The Past Week: Grand Mosque Tour, Palestinian Dabka, Trip to Rural Yemeni Mountain Villages

So I finally have some time on my hands to write about all the amazing happenings of last week (post-Wedding). This is because I'm sitting in bed with a stupid head cold and am not going to class today. I guess I will go in chronological order. The day after the wedding, YCMES organized a tour of Sana'a's Grand Mosque for interested students. In Yemen, non-Muslims are strictly forbidden from entering mosques, but since the Gand Mosque is currently being restored, we were allowed in the parts where work was being done, and were able to see some pretty amazing things. It is believed that Sana'a's Grand Mosque was built during the lifetime of the Prophet Mohammad, which makes it over 1300 years old. Because the structure is so old and has had many renovations by various powers over the last century (and because the roof is made of wood) the mosque was in desperate need of restoration. Another part of the project was to dig under the floor of the mosque to try to rediscover the original mosque. We were able to look down holes over a meter thick and see all of the different layers of all of the different floors from each time the mosque was renovated, expanded, or rebuilt. I saw 1000 years of different floors. It was also amazing to see the restoration work being done on the ceiling. It is believed that this ceiling was rebuilt and restored by Queen Arwa (the second queen of Yemen, after Queen of Sheba) in the early 1000s. The ceiling is ancient and I wish we could have taken pictures, but photography was not allowed. The work they are doing on it and other parts of the mosque is amazing and I really hope to see the final product one day (it is slated to be finished in 2014...maybe).

The next day (it seems like there are amazing things to do in Yemen every day) Geri invited a group of people to come to an Indonesian cultural festival in Sana'a. Supposedly there was going to be magic, sword play, fire eating...etc. When we got there, we found it was a huge tent with a big stage up front. It wasn't exactly an indonesian cultural festival, but a Sana'a festival in which that night was supposed to feature Indonesian culture. It was packed, but of course, we got the "foreigner treatment" aka we were unfairly treated like we were better than everyone else, and they made people in the second row get up and move so that we could be in the front. (Although seating was segregated so that the women were all on the right side and men were seated on the other side of the fence on the left side). We were talking with the guards and the organizers of the event, and they asked us where we were all from etc etc...well, as soon as the event started, he of course welcomed his "friends from America, France, Spain, and Italy!!!" (he mentioned us twice during the night). Also, the entire event was being filmed for television, so about half the time the cameras were trained on us because we were foreigners at a Yemeni event. (Also, this is not my first time in the Yemeni news...a video was taken of us all chewing qat and was put on the school's website, and then it somehow found its way into a Yemeni newspaper and on YouTube). Instead of Indonesian things, most of the night was focused on a group of Palestinian singers and dabka dancers. The Palestinian ambassador to Yemen sat right in front of us with his family (he was allowed on the women's side). The dabka was amazing and we all screamed ourselves hoarse from cheering. They did many different dances...and also they did a dramatic reenactment of Palestinians being killed by Israeli soldiers during a raid on a village...complete with a funeral ceremony in which half of the audience started to cry. There were also two singers (one guy, one girl) and they both had fantastic voices. They sung songs about freeing Palestine and ending Israel...they were not a moderate group at all. Of course all of this got huuuuge cheers from the Yemeni audience. After the performance, the group brought the Palestinian ambassador onstage to do a big dabka dance all-together...and the Palestinian ambassador didn't know how to do dabka! Even though the Indonesia part was supposed to be the feature event, about a fourth of the audience left after the Palestinian dancing was over...they didn't miss much. An Indonesian man went on stage and attempted to sing Amr Diab's "Habibi"...it was tear-wrenchingly bad...Also an Indonesian "rock band" performed a few songs, one of them being about Facebook...they were god-awful. The only 2 decent parts featured traditional Indonesian dancers and also a crazy, drugged-out guy piercing through his neck and then his cheeks with huge needles and putting heated iron bars on his tongue...he was high out of his mind while doing all of this...I guess you would have to be!

