just another tuesday evening

As a demonstration of my good intentions with more frequent postings, here are a few more pictures tonight.

Another Old City picture, just because it's cool:

There's a little shop next door to where I'm staying. The shopkeeper, Abdul, apparently lives upstairs with his mom and her 4 other children. Last night as I was on my way into my building, my roommate stopped me to say that Abdul's sister was going to do henna that night, if we wanted. Homework or henna? I followed Chelsea upstairs above the shop, and for the next several hours hung out with all the young and old women and their friends while Rim basically gave us henna sleeves. Rim does henna sometimes in order to make extra money to buy food for her child; her husband is a bad man who takes all the money for cigarettes and qat and abuses her son.

Tonight, we ate at a different Palestinian restaurant.
You pick out the fish you want grilled up for you...
...and then you eat with gusto.

There seems to be a strange fascination with Jean Claude Van Damme here. He has been mentioned to me several times as an idol by young Yemenis when they find out I'm from LA, and his pictures has been posted or painted on a variety of shop walls. I particularly liked this sign:

Tomorrow, inshallah, I will be learning to play some soccer with Sana'a's first women's league. In preparation, some of us went to a sports store and bought Yemeni Adidas wear. My shorts cost a whopping $2.50.
More soon. Ma salaaama for now, asdiqati.