86 Days in Sana'a

A captivating account of Rich's intensive studying of Arabic, travels, and everyday life in Sana'a, Yemen.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Daily Life

Hiyo all,

I had free time tonight so I figured I'd give everyone I quick update.

To begin with, the weather has been crazy lately.  We have had a sort of mini-rainy season, during which it has rained for 15-30min every afternoon. This means one of the main roads in town, the Sila, has turned into a river a couple times which is an amazing sight. They don't have any sewers so the roads are actually cambered towards the middle, the opposite of the States. This means that all the water filters down the center of the roads, which is really nice, especially when you have to walk somewhere. Anyway, most of the roads run down towards the Sila, which is usually a main road, but has built up walls and becomes a literal river when it rains a lot. The best part about it is that the Yemeni's still try to drive down it when its filled up. The other day we watched as people tried to push their cars along b/c they had stalled out in the water. I've actually almost been enjoying the rain though b/c it is a change from the 75deg and sunny every single day (I bet you guys in the Northeast hate me for saying such unfathomable things).

Also the other night, I went with a couple of other students to get pizza. On our way back we stopped at SnoCream on Hadda St (the high class st. in Sana'a), to get "ice cream". The place had an amazing ambiance about it. First off, it is the first ever sit down ice cream restaurant I've been to, meaning you ordered like you were at dinner but all they had was ice cream. Second, it was the first time I've seen more than two women in a restaurant. There were at least twenty women there eating ice cream, most with nikaabs on, so it was pretty funny as they would lift up their nikaabs to take bites of ice cream. On top of this, they only actually had vanilla ice cream, but put on different colored "dressings" to make it chocolate, strawberry, etc. Pretty awesome. Overall though, I was just happy to eat something that resemble ice cream.

What else, the other night on the way to the Kabob Souq, Danny and I came across two kids selling Sadaam Hussein stickers, which are a hot item in Yemen, but are disappearing fast now that it has been a while since his execution, so we each got four. I think my favorite one I got is a family portrait of the whole Hussein family, priceless. Now I need to make sure I hide them well enough on my trip back to the States or else I might get stuck at Customs for quite a while, in between the Sadaam pictures and the jambiyyas.

I continue to keep meeting amazing people. Last night a bunch of us watched a documentary called "The Diary of Jo Whiting", which was filmed, directed and produced by this British journalist, Julia, who is currently studying Arabic at CALES. It has become pretty popular among human rights activists as it follows the travels of Jo Whiting, a young British woman, who is a law student who started protesting the sanctions on Iraq beginning in 2001 and later went to Iraq before the war to protest that obviously as we all know, the war was illegal because it went against the central tenants of the Geneva Convention. The documentary follows her travels in Iraq, before, during and after the war. Pretty heavy stuff. It was well put together and won best documentary at the Al-Jezeera film festival last year. I could go on for a while about it, but instead I'll direct you to the website which does a better job explaining the film: http://alettertotheprimeminister.co.uk/index.htm
I'm hoping to get a copy to bring back to the States with me.

Finally, the last bit of news is that I want to let my former teammates know that I am gearing up to do warmups and cooldowns with the at NEC's in May. I ran three times this week baby, which ties my record for Yemen. Hopefully I can keep getting in 3-4 runs a week so that I'm not totally out of shape when I get home and start officially training for my first marathon, Chicago 2007, October 7th, watch out world.

Oh, and one last thing. Being in a foreign place definitely throws you off because although I'm a bit ashamed to admit it, I completely forgot about Easter. If it wasn't for the phone calls from Jna, Dad and Mom, Easter would have passed by without a thought. Pretty embarrassing considering I went to Catholic school for 12 years.

Other than that, take care all. I put up pictures from my trip to the mountains on Facebook, so for all the college readers, check them out. I'm working on getting them up on Snapfish.

Later,

Rich

5 Comments:

  • At 7:04 PM, Blogger mark said…

    AHHHHHHHHHH... I just checked your photos and that place looks ridiculous! Some of the buildings looks like they are literally going to fall off the side of the cliffs. Wow. The only thing better than those views was seeing you in a mowaz! Looking good, kid.

     
  • At 1:03 AM, Blogger HotWheels said…

    OK; for those less educated and hip of us, how do I find Facebook and your pictures? Did you get a pic of the road/river and Yemenis pushing cars?
    Be nice about the women over there. I truly can't imagine their life. Have you ever had an opportunity to speak to a female Yemni or is that totally taboo?
    Are there any churches representing any other religions in Sana'a?
    Keep recording your daily life. Pretty amazing! xoxoxoxoxo

     
  • At 12:04 PM, Blogger Jna said…

    Wow, it sounds like the "rivers" in Yemen are much like the sidewalks at Quinnipiac on a rainy day...like today. Well, actually, at least there was some hail mixed in there today so it's not THAT flooded...

     
  • At 8:20 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I like your card system for learning Arabic. I use the same system with my first graders for learning braille.

    Mom Mom says, "hi." She is feeling better and will be staying with us for a few days.

    Looking forward to seeing you when you arrive home.

    LOve, Aunt Kathy

     
  • At 3:51 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Rich - Is that the temp range year round or just for this season? I thinking about retiring there is it's year round. by the way what season is it. Keep your eye out for some retirement areas. Todd

     

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