"Welcome to Yemen" or "It's Like Egypt, but No Good Coffee and More Face Veils"

Day 4 of being in Yemen...

So my stories of Egypt were filled with harassment, dead cats, sand floors, general mayhem, and fun archaeological adventures. Alas, but this will not be the case. Not that we are without cats and the general mayhem is not much less, but the general level of excitement is quite a bit scaled down. But here goes…
As for my first impressions of Sana’a as I flew in on the plane:
Directive number 1: Remember to build your house on a rock. Check, rock. Lots of rock actually—surrounded by rocks of all sorts above, below, around, mountains of rock all over (sorry Candice, I haven’t checked to see what kind of rock yet, maybe I’ll bring back a piece and you can tell me).
Directive number 2: Make sure there is water. Wait? What? Water? Oh, yes, we have water in our hot springs. You mean that might not be enough? Hmmm… oh well, we’re going to build here anyhow. Yes, good idea!
So many of you reading this email have been to Arizona; half of you live in Arizona. And you think it’s pretty dry… and it is… but you’ve got nothing on this place. In the driest of mid-summer months before the monsoons, in the hillsides tough little grasses and cacti struggle to stay alive, but stay alive they do. And not only alive, but greenish. Looking up into the mountains surrounding Sana’a, there’s nothing. Not one blade of grass, one tree, or one sad little succulent. For those of you have been to Luxor, think the Theban Hills on a larger and more desolate scale. There has never been much water here and in the past 40 years, the population has doubled, then doubled again, to it’s present >2 million. Twenty years ago, Sana’a was going to be abandoned due to lack of water as hydrologists predicted Sana’a would run out of water within 10 years. Ironically, it could be global warming that has benefited North Yemen as the monsoon season has lengthened and rainfall increased. Combine some increased rain with strategic reservoirs and the capital city remains relatively healthy. I can’t say fully healthy, because it can’t be fully healthy—too much trash, not enough money for everyone to afford the necessities, too much corruption, and only fair to poor health services for much of the population. And Kate and Phil, the water pressure amounts to more than a trickle, but less than your average ornamental fountain—you’d die!
And here, in the midst of the ultimate desert, I am the ultimate outsider. I remain the only blonde girl I have seen the entire time I have been here and since I still refuse to wear the omnipresent black robe and ubiquitous burqua/nikab/face veil, I am the center of attention wherever I go. It’s sometimes bad and I nearly had to beat some 12 year old (news flash: don’t call me a bitch in my language, I speak it better than you), but still less verbal assault than Egypt. The entire place is a little depressing. As my teacher said, “we liked the president for the first 15 years”… but they’re now going on presidential year 35 and that means over 15 years of the president filling his pockets and diverting Yemen’s extensive oil and mineral wealth to his cronies, while development activities have essentially ceased.
But it’s when a place looks most hopeless and is weighing on your soul that you remember why you came. You came for the taxi driver that said “American? I like! Kwiiyes (good)!” in the midst of my impromptu Arabic and Sana’a navigation lesson. Or the shopkeeper that says “ You speak Arabic good.” No, I don’t, but it’s sweet that they want to make me feel loved.
So it’s a polluted backwater, the visible historical remnants have been diminished by successive invaders and the ravages of time (an inevitable result when you build with mud brick), but they build tall stone houses with tiny doors and gorgeous stained glass windows and city walls that I could take with two friends and a pack of sparklers, Sana’a has a set of fantastic souks that still serve the local community, and men wear daggers called jumanyas! (Yeah, they’re pretty badass)
So I’m giving it some time to see if I fall in love with it or not…
Photos will come soon-I am trying to see if I can get them small enough to post in a reasonable amount of time with my slow internet speed!!!
Love you all!!!!