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.