and I think that we will all become great friends.

students & teachers

As of 10:00 tonight Nate and I are officially paid teachers! Our school asked us to run an English class for our Arabic teachers. And since it's Ramadan now--meaning the day goes from noon to 4am --our class will be held at 10 pm, 3-4 nights per week. We have a basic lesson plan for tonight (class introductions and goals), but are not sure what direction to take following the basic introductions. One of our students/SIAL teacher asked me today what text book we'll be using. Text book? Huh? Hadn't thought that far ahead. So, if anyone has recommendations of a great beginning English text book (heavy on grammar and vocab), please email us! I'm excited about this great opportunity (and money, you can't beat $2.50/hour!) but I also feel a bit nervous and under-prepared. I love school and being a student, but am I really teacher material (especially with my propensity to blush whilst public speaking, haha)? We'll see...

pictures from our pad

Wiring in our kitchen. Cousin Mike: how would this score on your home inspection?
An additional note on our wiring: plugs in the Middle East are supposed to be European. However, in our apartment alone we have European, African, and North American outlets, in addition to some that we can't place. This means that our vacuum only plugs into the living room, the toothbrush only plugs into the bedroom, and the tv has to be taped into an outlet to function.

This is our "new" washing machine. How does this work, you ask? Well, we fill up the left half with buckets of water from our kitchen sink, along with the clothes and soap. After it mixes everything together, we rinse the soap out of the clothes in the kitchen sink, and then put them in the right half of the machine to spin. The right half only holds about a third of what the left half holds, so the spinning part takes a few cycles. Unfortunately this beast still lacks a connection to the drain, so for now it's just a nice object d'art for our kitchen.

A note from Nate on this post: Morgan wouldn't know how this really worked unless it were for my detailed explanations, as I'm the only one who does laundry here. We have to use the washing machine in the boys' dorm (as ours doesn't actually work), and Morgan's not allowed up there (lucky for her).

food

Per Shelby's request, I've taken some pictures of our food standards/staples:

Fruit. The pomegranates here are delicious, plentiful, and cheap (about 25 cents each). We can also buy fresh squeezed pomegranate juice from corner stands for about 50 cents.

Rice (colored with tumeric) and veggies. Nate's started making a killer vegetarian curry. We haven't been brave enough to cook our own meat (as this entails buying a live chicken in the local souq and then killing it or taking it to the local butcher to kill it). We do often eat meat at a local restaurant; the broast (half of a fried chicken) comes with fries, watery tomato paste, coleslaw, bread, and a metal prison tray, and costs under $2.00.

A selection of our spices: cinnamon, turmeric, and chili & curry powders. Each of these 1lb bags cost between $0.25 to $1.50. We'll definitely be bringing bags of these home with us!

Ramadan?

So.....Tomorrow is Ramadan, the month when Muslims fast. Mumkin (maybe) it is tomorrow (in sha allah). The most we've been able to get out of our teachers is that it is either tomorrow or the next day (possibly depending on the moon?). This means that we will not be able to eat or drink (even water), or smoke in public for 30 days. Nothing opens before noon, and grocery stores won't open until an hour before sundown. At sundown people pray then drink some water and eat some dates then party like it's 1999 till dawn. It is not the law here like it is in Kuwait, however I'm sure we would not be looked upon fondly if we were to eat during the day. Looks like I might be smoking a lot less of those $.75 a pack cigarettes.

new photos

The view from our rooftop.

A Yemeni skybridge.

the weekend begins

I woke up yesterday morning to a dream that Nate and I returned to the U.S. and I remember feeling a deep sense of sadness at being back in the States. After spending the first week battling constant bursts of tears of frustration and fear and certainty that I would not be able to handle this new world/life for a year, I realized, when I woke from my dream, that I finally feel at peace with our decision to move to Yemen for this next year. I realized that the trash littering the streets, and the strange (to be polite) smells that radiate from the old buildings and alleys, and our kitchen and bathroom (that despite any amount of scrubbing will never be clean)...all these things, I realized, no longer bother me. I love that, after carelessly stepping into an intersection into the path of an oncoming motorcycle, the cyclist--rather than yelling at us for our our mistake-- tracked us down in order to introduce himself and welcome us to his country. I love that a hijab vendor, after selling me a new pink head scarf, invited us to stay in his shop for a cup of tea. I love that a cab driver the other night, in a gesture to welcome us to his city, tried to refuse payment and insisted we take his cell number so that we may call him next time we need a ride or assistance. This city, in which pedestrians share the sidewalk with the occasional herd of goats or cow being proudly paraded around, has captured my heart.

