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My day usually consists of getting up, eating breakfast, studying, go to class, go to internet cafe, eat dinner, study and/or do something with the roommates, then go to bed. Pretty thrilling eh? Keep in mind that the Arabic classes and studying are pretty taxing. If I don’t have any food in the house, getting some usually requires a round trip walk of between 1 and 4 miles, depending on what it is I am in the mood for.

My breakfasts have generally consisted of bread (fresh), an apple or orange, maybe a fruit drink (once again fresh), and sometimes some cheese to go with the bread. If I’m out of food or I want something different, I can walk down to the souk and get one of those egg flatbread concoctions that cost me .25 cents. A fresh juice will run about 10 cents. The only reason I don’t do that every day is that it’s about a mile and a half round trip. I could take a taxi, but I usually walk it.

Dinner varies considerably. Sometimes I’ll go get a chicken (3 bucks, that’s the American price) and maybe some rice. Sometimes I’ll substitute some bread for the rice, that’s around 25 cents per piece. Sana’a supposedly has over 40 different types of bread availible in it’s markets. I’ve tried 3. One I only get with the egg thing, one is a muffin, maybe a date muffin? The other is flatish, round, and slightly sweet. It usually has some sesame seeds sprinkled on the top. Often times, I will eat the leftovers of the previous night’s dinner since an entire chicken is a bit much to consume in one sitting, especially when combined with other stuff.

Every once in a while we’ll go to a resturant. There are some very strange takes on foreign food at these places. One night I had to explain what fajitas actually were to a Kuwaiti woman that was eating with us. She got what looked like a cheesteak sub, but they used soy sauce to flavor it. I have discussed the hamburger I got before… The same meal, Luca got a “Fillet” sandwich. Turns out that it was a mistranslation of a “Philly” sandwich. It looked good enough, I was a bit jealous looking at his sandwich while “enjoying” my burger…

Eventually I will branch out with the food. My main problem is the language. Most places do not have menus, you just ask what they have. I haven’t tried the “national” dish of Yemen, a bean dish called “salta”. One of these days… I made the mistake of asking my bread man “Ma hath tha?” (what is it?). I was trying to figure out what kind of bread I was buying. Well, he told me, but due to the enormous wad of Qat he had in his mouth I couldn’t understand a thing he said. I just said “shukran” (thank you) and walked off. Still, it’s good brad and I’ll keep buying it:-)

Amin came down and cooked some vegtables for us the other night. There were some beans and a thing that looked like a cross between caulliflower and corn…trust me. The beans were pretty good, although you didn’t eat the casing they were in. We ate “Arab style”, ie with our hands. You squeezed the beans out of the casing and into your mouth. The other thing was a little too much like eating birdseed, couldn’t really get into it. He boiled them up in a really salty brine. I must have drank two bottles of water after that. Sure wish that I could remember what that stuff was called.
Isaac

I have met Amin several times. He’s a teacher at the school and he’s also an Imam. I think that he teaches both language and Islam studies at the school. I knew that he lived upstairs from us, but I never really thought about it. Well, today I went to the roof to hang up my laundry (I’ll spare you the recount of my first time doing laundry by hand) and I realized that there were no other roomsd above us. I looked around on the roof and saw what I had always figured was a storage room. Turns out that that is where he lives. My room is at least 4 times larger than his, and I pay $200 a month for it. I had the option of a smaller room at the $150 a month that was originally quoted but I opted for the larger room. Anyway, if his rent is 1/4 of mine, that means that he’s paying around $50 a month. He’s most likely paying less since he works for the school and he’s not a westerner. He commented on the size of my room before and I now realize that he’d really like a larger one but it doesn’t seem that he can afford more than $50 a month at most. Here’s the kicker, he seems to be living pretty well as compared to many people I pass in the street every day. Kind of puts everything in perspective…

