unfortunately, there's a problem with all our visas especially kyla's. CALES (the language institute) should have made it clear on their website about the whole process so that we could've avoided this trouble. the thing is, when kyla and i entered yemen, we got a tourist visa which lasts for a month. for me, it's sort of okay 'cause i'll be leaving like 2 weeks after my visa expires and i can just pay a fine of $1 a day. not a big deal. but kyla....she's staying for a whole year so she has to renew her visa and get a student visa. only problem is that yemen will not allow her to pay for a new visa. she has to LEAVE the country and then renter it to get the right visa.
after class today, alia and kyla said they had good news. what was the good news? we were gonna go to djibouti!!! alia had called the airlines to ask where would be the cheapest airfare and it looked like djibouti was the answer. and of course, we didn't want kyla to go by herself so we were all gonna go with her and make it a little vacation. so we started looking up info about the country...places we could stay, things we could do. then we went to yemeniya airlines to book tickets. we were thinking of staying for just a few days...maybe thursday till sunday. i'd only miss 2 days of class since we have off thursday and friday.
unfortunately, it was not that easy. the man helping us at yemeniya, muhammad, was a family friend of alia. there were flights on specific days to djibouti, none of which were ideal for us. so we started to think of other surrounding countries we could go to. oman was too expensive. saudi wouldn't let 3 women in without a man. we thought, what about ethiopia or eritrea or somolia? muhammad started laughing at us. he was like, 'are you guys crazy? they're so hungry over there, they'll eat you!' he was not very p.c.
morocco, libya, lebanon, syria, afghanistan, india, iran, iraq, algeria, sudan were just a few of the countries we threw out. relax...we weren't serious about going to some of the suggested countries. plus, muhammad wouldn't let us. but we were desperate to go somewhere. muhammad suggested cairo, but we'd been there, done that. anyway, after about 2 hours of searching, we reserved tickets to djibouti. but we decided we'd go to the ethiopian airlines and check with them after we ate to see if we could get better flights.
well, during our meal, we discussed this trip further and decided that alia and i would not go to djibouti. only kyla would. however, after returning home, kyla did some research on the internet and decided she'd go to jordan to visit her friends.
it was exciting to think we were gonna go to djibouti but i guess it wasn't meant to be. however, now, alia and i are thinking of going to socotra island, insha'Allah. have to see how that works out...
in other news, i have not worn my sunglasses yet even though it's sunny here 'cause the women just don't (their faces are already covered by their niqaabs). and i brought 2 pairs with me. what a shame.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Saturday, June 28, 2008
mountain of the prophet shu'ayb
in the guide books, there's info on hiking through the haraz mountains. the highest mountain on the arabian peninsula is jabal an-nabi shu'ayb (mountain of prophet shu'ayb) with an altitude of 12,333 feet. his grave and a mosque is on top of the mountain. when i read about it, i was like, 'i totally have to climb it and pray in the masjid on top!' so i told muhammad majnoon last week that kyla and i wanted to climb it. i asked if we could pray in the mosque on top and he said we could. the guide books said that foriegners were not allowed to the top. so anyway, muhammad organized a trip last week for a bunch of students to go to jabal an-nabi shu'ayb.
amongst the 8 students, alia and i were the only muslims. kyla got sick so she did not come. in addition to the students, there was the driver, an assistant and muhammad majnoon. we went in a mini van to the mountain. the mountain view along the way there was absolutely stunning. vast fields of qaat and other crops, ruins of old homes, watch towers and fortresses along the mountain side. kinda like what i wrote in my last post. i thought we were gonna stop at some point along the mountain and hike to the top, but we actually drove all the way up there.
about 10 minutes before reaching the summit, there was a check point. at that checkpoint, we all had to leave our cameras and phones behind. nothing was allowed at the top. alia had her $4,000.00 camera with her 'cause she's filming for a documentary and she did not want to leave her stuff with the men so she decided to stay behind while the rest of us went to the top. muhammad majnoon stayed behind with her. the rest of us went up with the driver and his assistant.
we get to the top. there's a gate guarded by 5 military officers with kalashnikovs...their faces wrapped in kuffiyehs. we had to stop the van a distance from the gate and a couple of guards approached the van and took all our passports. they told us all to come outside and wait by the van. we weren't allowed near the gate. so we waited while the guards and the driver and assistant disappeared behind the gate. after about 10 minutes, the driver and the assistant come out and tell us to get back in the van 'cause the mosque is closed. i asked, 'well, can i at least pray in the mosque?' i was the only muslim amongst the students. so the driver went back inside the gate...took another 10 minutes and came out with a bunch of military guards with kalashnikovs. one of the military guards...the leader...was a mean looking guy. i could tell there was trouble. he wanted us all to gather around as he looked through the passport pictures and eyed each of us suspiciously. then he told us to leave. again, i asked one of the military guards if i could pray in the mosque. he asked the leader. the leader told me rudely that i could pray anywhere. and then he made us leave. i was a bit upset. first of all, we didn't hike up to the top and secondly, i didn't even get to pray in the mosque or see the grave!
the leader and another guard rode down to the check point with us. i knew something bad was up. the driver, assistant and the two men from the top disappeared into the bunker to talk to muhammad majnoon. after a while, alia and the men returned and we were told to leave.
so what exactly happened? i'll tell you. foriegners were not allowed to the top. the leader was pissed off that we came to the top. also, remember i said in past posts that we need permits to go anywhere outside of sana'a. well, muhammad had our permits and forgot to give them to the driver so when we went to the top, we had no papers to show the guards. they were gonna arrest the driver and the assistant for bringing us to the top without permits and then ask us students if any of us knew how to drive so that we could go back to the checkpoint but none of them spoke any english.
apparently, behind the gate on the top of the mountain is now a military training camp and they use the mosque to store weapons.
amongst the 8 students, alia and i were the only muslims. kyla got sick so she did not come. in addition to the students, there was the driver, an assistant and muhammad majnoon. we went in a mini van to the mountain. the mountain view along the way there was absolutely stunning. vast fields of qaat and other crops, ruins of old homes, watch towers and fortresses along the mountain side. kinda like what i wrote in my last post. i thought we were gonna stop at some point along the mountain and hike to the top, but we actually drove all the way up there.
about 10 minutes before reaching the summit, there was a check point. at that checkpoint, we all had to leave our cameras and phones behind. nothing was allowed at the top. alia had her $4,000.00 camera with her 'cause she's filming for a documentary and she did not want to leave her stuff with the men so she decided to stay behind while the rest of us went to the top. muhammad majnoon stayed behind with her. the rest of us went up with the driver and his assistant.
we get to the top. there's a gate guarded by 5 military officers with kalashnikovs...their faces wrapped in kuffiyehs. we had to stop the van a distance from the gate and a couple of guards approached the van and took all our passports. they told us all to come outside and wait by the van. we weren't allowed near the gate. so we waited while the guards and the driver and assistant disappeared behind the gate. after about 10 minutes, the driver and the assistant come out and tell us to get back in the van 'cause the mosque is closed. i asked, 'well, can i at least pray in the mosque?' i was the only muslim amongst the students. so the driver went back inside the gate...took another 10 minutes and came out with a bunch of military guards with kalashnikovs. one of the military guards...the leader...was a mean looking guy. i could tell there was trouble. he wanted us all to gather around as he looked through the passport pictures and eyed each of us suspiciously. then he told us to leave. again, i asked one of the military guards if i could pray in the mosque. he asked the leader. the leader told me rudely that i could pray anywhere. and then he made us leave. i was a bit upset. first of all, we didn't hike up to the top and secondly, i didn't even get to pray in the mosque or see the grave!
the leader and another guard rode down to the check point with us. i knew something bad was up. the driver, assistant and the two men from the top disappeared into the bunker to talk to muhammad majnoon. after a while, alia and the men returned and we were told to leave.
so what exactly happened? i'll tell you. foriegners were not allowed to the top. the leader was pissed off that we came to the top. also, remember i said in past posts that we need permits to go anywhere outside of sana'a. well, muhammad had our permits and forgot to give them to the driver so when we went to the top, we had no papers to show the guards. they were gonna arrest the driver and the assistant for bringing us to the top without permits and then ask us students if any of us knew how to drive so that we could go back to the checkpoint but none of them spoke any english.
apparently, behind the gate on the top of the mountain is now a military training camp and they use the mosque to store weapons.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
the haraz mountains
over the week, i went on a few trips with muhammad 'the majnoon' to various places in the haraz mountains. the mountain scenery is absolutely breathtaking. i shot so many pictures but for real, they just don't capture the beauty of it all. there are villages on top of mountains and in the valleys. there are ruins of watch towers probably dating back to the himyarite kingdom (around 1 b.c.). i saw many fortresses on top of huge boulders and stone homes carved in the side of mountains. just imagine the grand canyon but a million times more stunning.