And then Yesterday, a big group of students in the program went to three mountain villages about 3 hours southwest of Sana'a--Manakha, Hoteib, and Al Hajjerah. I woke up feeling really sick in the morning and almost decided not to go, but because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I decided to make myself go--and I'm glad I did. We were all on a mini bus together, and because we were mostly foreigners (except for Sabri, the owner of the program, and a couple of the professors) we got stopped at alllll the security checkpoints. Traveling internally in Yemen is definitely an experience. We spent about 15 mins or more at every checkpoint (and there were about 4) and we had to have a police escort for the entire trip, even though we were not traveling into dangerous areas (I think they just wanted to make sure that we actually went where we said we were going).
The landscape in the Yemeni highlands is breathtaking. It is a lot greener than I expected, and everything was wrapped in fog. Because of how mountainous it is and the need for arable farmland, much of the mountains are terraced and covered in qat and coffee crops. While the fog was beautiful, it did prevent me from fully getting to see the landscape. Our first stop on the trip was just outside the village of Manakha. The owner of the program, Sabri, owns a mountain and is in the process of terracing it and beginning work on his mansion. We climbed to the top and saw a few waterfalls as well as where he is digging out of the mountain to build his house into the rock. Afterward we went to the village of Al Hajjerah. This town used to consist of a mixture of both Jews and Muslims living in harmony, but the Jews left after the creation of Israel and the persecution that followed. Traces of Jewish crafts still remain. All of the towns are built atop craggy peaks in places that seem impossible to built. Many of the old houses are simply piles of rocks with tin roofs that jut into the air. The air was so clean and a huge group of children ran out to give us a tour of the town. None of the little alleys were big enough for cars to fit through and it was very quiet (probably because it was morning on a Friday). You can definitely tell that the area has been hit hard by a drastic drop in tourism following fears of Al Qaeda and Houthi Rebels, even though this particular region does not have either of those. This region is populated mainly by Ismaili Shia.
Next, we drove to the village of Hoteib, which is a famous site of pilgrimage for Ismaili pilgrims from India and Pakistan. In fact the road to the village as well as the care-taking of the tomb site are all financed by a group of Ismailis from India. Jutting from behind the village is a huge rock with a shrine built on top. A group of about 10 of us decided to climb to the top. I definitely got my exercise for the day. The view from the top was gorgeous.
We then got back on the bus and headed back to Manakha for a huge Yemeni lunch, traditional Yemeni music and dancing. For lunch we had: mushakil (a mixture of veggies cut up into chunks and cooked with tons of spices), spiced rice, grilled chicken and peppers, salta (Yemen's national dish), lots of bread, bint as-Sahan (a delicious bread and honey pastry dessert), and another dessert that reminded me a little of very thick cream of wheat mixed with oatmeal and tons of sugar and honey. After we ate, musicians played traditional Yemeni music and a couple of guys got up and started to dance, sometimes pulling out their jambiyyas, sometimes parading around with huge rifles, and once one of them had a tissue in his mouth and another one followed him around trying to bite the tissue....! At one point they dragged all of us foreigners up and made us dance in a big circle...I can safely say I do not have a future career in Yemeni dancing.
As it was starting to get late, we all got back on the bus for the drive back to Sana'a. It got dark very quickly and the fog was extremely thick. Also, the roads in the part of Yemen are not the best. It is barely wide enough for 2 cars, has no guard rails and weaves around the edges of the mountains. For a lot of the drive, we had to go at about 15 mph because there was no visibility due to nightfall and the fog. About an hour or so outside of Sana'a, it started to storm. It was beautiful watching the lightning snaking through the fog. We were supposed to get back to Sana'a around 7, but because of the weather, we didn't get back until 9:15. The trip has really made we want to explore Yemen more, and more than ever, I wish I had more time to do so.

