Admittidly, we've been pretty lazy about adding to this blog lately. I think that as we become more and more settled into Yemeni life, all our daily encounters and events begin to normalize in our minds. But here's one recent story, and as they often do, this one took place in a taxi.
Last weekend we went to Pizza Hut AND KFC (gasp!) with a few friends for a late night guilty snack. While I can count on one hand the number of times I've been to either the Hut or KFC in the States, I find their food to be a really nice (and expensive) break from traditional Yemeni chicken and rice. So on the ride home our cab driver, as usually happens, wanted to exchange numbers with Nate. Nate didn't have his cell on him to add in the number, so we wrote it down with the only pen I had, a really thick, black Sharpie. And we had no paper, so I wrote it on Nate's arm. Not being great with the Arabic number system yet, the cell number ending up being about 6 digits too long. Now with one side of Nate's arm covered from wrist to elbow, the driver took a shot at writing it on the other arm. And here's the slightly confusing but amusing part: The driver, for reasons unsure to us passengers, proceeded to take the sharpie and draw large x's all over his face. In permanent pen. The more I tried to tell him that the ink would remain on his face for "waqt daweel" (a long time), the more furiously he drew. I'm not sure what happened when he returned home to his wife and family, but I am certain he was horrified to discover the ink would indeed remain for a long time.
Here are some recent photos, and unfortunately, I did not manage to get a shot of the driver.
Last weekend we went to Pizza Hut AND KFC (gasp!) with a few friends for a late night guilty snack. While I can count on one hand the number of times I've been to either the Hut or KFC in the States, I find their food to be a really nice (and expensive) break from traditional Yemeni chicken and rice. So on the ride home our cab driver, as usually happens, wanted to exchange numbers with Nate. Nate didn't have his cell on him to add in the number, so we wrote it down with the only pen I had, a really thick, black Sharpie. And we had no paper, so I wrote it on Nate's arm. Not being great with the Arabic number system yet, the cell number ending up being about 6 digits too long. Now with one side of Nate's arm covered from wrist to elbow, the driver took a shot at writing it on the other arm. And here's the slightly confusing but amusing part: The driver, for reasons unsure to us passengers, proceeded to take the sharpie and draw large x's all over his face. In permanent pen. The more I tried to tell him that the ink would remain on his face for "waqt daweel" (a long time), the more furiously he drew. I'm not sure what happened when he returned home to his wife and family, but I am certain he was horrified to discover the ink would indeed remain for a long time.
Here are some recent photos, and unfortunately, I did not manage to get a shot of the driver.
Sana'a
an artisan making jambaya blades in the Souq al-Milh(photo credit goes to Comfort P.)
1 comment:
Our investment club bought YUM because they are opening one new store in China a day. Glad to know they are in Yemen too. Was it good?
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