on the first trip, kyla and i went to wadi dhahr. wadi means 'valley'. actually, before that, we were taken to a mountain top where we could see wadi dhahr below us and also within it the famous daar al-hajar 'palace on the rock'. this mansion was built in the 1920s on top of a large boulder in the middle of the valley as a retreat for imam yahya (zaydi leader) and is a very popular place to visit on fridays by yemenis and foreginers. that's cause on that day you can see a barra'a which is a traditional dagger dance performed by the men. that specific boulder actually has a longer history and was probably settled by people a long time ago because of the deep wells and prehistoric cave burial rooms found in it.
that same day, we also drove to al-ahjar where we saw ruins of old homes and watch towers scattered around the mountain and built on cliffs, boulders or within the mountains. we also drove to shibam which is a city in the valley. we ate at a famous restaurant called hameda's restaurant. all the tourists go there. muhammad knows the owner. actually, muhammad knows everyone and everyone knows him. we sat in a private mafraj (room) and were served tradtional yemeni food. again, no individual plates. kyla, myself, muhammad and the taxi driver just ate from the same plate of food. we had meat, shafoota (kinda like the ethiopian bread, injera), vegetables, potatoes, saltah (piping hot stew containing meat, beans, lentils and topped with fenugreek...comes in a cast iron dish), 2 different types of rice, rashoosh (bread), something else that was really good and bint as-sahn (dessert). everything was so delicious.
we continued our drive up to kawkaban. this place is absolutely stunning. it's a fortified city that was built way before the 9th century on top of the mountain. there's only one gate to enter the town. from kawkaban, you can look down at shibam and from shibam, you can look up to the mountaintop and see kawkaban. you can also see in the middle of the mountain side, a home. it's the only home on that mountain side and only one gate to enter it. when you're looking up at it from shibam, you can't imagine how anyone could enter it. i told muhammad i wanted to go there. so once we got up to kawkaban, we hiked down to this palace. it was built by a man named ghayl ali. we entered it and rested while looking down the valley. it's probably not a place to go to if you're afraid of heights.
while going up and down the mountains, we also saw a vast number of qaat fields in addition to corn, wheat, almonds and some other stuff. but the majority was qaat. we saw people working in the fields too...usually women covered up...face and everything even though they were the only ones in the fields.
i still have to write about the other trips which i will do later. but alhamdulillah, kyla and i had a wonderful experience with muhammad. he wasn't really crazy. he's actually a good person to travel with 'cause he is well connected and very street smart. anyway, more later...
on the first trip, kyla and i went to wadi dhahr. wadi means 'valley'. actually, before that, we were taken to a mountain top where we could see wadi dhahr below us and also within it the famous daar al-hajar 'palace on the rock'. this mansion was built in the 1920s on top of a large boulder in the middle of the valley as a retreat for imam yahya (zaydi leader) and is a very popular place to visit on fridays by yemenis and foreginers. that's cause on that day you can see a barra'a which is a traditional dagger dance performed by the men. that specific boulder actually has a longer history and was probably settled by people a long time ago because of the deep wells and prehistoric cave burial rooms found in it.
that same day, we also drove to al-ahjar where we saw ruins of old homes and watch towers scattered around the mountain and built on cliffs, boulders or within the mountains. we also drove to shibam which is a city in the valley. we ate at a famous restaurant called hameda's restaurant. all the tourists go there. muhammad knows the owner. actually, muhammad knows everyone and everyone knows him. we sat in a private mafraj (room) and were served tradtional yemeni food. again, no individual plates. kyla, myself, muhammad and the taxi driver just ate from the same plate of food. we had meat, shafoota (kinda like the ethiopian bread, injera), vegetables, potatoes, saltah (piping hot stew containing meat, beans, lentils and topped with fenugreek...comes in a cast iron dish), 2 different types of rice, rashoosh (bread), something else that was really good and bint as-sahn (dessert). everything was so delicious.
we continued our drive up to kawkaban. this place is absolutely stunning. it's a fortified city that was built way before the 9th century on top of the mountain. there's only one gate to enter the town. from kawkaban, you can look down at shibam and from shibam, you can look up to the mountaintop and see kawkaban. you can also see in the middle of the mountain side, a home. it's the only home on that mountain side and only one gate to enter it. when you're looking up at it from shibam, you can't imagine how anyone could enter it. i told muhammad i wanted to go there. so once we got up to kawkaban, we hiked down to this palace. it was built by a man named ghayl ali. we entered it and rested while looking down the valley. it's probably not a place to go to if you're afraid of heights.
while going up and down the mountains, we also saw a vast number of qaat fields in addition to corn, wheat, almonds and some other stuff. but the majority was qaat. we saw people working in the fields too...usually women covered up...face and everything even though they were the only ones in the fields.
i still have to write about the other trips which i will do later. but alhamdulillah, kyla and i had a wonderful experience with muhammad. he wasn't really crazy. he's actually a good person to travel with 'cause he is well connected and very street smart. anyway, more later...
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
i'll be back
okay, so i've gotten a few comments and emails encouraging me to continue my blog. i'm so touched. thank you. i know there's more of you out there. but anyway, i'm tired at the moment so i will try to catch you up on what's been going on tomorrow. everyday is exciting here and alhamdulillah, i'm so happy to be living with such wonderful people in such a wonderful country. this place is totally under rated. i also feel lucky 'cause one of my dorm mates, alia is half yemeni and grew up in yemen so she's got connections everywhere and knows so much about the place. it's kinda like i've got my own private guide. anyway, more later...
Sunday, June 22, 2008
good riddance
i just wanna thank all my friends and family for reading my blog and not leaving any comments. i mean seriously, i take time out of my busy day to entertain you with my experiences but none of you guys acknowledge me. whatever...i'm boycotting this blog.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
day of feast
i woke up today excited about the food we were gonna eat. we had an invitation for both breakfast and lunch. at around 8 am, we went to the ADRA office which is the organization that kyle works for. met nagi again and he welcomed us. i also met another worker who is cousins with alia. apparently, she was supposed to come to breakfast too but she couldn't. what a small world. we were taken downstairs where the men and women were sitting around a long rectangular table. newspapers were spread out along the table and plates of food...pancake, fasoolia, chicken, eggs, ful, other bean dishes and bread. a man read a surah from the quran and nagi gave little talk welcoming us and others. then it was time to eat. we weren't given plates or utensils to eat with. everyone just got up, broke some bread and huddled around plates of food eating together. they even spread syrup on the pancake and ate it with their hands. it was interesting to eat that way. they all tried to make us eat a lot and would put plates of food in front of us. i was stuffed to the max. kyla and i had to go back to the old city 'cause we had class. we were gonna take a taxi but nagi got one of the drivers of the organization to drive us back to bab al yemen. so nice of him.
i thought i had class today with ustadha ahlam since we didn't have class yesterday but i was wrong. i was free. ustadh abdullah had told me the day before to meet him at 12 noon with kyla because he wanted to take us and another one of his students to his house for lunch. the other student was a girl from pakistan who studies in the states. we took a taxi to ustadh abdullah's house. met his wife and 3 little kids. his wife was so sweet and it was really cute to see ustadh abduallah interact with his wife and kids. they joked around and teased each other. i totally had a different impression of how i thought the men would interact with their wives. it was a pleasant surprise.
his wife cooked so much food for us...salad, fish, fries, potatoe balls, shafoot (it looks like injera--ethiopian bread--with yogurt and other stuff....kinda tastes like dahi bara), chicken with rice....looked like biryani, freshly squeezed mango juice and for dessert...bint as-sahn which is a very famous yemeni dish. its a bread like cake with honey and very delicious. again, the food was presented on plates but none of us were given plates to eat on. we were, however, given spoons to eat with. so we all just dug in...my teacher, his wife, kids and us 3 students. it's kinda nice to eat that way. i think i'm gonna try that when i return to the states. it brings people closer together. anyway, after dessert, we were served chai. ustadh abdullah left after a bit and we all went to his wife's parent's house down the street. there, we met her sisters and friends and their children. we sat in the mafraj and just chatted. it was good practice for our arabic. we stayed there till 5 pm. i wanted to leave earlier but they insisted we stay.
we went back to the old city and walked around the souq. we went to an art gallery where if you stand on the top floor, you can get a great view of the old city.
back in the dorm, we tried to plan a trip for tomorrow. alia said she spoke to muhammad also known as 'majnoon' and he was willing to take us to wadi dhahr but we had to meet him and discuss the plan. so we went downstairs and saw him sitting with the guards to our building. muhammad said he would take us to wadi dhahr, shibam, kowkabaan and al-ahjar. i'll explain what's so great about these places in my next post, insha'Allah. we discussed everything and had to pay him a little bit upfront so that he could bribe the police to get us permission to leave the city. anytime you wanna go anywhere, you have to get clearance from the police like a day before. it was already late so the only way he could get a clearance was to bribe them by buying them qat.