Yemeni Wedding

Last night I witnessed a Yemeni wedding...I have seen some crazy things, but nothing compares to this. While I was in Jordan, I went to two different weddings, so I assumed weddings in Yemen would not be much different...I was so wrong. I was totally blind-sided by craziness. First of all, I'll explain what I was doing at a Yemeni wedding. There is a woman in the program with me who used to teach English as a second language back in the States. One of her students was Yemeni, and it was his wedding. She really didn't want to go to the wedding alone, and I really wanted to get to see and talk to Yemeni women, so I gladly went along with her.
Well, in Yemen, weddings are segregated male/female. There is no ceremony in the mosque, it is just a huuuuge party with loud music and dancing. We weren't exactly sure about the dress code for the wedding, but from our previous experience at other Arab weddings, we assumed there would be fancy clothes and lots of make-up. I didn't have any really nice clothes with me, so I put on a black dress and put on (what I thought) was a lot of make-up (meaning eye-liner and mascara). So we have to be totally covered up when we arrive, but as soon as we walk upstairs to the women's party, we are totally ambushed by hundreds of un-veiled women in the tackiest, craziest, brightest prom-dress-esque dresses I have ever seen...neon green, pink, blue, red. Plus they are all desperately crowding around the mirror, doing their hair, touching up their make-up....and their make-up is ridiculous. They cake on really pale foundation to make themselves look white and then put on pounds of eyeshadow in neon colors. It was such a shock. Two seconds before, we were downstairs and all of the women were in black niqabs which completely cover them in black from head to toe, sometimes they even cover their eyes with black fabric. Before last night, I had never really talked to a Yemeni woman before...I felt really cut off from them and unable to approach them because of the wall of black fabric between me and them. But the second we walked in, we were grabbed and paraded around the room by women whom neither of us had ever met before. We got so much attention because we were foreigners, and I guess it was a sign of status to have "ajnabiyat" at your wedding. So immediately we met the groom's sisters and mother and cousins. And then we met the bride's sisters and mother. For every woman, you have to shake hands, kiss cheeks, and if it is an older woman, then you kiss her hand, and you can also (this is optional) touch your hand to the top of your head to signify that it is a great pleasure to meet them. This happened with at least 50 women. Finally we are led to a place where we can sit down, and then the women descended on us with questions.
I take back what I said earlier about Yemeni Arabic being relatively close to Jordanian and about being able to understand a lot...I guess earlier I had been talking to relatively educated people that mixed in a lot of Standard Arabic...women in Yemen are not very educated. They don't know fusha. Almost always, they stop school as soon as they are married, and the average Yemeni woman marries at around age 17. So it was very, very hard to understand their questions. Again, it was a total shock because Yemeni women are so meek and quiet on the street, but I was constantly being grabbed, pushed, petted, pulled and questioned. One of the girls was a nightmare...she was the sister of the bride and was 15 years old...she had already been married one year, but because they are all forced to grow up so early, they all act a lot older. But she was ridiculously nosy and took an immediate liking to me. For every woman I met, the questioning went something like this:
What is your name? ...Betsy. How old are you? ...21. Are you married? ...No. WHAT? YOU AREN'T MARRIED? BUT YOU ARE 21! YOU DON'T WANT TO BE MARRIED? ...I do, but not yet. I bet you want us to find you a Yemeni husband? Me: ....inshallah...(NOOOO).
And then: Are you Muslim? me: No, I'm christian. Them: Do you cover your hair in America? me: no. Them: WHAT? You don't COVER??? Me: no, Christian women don't cover. Them: !!!!! Do you pray? ....etc etc.
The one 15-year-old literally asked me these questions, in this order, 5 times last night.
They also asked me about my family, and when I mentioned that I had a dog, they flipped out. Almost all Arabs are terrified of dogs and they asked me a million different questions about where it lives, what it eats, why I am not scared of it, and if it gets washed. Then they asked me who washes my dog. I answered that sometimes I do, or my sister, or my parents. They absolutely flipped out that a woman would wash a dog...they just could not fathom it.
After the initial round of questioning, we were told that we needed to dance. These women, who, in public, are not allowed to even acknowledge music or bob their heads, were crazy without the men around. I'm still in shock from the difference and I wish I could have taken pictures, but cameras are strictly forbidden because no pictures can be taken of the women without them being totally covered.
Near the end of the big dance-hall portion of the party, we went up to be introduced to the two brides...it was 2 weddings in one, probably to cut down on the cost. One bride was 16 and the other was 20...I felt so bad for them because of how huge and hot their dresses were...without airconditioning and the ceiling fans were broken...they looked miserable and shell-shocked. But of course we had to pose and take pictures with both brides...even though we did not know one of them at all...they wanted pictures with the foreigners.
At this point, it was about 9pm, and we were about to leave when the sister of the groom invited us back to their house to a special ceremony. This is something that outsiders normally never get to see, so of course we wanted to go. This is the part of the wedding where the women of the families gather in the house and prepare it for the bride and groom, and the men go out in the street and dance and shoot off fireworks and recite a prayer.
This part was very frustrating...back in the dancehall, the women are uncovered and dancing, and you don't really notice that it is segregated. But at the second part, the men are outside having an amazing time, while the women remain indoors, covered, just in case a man comes in, and they are all crowding around the windows, trying to see what is going on below. But of course they cant pull the curtains aside, even though they are veiled, because they can't act interested in the party. And the lights have to be turned off, just in case a man looks up, he cant see the women in the window. it was ridiculously hot and frustrating. Also, because, as foreigners, we have to have the best view, the crazy mothers-in-law and sisters were dragging us up and down the stairs to find the best windows...for 2 hours. Keep in mind that all this time, I am being questioned again and again and again on my marital status, age, religion etc. Also, being very tall and very pale and very ginger, they were all over me. My friend got off a little easier because she is tan and already married. Another fun experience was standing over a big bowl full of burning incense in order to make all my clothes smell good....perfume is considered haraam, but they stand over burning incense to the point of almost being burned in order to smell good.
But finally, at around 10:30/11, the brides come in and the rooms are arranged. Minutes later, the dancing outside stops and the groom comes in to see his bride for the first time. The groom is the only man allowed in at this time, and all the women have to cover up. The bride sits on a dias at the front of the room with a veil on and the groom comes over, puts his hand on her forehead for a moment, and then lifts the veil. They the women drag them both up and push them into their new bedroom and shut the door....both of them look totally shell-shocked and nervous and exhausted from the craziness of days of partying.
Finally, around 11:30, we tried to make our escape. It took 30 minutes for them to let us out the door, but they loaded us down with baked goods. Needless to say, I didn't get any homework done. I wish there was a better way to explain the craziness...even as I type this, I know I am making it seem tamer than it actually was. After being in Yemen for a few weeks and seeing the way the women carry themselves and then seeing the wedding party...its a complete shock.

