Fun City, Sana'a

We're on a week-long "Eid al-Sacrifice" break, corresponding nicely to our own western holidays, and are taking full advantage of the time off school. The night before last we attended a gathering at the Embassy with the six marines and one FBI agent stationed in Sana'a. Festivities included included foosball, government- subsidized beer, and little spontaneous dancing. The embassy party was then topped last night by a trip to "Fun City" with our friends Fernanda and Jess. The biggest amusement park in Sana'a, Fun City has a bowling alley and a small handful of poorly-maintained rides. Not bad, considering the entrance fee is only $1.00. We managed one ride on some spinny cars and a round of bowling, which would have been great, except the lanes were warped and not waxed. Bowling was made even more interesting with the numerous women in full burkahs rocking the game and the small children running down the lanes and climbing in the ball-feed machines.

Merry Christmas

With Santa, in the Mall of the Emirates in Dubai.
Click on picture for enlarged version and check out Old Saint Nick's chompers.

The Yemeni Farmers Market

This morning our favorite chicken farmer Ahmad (see previous post with the pink chicks) invited Morgan and I to go with him and his brother to buy chickens this afternoon. We took a bus across town to the farmers market, it was quite a bit different than any farmers market I've been to, in fact it was much more like a chaotic 4-H gathering. Today is a busy day for the market as the day after tomorrow marks the beginning of the holiday of Eid al-Sacrifice during which everyone supposedly slaughters a goat or sheep.

Ahmad with a pigeon

They call these "bunnies". I suppose GuineaPIG would be haram to eat.

Porcupine

Some weird feline/lynx thingy that kept hissing

Everyone in the souq wanted their picture taken with the animals, this guy was especially persistent.

"cowboy" and camel

The sea of sheep

A couple of herders

Goat!

Success! Ahmad with new chicken in hand on the bus ride home.

United Arab Emirates

We spent the first night in a youth hostel in Sharjah, where we had an entire dorm room and balcony to ourselves, which we turned into a little mafraj with an old mattress for a couch. Sharjah is apparently the self-proclaimed culture capital of the UAE, but as we arrived late at night most of the city was shut down. Good thing for the case of Heinekens we bought in Duty Free! At the hostel we met two men from Morocco who have been walking on a peace mission, for the past year, from Indonesia back home.

First day in Dubai. Dubai Creek and part of downtown in the background. Our hotel was just a few blocks up from this area. Our hotel was a bit seedy, but definitely among the cheapest in Dubai. There was some sort of electronics smuggling operation being run out of the lobby, and our "bellhop" (room cleaner) sold black market Heineken.

Dhows, used as transport across the creek.

View across the creek at night.

Ski Dubai! Located in the Mall of the Emirates, this is the world's largest indoor ski course and boasts real snow, several runs, a quad lift, and a luge course. Definitely the highlight of our trip.

They even have a chalet with hot cocoa and Christmas trees.

Another famous mall in Dubai: The Gardens. This mall is divided into areas modeled after world regions (i.e. Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, Andalusia, and Persia). Here's Nate in China.

And me in Tunisia.

Burj Dubai, the world's tallest building. Still under construction. It's hard to get a perspective of how big this building is, but the final structure will stand over 1,900 feet and will contain 156 floors (World Trade Center was just over 1,300 with 110 floors). It will also have the world's fastest elevators, moving at a rate of 40 MPH. The whole city of Dubai seems to be under construction. In fact, 24% of the world's cranes are in this one city.

Another famous structure in Dubai: the Burj al-Arab Hotel. Rooms start at $1,200 and include a private butler and chauffeur to drive you around in a Rolls Royce. The protrusion off the left side near the top is a helicopter landing pad, just in case...

Right around the corner from the Burj al-Arab is a huge shopping/hotel complex called Medinat Jumeria that has a beautiful river running through it. The Dubai International Film Festival is being held here (we were hoping to run into George Clooney who is supposedly in town).

The Persian Gulf. We spent a lovely afternoon lounging on this beach. Bless Dubai for having a more relaxed attitude towards women and covering!

"Dune bashing" is apparently a sport in the Emirates. We went on a tour (but unfortunately got stuck with the really cautious driver who refused to fly like the others). We went for the fun desert sport adventure, although the package included many other perks: Drink Arab tea and coffee! Ride camel! Take picture with real Arabic woman! Get picture taken in traditional Arabic costume!

The odd thing about the Emirates is that only 10% of the population is Emiratee, meaning that the majority of those working in the service industry are Indian and Pakistani. So while I didn't opt to get my picture taken in a baltoo (as I wear one everyday in Yemen), we did walk over to the "real Arabic woman" in her booth and were tickled to find an Indian in a burkah. Likewise, the man dressed in a thobe and traditional head scarf working the sheesha booth was definitely not Arab. So much at our attempt to have a "REAL! Arab experience."

Real Arab camels! Although on second thought, they might have been imported from India... We got to ride one of these beasts later in the night (in a really small circle). Nate's refused to sit down after the ride and started spitting.

sunset over the dunes

view from our balcony

our favorite billboard

recent happenings

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.

Sana'a

an artisan making jambaya blades in the Souq al-Milh
(photo credit goes to Comfort P.)

congratulations

Congratulations, Alice, on the birth of your daughter, Savannah. We're excited to meet our new niece when we return home!

upcoming travels

Heading to the UAE and Iran next week!
We're flying to Dubai for a few days, then plan to take a ferry to the Island of Kish off the southern coast of Iran. Will keep you all posted...

thanksgiving

Against all odds, we somehow managed to pull together a really nice Thanksgiving (with a little Yemeni-twist). About 15 students came over to enjoy a potluck feast. Nate made turkey, and I did my best attempt at stuffing. Others brought such requisites as mashed potatoes, green beans, and pumpkin pie. And we also had shisha (hookah). Definitely missed the wine and our family though.