anyway, i was happy that i was finally gonna go on a trip. an adventure with muhammad the majnoon. how exciting...
i thought i had class today with ustadha ahlam since we didn't have class yesterday but i was wrong. i was free. ustadh abdullah had told me the day before to meet him at 12 noon with kyla because he wanted to take us and another one of his students to his house for lunch. the other student was a girl from pakistan who studies in the states. we took a taxi to ustadh abdullah's house. met his wife and 3 little kids. his wife was so sweet and it was really cute to see ustadh abduallah interact with his wife and kids. they joked around and teased each other. i totally had a different impression of how i thought the men would interact with their wives. it was a pleasant surprise.
his wife cooked so much food for us...salad, fish, fries, potatoe balls, shafoot (it looks like injera--ethiopian bread--with yogurt and other stuff....kinda tastes like dahi bara), chicken with rice....looked like biryani, freshly squeezed mango juice and for dessert...bint as-sahn which is a very famous yemeni dish. its a bread like cake with honey and very delicious. again, the food was presented on plates but none of us were given plates to eat on. we were, however, given spoons to eat with. so we all just dug in...my teacher, his wife, kids and us 3 students. it's kinda nice to eat that way. i think i'm gonna try that when i return to the states. it brings people closer together. anyway, after dessert, we were served chai. ustadh abdullah left after a bit and we all went to his wife's parent's house down the street. there, we met her sisters and friends and their children. we sat in the mafraj and just chatted. it was good practice for our arabic. we stayed there till 5 pm. i wanted to leave earlier but they insisted we stay.
we went back to the old city and walked around the souq. we went to an art gallery where if you stand on the top floor, you can get a great view of the old city.
back in the dorm, we tried to plan a trip for tomorrow. alia said she spoke to muhammad also known as 'majnoon' and he was willing to take us to wadi dhahr but we had to meet him and discuss the plan. so we went downstairs and saw him sitting with the guards to our building. muhammad said he would take us to wadi dhahr, shibam, kowkabaan and al-ahjar. i'll explain what's so great about these places in my next post, insha'Allah. we discussed everything and had to pay him a little bit upfront so that he could bribe the police to get us permission to leave the city. anytime you wanna go anywhere, you have to get clearance from the police like a day before. it was already late so the only way he could get a clearance was to bribe them by buying them qat.
anyway, i was happy that i was finally gonna go on a trip. an adventure with muhammad the majnoon. how exciting...
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
fun city
i was in the apartment by myself in the morning 'cause all the other girls either had class or were just out when i heard a knock at the door. i figured it could only be the cleaning lady 'cause no men were allowed up on the women's quarter. so i opened the door in my pjs without my hijab. of course it was a man. he was one of the workers and he came up to tell me that the director, jameel wanted to see me in his office now. so i said i'd be down in a little while after i got dressed. i went back to my room wondering why jameel would want to see me this morning. did one of the men outside last night tell him i was walking around with a white man alone at night? i started getting nervous. as i was getting dressed, my phone rang. it was jameel! he said he wanted to see me in his office now. oh my. was i gonna get kicked out? i didn't do anything bad. plus, it's not my fault i was out late. maybe if there was some system to the old city, i wouldn't get lost!
i went down to the office. my heart was palpatating so loudly. i'm a good girl...for real. i didn't do anything! i was waiting for jameel to scold me but instead he spoke about something that totally caught me by surprise. apparently, usdtadh abdullah told him i was being shy in class and maybe i would prefer a female teacher. i didn't mind ustadh abdullah but his style of teaching was a bit different so i said i was open to having a different teacher. after all that got sorted out, i went back to my room and relaxed. got worked up for no reason.
after class, nusaybah called to say she wanted to get together with us. she said to meet her at hadeeqah francisees. at least that's what it sounded like. i thought it was some french garden. before kyla and i got in a taxi, i called nusaybah again to ask about the name so i could tell the driver. she said hadeeqah francisees several times until i realized she was saying hadeeqah fun city. i had seen it when nagi and nusaybah had driven us around a few days back but it wasn't a place i was excited to go to 'cause it looked like an amusement park for kids.
once we got to fun city, i called nusaybah. she was already inside with kyle, zuhayr and ahmad. i believe tickets were around 100-300 rials but kyle and zuhayr were charged 800 rials. i think ahmad came with nusaybah but kyle and zuhayr came on their own. what they do at fun city is if they see single guys trying to get in, they charge them an astronomical price to deter them from entering so that the amusement park can be enjoyed by women and families. usually, when a guy is told 800 rials for an entrance fee, he's like, 'heck no! i'm not paying that much money to enter fun city!' but kyle and zuhayr were not deterred. hahaha. 800 rials is not much converted to US dollars but to a yemeni, it's a lot. only the rich go to fun city. kyle and zuhayr tried to get their money back but couldn't.
fun city reminded me of a smaller version of santa's village or maybe one of those summer carnivals with baby rides. i think nusaybah thought since we're from the west, it would be fun to take us to something western in yemen. but the reality is that i very much prefer the cultural and traditional stuff. it was of course a very nice gesture on her part. i rode on a couple of rides and then we were supposed to go to nusaybah's house for some tea but kyla and i decided to head back to the dorm to get some studying done since we were gonna go to an oud show around 8 pm. that's the kinda stuff i like.
kyla and i met with some of the other girls and alia and we walked to dawud hotel. there was a tent under which a few men were sitting. they performed for us singing and playing the oud and drums. two of them did a traditional warrior dance with daggers. we also drank a type of coffee called 'qishr' which is made from the shells of coffee beans.
i went down to the office. my heart was palpatating so loudly. i'm a good girl...for real. i didn't do anything! i was waiting for jameel to scold me but instead he spoke about something that totally caught me by surprise. apparently, usdtadh abdullah told him i was being shy in class and maybe i would prefer a female teacher. i didn't mind ustadh abdullah but his style of teaching was a bit different so i said i was open to having a different teacher. after all that got sorted out, i went back to my room and relaxed. got worked up for no reason.
after class, nusaybah called to say she wanted to get together with us. she said to meet her at hadeeqah francisees. at least that's what it sounded like. i thought it was some french garden. before kyla and i got in a taxi, i called nusaybah again to ask about the name so i could tell the driver. she said hadeeqah francisees several times until i realized she was saying hadeeqah fun city. i had seen it when nagi and nusaybah had driven us around a few days back but it wasn't a place i was excited to go to 'cause it looked like an amusement park for kids.
once we got to fun city, i called nusaybah. she was already inside with kyle, zuhayr and ahmad. i believe tickets were around 100-300 rials but kyle and zuhayr were charged 800 rials. i think ahmad came with nusaybah but kyle and zuhayr came on their own. what they do at fun city is if they see single guys trying to get in, they charge them an astronomical price to deter them from entering so that the amusement park can be enjoyed by women and families. usually, when a guy is told 800 rials for an entrance fee, he's like, 'heck no! i'm not paying that much money to enter fun city!' but kyle and zuhayr were not deterred. hahaha. 800 rials is not much converted to US dollars but to a yemeni, it's a lot. only the rich go to fun city. kyle and zuhayr tried to get their money back but couldn't.
fun city reminded me of a smaller version of santa's village or maybe one of those summer carnivals with baby rides. i think nusaybah thought since we're from the west, it would be fun to take us to something western in yemen. but the reality is that i very much prefer the cultural and traditional stuff. it was of course a very nice gesture on her part. i rode on a couple of rides and then we were supposed to go to nusaybah's house for some tea but kyla and i decided to head back to the dorm to get some studying done since we were gonna go to an oud show around 8 pm. that's the kinda stuff i like.
kyla and i met with some of the other girls and alia and we walked to dawud hotel. there was a tent under which a few men were sitting. they performed for us singing and playing the oud and drums. two of them did a traditional warrior dance with daggers. we also drank a type of coffee called 'qishr' which is made from the shells of coffee beans.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
lost
i woke up soooo tired today 'cause i was up late last night chatting with my dorm mates. the other dorm mate's name is lauren. she's also from the states but i forget which city. so i was yawning in class in the morning and in my afternoon class, i was completely out of it. i think having not eaten any breakfast made it worse. ustadh abdullah was also going over complex grammar stuff that i had studied in the past and forgot. i felt so lost in class. i think he could tell by my face. he let me leave 10 minutes early from class.
it was 3 pm and i was really hungry and tired but i just couldn't get myself to go out and get a falafel sandwich 'cause i didn't wanna climb up 5 flights of stairs to get back to my room. i just decided to go to sleep. kyla, God bless her, was kind enough to go out and get food for me. she brought back a falafel sandwich with fries in it too. yummy. i felt so much better after eating that. i rested a little bit before going out.