Just finished up my first qat chew....now I feel like I'm in Yemen. For those who don't know, qat is one of the biggest crops and also one of the biggest problems in Yemen. Instead of growing food products, they grow qat, which is a plant that is used as a drug. While it isn't technically addictive, the habit of it is addictive to *most* Yemeni men. Basically, from 1pm to late at night (and some men sleep with the hunk of chewed qat in their mouths) they chew qat. It is a green, leafy plant and you break off the top, small, soft leaves and stick them in the side of your mouth and chew them up into a big hunk and let it sit there for HOURS. You don't even start to feel anything until 2 or 3 hours. And I'm not talking about feeling anything much, but usually it is just an elevated feeling of being very awake and not-hungry. But it was a lot of fun sitting in the mafraj just being able to talk to people. For me, the hardest part about going to America is that no one seems to understand my experiences in the Middle East or give a shit, but I was in a room full of people that have had experiences even cooler than mine as well as my Yemeni professors who have a lot of interesting things to say.
But buying the qat was an experience in itself. Basically anywhere you go in Sana'a, you can see men sitting on the side of the road, with a huge lump in their cheek, selling qat, but you can also go to special markets just for qat. After a huuuuge and delicious lunch of Salta (Yemen's national dish wish is a type of stew/chili thing made from a tomato base with ground lamb, potato, and tons of spices and heat) we went to the nearest qat souk. It was pretty big and had tons of sellers (all of them also chewing) and they were gawking at us because we were a big group of foreigners in the middle of this qat souk...I drew a lot of attention, as normal, because of how tall I am (Yemenis are tiny) and also because of how pale I am. As soon as we took out our cameras to take pictures, they all were yelling at us to take their pictures and I had to go around at least 10 different groups and then show them all the photos.
Also, as we were doing this, they had their camera phones out and were taking pictures of us!

