pictures from our field trip

Nate and Bill

this (small) truck, on the highway, was carrying some 20 visible people

locust swarm

outside Sana'a

volcano in Hammam al Dimt

hot volcanic water explosions

The weekend in Yemen begins on Thursday, which this week included a school field trip with one hired driver, our school's groundskeeper (Am, which means "uncle" -- he's very old, and yells at everyone/everything), 3 teachers, and 5 students (including us). The day trip, advertised as "hot volcanic water explosions for men and women" (which we translated into: "come see a volcano and then go to the hot springs where men and women can have separate baths") marked our first time out of Sana'a. We got to the school at 7:00 where a "bus" (small, 1980's Toyota van) began to drive us southeast of Sana'a. Hundreds of small towns with houses built on top of huge rocks dot the countryside. An hour into our drive we pulled over in a small town to witness a massive swarm of locusts. The entire sky was grey with the insects, and the locals were rejoicing, kids leaping through the fields to catch the grasshopper-like bugs (many the size of a small hummingbird), for later eating. People were offering them to me, telling me how to best cook and eat the locust. As we were leaving, some guy ran up and put a water bottle full of living, squirming "treats" into my hands. I responded "no thanks," which was probably rude, but i just didn't want to see them go to waste. Not too far from the locust infestation, we heard a loud bang on the side of the car, scaring the shit out of us; the tread on our back tire had shredded. Fortunately/conveniently we were just 200 feet from a tire shop. The tire was quickly fixed, and we we got back on the road, driving for less than an hour when, BOOM! The spare popped. Now, several miles from a tire shop, the taxi driver and (old) groundskeeper, Am, decided on a plan of attack, which included reinstalling the first failed tire with a broken crank, which the taxi driver nonetheless twisted and turned futilely in the jack while Am dug out a hole around the area with a small rock. One reinstalled, the threadless tire limped us along to the next town, where we stopped to eat a breakfast of scrambled eggs & bean pancakes (and where the driver replaced our defective back wheel).

Some four hours after our initial departure we arrived in Hammam al Dimt, a small town with dirt roads (many of them almost completely obscured with trash). The town boasts a volcano & hot spring, which we had envisioned to be an outdoor spa, perhaps at the base of the volcano, and hopefully offering scrubs & massages. We started our adventure in Hammam al Dimt by climbing the volcano, an arduous task for Morgan in her restricting "thobe". Our hike was rewarded with a lunch of individual chickens, rice, marinated veggies, and soda (with pull tabs!), although this fantastic meal almost didn't materialize because Am got into a vicious argument with the restaurant staff, who seemed to be on the verge of kicking us out. Food was followed by a visit to the much anticipated hot spring....which turned out to be more of a bath house attached to a hotel, about 2 miles from the volcano. Morgan & I had our own private bath (like a really deep 2-person hot tub constructed of slate tiles). Our cold water tap was out of order, and without some cold, the hot (volcanic) water was essentially unbearable. The vision of an outdoor natural pool with spa-like treatments turned into an odd sauna experience, but was refreshing nonetheless. We began the journey home at 5:00, and again, our taxi ride was plagued with tire troubles. The back wheel (this time on the driver's side) had some sort of nail lodged in it, and instead of just replacing/fixing it, the driver stopped every hour or so to refill the leaking tire with air. In addition to our multiple pit stops, the driver also managed to get us lost, not once, but three times, and one of those times after we had arrived back in Sana'a, the groundskeeper, Am, yelling at him the entire time.

our 'hood

in our school's garden

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).

Nate on God

I have quite the (religious) recruiter here. His name is Ahmed and he is 10. He rides his bike by during every prayer time as I am smoking. Ahmed likes to remind me that I should be at the mosque during the prayer times. I always remind him that I am not Muslim and do not go to mosque, but that he should be there, to which he always replies defensively, "I'm on my way!" I think it really hurts this guy that I'm not a Muslim, although I do tell him that I am Christian (and thus "one of the Book"), (as to not cause trouble--and my vocabulary won't permit me to explain the complexities of agnostic).

No guns for Nater

Today is Friday or "Jumuah", the day of prayer. At 4am sharp the usual "allahhu akbar" woke us up, or rather just startled us from our light sleep (we went to sleep around 6pm last night). At around 7am we went on a little journey around the Old City by the National Museum. The streets were still wet from last night’s rain, and in the suq (outdoor market) men were disassembling the huge tent from last night’s wedding, which it seemed that everyone from Yemen was invited to as the streets were teeming with men wearing their finest jambias and women with their sharpest, blackest burkas. Later there were fireworks and music until at least 11:30. After the shops opened this morning I bought some water and bread. The shops here are not unlike the little tiendas in Mexico, except the only English spoken is “allo”. The bread here is amazing, and cheap; it seems as though nearly everything is done by artisans. Across from the store that sells bread is a mill that mills grains for the bread, there are shoe repair shops everywhere, and tailors also. I really enjoyed speaking with the shop people although I’m sure they were confused by my minimal utterances. I’ve found that even women will speak to me, which is way different than my expectations. One other thing that is both a disappointment and probably a blessing at the same time is that there are no fully automatic weapons allowed in Sana’a; National Geographic from 2000 exalted the beauties of buying weapons in the suq, but alas since then they have become illegal. However, outside of Sana’a they are perfectly legal and indeed part of the uniform of the normal Yemeni.