we had planned to meet kyle by bab al yemen around 5 pm 'cause he wanted to see the souq in the old city. i told him i'd show him around but really, i don't know the souq myself. but it's fun getting lost in the souq...that's how you discover new places. well, we did get lost and ended up close to my dorm so i showed kyle my tower house. there are a bunch of men who sit outside the school and i was a little nervous about what they'd think of me and kyla with a random white guy. whatever. kyla decided she would go back to the dorm to study so i took kyle back into the souq. we actually went outside bab al yemen to see the sailah which is a dry river bed. it's used as a road now but when it rains, all the water drains into sana'a into that river bed and the water level rises so that it actually becomes like a flowing river. it's pretty cool to imagine it.
afterwards, we decided to get something to eat in the old city. there was an open place with tables and chairs surrounded by men grilling kababs on what looked like a grill. there were other men selling bread with falafel, bread with mashed potatoes and i don't know what else was served 'cause none of these places ever have a menu. we sat down but no one came to us for a long time. a server said something to kyle from behind me and kyle just said 'two'. i asked kyle what he ordered and he said, 'i don't know. we'll find out.' hahaha. that's the thing with these places. it's always a surprise what you'll end up getting. the server returned with bread and a dish full of yemeni salsa called sahaawaq and left. i thought that was what kyle had ordered and i scolded him. but then the server returned again with a dish full of tiny little kababs. they were delicious. i was happy. afterwards, kyle said he wanted mango juice. two yemeni guys sitting close by heard him say that and told us there was a juice place outside bab al yemen. they spoke english. they thought i was kyle's translator. hahaha. i told them he spoke a little arabic. it's true...he knows more about ordering food than i do. i told them i was from india studying here. one guy asked, 'hyderabad?' and i was like 'yeah!' they said they were planning on going to india to study. they were nice and said if we needed anything, they'd help us. i just asked for directions, thanked them and left.
after getting fresh juice, i told kyle he could leave and that i'd return back to my dorm. it was 8:30 pm and women don't really stay out that late here. i said it'd only take me 10 minutes to get back to the dorm from bab al yemen if i didn't get lost. kyle decided he'd walk me back. probably a good idea since i'm notorious for getting lost. i get disoriented very easily and am bad with directions. i told him to keep an eye out for landmarks so he could find his way back to bab al yemen. well, unfortunately, we did get lost. once we passed the main souq, it just got dark and quiet. all the other little shops closed for the night and that really threw me off. we asked people for directions to the thawra hospital 'cause i definitely knew my way back from there but i think they were directing us to the main hospital outside of bab al yemen. so then i started asking people for az-zumar street 'cause that was close to my dorm. i was thinking to myself if i really did have a mukhadaraat following me, why he couldn't just give me directions?! by the time we got to my dorm, it was 9:20 pm! 50 minutes! poor kyle, he had absolutely no idea how to get back to bab al yemen. i was willing to walk him back to bab al yemen but i think that would have turned into a vicious circle of getting lost so i just told him to go straight and ask people.
i have 6 keys for my dorm...the main door, another 2nd main door, women's quarter, mafraj, bedroom and kitchen. i couldn't figure out which key was for the main door. once i did get the right key, i couldn't push the door open. like i mentioned before, there are usually men sitting around outside. i was looking for muhammad 'cause he always appears in time of need but he wasn't around. i was disappointed i was about to call kyla to come down and open the door when this man appeared out of nowhere and helped me open the door. i knew who he was because i had seen him outside our place a lot and the other girls from the school had informed me about him. i also read about him on someone's blog. he was known as 'majnoon' (crazy). he said his name was muhammad and welcomed me to yemen. i'm sure i'll have more stories about him.
it was 3 pm and i was really hungry and tired but i just couldn't get myself to go out and get a falafel sandwich 'cause i didn't wanna climb up 5 flights of stairs to get back to my room. i just decided to go to sleep. kyla, God bless her, was kind enough to go out and get food for me. she brought back a falafel sandwich with fries in it too. yummy. i felt so much better after eating that. i rested a little bit before going out.
we had planned to meet kyle by bab al yemen around 5 pm 'cause he wanted to see the souq in the old city. i told him i'd show him around but really, i don't know the souq myself. but it's fun getting lost in the souq...that's how you discover new places. well, we did get lost and ended up close to my dorm so i showed kyle my tower house. there are a bunch of men who sit outside the school and i was a little nervous about what they'd think of me and kyla with a random white guy. whatever. kyla decided she would go back to the dorm to study so i took kyle back into the souq. we actually went outside bab al yemen to see the sailah which is a dry river bed. it's used as a road now but when it rains, all the water drains into sana'a into that river bed and the water level rises so that it actually becomes like a flowing river. it's pretty cool to imagine it.
afterwards, we decided to get something to eat in the old city. there was an open place with tables and chairs surrounded by men grilling kababs on what looked like a grill. there were other men selling bread with falafel, bread with mashed potatoes and i don't know what else was served 'cause none of these places ever have a menu. we sat down but no one came to us for a long time. a server said something to kyle from behind me and kyle just said 'two'. i asked kyle what he ordered and he said, 'i don't know. we'll find out.' hahaha. that's the thing with these places. it's always a surprise what you'll end up getting. the server returned with bread and a dish full of yemeni salsa called sahaawaq and left. i thought that was what kyle had ordered and i scolded him. but then the server returned again with a dish full of tiny little kababs. they were delicious. i was happy. afterwards, kyle said he wanted mango juice. two yemeni guys sitting close by heard him say that and told us there was a juice place outside bab al yemen. they spoke english. they thought i was kyle's translator. hahaha. i told them he spoke a little arabic. it's true...he knows more about ordering food than i do. i told them i was from india studying here. one guy asked, 'hyderabad?' and i was like 'yeah!' they said they were planning on going to india to study. they were nice and said if we needed anything, they'd help us. i just asked for directions, thanked them and left.
after getting fresh juice, i told kyle he could leave and that i'd return back to my dorm. it was 8:30 pm and women don't really stay out that late here. i said it'd only take me 10 minutes to get back to the dorm from bab al yemen if i didn't get lost. kyle decided he'd walk me back. probably a good idea since i'm notorious for getting lost. i get disoriented very easily and am bad with directions. i told him to keep an eye out for landmarks so he could find his way back to bab al yemen. well, unfortunately, we did get lost. once we passed the main souq, it just got dark and quiet. all the other little shops closed for the night and that really threw me off. we asked people for directions to the thawra hospital 'cause i definitely knew my way back from there but i think they were directing us to the main hospital outside of bab al yemen. so then i started asking people for az-zumar street 'cause that was close to my dorm. i was thinking to myself if i really did have a mukhadaraat following me, why he couldn't just give me directions?! by the time we got to my dorm, it was 9:20 pm! 50 minutes! poor kyle, he had absolutely no idea how to get back to bab al yemen. i was willing to walk him back to bab al yemen but i think that would have turned into a vicious circle of getting lost so i just told him to go straight and ask people.
i have 6 keys for my dorm...the main door, another 2nd main door, women's quarter, mafraj, bedroom and kitchen. i couldn't figure out which key was for the main door. once i did get the right key, i couldn't push the door open. like i mentioned before, there are usually men sitting around outside. i was looking for muhammad 'cause he always appears in time of need but he wasn't around. i was disappointed i was about to call kyla to come down and open the door when this man appeared out of nowhere and helped me open the door. i knew who he was because i had seen him outside our place a lot and the other girls from the school had informed me about him. i also read about him on someone's blog. he was known as 'majnoon' (crazy). he said his name was muhammad and welcomed me to yemen. i'm sure i'll have more stories about him.