Isaac

Didn’t get much sleep last night. There is a wedding taking place practically next to my building. They started around 10pm last night and went until 3am. Singing, dancing, chanting, etc. Then they started lighting firecrackers… A guy I met in school today mentioned that at a wedding near his place they were firing ak-47s in the air… Don’t worry, my room faces a narrow alley, they would have to be 25 feet in the air in order to get something through my windows… Anyway, they eventually let up and I drifted off to sleep. About 4 or 5 hours later I was awoken to BLARING MUSIC. It was so loud I had to cover my ears in my room… Turns out that they have erected a bullhorn type of speaker facing my building’s corner. My housemate is taking the full brunt, but I’m getting an earful too. I’m not kidding, I think that at the side of the building, it is probably around 105db loud. Not as loud as a jet engine (around 115db), but pretty effing loud. Too loud to sleep or study, that’s for damn sure. Yemini weddings are supposed to last 3 days and nights…shudder. I told my teacher that in the US, the cops would be called and they would put an end to the nuisance. He said that here, if I called the police they might take me someplace quiet.. Not sure if he was joking about that or not… Yes, it is a different culture, and yes, a wedding is a joyous time, but why do they have to inflict it on the entire neighborhood? We can’t be the only ones that are trying to sleep at 2 in the morning! I’ve already told my teacher that if I have another night like last night I won’t come to class. I was barely functional today, there’s no use in wasting our time if I can’t think straight…

Pictures of the president are everywhere… Normally I would only expect this in a totalitarian regime, but people really seem to like the guy. His picture is not only in all of the government related buildings, but in people’s houses, in their cars, on the walls of their houses, in their wallet, he’s everywhere… It’s really kind of odd.

What else… I went to the travel agent to pick up my ticket to Malta only to find out that his system had been down all day… Things (and people) don’t always work here in Yemen. Learned my lesson though, it’s about a mile and a half each way to the travel agent. Tonight I call first. In Sha’Allah I will be able to pick them up tonight.

Found a Yemen bakery right around the corner from the internet cafe that I like to use. This is bad, very bad… The food is very good, and cheap. I got two cookies that were very much like kolochkies (sp?) except with a lighter, flakier cookie part and a big piece of a lightweight type of baklava for about 50 cents. This could definately lead to some extra pounds being put on by yours truely… I’ll stop by there tonight if I go to the travel agent.

Luca’s wife Naleg (I think that’s right, it’s a gaelic name) came back today. She’s Irish and he’s Italian. Not to invest too much into stereotypes, but I’m not sure if I’d like to be around when they get to fighting. LOL. She’s really nice, she brought back an enormous chocolate bar with nuts in it for me, and she’d never met me before! As you can imagine, women giving me chocolate rank very high on my favorite lists. So it will take something pretty terrible for me to see her in anything but a positive light. Yes, chocolate means that much to me:-) It’s also nice having another accent in the house. Hers is a delightful addition, plus it’s a natural one. An American from Minnisota came over and he thought I was British(?!). I’m chalking that up to the Britishisms I’ve been falling into from talking to my housmates. Still, that was a little odd. He had gone local, wearing a thobe and chewing Qat nonstop. He told me that chewing Qat was a great way to meet people. My first thought was that yeah, so was smoking, drinking, or doing cocaine…

The more I see qat, the further I think I will stay away from it. In addition to the side effects I knew about (insomnia, constipation) I have also learned about the increased risk of mouth cancer, impotence, and painful ejaculations(!). Heroin sound less problematic… SO my clean living continues, with the exception of my sweet tooth.

If I don’t go to class tomorrow, I will get some sleep in the middle of the day, In shal’Allah, and I will try to go out and take more pictures. The old city is very picturesque and it is wildly interesting. Hope to have more to post soon!

Isaac

OK, this is one you can bookmark:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/isaacc7/

That will always get you to my pictures.

Isaac

I managed to put up a couple more pictures. The current internet cafe is faster, but it blocks flickr… So I have to work around it a bit.

A piece of advice. Do not order a hamburger in Yemen. There may not be any beef cattle on the entire Saudi peninsula, so the patties are the thin, frozen type. Plus they put that particular spice on it that I’ve had on every type of meat. It’s kind of exotic and interesting, but not when I want a damn cheese burger…

My last class was pretty good, we concentrated more on talking instead of reading. I’ve got a long ways to go on both of course, but I got tired of people asking me how I was and only being able to respond in English… I feel like I’m getting the hang of reading, there are still a few dipthiongs I need to learn and a few symbols I don’t know, but overall I feel as though I can sound things out pretty well. So yeah, I’m feeling pretty good for right now. Time to be overwhelmed in class again…

Isaac

I was wondering when I should go down to the internet cafe, but it was decided for me. We had another power outage in the old city. They’re pretty common I guess, has something to do with the crumbling infastructure. Turns out that I’m living in ‘da hood. Anyone with any money moves out so they can enjoy a house that is less than 400 years old. It is picturesqe, but everything is old old old.