No PBR in Yemen

Beer apparently exists here however it is 1000 rials ($5) a can, and although we've paid that at some of the fancy bars in Portland we just can't bring ourselves to spending a day’s worth of food on one can of beer. There is also the nefarious rumored "Russian Club" or the Chinese restaurant where vodka is apparently readily available for 5000 rials so maybe for some special occasion we will buy a bottle and get silly.

a new pink toilet!

Pictures: our front door and apartment building.


Our school is very nice with a beautiful courtyard garden. The building itself is in great shape and is 5 stories with around 12 classrooms and a small library.
Good news! At about 7:10 tonight there was a knock on our door. Abdul Karim (the housing manager) told us that he got us a new hammam (toilet). A couple of guys, cheeks stuffed with qat, brought us a nice new pink one. So...they are currently in our bathroom pounding away at concrete. Imagine finding a plumber in the states willing to work this late at night let alone what it would cost. People here on average make about $4 a day so even if these guys make $20 they will probably be pretty happy. I guess "god's will" worked quickly today.



Other observations about our new city: The streets here are covered in trash; people just throw their trash wherever they happen to be. There are many Somalis who live here that clean the streets, our stoop is swept at least twice a day. Other good news, we have a maid! Apparently in our $300 a month rent she will come in whenever we want. Pretty sweet.



I was just outside talking to some little kids--they are so adorable. They started with the normal "allo" then "what your name?" followed by the compulsory "flus?" (money). Then this boy told me that his brother had problems with his eyes, I look down at the boy whose eyes were of course perfectly normal until I looked down and he crossed them for me. Quite the racket indeed. Our little "business" meeting was interrupted by rain that came out of nowhere. The main street here is sunken, and it serves two functions: 1st a highway, and when it rains like this a river. All of the cars get off the "highway" and jam into the local streets causing a huge traffic jam in the Old City. The rain lasted about 5 minutes and was gone. And while we’re on the weather, it’s not bad at all, it gets warm in the day and it is a little humid but I can’t imagine that it got above 85 today, although I'd be more accurate
if it weren't for their silly metric system and the confusing Celsius nonsense. The director of the institute Mohammed told us today that it doesn't get above 30C which apparently is a lovely temperature.

Settling In

Pictured above: our living room and short doors.


This morning we woke up at 4am to the call to prayer which sounds like a man who smokes about 3 packs a day screaming at the top of his lungs "aaaalllllaaaaahhhhhuuuuu akbar" over and over for about 10 solid minutes. We also had our first real meal, saltah which is a veggie stew that is put in a cast iron pan then placed on a fire until it is lava hot then topped with a fenugreek froth this is served with a nice soup and hot fresh pita bread. We treated our new Belgian friend Taiz to lunch, with drinks (bottled water) and way more saltah than we could eat; the total came to 950 Yemeni rials--not a bad deal as we are getting 199 rials to the dollar. I also bought some cigarettes for 150 rials (and will now be able to say "I remember when smokes were 75 cents a pack").



The Yemeni people are amazing; the children are so cute, they all walk up and say "allo" or "welcome to Yemen” and we reply "sabah al khir" or "salam alikum" and they smile the biggest toothy smiles. The men here all wear the jambia (the curved dagger right in front connected to a large embroidered belt--that also often has a cellphone attached). Most women wear the burka, and some even wear scarves that cover even their eyes.

We're Here!

Pictures above: our kitchen, "toilet" (and shower head, above the toilet), and Morgan's new digs.


Marhaba min Al-Yemen. So after nearly 30 hours we have arrived in our new home. First impressions: drivers are crazy here! Turn signals are never used, and instead a combination of the horn (which all sound like the horn from "Little Miss Sunshine" from overuse) and emergency lights are employed when passing or approaching another vehicle on the road.Marhaba min Al-Yemen! We have arrived and are spending our first day in the beautiful city of Sana'a.


We arrived at our apartment around 11pm Yemen time (10 hours different than west coast time) and unpacked our four 50 pound boxes (thank god we packed toilet paper). Our apartment is very nice (and approximately 2000 years old); we have a large sitting room with a t.v., bedroom, kitchen with a gas stove, industrial sink and a table with lawn chairs. The only thing lacking in the place is the toilet (we have a squatter!) The president of the university has promised that soon he will have a hammam gharbi (western toilet) installed "in sha allah" (god willing). We also have a security guard (Yousef) who lives right next door to us. He has been our guide today while we purchased necessary items like Morgan’s garb, water, a lighter and the like (see above photo).

Last day in Portland

On the board at the Portway Tavern in St. Johns.