Monday, June 16, 2008
laundry handsome
i'm a little tired of thinking of titles for my posts so i'm just gonna title them randomly by things i see around yemen or titles of songs, books, movies, etc. they probably won't have anything to do with the context of my post so just beware. this post's heading is the title of a laundry place near my dorm.
i hadn't mentioned this before 'cause i didn't wanna make a big deal of it if it couldn't be fixed. but as you all know, kyla and i were staying in the students' dorm which is right next to the school. the dorm has both male and female students. i didn't think that was a big deal as long as the guys stayed on their floor so we could take off our hijabs. there are 5 floors in the building and we were on the 4th floor. there's a bathroom and kitchen on that floor as well. i thought we were the only ones using it when one day, i opened my door without my hijab to go to the bathroom and what do i see?! a guy walking out of the bathroom!!! i was like, what in the world is he doing on our floor?!?! and then we were sitting on the terrace without our hijabs, i happened to look up and saw a guy peeking out of his window from the 5th floor! oh my goodness! and then i see guys coming into the kitchen. i mean the place was infested with guys! so we complained to jameel, the director of the school and asked if we could switch to an all girls dorm. directly above the school, in the same building is the women's quarter. no men are allowed to enter. alhamdulillah, a girl was leaving today, so the room was free for us to move into. except, it only had one bed and one desk and one set of keys. jameel said he would get all that ready.
after class, kyla and i packed all our stuff. i feel like i've already accumulated a lot of stuff. but it's mostly books. i'm gonna have a suitcase full of books when i return. i was hoping to have a suitcase full of hijabs and other souvenirs to add to my collection. hehe. anyway, we really could not drag our suitcases down the stairs 'cause it would be too hard and then to drag them up the stairs to the new place would just kill us. so alhamdulillah, muhammad (he was the driver who picked us up from the airport) appeared out of no where and helped bring down the suitcases. he's an old man and he made 3 trips down (kyla has 2 suitcases and i have 1) carrying the suitcases on his back and neck. and then he made 3 trips up the stairs of the new dorm as well and then he disappeared before i could thank him. he always seems to appear when we are in distress or lost...like he's an angel or something.
the new dorm is really nice. there's a nice kitchen with a bathroom next to it. then there's a door that opens up to the mafraj which is like the sitting area. it's huge and has a broken tv. there are several doors along the walls of the mafraj. 4 doors are to the bedrooms and another to a 2nd bathroom. at the moment, there are 2 other girls living there. so 4 girls sharing 2 bathrooms and a kitchen. not bad.
my friend, kyle who works in aden with the relief organization had called earlier in the day because he was on his way to sana'a. we decided we'd meet up for dinner. kyla and i took a taxi to hadda street. that's the street that nagi and nusaybah showed us the day before. we went to a restaurant called hamra. when we entered, the guards directed us upstairs. that's where the women and families eat. downstairs was just for men. upstairs, we weren't sure whether we should wait to be seated or find a seat on our own so we stood around looking confused until one of the workers pointed to the tables. we sat down and expected someone to come and serve us. i mean, we didn't know what the system was. finally, a server came with a menu in arabic. no english available. we both ordered chicken shawarmas. the server wrote out the our order and gave us the receipt. we had to pay first and then sit back down before they brought us our food. kyle had said he'd be at the restaurant in 10 minutes. i had a feeling he was referring to 10 yemeni minutes. i was right. he showed up 30 minutes later. he came with a worker from the organization, zuhayr who is from sudan. later, another worker, ahmad from somolia joined us as well. after some conversation, kyla and i left to go back to our dorm.
at the dorm, we met our dorm mate, alia who is also from the states...boston. she was actually on the same flight as us on the way to yemen but i don't recall seeing her. she's half yemeni and half bosnian and she's here to learn grammar and also to make a film on yemeni women for her thesis. she actually lived in sana'a for 13 years so she knows the city quite well. she told us about the mukhadaraat (secret police) who follow you around. but she said it was for our protection. i wasn't surprised to hear about it. maybe it's good someone is watching our backs.
i hadn't mentioned this before 'cause i didn't wanna make a big deal of it if it couldn't be fixed. but as you all know, kyla and i were staying in the students' dorm which is right next to the school. the dorm has both male and female students. i didn't think that was a big deal as long as the guys stayed on their floor so we could take off our hijabs. there are 5 floors in the building and we were on the 4th floor. there's a bathroom and kitchen on that floor as well. i thought we were the only ones using it when one day, i opened my door without my hijab to go to the bathroom and what do i see?! a guy walking out of the bathroom!!! i was like, what in the world is he doing on our floor?!?! and then we were sitting on the terrace without our hijabs, i happened to look up and saw a guy peeking out of his window from the 5th floor! oh my goodness! and then i see guys coming into the kitchen. i mean the place was infested with guys! so we complained to jameel, the director of the school and asked if we could switch to an all girls dorm. directly above the school, in the same building is the women's quarter. no men are allowed to enter. alhamdulillah, a girl was leaving today, so the room was free for us to move into. except, it only had one bed and one desk and one set of keys. jameel said he would get all that ready.
after class, kyla and i packed all our stuff. i feel like i've already accumulated a lot of stuff. but it's mostly books. i'm gonna have a suitcase full of books when i return. i was hoping to have a suitcase full of hijabs and other souvenirs to add to my collection. hehe. anyway, we really could not drag our suitcases down the stairs 'cause it would be too hard and then to drag them up the stairs to the new place would just kill us. so alhamdulillah, muhammad (he was the driver who picked us up from the airport) appeared out of no where and helped bring down the suitcases. he's an old man and he made 3 trips down (kyla has 2 suitcases and i have 1) carrying the suitcases on his back and neck. and then he made 3 trips up the stairs of the new dorm as well and then he disappeared before i could thank him. he always seems to appear when we are in distress or lost...like he's an angel or something.
the new dorm is really nice. there's a nice kitchen with a bathroom next to it. then there's a door that opens up to the mafraj which is like the sitting area. it's huge and has a broken tv. there are several doors along the walls of the mafraj. 4 doors are to the bedrooms and another to a 2nd bathroom. at the moment, there are 2 other girls living there. so 4 girls sharing 2 bathrooms and a kitchen. not bad.
my friend, kyle who works in aden with the relief organization had called earlier in the day because he was on his way to sana'a. we decided we'd meet up for dinner. kyla and i took a taxi to hadda street. that's the street that nagi and nusaybah showed us the day before. we went to a restaurant called hamra. when we entered, the guards directed us upstairs. that's where the women and families eat. downstairs was just for men. upstairs, we weren't sure whether we should wait to be seated or find a seat on our own so we stood around looking confused until one of the workers pointed to the tables. we sat down and expected someone to come and serve us. i mean, we didn't know what the system was. finally, a server came with a menu in arabic. no english available. we both ordered chicken shawarmas. the server wrote out the our order and gave us the receipt. we had to pay first and then sit back down before they brought us our food. kyle had said he'd be at the restaurant in 10 minutes. i had a feeling he was referring to 10 yemeni minutes. i was right. he showed up 30 minutes later. he came with a worker from the organization, zuhayr who is from sudan. later, another worker, ahmad from somolia joined us as well. after some conversation, kyla and i left to go back to our dorm.
at the dorm, we met our dorm mate, alia who is also from the states...boston. she was actually on the same flight as us on the way to yemen but i don't recall seeing her. she's half yemeni and half bosnian and she's here to learn grammar and also to make a film on yemeni women for her thesis. she actually lived in sana'a for 13 years so she knows the city quite well. she told us about the mukhadaraat (secret police) who follow you around. but she said it was for our protection. i wasn't surprised to hear about it. maybe it's good someone is watching our backs.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
so nice to meet you
today, i had my first class with ustadha ahlam. with her, i'm going to review all my grammar from the beginning, read newspapers and other books and practice speaking. after her 2 hour class, i had an hour break and then i had another 2 hour class with ustadh abdullah. with him, i'm gonna be focusing on reading islamic texts, hadith and quran. both classes were awesome and i'm so excited about how much i'm gonna learn from both teachers. they're both so nice.
so i have a friend named kyle (don't mix him up with my roommate, kyla) who works for a relief organization called ADRA in aden. his co-worker, nusayba is in sana'a at the moment for a two week break so she wanted to show me and kyla around the city. she called me after class and we were to meet her and her director, nagi at thawra hospital which is very close to my dorm within the old city walls.
so kyla and i are waiting in front of thawra hospital. nusayba calls to say she's at the hospital too. but i don't see her. i give her landmarks...list names of pharmacies that are located in front of me. i start pacing up and down the street trying to find the name of the street but i couldn't. she said she'd walk around the hospital. so we waited again. after a few minutes, nagi calls to say they're in front of the emergency area. i say i'll try to find it. so kyla and i walk around the hospital but we don't see anything except tower homes. then we walk back to the front and i ask the guard where the emergency area is. he didn't understand what i was saying so i called nagi and asked him to speak to the guard. while they were on the phone, this old stocky woman in a tye dyed burqa (the women in yemen wear black burqas but there are a few...i think the poorer ones who wear this interesting colorful looking burqa) asked us something about a doctor. i told her we were meeting people but then she started saying something else and i couldn't understand her. i thought she was scolding us or something so i ignored her. she must have been a worker or something at the hospital. anyway, the guard got off the phone and told us just to wait 'cause they'd be coming soon. so we stood around. the old woman came by us again and told us to sit on the bench. we were like, nah...it's okay but she insisted so we did. and then she started consoling us by telling us not to worry or be scared. she was trying to take care of us. she was so sweet to us. we probably looked like lost lambs.