CLass was both good and bad today. Turns out that my verbal memory isn’t as good as I thought. The teacher says something, I repeat it, and then it is gone. It literally takes less than 5 seconds for the information to leave my head. My guess is that my brain has nothing familier to hold onto, so nothing leaves an impression. I’m hoping that as my ear gets more attuned to Arabic, I’ll have better luck memorizing stuff I hear.

I have tomorrow “off”, although I’ll be plenty busy. I’ll spend a lot of time studying and then I’m supposed to get together with Sufian to discuss our “plan”. He wants a structured meeting time so that we can both practice our language and so that we can plan other things as well (like my internet line). He has invited me to Aden to stay with his family. I might take him up on that offer, it would be good to see more of the country and it would be best to see Aden while it is winter…

Not much else to report, I will attempt to post more pictures whan I can find a decent internet connection. I hope I can post what I have before I get to Malta!

Isaac

Men being physically affectionate with each other is very common here. They hug, kiss, and hold each other’s hands as they walk around. It is very “cute”, but I have had to recalibrate my perceptions a bit. In DC, there’s no question what this would mean. here, and many other Arab places, it is just normal, everyday stuff.

I was caught off guard by Sufian today. We were about to cross the street when he reached up and clasped my hand. My initial, rural Virginia boy reaction was, “Dude, what the…” I quickly remembered where I was and he never was the wiser. I’ll probably mention it to him though, he wants to come to the US one day, he better know what to expect:-)

Public affection between men and women is forbidden here. There is no hugging, kissing, etc. I did see a guy and a woman holding hands, but he had that “Yeah I’m holding hands with my girlfriend, what you want to do about it?” kind of look in his eye. Luca tells me that most of the men in the internet cafes spend their time IMing with girls. They smoke, chew Qat, drik water, and chat with girls from Lebanon, Jordan, or Syria. It’s kind of sad to think that this may be the only contact they have with women…

Luca also informed me that there was a bit of a controversy when the internet cafes first opened. There used to be private booths for each computer. It turns out that guys were looking at porn (surprise surprise) and this outraged the community at large. There were even bombing threats against a lot of them because of their easy access to porn. This was gotten around by having all the computers out in a comon room. My housemat tells me that some people still look at stuff. They minimize the window so that it’s really small and try to hide the screen with their bodies. Sad… Surely there must be a happy medium between the total segragation of the sexes and conservative religious beliefs…

Isaac

Sufian is my hero. He’s the one I had been IMing with before I came over. He’s a local Yemeni and we finally caught up with each other last night. We had agreed that we would help each other with language lessons. He wants to get better at his American English, and I need all the help I can get with my Arabic. One slight problem is that he is recovering from a stroke/embellism and his speech is slightly slurred. Doesn’t look like he’ll be much help when it comes to proper pronunciation, but he can still correct my grammar. Plus, I’m learning that if I know how to read a word in Arabic, I can say it. So if all else fails, he can write it down for me and I can figure out what things are from there. Anyway, he took me around this morning and helped me with two of my big projects. I now have a cell phone (although I think I need to “charge” the card) and I have ordered my plane tickets to Malta. In sha Allah (God willing, one of the most common phrases around here), I will have those confirmed tomorrow. I didn’t get the short plane ride I had hoped for, but I will save a ton of money. The best quote I could get online was around $1300, and that was going through Cairo. This will put me through Dubai (which has wifi horay!) and run me about $750. That rocks. I don’t have a number to give out yet, but I will send out the number to family when I get it. If anyone else wants it, just drop me a line and I will send it to you too.

Sufian has also said that he will help me get a land line into my room so that I can have my own internet connection. He estimates that it will be around $80 for the installation and the per minute charge is that same as the internet cafes charge, a half cent per minute. It will be dial up, but it will be in my room and not a 25-30 minute walk each way. Honestly, the internet cafes speed aren’t all that great, there’s a nonzero chance that just by using a non adware/virus riddled computer will speed things up considerably.

