My housemates have found a new place to live. I’ve never gotten along with them, they really remind me of frat boys back in my college days. Every single conversation eventually gets back to sex, woman’s genitals, some other sexual act, and/or drinking. I like to think that I grew out of that about 18 years ago… Anyway, they’re leaving next week, I can’t wait…
Isaac
Last night I had to stop what I was doing to help out an American guy that had blown a gasket. He had tried to download his pictures from a digital camera at a nearby internet cafe. Turns out that they couldn’t do it, but they made him wait an hour and a half. He came in here (the cafe I usually use) mad as hell, he was yelling and telling me that the guy had tried to charge him 90 riyals, 90 MFing RIAYLS! It sounded like a miscommunication to me, and 90 riyals is about 45 cents, so I immediately classified this guy as a hothead. “it isn’t the amount, it’s the principle…” is what he told me. Anyway, I burned his cds on my computer. He asked me if I was worried about homeland security questioning me when I got back, “After all, that’s what Lind did, he went to Yemen to study..” I said no, I’m pretty obvious, and if they do any research on me at all they’ll see I’m about as American as I can be. Later on he tells me how he’s going up to Afghanistan. Her barely knows any Arabic, he’s a hot head, most likely an asshole, and if there’s one thing that will get you flagged on reentry to the US it is going from Yemen to Afghanistan… He’s gone now, thank God…
Isaac
Went to dinner yesterday out on Hadda street. Took a dabob and sat next to the open door. I always feel like I’m in Nam laying down suppressing fire from my huey as the pavement rolls by. You have to pay attention when you’re in that seat though. Whenever someone wants to get out, you have to hop out to allow them to exit. Usually, I would then take their seat, but we had a few women in there this time. One got off, but none of us guys would think about sitting next to the other two women, it just isn’t done. Muslims here are not allowed any physical contact with women that they are not related to or married to. I’m just following along…
Got to the restaurant, told the waiter I wanted hummus, a salad, kabobs and rice. His response was that 4 items was too much food, how about three things. Lucky for him I don’t know how to say what came to my mind in Arabic… “Which one of us is the customer? Give me what I order, hold the attitude!” Instead, i did what I always do, I play the part of the smiling American… I smiled and told him I am a big guy, that seemed to work, although I never did get my rice…
Today I went to the internet place and it hadn’t opened yet, forgot that it was friday. So I wandered around a little. Had a fresh strawberry juice made for me and ate some fresh potato chips. The British were here long enough that fries are call chips. But these were actual potato chips, and boy were they good.
The highlight for today is getting my hair cut. That ought to be interesting…
Isaac
I recently had an exchange with a guy on a photography forum. He was complaining that China has a terrible record when it comes to civil liberties and is a totalitarian nation. I agree with that, the Chinese government is a piece of work. He then went on to accuse “greedy” consumers and companies of fueling this. He was hoping that “someone with some clout” would do something to help the Chinese people.
My question to him was this, would you rather live in China now, or 20 years ago before those “greedy” companies came in. The answer is pretty obvious, now is much better than 20 years ago. It is the companies that give the Chinese jobs, and the consumers that give those companies money, they have raised the standard of living there tremendously. Yes, the government is corrupt, and I might even call it evil, but trading with them is the best thing we can do. Compare China with Cuba. We’ve had a trade embargo with Cuba for what, 56 years or something and a fairly open trade agreement with China. Cuba has been dirt poor for quite a while, and they’re not getting any better. China had been dirt poor for a long time, until they opened up their country to trading. Both China and the US have growing economies (China’s is a mach larger growth percentage, but they were starting from a much lower place), while Cuba’s is, at best, standing still. If it wasn’t for the handouts it gets from Chavez, they would be in even worse shape. As always, handouts don’t lead to growth, they are bandaids.
I’m going to put up a piece on my website about this topic. I am amazed whenever I hear about people wanting to stop trade to HELP the Chinese, Indians, Cubans, etc. Trade only helps. I am also amazed that Chavez and Castro continue to get away with publicly proclaiming that they want to be the nexus of the “new” Soviet Union. Marx lives with them, everyone knows what happened to the original Sovirt Union, right? Why would you ever want to emulate that?
Isaac
Went down to the souk right before sunset and took some snaps. I’ll go back again when I have more light to get shots of the raisin (zabeeb) and spice souks…
Isaac
Not really sure what that means, but I have gone up another level. Along with the secret handshake, I was also introduced to the inner workings of Arabic words. It *seems* that all words are derived from the root verbs. The root verbs are always given in the third person, masculine singular. By using defined rules, you can derive not only all the verb forms (participles, tenses, etc.) but also the noun forms of who does it, what object is involved, and where it is performed. So the verb “(he) wrote” gives rise to the nouns book and desk. Neat system eh? Of course there are 10 forms the verbs could come in (they call them measures) and there are 9 rules for each measure… Gah. This is good and bad. The bad part is obvious, that’s a lot of rules… The cool thing is that once I get it under control, I’ll have a much better understanding of the language. Tomorrow’s another day…
Isaac
My very first thought this morning was “…look away, look away, look away, Dixeland.” I’m not really sure if the lyric is look away or turn away, it doesn’t matter, I shouldn’t have to put up with this…
Isaac
There is a kid on the block that has a little kid’s bike. It blares out an annoying tune over a horn whenever he pedals. The tune changes, but the sound is always grating and horn like… It is the first horn that I have heard that has both Le Marseilles AND Dixie on it. The comic effect has worn off, especially since the parents allow the kid to ride at all hours of the night. I can’t tell which would be worse, breaking the kid’s heart by destroying the bike, or breaking the parent’s heart by killing the kid… Hey, you try falling asleep to a horn playing Dixie…
Isaac
I went back to the “red” restaurant yesterday. Since it was my third or fourth time, I had the routine pretty well down. This time, when I went to the counter to place my order, a better dressed guy beckoned me to keep walking towards the back of the place. The main restaurant is pretty basic, the equivalent of picnic tables and benches and a decidedly fast food decor. Well, the guy brought me to a courtyard in the back that is MUCH nicer. Out in the lovely Yemen weather, lots of plants, even a fountain! It was quite nice… The food was the same with the exception of the bread. I got fresh cooked bread instead of the stuff that come in bags. That alone was worth it. It made my hummus much better… I also got to try something new to eat! It was a spaghetti casserole with ground, spiced meat in it and held together with a cheese/egg cement. Wow, was it heavy, but so nice to eat something new! I got hummus and fresh bread, a salad (the salads here have no lettuce, just cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, and a light dressing. They are quite a bit more substantial than the ones back home, they’re essentially a bowl of veggies), and that casserole thing. It all cost a little under 5 bucks. The wait staff was “up” to the usual Yemeni standard, but it didn’t detract from the meal. I’ll have to do that again…
Isaac
I had a little talk with Adel (my teacher) about weddings here in Yemen. There are all sorts of details that are significantly different of course but what caught my attention was the role that religion played in it. Here in Yemen, the Imam seems to play the role of a notary. The father of the bride and the groom and his family come together and agree on things, the Imam puts it in writing and it is signed. That’s it. Weddings here seem to be almost totally in the social realm. There are many religious aspects to being married (sexual contact, gender roles, etc. ) but the wedding itself isn’t a religious event. I’ll have to look more into it and see if that’s just his perception, a Yemeni thing, or if it is more widespread in the muslim world. It really caught me by surprise, as religious as these people are, that weddings were not a solemn religious event…
Isaac