There is definitely no risk of me becoming a habitual qat chewer, but if you come to Yemen, its a necessary experience...it is disgusting and unattractive, but hey, its the national pastime!
OK. Now I really want to address the security situation here. Before I came and also while I've been here, I've been getting messages about why I would want to come to Yemen, and "aren't you scared? there are terrorists in Yemen!"....This is what I want to say: If you are stupid and do stupid things and do not respect Yemeni culture and you decide to travel to somewhere like Ma'rib because you want to be cool and go to a war zone, then yes, something MAY happen to you. I have no shame in telling people that I am American when they ask where I am from, and I have yet to meet with any antagonism. In Sana'a, I feel safe and respected. I'm not going to go to Saada, Ma'rib or anywhere where Al Qaeda is active or the war against the Houthis is active...I like adventure, but I would never do anything to put myself at risk, just like if I were in Syria or Jordan or Palestine. Also, I don't cover my hair here....before I came, I assumed that I would wear the hijab, but being here, I have realized that I get stared at just as much with or without the hijab, and as a foreigner and a non-Muslim, I don't need to cover and am not being disrespectful by not doing so. Most of the Western women here choose not to cover. Of course I dress conservatively and I often wear my awesome abbaya, simply for the fact that it is easy and really comfortable. So, you can probably guess that with red hair, I stand out as much as humanly possible, but I don't feel like a walking target.

Enough about that...

Being in Yemen has really made me reconsider my post-graduation plans. Being in Jordan definitely convinced me that I want/need to live in the Middle East for a couple years before I go to grad school. A. I don't know what I would go to grad school for and B. I want to become fluent in standard Arabic and a dialect. I know I want to return to Jordan for at least a part of those few years, but after being here, I really, really want to come back here next summer for a couple months, assuming the security situation does not worsen. Being here only 5 weeks is not enough to travel to all of the amazing places in this country or even to really get to know Sana'a and the people here. And I love the Yemeni dialect and want to get a better grasp on it. More and more, I'm feeling a little out of place in the US. Arab culture is so warm and welcoming everywhere I have traveled and Yemen is no exception. Granted, it is harder as a woman, because there are boundaries that men cannot cross and out of respect, they tend to keep their distance and don't start conversations as much, but I've had great conversations once I've started them. I still want to get to know more Yemeni women...my plan is to just hang out in a busy abbaya shop for a while and start small talk with the women. I need to go back to the big souk in the old city and buy a jambiyya. I hope it stops raining long enough for me to go without getting drenched. Note: if you come to Yemen in the summer, bring rain boots, a raincoat, and an umbrella! These are essential!

OK, Khalas for now--it's late and I have homework.

Day 2

OK...so let me start with a description of the World Cup, Yemeni style...So I don't watch soccer, I don't care about soccer, I wanted to sleep during the final soccer game. But Yemenis had other plans. As I lay in bed, I knew every single time a goal was made because of all of the gun shots going off in the air and horns honking. It was crazy. When the match finally ended, there were so many gunshots....the Yemenis were definitely rooting for Spain.
I really did not get much sleep last night...I'm still jet-lagged so I was actually still awake when the 4am call to prayer started. It is like nothing else in yemen...because Sana'a is totally flat and surrounded by mountains, it all echoes and you can hear everything. There are hundreds of mosques in Sana'a...it is the most beautiful thing I have ever heard, it is so peaceful and calm and soothing and it really reaches your core.