Class is going well. I’m still having a little trouble identifying what letters are making up the words. I really do think that part of it is the handwriting of the teacher and the books we are using. That’s something I’ll just have to deal with, people’s handwriting varies in quality. My schoolboy Arabic is actually pretty neat, but that’s because I have to concentrate so hard and I’m writing very slowly.

Today was the first day that I used a word from class in the street. A little boy walked up to me and asked “CaLam?” I had just learned that is the word for pen. I had heard before that the kids always ask for pens but this is the first time that I knew that one was asking for one. At first, he pointed to my fountain pen in my shirt pocket (yes, I carry my fountain pen in my shirt pocket, no I do not have a pocket protector, want to make something out of it?). I wasn’t about to give him that, but I remembered that I had another regular pen in my pocket, so I made his day. I brought a whole ton of pens with me, I’m guessing that most of them will go to kids. I don’t have a problem handing out pens, it’s hard to be too upset with a kid that wants to write. I did have a little one harass me the other night. I had stopped by one of the little (and I mean little) shops that around my building for a candy bar or something. The shopkeeper shooed the kid away because he didn’t have enough to buy whatever it was that he wanted. Keep in mind the kid had a 50 riyal note. That’s enough for two bus rides cross town, the equivalent of a sandwich, or 2 and a half fresh juices. He started pestering me for more money. Him I blew off, a pen yes, extra money to buy a whole box of cookies, no.

Something had been bothering me, but I couldn’t tell what it was. Sana’a is a dirty place. There’s no other word for it. There’s trash everywhere, and mop water is apparently in short supply. despite this, I have not seen a single mouse or rat and very very few bugs. A fly bothered me today and it was odd enough that I remembered it. I wonder if people are so cavalier about trash and filth because there doesn’t seem to be a vermin problem. The consequences aren’t much. It’s ugly, but there really isn’t any sort of pest problem… odd. Christoph informed me today that othr parts of the country are not so lucky. He recently went to T’aizz in the souch and had to sleep with cockroaches…

One last thing for today. last night my feet were a little sore. I haven’t walked this much in ages. I’m developing some blisters, but nothing too bad. I looked down at my feet and said aloud, “Holy shit, what’s wrong with my feet!” They were all mottled, dark, and splotchy looking. My nails were darkish I thought. The thought occurred to me that something was wrong…. maybe leprosy! Well, it turns out that all I needed was a good scrubbing, my feet were filthy! Sandals are the most common type of shoe around here, and it’s mild enough (for me) to wear them, but your feet sure get dirty sometimes! I had to laugh about that…

Isaac

Had to go to another cafe, and it still took forever. I guess I shouldn’t complain since I’m in a third world country, I’m lucky I can do this at all… The pictures look like hell on this monitor, but looked fine on mine, so I hope they look decent. You can see them here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/18102095@N00/

I think you can book mark this page and it will take you to my main page. I might start to organize them at some point, but you should be able to get to them anyway. More pictures to come!

Isaac

It’s amazing how the little things can set you off. I can’t talk with most people here, no problem, I can’t tell people where I live since I don’t know the names of the streets (not that there are any signs anyway), no problem. I can’t upload pictures and internet explorer keeps crashing on me in the internet cafe…. $$%@*$!@ this stupid computer!!!! Whew, glad I got that out of my system, I was really pissed, I couldn’t get anything done. The good news is that the hour only cost me 50 cents, but still…

I managed to get a roasted chicken and some rice last night. He asked me if I wanted some sort of spice sprinkled on it and I motioned that I wanted just a little since I didn’t know what it was. I still don’t know what it was, but man was it good! I’ll have to have them put it on liberally next time.. I still can’t get over how cheap all of this is, I’m pretty sure I paid the “American” price, but $3.50 for a whole chicken and a whole lot of rice is a pretty damn good deal. Took it home around 8ish last night and tore into it Arab style, no utensils needed. Ate with my hands. BTW, I was under the impression that they never used their left hand when eating. That may be true of bedouins, but here everyone washes their hands before eating and then they use both hands. At least that’s how it was at the places I’ve been to. Class is good, but I’m afraid a lot of it is going in one ear and out the other at this point, way too much new information. It’s ok, since it’s just me and the teacher he’ll just have to repeat things until I get it. I’m now in the throws of recognizing hand written Arabic as opposed to the nice, neat lettering that I have in the textbooks. It’s a little tough to differentiate some things anyway, but when the vagaries of different people’s hand writing come into play it can be even more confusing.