Not long after we woke this morning there was a knock on our door. Um Akhmed, one of the school's cleaners, had arrived to both clean our apartment and bring us an assortment of carpet scraps to collage our entry way floor (I kind of liked the clean, sweep- and mop-able linoleum, but it's impolite to refuse a gift...) Although we've never formally discussed this with the school, it appears we have a maid. She comes about twice a week to vacuum and clean our bathroom and kitchen. Nate and I are really digging this. On top of cleaning our flat, she has also promised to teach me how to cook Yemeni food (and I, in return, promise to post any recipes I get!) After Um Akhmed's arrival, there were several further knocks on our door: a man selling pots and pans, neighborhood kids offering us a kitten, the neighborhood kids again, this time with three rabbits to show off, and finally a gentleman by the name of Abdul Kareem who works around the corner from us at the Canadian-Yemeni Water Project (a sort of non-profit that helps establish public gardens in the City that are irrigated solely from the local mosques' gray water, an ancient tradition here). Abdul Kareem had come to introduce himself to the newest neighbors; we had a lovely visit and he has promised us a private tour of the project's 44 established gardens. We spent the rest of the morning visiting the Souq al-Milh (Salt Market), a massive outdoor market in which vendors--in addition to selling the regular items, i.e. small plastic toys imported from China & etc.--offer the most amazing spices, bolts of fabric, dresses, abayas (women's robes), and jambayas (traditional Yemeni knives worn on the belt). Immediately upon our entrance into the market a vendor demanded we accept a gift of a small bundle of qat (the mildly narcotic leaf chewed in Yemen). This first offering fueled further offerings to us by surrounding vendors. Qat leaves in hand, we stumbled into a tailor shop in order to inquire about having a cotton abaya commissioned (they're mostly polyester here). Although this was not in their realm of work, the four male tailors did invite us in (again, with offerings of qat) and had quite a lively discussion with Nate (in sha'allah I will be able to hold real conversations on my own soon!). They also gave us a stack of Muslim propaganda, which we promise to diligently read. During the course of our hour-long stroll through the Souq, Nate shook hands with no less than 30 vendors and shoppers, all of whom wanted to introduce themselves to the tall, blond-haired westerner and practice their English: "Welcome to Yemen!"

Nate's Arabic is becoming progressively better and he can now hold both religious discussions (diplomatically defending our status as "Christians" to the local kids who try their hardest to convert us to Islam) and political discussions ("Yes, I am from Amrikah, but I promise you, al hamduallah, that I did not vote for Bush," which is generally received with a big sigh of relief, a huge grin, and more vigorous hand-shaking). My Arabic is also improving, and now, in addition to writing the alphabet and offering the most basic pleasantries, I can also recite the words for chair, table, car, and purse. My teacher says that I am ma sha'allah (very clever).

parties

After class this afternoon I was invited to my first social gathering in Yemen, a going away party for our new friend Lauren (who is actually from Portland, incidentally). The party was held in the courtyard of the women's "dorm" and was hosted by the dorm mother, Um Ibrahim, the wife of Am, the school's groundskeeper (see above field trip post for more on Am). Also in attendance were 2 of Um Ibrahim's 4 daughters and 2 of her 4 sons (who are both under 5 years old, which excludes them from the normal taboos of mixed-gender gatherings), in addition to several local Yemeni women, and most of our school's (+ / - 10) female students. It was amazing seeing these women in a private (women-only) setting, sans veils. The women were so funny, and loud, and outgoing. Although I understood so little of the conversation (which was almost entirely conducted in Arabic), I felt an incredible connection to the group of strong, vibrant women surrounding me, and I felt an urgency and excitement to gain proficiency in Arabic so that I too will be able to exchange jokes and stories with my new neighbors and friends.

Following the afternoon ladies' gathering, Nate and I explored the neighborhood across the silah (sunken highway/riverbed) from our apartment. We found a cafe on the roof of a 6-story hotel and treated ourselves to Becks (non-alcoholic) beers and an absolutely breathtaking view of the City. Later that evening, following our sunset "cocktails", we were invited to our first western party in Sana'a, held in the apartment of two SIAL students. Mark and Will's home, which they rent for $250 a month, is 5 stories plus a rooftop deck/patio, and contains a kitchen, bathroom, living room and somewhere between 4-6 bedrooms--Nate described it, with its hundreds of winding, cement stairs, as very "Dr. Seuss". On a side note, we hear that buildings in our quarter of the Old City can be purchased for less than $10,000. (And yes, thoughts of buying one of these mud-brick towers and moving here to retire early, very early, have definitely crossed our minds). The students at SIAL are incredible, and it is fantastic to be making friends from such diverse backgrounds, ranging from Canada, all over Europe (England, Belgium, Germany, and Slovenia), Japan, Singapore, and even Somalia.

morgan makes friends

I've made my first Yemeni friends. Their names are Aliya & Latifah, and they're approximately 7 years old. Aliya lives across the street from us and yesterday afternoon, while Nate was outside smoking, she approached him to inquire about his marital status. Upon finding out that Nate did indeed have a wife, Aliya briefly went home and returned with a handful of sea shells and a request that I come outside. As I've only learned the most basic greetings at this point (in addition to the alphabet) our conversation was pretty limited, and after admiring her shells for a few minutes, Nate and I returned inside to study. Several minutes later there was a knock on our door; Aliya had brought her friend Latifah to meet me as well. I exchanged greetings with Latifah, then resumed my studies. Minutes later...another knock. Nate answered the door and told the girls that I had to study. That's fine, they replied, followed by a request that Nate open our window and curtain so that they could just stand outside and watch me study. Nate kindly told them this was not possible tonight, but maybe another time. Following this odd but endearing request, the girls continued to come to our door, about every 20 minutes, requesting that I join them for a meal, requesting a tour of our house (to which I politely said "no" but which they took anyways, squirming their way past me into the apartment, oohing and awing the entire time), and more requests to open our curtains.

with Aliya