Today was the first day of classes. 4 straight hours, every day. Breakfast is served by the classroom building every day from 8am to 9am and then classes are from 9 to 1. I have 2 professors, 2 hours with each, and they only speak Arabic, which is good. My level has three students in it, including me. The other two are also Americans, and they both go to Middlebury...aka I look like an idiot because their teachers were so much better than mine...but also because the class is so small, everyone gets so much individual attention that I am bound to finally learn the grammar, and I don't really care if I look dumb because I want to learn the stuff.

Whatever, enough about classes...I should be doing my 3 hours of homework right now, but I ain't!
After class, I grabbed lunch with a group of students and young people that work for the program...we got kabob sandwiches, which they make really nice and spicy in Yemen...the food is amazing...it was made with some sort of ground meat...I have no idea what animal or what part of that animal, but it was good...i'm not sick yet *knock on wood*.
At 4, all the new students got together and 2 of the schools teachers gave us a tour of the old city of Yemen. It was all in Arabic and all the other students are at the beginning level so I had to translate...funnnn. But anyways, they showed us how to get to the old city and took us to the top of one of the taller buildings in Yemen so we could get a view of the entire city...wow. the city is gorgeous. it is so flat because it is in a valley. see facebook for photos. (and by the way, in the old part of the city alone, there are more than 166 mosques, so there are gorgeous minarets everywhere). Then, they told us that they were abandoning us and we would have to find our own way back. Apparently this was part of the plan to get us lost and make us learn our way around the old city...not a bad idea. So we actually decided to go exploring and not try to get out immediately, so we walked around all the souks. I bought an abbaya, which, for those who don't know, is the long black gown-like thing that is very loose and completely covers you. It is so comfortable and nice and hand-made...and it cost $6! And in the abbaya store, there were 3 yemeni women also looking for abbayas and I finally got to talk to Yemeni women! they were so incredibly nice and helpful and we talked for a while. I really want to make friends with Yemeni women because apparently they are the best cooks and I really want to go in a Yemeni house and see how life is. I also bought some amazing incense that smells so good and is really fresh..i think it was maybe 50 cents? And apparently Yemen is famous for having the best black pepper so I bought some of that too for super cheap.
So after a few hours of wandering around, we decided to look for a restaurant and walked along the sa'ila (which means river in Arabic, but in Sana'a, it is actually a road that is built below ground-level, so that when it rains, all the water drains into it and it becomes a river). We ended up walking into a random restaurant that opened into a big courtyard with tons of restaurants in it...all of the food in Yemen is kind of like street food. "nicer" restaurants actually have tables and chairs and they throw a piece of plastic on the table and you eat off the table using bread as a utensil. There are over 300 different types of bread in yemen...I'm in heaven. So tonight, we had no idea about what type of food the restaurant served, but I understood the word "lahmeh" (lamb) in his description, so we asked for a small assortment of everything (picture on facebook). they bring you huge pieces of bread and we got a cold soup type thing made from tomato, onion, garlic and herbs, and a dish made with strips of lamb and veggies with tons of spices and very hot which kinda tasted like a yemeni fajita, and also a dish with ground lamp and spices, and a weird omelette type thing with spices and tomato and also a dish made from kidney and veggies and spices. I don't eat eggs, and I know from Jordan that I HATE kidney, but the soup and the 2 types of lamb were AMAZING. Soooo good. And everyone said the eggs were good. Considering the levels of cleanliness, I'm shocked I'm not sick yet from the food, but I guess my 2 trips to the hospital in Jordan for food poisoning prepared my stomach for Yemen.
So...now I have about 3 hours of homework to do. Tomorrow I am going to a Yemeni body language talk, so it will be easier for me to understand the women by knowing how they communicate.
Well, if you made it through all of this, congrats!

