Back to the Grind/ The Haraz Mountains

Hello Everyone,

I can't believe that I have only three and a half weeks left in Yemen. While time definitely hasn't flown by because of all the studying, I'll be on the plane back to the states before I know it.

My last post covered my stay in Ethiopia/arriving back to Sana'a. While on that Saturday I settled back into my daily routine of Arabic, Arabic, and more Arabic. I was a bit nervous at having taken time off in Ethiopia, but after almost two weeks back, I truly feel like the break after helped me absorb a lot of the material I learned. Especially in my speaking; before I left a felt like I was at a bit of a plateau, but since coming back I've been "ripping" Arabic like a champ. My new teachers have been impressed with how quickly I have progressed in two months and with the ability to speak. I still have a very long way to go and really need to work on listening and writing, but I am making progress everyday. One of the keys to my success so far has been my vocab system which I adopted from Danny. Everyday I review my vocab cards, which I have in five piles ranging from words I don't know at all, to words I have memorized. Each day when I review them, if I get them right, they move along to the next pile, and if I get them wrong they move back a pile. Finally, if I get them right for a week straight they go into the memorized pile. Alright got that, good! I think this may be the biggest reason why my speaking has been improving so quickly. Usually, it takes about 45mins to get through my cards, so the time has definitely been worth the sacrifice.

As for last week, nothing too exciting occurred. I started working with two new teachers, Adil and Ghaleb, who I both really like. With Adil I do an assortment of things (read the Quran, headlines from Al-Jezzera, stories, discussion, etc) and with Ghaleb I focus solely on one book (Al-Kitaab) which is what I will use in graduate school. I am quite happy to have changed from my teacher Mohssin, because he had bad hygiene to say the least. He was constantly picking his nose, picking at his face, etc. which really made it hard to concentrate in class, so before I left for Ethiopia I asked to change and was granted my wish. As for Ghaleb, I ended up with him because one of the girls here hasn't gotten along with any of her teachers and my old teacher Abdul Rahman was the only teacher she hadn't had (she's been here 9 months), so we switched. This didn't bother me because Danny has Ghaleb, and he came highly recommended. In summary, I am very satisfied with both teachers I am currently working with.

The only real thing of note from last week occurred when I was walking back from a run. The traffic on the road was all backed up and then a saw this large procession of people walking down the street and singing. Then I saw that it was a funeral procession, and the men were carrying what looked like a normal small single bed over their heads with the body on top of it with a sheet over it. It was amazing because obviously the bed frame and the body were heavy, so men from the street and in the procession would alternate passing the bed over their hands, constantly switching positions from the front to the back. Quite interesting.

This past weekend, I kept with the traveling theme and went to the Haraz Mountains with Philip and Wolfgang, two German guys who are doing an internship for a month with a architecture firm in Sana'a. At the last minute they told me they were going so I tagged along even though I didn't get a travel permit (luckily that wasn't a problem). We left on Wednesday around 2pm and got to Hajjarah, a small town up on the top of this mountain by 5pm. The ride out wasn't bad, although at times I got a bit nervous when our driver would pass other cars on hairpin turns on these mountain roads with like a 1000ft drop right next to us. But "praise to Allah" we made it safely to our destination in one piece, no worse for the wear. I have come to the realization that there is no comfortable way to travel in Yemen, because like usual we crammed four people into the cab of the truck, but by now I've gotten used to annoying things like this when traveling.

As for the mountains, I can honestly say that they may have been the most beautiful, sublime place I've ever been. It was surrounded by mountains and provided amazing views everywhere you looked. Coupled with the way the sides of the mountains were terraced in levels so that the people could farm on them and these tiny towns that were built on the very tops of these huge mountains. Amazing stuff. The first night there we walked around town for a bit and just got our bearings. That night after dinner, two guys who worked at the hotel played the "ud" like a guitar and the drums for us. I really liked the music, it had a great rhythm to it. In the hotel, it was only us, and a couple French dudes.