after a few minutes, a young guy on a motorbike stops in front of the hospital. sitting behind him was a man dressed in a nice button down shirt and slacks. it was nagi! apparently, there is another main thawra hospital outside of the old city walls and that's where they were waiting for us. it was far away so we could not walk there. and we'd have to walk a distance just to get a taxi. nagi asked if we were up for an adventure. of course! i'm always up for an adventure! so he saw another guy on a motorbike and called him over. the plan was for me and kyla to ride on one motorbike and he would ride on the other motorbike. kyla and i got on the back of the motorbike. i was sitting closest to the guy riding it but i didn't know what to hold on to. oh, by the way, the old woman was there too. she told nagi that we were frightened and looked lost. anyway, so like i said, i didn't know what to hold on to. they said to hold on to the guy. i said i'd hold on to him if i felt like i was gonna fall. but the old woman insisted that i hold on to his shirt. i was like, how about i just put my hand on his shoulder. no. then i was like, i'll hold on to his kuffiyeh (not a great idea). the old woman grabbed my hand and made me hold the guy's shirt. hahaha. she's so motherly. i took my hand off once we left.
so off we went riding through the old city. how often does one see 2 girls not wearing niqab riding on the back of a motorbike with a random guy in sana'a? NEVER!! oh boy were we a sight. but it was a lot of fun. i bet it was an adventure for the guy too.
so we finally met up with nusaybah. she didn't even believe nagi when he told her how we got there. so anyway, we were going to go around in an air conditioned jeep. how nice is that?! very. by the way, the weather in sana'a is very pleasant. it isn't very hot. i think the weather here is better than the weather in chicago.
they first took us to a juice place and i had fresh lemonade. yummy. then they just drove us around the main street which is hadda street and that's where all the restaurants, shops, embassies (except the u.s.) and everything else are located. they also showed us where we could go bowling, the president's palace and other stuff. we went to nagi's house for a bit and met his american wife and kids. by the way, both nagi and nusaybah are originally from sudan. nagi is the director of the relief organization and nusaybah is a counselor. nagi's home was really nice. his house was surrounded by a gate and once you entered the gate, you forgot you were in sana'a...well, at least the old city of sana'a. nagi invited us to have breakfast at the organization's office (they have an office in sana'a and also in aden) on thursday morning. insha'Allah, we hope to go.
after a short visit to nagi's house, he dropped us off to nusaybah's house. we had tea and pepsi and chatted for a long time with nusaybah and her family. very sweet. her mom is an arabic teacher and her father is a calligrapher. he showed us his work. masha'Allah, everything was very beautiful. i was able to get a lot of practice with my arabic and i felt very comfortable speaking to her 'cause when i made a mistake, she was very good about correcting me. she knew english but i insisted that she spoke to me in arabic.
nusaybah and her dad rode with us in a taxi to make sure we got back to our dorm safely. it was around 10 pm at this time. i felt sorry for the taxi driver 'cause we took him into the old city within the walls through the souq where the streets are extremely narrow and difficult to maneuver. i was okay with him dropping us off in front of the city gate 'cause i was afraid he'd get mad or refuse to go in. but alhamdulillah, he didn't even look irritated. if we were in egypt, the driver would refuse to enter such narrow streets or would show his irritation.
alhamdulillah, we got home safely. i just want to reflect on how super duper nice the people of yemen are. they are so extremely welcoming, generous and kind. i felt terrible thinking that the old woman in front of the hospital was scolding us when in fact she was looking out for us. nagi, who is the director of the relief organization took time out of his busy life to take two random girls around the city. i mean, for real...who are we to him? nusaybah, who doesn't even know us treated us like we were her best friends. and the driver...poor guy...driving through the souq. subhanAllah, the people in this country are amazing.
so i have a friend named kyle (don't mix him up with my roommate, kyla) who works for a relief organization called ADRA in aden. his co-worker, nusayba is in sana'a at the moment for a two week break so she wanted to show me and kyla around the city. she called me after class and we were to meet her and her director, nagi at thawra hospital which is very close to my dorm within the old city walls.
so kyla and i are waiting in front of thawra hospital. nusayba calls to say she's at the hospital too. but i don't see her. i give her landmarks...list names of pharmacies that are located in front of me. i start pacing up and down the street trying to find the name of the street but i couldn't. she said she'd walk around the hospital. so we waited again. after a few minutes, nagi calls to say they're in front of the emergency area. i say i'll try to find it. so kyla and i walk around the hospital but we don't see anything except tower homes. then we walk back to the front and i ask the guard where the emergency area is. he didn't understand what i was saying so i called nagi and asked him to speak to the guard. while they were on the phone, this old stocky woman in a tye dyed burqa (the women in yemen wear black burqas but there are a few...i think the poorer ones who wear this interesting colorful looking burqa) asked us something about a doctor. i told her we were meeting people but then she started saying something else and i couldn't understand her. i thought she was scolding us or something so i ignored her. she must have been a worker or something at the hospital. anyway, the guard got off the phone and told us just to wait 'cause they'd be coming soon. so we stood around. the old woman came by us again and told us to sit on the bench. we were like, nah...it's okay but she insisted so we did. and then she started consoling us by telling us not to worry or be scared. she was trying to take care of us. she was so sweet to us. we probably looked like lost lambs.
after a few minutes, a young guy on a motorbike stops in front of the hospital. sitting behind him was a man dressed in a nice button down shirt and slacks. it was nagi! apparently, there is another main thawra hospital outside of the old city walls and that's where they were waiting for us. it was far away so we could not walk there. and we'd have to walk a distance just to get a taxi. nagi asked if we were up for an adventure. of course! i'm always up for an adventure! so he saw another guy on a motorbike and called him over. the plan was for me and kyla to ride on one motorbike and he would ride on the other motorbike. kyla and i got on the back of the motorbike. i was sitting closest to the guy riding it but i didn't know what to hold on to. oh, by the way, the old woman was there too. she told nagi that we were frightened and looked lost. anyway, so like i said, i didn't know what to hold on to. they said to hold on to the guy. i said i'd hold on to him if i felt like i was gonna fall. but the old woman insisted that i hold on to his shirt. i was like, how about i just put my hand on his shoulder. no. then i was like, i'll hold on to his kuffiyeh (not a great idea). the old woman grabbed my hand and made me hold the guy's shirt. hahaha. she's so motherly. i took my hand off once we left.
so off we went riding through the old city. how often does one see 2 girls not wearing niqab riding on the back of a motorbike with a random guy in sana'a? NEVER!! oh boy were we a sight. but it was a lot of fun. i bet it was an adventure for the guy too.
so we finally met up with nusaybah. she didn't even believe nagi when he told her how we got there. so anyway, we were going to go around in an air conditioned jeep. how nice is that?! very. by the way, the weather in sana'a is very pleasant. it isn't very hot. i think the weather here is better than the weather in chicago.
they first took us to a juice place and i had fresh lemonade. yummy. then they just drove us around the main street which is hadda street and that's where all the restaurants, shops, embassies (except the u.s.) and everything else are located. they also showed us where we could go bowling, the president's palace and other stuff. we went to nagi's house for a bit and met his american wife and kids. by the way, both nagi and nusaybah are originally from sudan. nagi is the director of the relief organization and nusaybah is a counselor. nagi's home was really nice. his house was surrounded by a gate and once you entered the gate, you forgot you were in sana'a...well, at least the old city of sana'a. nagi invited us to have breakfast at the organization's office (they have an office in sana'a and also in aden) on thursday morning. insha'Allah, we hope to go.
after a short visit to nagi's house, he dropped us off to nusaybah's house. we had tea and pepsi and chatted for a long time with nusaybah and her family. very sweet. her mom is an arabic teacher and her father is a calligrapher. he showed us his work. masha'Allah, everything was very beautiful. i was able to get a lot of practice with my arabic and i felt very comfortable speaking to her 'cause when i made a mistake, she was very good about correcting me. she knew english but i insisted that she spoke to me in arabic.
nusaybah and her dad rode with us in a taxi to make sure we got back to our dorm safely. it was around 10 pm at this time. i felt sorry for the taxi driver 'cause we took him into the old city within the walls through the souq where the streets are extremely narrow and difficult to maneuver. i was okay with him dropping us off in front of the city gate 'cause i was afraid he'd get mad or refuse to go in. but alhamdulillah, he didn't even look irritated. if we were in egypt, the driver would refuse to enter such narrow streets or would show his irritation.
alhamdulillah, we got home safely. i just want to reflect on how super duper nice the people of yemen are. they are so extremely welcoming, generous and kind. i felt terrible thinking that the old woman in front of the hospital was scolding us when in fact she was looking out for us. nagi, who is the director of the relief organization took time out of his busy life to take two random girls around the city. i mean, for real...who are we to him? nusaybah, who doesn't even know us treated us like we were her best friends. and the driver...poor guy...driving through the souq. subhanAllah, the people in this country are amazing.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
girls in the city
i woke up again around 4 am to the sounds of the pre-adhan. today we had to take a placement exam and it wasn't THAT bad. i just forgot a lot of vocab. i tried taking the next level exam but i couldn't remember much of it even though i had studied it. the teachers at CALES are really nice and encouraging. i met my teacher, abdullah who said it would all come back to me, insha'Allah. i hope so. i start classes tomorrow (sunday) from 10-12 and then from 1-3 pm.