Met a Brit and another American (from capital heights MD of all places) today. Everyone has nothing but good things to say about Sana’a and the school, so I feel even more validated in coming here. Dean (the Brit) says that this place is much better than Cairo, UAE, and Jordan for learning Arabic. I think we’re meeting up after class tomorrow to eat but now that I think of it, things were far from being definite. I guess I’ll see tomorrow.

Had to go out and buy some paper yesterday. Not a big deal really, but every foray into the souks is a bit of an adventure. Mohammed (the little old guy I met yesterday) told me where to look for a “book store”. Well, I couldn’t find what he was talking about, but I did find a place that sold pens, paper, and whatnot. I was lucky to find a notebook that has really nice paper for writing with a fountain pen. The ink doesn’t bleed or “feather”, it does take a little longer than I’d like to dry, but I can live with that. I had originally packed a whole bunch of my own, nice notebooks and writing paper, but the weight restrictions from the airport made me nix that idea. I brought my ink and my pens so now I’m set. Why bother at all? Writing script with a fountain pen is so much easier and nicer than with a ballpoint/rollerball/gel pen. It’s also easier to write neatly, I have no idea why, but it’s true. I’m using some cheap Chinese pens off of Ebay, cost something like 5 bucks a piece or something like that. Worth every penny…

I don’t know if this is a reaction of me getting over jet lag or just because I am awoken so early every morning, but I have been getting up at 5 or 5:30 every morning and feeling good! I know that’s a shocker, but I go to bed around 8 or 9. I can get a lot of studying done in the morning because it is so quiet. I figured that since the call to prayer starts around 5 (sometimes 4) in the morning the markets and businesses would be up and running by 6 or so. Not so. Nothing much seems to open before 8. The places I would like to go to like the internet cafes and small goodie shops open whenever they feel like it apparently. Usually they are not open before 3. That may be because of all the Qat they chew.

Around 1 or 2, all of the souks go into a qat buying frenzy. They start chewing early and keep it up all night. It is supposed to give you a buzz, but it also keeps you up at night (as well as make you constipated as I understand). Seemingly every man chews, and I’ve seen more than a few black clad amorphous beings (they say they are women, but I’m beginning to think there aren’t really any women here at all…) carrying around bags of the green leaves. A little kid gave me a little sprig of the stuff. Even to my untrained eye I could tell that it was a cast off branch, but it was very cute. I’ve seen kids that look no older than 6 chewing the stuff, it’s really unbelievable.

The kids are a really good example of how different our cultures are. In the US, especially in the suburbs and the city, you are not usually allowed to cross the street until a certain age. Even then, they are admonished to not stray too far or to talk to strangers for fear that a bad man might get a hold of them. Here, kids of all ages are allowed to wander the streets at any hour. Keep in mind, these are the narrow, congested streets that cars, motorcycles, and trucks zoom up and down. I’ve seen kids around 4 or 5 wandering the souks that are jam packed with people and vehicles. They will also talk to anyone. I haven’t asked, but the prospect of kidnappings and sexual predators seem to be a totally foreign concept to the people of Yemen. It’s really nice , kids say hello to you as you walk by, and they aren’t shy. They are also incredibly cute. I never dreamed of taking pictures of little kids in the streets in the US, here they beg and demand that you take their picture. I’d be drawn and quartered for even pointing a camera at a kid in the US, what a difference! The boys are typically dressed as little men compete with jacket and sometimes dagger. The littlest girls are dressed in frilly, cutsy outfits. As they get older, they go to more regular dresses, but still are adorable. I’ll see if I can’t get some pictures up one of these days.

You might have noticed that this was a little longer post than my usual. I had the brilliant idea that I should write this out on my laptop at home and then just bring the file to the cafe. Ideally, there would just be a wifi hotspot there, but that just doesn’t exist here in Yemen… Anyway, I only have a few more things to do before I can settle into a regular routine. I still need to get to the US embassy, or at least call them. I know, I know, but it’s really out of the way and I can’t help but feel comfortable here. But I’ll do it. I also need to get a phone and buy my ticket to Malta. I’ll talk more later… Isaac