Day 1. Awal Youm fi'l Yemen!

So after 29 hours on a plane/in transit, I am finally in Sana'a, the capital of Yemen. When I got in last night, it was pouring rain, and it has been raining all day...I didn't realize I was coming to Yemen in the middle of a monsoon! I'm really glad I packed my rainboots and a raincoat, but I didn't bring an umbrella...not like it matters because everyone is soaked through in 5 minutes. Since it only rains about one month out of each year, Yemen doesn't have a drainage/sewer system...that means that roads become rivers and intersections become lakes. That means water up to your calves at any given point.
I wouldn't say I'm going through culture shock, and I never really had culture shock when I went to Jordan, but Yemen is very, very different than I expected. I feel as safe here as I feel in Marietta, Georgia. While I knew coming here that it wasn't full of terrorists and that I would probably never be in danger while here, it is still more relaxed than I expected. Everyone that I have talked to has joked about there being terrorists and they are saddened that Westerners are afraid to come to Yemen because they believe everything they see on the news. Of course there are places like Ma'rib or Sa'da in the North where I should not travel, but places like Sana'a and in the South and East are very safe and very welcoming.
So...I've been constantly busy since I've gotten here. There were 4 students from my program on the Germany-Yemen leg of my flight, and of course we had trouble with the visa guy at the airport because of 2 typos on photocopies of our visas. I happened to know the most Arabic out of the 5 of us, so that meant I got to deal with the guy. I'm actually surprised at how similar Yemeni and Jordanian Arabic is, considering how far apart they are (although one difference that is getting me in trouble is that "maashi means yes in Jordan, and no in Yemen, and I keep saying it) so I was able to communicate with the guy and convince him to let everyone in.
You can tell you are not in Jordan or Syria or anywhere else I have been in the Middle East immediately...it is a lot less built-up and developed than I expected. Roads, even in the middle of the capital city, are not really paved...they are dirt and rock, and strewn with more garbage than you can imagine. There aren't sidewalks, or stop signs, or traffic lights, or traffic circles or street signs...its just a maze of dirt paths...really. The houses are all gorgeous though...they look like decorated cakes. Every single one is white, with brown painted designs and carvings, and all of the windows are beautiful multi-colored stained glass.
The Yemeni people. Well, I've only been here a day and spoken with a few, but the dress code is AWESOME. In Jordan, only some among the older generation wore traditional dress...here, evvveryone is in traditional dress except for a very very few. All the men wear either a dish-dash (they call it something else here, but I forget) or pants with a wrap-around jacket. And they wear these big belts, which hold their awesome jambiyya (huge decorated dagger). There are differing degrees of headgear--kuffiyahs of every color, tied in every fashion, as well as prayer caps and a million other things. The rain is awesome because the men all roll up their pants of dish-dashes so that they are wearing short shorts and they walk around bare-footed. Women are noticeable by there not being any on the streets. The men are all over the place, in restaurants, on the street, in stores, but I've barely seen any women at all, and every single one of them has been completely covered in black.

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So I just got back from my first trip to the old market...this entire city makes the old parts of Amman and Damascus look brand new. In the "old" part of Sana'a, everything looks ancient. I couldnt really take any pictures because that part of the city was experiencing a blackout, which made walking on the old and wet cobblestones and no sidewalks a challenge. But the market was amazing. The only bad part is that they don't bargain very much here, so my skills won't be of much use. I did see about 20 things I want to buy, including amazing jambiyyas and the traditional shawls (which is an arabic word, by the way). I bought some mangoes, and I just finished eating one...the best, ripest, sweetest, cheapest mango i've ever had in my entire life.

Anyways, today I had my horrible Arabic placement exam, so tomorrow I find out what class I will be in and I have to start classes...ugh, 3 hours of Arabic tomorrow...i'm not excited!