The next day we got up early and headed out for a hike through the mountains. We were lead by Khaled, a guy from the town, who we had driven with the day before. Also with us was Ahmed, who was the brother of a guy Philip knew in Sana'a. He was with us the whole trip, but we didn't pay him or anything, so he was more like a friend along with us, and not a guide. We went on about a four hour hike, up and along the side of this huge mountain next to the town we were staying in. We went through a couple ancient towns which were absolutely amazing. Especially Qahil, which is nearly abandoned, so we were able to go into the old houses and everything. Then we went up and over to another town which had been founded by Indian Muslims and was a pilgrimage site for people from India. In that town there was this amazing mosque which was built on the top of this HUGE rock. When we walked in it looked like it was impossible to get up there, but once in the town we were lead by the sheik up to the top. It turned out there were these really steep steps on the backside which we used to make our way up. The view from the top was fantastic. After this we hitched a ride from the town with some metal workers in the back of a pickup truck to Manaqa. In the back was a guy who looked just like Flavor Flave, I kid you not with his safety glasses on (someday my computer will work again and I'll put up pictures). Back in Manaqa (the town next to Hajjarah) we bought qat for after lunch and then took a taxi to the hotel. At the hotel we ate lunch and then chewed qat until almost dinner time. Today there were a ton of tourists at the hotel (I think the place was full). I know this is completely hypocritical but I hate tourists. I think my resentment is fueled by the fact that I am actual able to speak Arabic and live in Sana'a, so as I always say to the Yemenis, "I am a tribesman" (they get quite a kick out of hearing that). Anyway, the place was loaded with French, British, and German tourists, so unfortunately we didn't have the place to ourselves anymore. In the evening, after dinner, the same guys rocked out again, except this time there were a bunch of guys from the town there that sang along with them and did all the traditional dances, etc. It was pretty sweet and Philip and I even got out there and attempted to dance with them, although I'd say we weren't that successful. Plus a lot of the tourists were older, so they headed to their rooms around 9pm or so, and then for about an hour and a half there were only a half dozen or so of us down there having a good time. Unfortunately, Wolfgang was sick (from all the sun/dehydration/hiking), so he spent the whole day in bed when we got back from the hike.

The next morning, Philip, Ahmed, Khaled and I headed out on another hike, this time in the opposite direction. Our second hike was easier and took us through more of the countryside. Most of the time we just talked and ambled along at a leisurely pace. The best site of the day were these fluorescent colored "lizards", that had bright pink tails and aqua blue heads, crazy. We saw at least four of them along the way and got good pictures. Plus, Ahmed was a bit nuts and kept us entertained on the hike and during the whole trip. He would just go off on these rants, half in Arabic, half in English, usually about girls or qat. His English was decent, but he sounded similar to an Arab version of Borat, so as you can imagine it was pretty hilarious when he would start ranting. He also would randomly say: "Welcome" "Where are you from?" out of nowhere, imitating all the people in Sana'a who constantly ask us (foreigners) these questions about a hundred times a day and every time he would do it we would bust out laughing. Anyway, the hike was nice and we got back to the hotel for lunch. Ate a quick lunch of mostly Western food and then hopped into a hired truck to take us back to Sana'a. The trip back went by quickly and before I knew it I was once again back in the Old City. Unfortunately, like usual we got in a big argument over the price of the car b/c the driver expected us to pay for the Yemenis who were with us and we obviously refused, so finally after about 20mins of haggling we paid an in between price and headed on our way.

Two other awesome things about the trip were, 1) this 73 yr old who worked at the hotel and was hilarious. He had the typical Yemeni look, weathered skin from the sun, sunken cheeks from chewing so much qat, one tooth (only 1) and quite frail. He was constantly cracking jokes and talking in different European languages which he had picked up from his time at the hotel. The best is when he would speak in French. He also still lead tourist on day long hikes in the mountains almost everyday and slept in a tin box on top of the garage/kitchen outside the hotel. AMAZING! The other great thing about the trip is that Philip and Wolfgang don't speak much Arabic, so I got two full days of constantly speaking/practicing my Arabic all the time.

Now back to the weekend, when I got back I went into Philip's house, he lives with Ryan, and Anna and Jez were there (buddies from Ethiopia), so I grabbed dinner with them and then we watched a movie and talked for a bit. They were all in pretty bad shape though because they had went to some American military officers party the night before, gotten quite intoxicated, then snuck in to the American military base in Sana'a with the help of a couple Marines from the party, but got kicked out when they were causing a ruckus on the base. Crazy stuff, luckily from them they weren't arrested. So needless to say, they were a bit hungover/tired from the night before. Tomorrow actually, Ryan is driving with Anna and Jez to the Saudi border, where he plans to then get off b/c he couldn't get a visa and hitch hike back to Sana'a.

As for this week, all is well. I don't think I am going to travel anymore because everywhere I want to go in Yemen is at least 5 hours away by car and that would mean I'd have to take more time off class which I don't want to do because I only have 3 weeks left and I've been making so much progress. So from here on it, it is going to be nose to the grindstone, probably taking lessons on Thursdays too, trying to learn as much as possible before I leave.

I apologize if the grammar of this post is awful. You'll just have to deal with it because I am too lazy to proof read it!

Take Care,

Rich

P.S.- Sounds like the "QU Track Meet" was quite a classic this year, and you guys still have UConn coming up. Ouch! Maybe for once it won't be monsoon like conditions there for your guys sake.