Serving up food in the kitchen.
Please note our brand new stove! My mom said there was absolutely no way we could cook a turkey in our toaster oven, so we went out and bought this stainless steel beauty.

Nate's turkey. Poor thing was only about 6.5 lbs, the biggest we could find in Sana'a.

more food and another wedding

I just returned home, totally worn out, from a long day with the neighborhood women. They invited me to their house this morning to cook lunch, which was then to be fed to the men. So I went over, but wasn't too much help cooking but did my best to keep them entertained with photos of our wedding, house, and family. The photos were a big hit and they kept most of the wedding pictures, in addition to requesting that I print out multiple copies of each so they could have more copies.

After the men had been served, the ladies and I sat around the kitchen floor to dig into the feast (typical lunch for them). Food included: rice with saffron; lamb (although they kept pointing to it and saying excitedly, in English, "Chicken!"; spaghetti noodles, small, thin noodles with chicken flavoring, flat bread with salsa, flat bread with mystery mint-colored sauce, bread rolls, salad, potatoes, water, and tea. Good lord, so much food! I think the best part of the meal, however, was that every other bite, the matron of the family would grab me and shove huge spoonfuls of food into my mouth. As far as I could tell, she was worried that my own spoonfuls were generally too small, and I wasn't eating fast enough.

After the feast we headed up to the ladies mafraj, where I assumed we'd sit for a minute and then I would return home. Apparently they had other plans, as we sat down and they demanded to know what I was wearing under my baltoo. They weren't impressed so they brought me a whole new outfit, did my lips with red lipstick, bathed me in perfume, then told me we were heading to a wedding. So off we went. To the brides house. Where we sat on her bed and had tea with sesame seeds. Apparently today was the "pre-wedding" and tomorrow we're headed back for some other party.

Today's wedding outfit. I'm definitely down with these new clothes and plan to only wear outfits such as this upon my return to America.

After settling in, the ladies began the requisite baby talk and inquest into why I don't have a baby. Apparently not satisfied with my answer "in the future, god willing," they proceeded to ask what was wrong with me and have I seen a doctor about my infertility. A bit frustrated with their questions and accusations, I finally broke down and said that we cannot have a baby until Nate is done with school and return home to America and so I therefore take "medicine" to prevent getting pregnant. Although I expected them to respond with horror and a lecture about god, they instead asked me the name of the medicine and if I could have some sent to them from America. Sigh. I wanted so badly to tell them that I believed in freedom of having the choice, and that I would absolutely be willing to have the pill mailed from America. But I think birth control is highly frowned upon here, if not illegal, and I can't imagine how the husbands would react if they found out their wives were on birth control, and that I provided it. So instead I had to say that I could try to have it mailed, but the police might take it away, and maybe their husbands would not be happy. Following the awkward conversation about birth control, during which, I should add, the grandmother kept nudging me in the ribs and happily pantomiming the act of copulation, the ladies then got on to shaving and wanted the full detail of what and how I shave. Ya Allah.

Some 8 hours after my day began at their house, our ride finally came to take us home, all 10 of us, in an Echo. To be fair, 4 of the passengers were children, but still. It was pretty crammed. And al-HumdulAllah, I'm so glad to be back.

local chicks and small boy with box

portland visitors

We’ve had a busy past week, spent with our dear friends from Portland, Comfort and Susan. The gals arrived, via Cairo, early Tuesday morning. Wednesday we visited Wadi Dhahr, which is home to an incredible 18th-century palace built atop a massive rock.

Wadi Dhahr and the Dar al-Hajar rock palace

Thursday morning we headed east with a group from our school to the island of Kamaran, off the west coast of Yemen. We were treated to swimming in the hot bath tub of the Red Sea, freshly caught jumbo shrimp for dinner, many bottles of Red Wine (first time in Yemen for that!), a midnight fireworks show followed by splashing in the water with glowing ocean phosphorescence, a wonderful night of sleep outside under the stars and next to the waves, a morning acrobatic show by the island’s resident dolphins (including an itty bitty baby), and a mangrove forest tour. Fun fact for those of you who have read Motoring with Mohammed (a brilliant book, I’d recommend it to all), the author’s story takes place just off the island of Kamaran. Our adventure was fantastic, but far too short. And Nate broke his big toe, which was both sad and painful. We’re definitely planning to head back in the spring when the Brakken parents come visit us.

small boat in large sea: heading to Kamaran from the mainland

sleeping accommodations on the island: straw huts or beach (both equally rad)

fireworks show (to celebrate our friend Jess's birthday)

water camels?

swimming in the mangrove forest

The remainder of Susan and Comfort’s stay in Yemen was spent in Sana’a and involved lots of shopping (especially for jambayas, baltus, scarves, and Saddam Hussein lighters). They also had the fortune to be invited to several of our neighbors’ homes. Our Yemeni friends were wildly excited to meet Nate’s “mom and sister” (it was easier to say that than explain the concept of a surrogate family in Arabic, and hosting strangers overnight probably wouldn’t go over too well here). Susan had her makeup done, and the ladies even dressed her up in the infamous “fertility jewelry”. I think they both had a truly wonderful time in Yemen, and Susan is thinking about coming back to Sana’a in the spring with her kids, inshaaAllah.

charlie's (yemeni) angels

susan tries qat, in special makeup and dress...

We’re quite sad and lonely now that our family/friends have returned to Portland, but fortunately for us we have a big event tonight to cheer us up: a private party at the US Embassy! A full report to be posted soon.

halloween in yemen