afterwards, abdur razzaq...the 18 year old 'guide' took us to buy cell phones and sim cards. i hate saying this but i feel much more complete with a cell phone now. people can contact me...i can contact you.
abdur razzaq also took us to the restaurant(where we had breakfast the day before) for lunch...it was actually our first meal of the day. we had chicken, rice, fried potatoes...kinda like french fries, salad, a yemeni salsa (i forgot what it's called), another potatoe dish and the flat bread...i think it's called rashoosh. the rice reminded me of biryaani. i asked him what the rice was called. he just said 'oorz' (rice). then i asked what the chicken was called and he just said, 'dajaaj' (chicken). yemenis are not very descriptive of their food. anyway, all of that came out to about $2 per person and we couldn't even finish the food! kyla and i were the only women at the restaurant. abdur razzaq was saying that yemeni women never eat at restaurants. there are a few restaurants outside of the old city that have segregated places for families to sit and enjoy meals but not just women. he was saying it might be better to order food and carry it out to eat in the dorm.
later on in the evening, an american student who lived in our building asked us if we wanted to go eat falafel sandwiches. of course we did! remember, we wanted falafel sandwiches the night before but got cheese sandwiches instead. so we met up with two other american students and walked along the outside walls of the old city to a small joint that sold falafel sandwiches for less than 25 cents each! this joint was next to a shady theatre. the girls were saying they had gone to see a movie but left after 10 minutes 'cause it was an old 70's chinese movie that was dubbed in english with arabic subtitles.
so there were 5 of us girls...none of us were wearing niqab and one girl wasn't even wearing a balto/abaaya/jilbaab/burqa. i think that's a lot of female faces in one go for a yemeni man to take.
afterwards, abdur razzaq...the 18 year old 'guide' took us to buy cell phones and sim cards. i hate saying this but i feel much more complete with a cell phone now. people can contact me...i can contact you.
abdur razzaq also took us to the restaurant(where we had breakfast the day before) for lunch...it was actually our first meal of the day. we had chicken, rice, fried potatoes...kinda like french fries, salad, a yemeni salsa (i forgot what it's called), another potatoe dish and the flat bread...i think it's called rashoosh. the rice reminded me of biryaani. i asked him what the rice was called. he just said 'oorz' (rice). then i asked what the chicken was called and he just said, 'dajaaj' (chicken). yemenis are not very descriptive of their food. anyway, all of that came out to about $2 per person and we couldn't even finish the food! kyla and i were the only women at the restaurant. abdur razzaq was saying that yemeni women never eat at restaurants. there are a few restaurants outside of the old city that have segregated places for families to sit and enjoy meals but not just women. he was saying it might be better to order food and carry it out to eat in the dorm.
later on in the evening, an american student who lived in our building asked us if we wanted to go eat falafel sandwiches. of course we did! remember, we wanted falafel sandwiches the night before but got cheese sandwiches instead. so we met up with two other american students and walked along the outside walls of the old city to a small joint that sold falafel sandwiches for less than 25 cents each! this joint was next to a shady theatre. the girls were saying they had gone to see a movie but left after 10 minutes 'cause it was an old 70's chinese movie that was dubbed in english with arabic subtitles.
so there were 5 of us girls...none of us were wearing niqab and one girl wasn't even wearing a balto/abaaya/jilbaab/burqa. i think that's a lot of female faces in one go for a yemeni man to take.
Friday, June 13, 2008
exploring the old city
i woke up before 4 am to the sound of something like the adhan. i kept hearing phrases starting with 'subhan....' for like 1/2 an hour and THEN the adhan came on. i went down to the lobby to study and email and went back up around 7 am. i called the airport again close to 8 am but nobody picked up. kyla and i headed out to explore the city even though most of the shops were closed. we were wide awake and didn't want to sit in our room. after exiting our dorm, we walked by our school. there was a truck in front of the school and a man standing outside with his cell phone. i happened to look in the truck and saw a sweet sight...my suitcase!!! i screamed with joy! the man got scared and almost dropped his phone. i told him the suitcase was mine. after showing him the paper work, kyla and i had to carry it up the mountain. oh my goodness! we had to take a break to catch our breaths. and by the time we got to our room, we were hyperventilating. now that i had all my stuff, i was so happy. after cleaning up, we went out and by this time most of the shops were open. we walked around getting lost and exploring places. we had breakfast at that joint abdur razzaq told us about the day before. there were only men sitting in the restaurant. the place reminded me of a cab joint you'd find on devon in chicago. anyway, we sat down. there was no menu. one of the men (maybe the owner) approached us and verbally told us what they serve in english....ful (fava beans), fasoolia (white beans), liver, eggs, kidney. i heard and read that fasoolia was good so we ordered two servings of fasoolia and eggs. it was served with a freshly baked flat bread kinda like a thin parata. it was all very tasty. kyla asked for tea for herself but they also brought me one. it was actually pretty good...with cinnamon, cardamon and cloves. the total cost for both of us came out to less than $2.00. and the amount of food we ordered was a lot too.
afterwards, we continued to explore and stumbled upon a nice looking minaret and i took a few pictures. a lady in niqab said something to us. i thought she was scolding us for taking pictures but she was actually asking if we wanted to enter the masjid and take pictures. women do not pray in the masjids and non-muslims are not allowed to enter the masjids. there's only like 1 masjid in the old city of sana'a that women can pray in. anyway, so this woman who's name was altaf took us into the alamia masjid. her father, latf ahmad was the caretaker. they were so nice to us. i asked latf if the masjid was a zaydi masjid and he said all the masjids in sana'a were zaydi. the adhan is a bit different than what we're used to hearing 'cause they add an extra line in the middle. i asked him if we could climb the minaret and he said we could. it was very dark, narrow and dusty but a cool experience. by the time we got down, our black jilbabs were covered with dust. both latf and altaf wanted us to have lunch with them but we declined because we had just eaten breakfast. they gave us their contact info in case we needed anything. the nice thing about latf was that he never asked for a tip or donation. when i was in egypt, anytime i asked to climb a minaret, i had to give a tip and/or donation and even when i gave something, they'd ask for more. here it wasn't like that.
we explored some more and met nice people. it was almost time for juma'a so we just came back to the dorm to pray and rest. we went out again in the evening to buy stuff. we were trying to find a place to eat but couldn't really. we turned into an alley and found this small joint. i asked if they had falafel and the guy said yes. but then he put cheese on bread and gave it to us. no falafel. so i didn't wanna just eat cheese and bread again like the night before so i went to a little shop and asked for chips. the man said he did not have any. but then i pointed to the 3 shelves full of lays chips so he gave me one. i asked what they called it in arabic and he said, 'lays'.
afterwards, we continued to explore and stumbled upon a nice looking minaret and i took a few pictures. a lady in niqab said something to us. i thought she was scolding us for taking pictures but she was actually asking if we wanted to enter the masjid and take pictures. women do not pray in the masjids and non-muslims are not allowed to enter the masjids. there's only like 1 masjid in the old city of sana'a that women can pray in. anyway, so this woman who's name was altaf took us into the alamia masjid. her father, latf ahmad was the caretaker. they were so nice to us. i asked latf if the masjid was a zaydi masjid and he said all the masjids in sana'a were zaydi. the adhan is a bit different than what we're used to hearing 'cause they add an extra line in the middle. i asked him if we could climb the minaret and he said we could. it was very dark, narrow and dusty but a cool experience. by the time we got down, our black jilbabs were covered with dust. both latf and altaf wanted us to have lunch with them but we declined because we had just eaten breakfast. they gave us their contact info in case we needed anything. the nice thing about latf was that he never asked for a tip or donation. when i was in egypt, anytime i asked to climb a minaret, i had to give a tip and/or donation and even when i gave something, they'd ask for more. here it wasn't like that.
we explored some more and met nice people. it was almost time for juma'a so we just came back to the dorm to pray and rest. we went out again in the evening to buy stuff. we were trying to find a place to eat but couldn't really. we turned into an alley and found this small joint. i asked if they had falafel and the guy said yes. but then he put cheese on bread and gave it to us. no falafel. so i didn't wanna just eat cheese and bread again like the night before so i went to a little shop and asked for chips. the man said he did not have any. but then i pointed to the 3 shelves full of lays chips so he gave me one. i asked what they called it in arabic and he said, 'lays'.
where is my luggage?!?!
