The Countdown is On....

Hello All,

What is new?

Danny is gone. I only have one week left. Crazy Mohamad is getting on my nerves, and I officially have my exit visa for my departure.

I guess I’ll begin with last Wednesday, which was Danny’s last day here. Because of this, Crazy Mo’s wife made a huge lunch for Danny, and a bunch of people came and feasted. After the lunch, I bought my jambiyya and robe, so I now officially have all the parts of the Yemeni garb, which I plan to bust out for special occasions in the U.S. Maybe I’ll wear it to Tommy and Carolyn’s wedding. Anyway, after lunch, Crazy Mo, Danny, Ghaleb (teacher who Danny and I both have), and I went over to Ghaleb’s house and chewed qat. The main conversation during the chew was about America. Danny and I were trying to explain to Ghaleb and Mohammad that the U.S. isn’t this fantasy land where everyone is rich and happy. A large portion of the Yemenis I have spoken to, even the educated teachers, have this image of everyone in the U.S. having a high standard of living and great life. When in reality, if you are an immigrant, it is difficult to live and succeed in America. In addition, the power went out while we were chewing, so we just sat there and hung out by candle light. In the past few weeks, the power has gone out 4-5x, which is odd because it didn’t happen at all my first two months here. Anyway, around dinnertime, Mo, Danny and I left Ghaleb’s house and walked to a restaurant near the school.

Things got interesting in the restaurant, when for the first time in Yemen, I had a Yemeni be hostile towards me. We were sitting there eating and all of a sudden this guy comes up and just starts shouting at Danny and me. This made Mo very upset, so he told the guy to shut up and leave. Then Mohammad got up and started tugging on the guys beard, sweet fighting move. When the guy refused to shut up, Mohammad literally took him by his jacket and forcefully removed him from the restaurant. Luckily, the guy didn’t fall into the road when Mohammad threw him out because a car shot by a half second later. Danny and I were not able to understand the guy as he was speaking hard core colloquial, but Mohammad told us that the guy had been ranting about how we weren’t welcome in Yemen because we were foreign spies. How about that? I must admit, the guy was on to us, luckily Mohammad didn’t believe him. After this we went to the internet and showed Mohammad how to use the G-Mail account we set up for him so we can talk to him when we are in the U.S. We closed out the night hanging outside the school chatting. Mohammad was bummed out because Danny was leaving, plus he was coming down off the qat, so that didn’t help his emotions. In the end, I witnessed three grown Yemeni men get choked up and teary eyed about Danny heading back to the U.S.

Thursday, turned out to be a boring day. I had a lesson with Ghaleb at 11am and then I napped most of the day. Stayed in the house, just relaxing for the first time in a while, because usually I chew qat on Thursdays, but because I chewed yesterday, I decided against it.

On Friday, I reviewed my Arabic lessons and played soccer by myself at Club Al-Ahli. I am now officially the only one who still goes to play every weekend, so it was just me with a bunch of Yemenis. We played on the “basketball” court, 4 v 4, and it was a lot of fun. Abdul Razzaq (from the school) and Mohammad came to watch me play, but were kicked out shortly after arriving because Abdul Razzaq was chewing qat. It turns out that is illegal at the club. In the evening, I went with Mohammad and “supervised” him as he sent an e-mail to Danny in the States. Afterwards we grabbed dinner together.

On Saturday, Mohammad starting annoying me. He had gone to his home village of Hiyma for the day and proceeded to call me about 20x from different numbers because he does not own a phone. When I finally got a hold of him, he asked me to give 1000 rials ($5) to his son, but wouldn’t tell me why. Then Abdul Razzaq told me that he had seen a man hassling Mohsin (Mo’s son) asking where his Dad was because he owed him money. Not to mention the fact that Mohammad has yet to pay me back the money Danny lent him to buy wood and a saw for a business venture Mohammad began in his village. Anyway, I felt bad that Mohsin was being hassled, so I gave him the money to pay the guy. Then last night, when I was in my room doing homework, Mohammad kept calling up to my room looking for me. This really annoyed me because I respect my privacy and I don’t want to be hassled by Mohammad about his problems whenever he sees my bedroom light come on. After ignoring him most the night, I finally responded before bed to find out that he wanted to tell me he couldn’t get the internet to work when he had gone to the internet cafe that evening. While Mohammad has been a good friend to me so far, and has helped me out with Arabic, he is starting to irritate me. First, I’m pretty sure that I am not going to see the money he owes Danny, plus, now that Danny is gone, he is constantly calling/looking for me all of the time. With only one week left, I don’t want to be dragged into Mohammad’s problems, whether big or small. I liked it much more when we were “street” friends, meaning we would hang out if I saw him on the street and maybe chew qat on the weekend. I can do without this constant hounding.

Also in breaking news, as aforementioned, I received my exit visa to leave Yemen. What I did not mention was how big of a pain in the butt—and rip off—it was to obtain it. Yesterday morning, I gave “stern” Mohammad from the school my passport and 2000 rial for him to  get me my exit visa --the normal procedure for students. Well, half way through my first class, “stern” Mohammad came in and pulled me from class saying we had to go to the airport. It turns out that when I returned from Ethiopia the idiot(s) at the airport  stamped my Entry Visa with the date 2/30/07, instead of 3/30/07, the actual date when I returned. As a result, the Ministry of Tourism wouldn’t give Mohammad my Exit Visa until I got my passport fixed. Therefore, we took a taxi to the airport where THEY CHARGED ME 2000 rial to fix the problem they created in the first place. In addition to all this, I had to pay for the taxi back and forth to the airport, so in all I ended up spending about 4500r extra because of the mistake of an incompetent airport employee. These events epitomize why I am ready to head home.

As for the Arabic, it continues to go well. I have been making great progress with both of my teachers, and with only a little over a week of classes left, I’m just trying to stay focused and get as much as I can out of my last few hours. It is going to be weird, to say the least, to be back in the United States and all of a sudden not speaking this language I have used and studied everyday for the past three months. I am trying to prepare myself for the culture shock, which I know is going to hit hard after being home for a couple days. Plus, I’m worried about being held up at customs after receiving an e-mail from Danny the other day in which he said he got hung up for hours before being let through. What is so suspicious about 23 year-old white males studying Arabic with large daggers and pictures of Sadaam Hussein in their bags?! Come on now, I'll have a beat up Phillies cap on—evidence enough I am harmless—so just let me through so I can see my family.

Congrats, to the QU runners who made it into Penn Relays. I will be with you in spirit! Enjoy running in the best and biggest track meet in the world.

Hey Sinko, congrats on finishing Boston. It didn't look fun. I followed your race on the athlete tracker from here. I can't wait to come home and start training again. I hope you'll be refreshed by the time I get back. Did you guys move the store yet?

A quick and funny note about the Arabic language I almost forgot to mention: all body parts that come in pairs are feminine in Arabic, except for women's breasts, which are masculine. Go figure.

I’m out.

Rich