death has arrived

Not really. But I was in the Hadramawt, the name of a large region in eastern Yemen that means "death has arrived". The Hadramawt is referred to in the 10th chapter of Genesis and it's been inhabited since the Stone Age. It's also the ancestral home of the Bin Laden family. Osama was born into a Yemenite family of 58 children; his dad came from the Hadramawt, and his father-in-law still lives there. This is the most religious part of Yemen; the number of mosques in the Hadramawt town of Tarim alone exceeds the number of mosques in all of Saudi Arabia.

Because the security situation is not ideal, we didn't get to take the longed-for 15-hour bus ride through the Empty Quarter, the mother of all deserts or something like that. Instead, we flew. Once there, we traveled from town to town by bus - or, for a certain lucky few of us, in either of the police trucks with armed men who were escorting us.
This is one of their guns. That's the president of Yemen taped on:
Ruined fortresses along the drive:
This mosque in Tarim boasts the tallest minaret in Yemen:
In this desert, all the buildings are made of mud bricks and sometimes coated with gypsum. Not surprising, but seeing this sort of thing really made me feel like I was in a desert in the Middle East. Go figure.
Can you imagine farming in this? These women were herding goats. Taking pictures of women is NOT acceptable; I'm not sure how friend Emily managed this photo, but it doesn't like the ladies were happy about it.
This is a panorama of Shibam in the Hadramawt:
And this is another view of the city. It's often called the 'Manhattan of the desert'. Not because of its nightlife or anything - just amazing tall buildings that are made of....mud.
I'm realizing that since I've borrowed all these photos from various friends, my memory is fuzzy on what is what. Sorry. (note: I was surprised and delighted to find that US-Yemeni cooperation in terms of mail delivery is apparently effective - I did get a new camera yesterday, hamdulillah. Back in business!)

Across the street from our hotel in Seyun, every kid in town seemed to be involved in evening football matches:
I will also note that Euro Cup fever was rampant this last week or so. I went to Zorba's a couple nights ago with many friends to watch the final match between Spain and Germany; half of Sana'a also seemed to be watching the match on Zorba's tv from the street. The level of skill and enthusiasm for football here is pretty amazing.

This is the view from the hotel roof:
and this is the city of Seyun:
And on the flight back to Sana'a, you could see the presidential mosque under construction from the air. Please note that there's a Pizza Hut just across the street. Out of curiosity, I ate there tonight. Please also note that when you're in a Muslim country, your Hawaiian pizza will be served with beef sausage instead of Canadian bacon (haram!).


Final things of note:

1. I bought a goat fur the night before we left. True.
2. I'm going to Aden tomorrow with a friend from school and my Yemeni friend Majed. More on this upon my 4 July return.
3. I really seriously love this country.