we arrived safely in sana'a around 11 am june 12th. after getting our visas, we went to baggage claim to get our bags. kyla got both her bags. then we were waiting for my ONE piece of luggage to come. and we waited and waited till we were the only ones there. of course, my luggage did not come! i was a bit ticked off but learning from my past experiences, i had packed what i needed so i was mentally prepared to do what i did last year (to read about last year's experience in africa, go to http://sarwathinafrica.blogspot.com/). anyway, the guy at the airport said there were two more flights coming in from aden that day so i'd get my luggage later in the evening.
we were picked up by a driver from cales. the weather was warm but not super hot and it wasn't humid. we were taken to our dorm which was like 10 feet away from the school. our dorm was an old building...a tower house. the first floor was originally used to keep livestock and grains. now one of the rooms was converted to a lobby with a t.v. and one computer with internet access. the rest of the first floor still looked like it could be used to keep livestock. our room was on the 4th floor but in reality, it was more like the 7th floor. no elevator. the steps were humongous...kinda like you'd find in an old fortress. i like to consider myself fit but oh my goodness! i was sweating and panting like i had climbed a mountain. it actually reminded me of the last 45 minutes of climbing mt. kilimanjaro when we had to step over huge boulders to get to the top. anyway, our room was simple...2 beds, 2 desks and 2 small chests. the bathroom was a squat toilet and there was also a kitchen. after checking out our rooms, we went to the school to meet the director, jameel. after doing all the paper work, we went back to our dorm to sleep. it was probably around 2ish. around 4 pm, the school was gonna send a guide to show us around the old city. so at 4 pm, we went with our guide, abdur razzaq who was probably no more than 18 years old. his right cheek was bulging out 'cause he was chewing qat which is a plant that the yemenis chew for hours and keep in the side of their cheeks. it's a stimulant drug. while he had that in his mouth, he also smoked a cigarette. kyla told him it was bad for his health. i don't think he understood. anyway, we didn't really pay attention to what he was showing us 'cause we were still tired and just wanted to sleep. i was kinda annoyed 'cause he'd take us to some shops and tell the shopkeeper we were from america. i like to tell people i'm from india so they don't jack up their prices. anyway, it was still beneficial to us just to walk around the old city. the market place reminded me of khan al-khalili in egypt. sana'a reminded me very much of cairo except that it is much cleaner, a lot less polluted and a lot less crowded. the weather was also very pleasant. abdur razzaq pointed out a small joint to eat. kyla and i decided we'd eat our dinner there later.
it was around 5 pm by the time we got back to our dorm. i called the airport to enquire about my luggage. the guy said it would come tonight and my luggage would be dropped off at cales. i asked if he wanted my name but he said, 'no. i know you.' okay...i guess i must have left an impression. hehehe.
we ended up not going out for dinner 'cause we were so tired. so we just ate the bread and cheese we bought to eat for breakfast the next morning. the bread and cheese was my only meal of that day besides the date cookie and juice i had on the plane that morning.
around 9 pm, i tried calling the airport again 'cause i realized that cales was closed and i wanted to tell the airport to drop off my bag at the dorm but nobody picked up. so i tried calling jameel on his cell phone but it wasn't working. i called the school but didn't think anyone would pick up but someone did. i wasn't even prepared to speak in arabic but was forced to because the man on the line knew very little english. it took about 10 minutes of explaining in broken arabic that someone from the airport was gonna send my bag to the school and i wanted him to deliver it to me. i only lived next door. after hanging up, i kept looking out the terrace hoping to see a truck stop in front of the school with my suitcase. but by 11 pm, i made peace with myself to spend the next month living out of my backpack and went to bed.
we were picked up by a driver from cales. the weather was warm but not super hot and it wasn't humid. we were taken to our dorm which was like 10 feet away from the school. our dorm was an old building...a tower house. the first floor was originally used to keep livestock and grains. now one of the rooms was converted to a lobby with a t.v. and one computer with internet access. the rest of the first floor still looked like it could be used to keep livestock. our room was on the 4th floor but in reality, it was more like the 7th floor. no elevator. the steps were humongous...kinda like you'd find in an old fortress. i like to consider myself fit but oh my goodness! i was sweating and panting like i had climbed a mountain. it actually reminded me of the last 45 minutes of climbing mt. kilimanjaro when we had to step over huge boulders to get to the top. anyway, our room was simple...2 beds, 2 desks and 2 small chests. the bathroom was a squat toilet and there was also a kitchen. after checking out our rooms, we went to the school to meet the director, jameel. after doing all the paper work, we went back to our dorm to sleep. it was probably around 2ish. around 4 pm, the school was gonna send a guide to show us around the old city. so at 4 pm, we went with our guide, abdur razzaq who was probably no more than 18 years old. his right cheek was bulging out 'cause he was chewing qat which is a plant that the yemenis chew for hours and keep in the side of their cheeks. it's a stimulant drug. while he had that in his mouth, he also smoked a cigarette. kyla told him it was bad for his health. i don't think he understood. anyway, we didn't really pay attention to what he was showing us 'cause we were still tired and just wanted to sleep. i was kinda annoyed 'cause he'd take us to some shops and tell the shopkeeper we were from america. i like to tell people i'm from india so they don't jack up their prices. anyway, it was still beneficial to us just to walk around the old city. the market place reminded me of khan al-khalili in egypt. sana'a reminded me very much of cairo except that it is much cleaner, a lot less polluted and a lot less crowded. the weather was also very pleasant. abdur razzaq pointed out a small joint to eat. kyla and i decided we'd eat our dinner there later.
it was around 5 pm by the time we got back to our dorm. i called the airport to enquire about my luggage. the guy said it would come tonight and my luggage would be dropped off at cales. i asked if he wanted my name but he said, 'no. i know you.' okay...i guess i must have left an impression. hehehe.
we ended up not going out for dinner 'cause we were so tired. so we just ate the bread and cheese we bought to eat for breakfast the next morning. the bread and cheese was my only meal of that day besides the date cookie and juice i had on the plane that morning.
around 9 pm, i tried calling the airport again 'cause i realized that cales was closed and i wanted to tell the airport to drop off my bag at the dorm but nobody picked up. so i tried calling jameel on his cell phone but it wasn't working. i called the school but didn't think anyone would pick up but someone did. i wasn't even prepared to speak in arabic but was forced to because the man on the line knew very little english. it took about 10 minutes of explaining in broken arabic that someone from the airport was gonna send my bag to the school and i wanted him to deliver it to me. i only lived next door. after hanging up, i kept looking out the terrace hoping to see a truck stop in front of the school with my suitcase. but by 11 pm, i made peace with myself to spend the next month living out of my backpack and went to bed.
introduction
assalaam-alaikum. i started this blog for family and friends to keep up with what was going on with me while i study and travel around yemen. i'll be studying arabic at a language institute in sana'a called CALES (center for arabic language and eastern studies). it is located in old sana'a within the city walls.
so on my way to yemen, i stopped over in london heathrow for like 10 hours. i was supposed to meet my friend kyla there and we were to travel to yemen together. it was quite an ordeal trying to find each other 'cause heathrow is huge. we had originally planned to do a bit of sightseeing before leaving for yemen. i even bought a little guide book on london. but by the time we found each other, we were so tired and didn't even wanna think about sightseeing. so kyla called up her friend who lived nearby and we met her, ate at a middle eastern restaurant (queen of sheba) that served yemeni, iranian and lebanese food and then slept till it was time to go.
we flew on yemeniya airlines. it was a bit ghetto...at first i thought there were crumbs on my seat so i tried to wipe it off before i sat down but realized the brown specs were part of the design on the seat...hehehe. anyway, despite my seat being broken (the button to push your seat back was missing), the flight attendants were very nice. so we were to stop in aden to refuel and then go to sana'a. but we flew over sana'a first to get to aden and then flew back to sana'a. i thought that kinda weird. maybe that's the yemeni way. i don't know...
so on my way to yemen, i stopped over in london heathrow for like 10 hours. i was supposed to meet my friend kyla there and we were to travel to yemen together. it was quite an ordeal trying to find each other 'cause heathrow is huge. we had originally planned to do a bit of sightseeing before leaving for yemen. i even bought a little guide book on london. but by the time we found each other, we were so tired and didn't even wanna think about sightseeing. so kyla called up her friend who lived nearby and we met her, ate at a middle eastern restaurant (queen of sheba) that served yemeni, iranian and lebanese food and then slept till it was time to go.
we flew on yemeniya airlines. it was a bit ghetto...at first i thought there were crumbs on my seat so i tried to wipe it off before i sat down but realized the brown specs were part of the design on the seat...hehehe. anyway, despite my seat being broken (the button to push your seat back was missing), the flight attendants were very nice. so we were to stop in aden to refuel and then go to sana'a. but we flew over sana'a first to get to aden and then flew back to sana'a. i thought that kinda weird. maybe that's the yemeni way. i don't know...
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