adventures, disasters, etc.

Asdiqati al-azizun,

All is well-ish in Yemen. I will preface further thoughts by noting that we had a giant bedbug problem in our house which is presently being rectified, but it appears that the poisons they used have made my roommate and I a little sick. So, in the spirit of making excuses for not-extremely-well-articulated thoughts, I offer that one up to you.

Last Wednesday (which is the start of the weekend here), I played soccer with some Yemeni women and some girls from our school. When we took off our baltos to reveal matching uniforms, the coach was initially quite impressed and assumed we must have played seriously before. That was....well, not the case - but I did score the only goal for my team when we scrimaged, a true highlight of my young I-really-want-to-play-team-sports life. I also met Altaf, a Yemeni woman who works at the Ministry of Public Health here in Sana'a doing HIV counseling for women. I went to her home yesterday so we could practice English and Arabic; I am delighted to be making many Yemeni friends.

Last Wednesday before the football, I found myself in an old Sana'ani home and, well....

This is one of my teachers, Sayeeda, and me on the roof of said house. Sayeeda is one of the most delightful people I know here. She doesn't speak English, which is great. After the football game, she and I and some others went to this women's qat chew party; everyone sat in a narrow comfortable room, and we were fed piles of cakes and sweets and juices, and then we'd get up 2 or 3 at a time and dance to the Yemeni music cassette tape playing.

The next day, I went on a picnic to Bayt Bauz, a really old village outside of Sana'a that predates Islam and that used to be filled with Yemeni Jews. There are only 13 families who live there now.

I wanted to climb this tree. I discovered that climbing trees in long pioneer skirts can be disastrous and ridiculous looking. I eventually made it up, though, and feel compelled to share the small triumph with you.
Yemen is in the middle of a 3-year drought. In Sana'a, all of the water in the city is brought in by truck and piped up into water tanks in the buildings. This is one water truck I noticed - not really sure if they're referring to that infamous Sadam or some other guy. Speaking of that Saddam, it's funny to see his picture up in random businesses (though pictures of Yemen's president far outnumber posters of S. Hussein). There was a picture of Saddam in the restaurant where I ate dinner tonight as well as a picture of him in the place where I bought fresh sweets. And the deaf guy outside the tunnel near the square where I live sells lighters that also have Saddam and Osama faces on them.

On Thursday, I went to Thula, Shebam, and Kowkaban with friends. You should know, as a side note, that donkeys are a common site here, as are herds of goats in my alley, and the occasional cow wandering unattended through the souk (okay, that only happened once, but still...).
This is a really old water cistern (WC, baby). These are what some of the people I'm friends with look like:
I bought a couple scarves, and a Yemeni woman working at this restaurant tied a black one on for me like a bedouin. This was a quick (and failed) attempt to recreate the look. I had the black scarf re-tied on later, and I wore it on the whole hike up the mountain (I felt like a ninja). Unfortunately, all awesome pictures of me in said bedouin headdress have been lost - I went to an Ethiopian wedding later that night (awesome. the only wedding I've ever crashed, and it was excellent - insane dancing to Ethiopian music for several hours, not to mention the most delicious cuisine). At said wedding, someone decided to crawl into my purse and take my camera. [exasperation, exasperation]
So, from friend Jake's camera, this is a view from the cliffs of Kowkaban:
and this is the entire valley.

More soon. Ma sala'ama, my friends.