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.