Hi everyone,
I flew into Sana'a, Yemen on Monday 31 May. My plan is to spend three weeks here studying Arabic with a private tutor at the Sana'a Institute for Arabic Language. My Arabic abilities are still not great and Yemen is a good place to practice because, unlike other places in the Middle East, most people don't speak English. Yemen is also cheap. It's costing just a few hundred dollars to study privately and live in a traditional Yemeni house. The student housing is on the edge of the Old City in central Sana'a. The walk to Bab al Yemen is only about a kilometer.
Sana'a is an amazing place. In many ways it's like stepping back into history. The traditional souks and street markets thrive and are the main supply of food and goods for the people. Poverty is rampant here; most people live on less than $2 per day. However, things are comparatively less expensive than the States or other countries in the region. My first three days in Sana'a I lived on less than $5 per day while eating at decent restaurants. My diet has consisted mainly of bread, foul and some chicken. The foul is much better than the Sudanese variety but I still have an aversion to it.
The Institute is a pretty cool place. It's a decent sized building about 300 meters from the student housing. There are probably about 25 people studying there. Most all have private tutors and schedule their time in 3 or 4 hour blocks throughout the day. I've had sessions inside and outside and really like the relaxed atmosphere. My instructor and I agreed to work primarily on conversational items but also to work on a subset of politically specific language. Each day I bring the day's newspaper and we review articles that cover politics in the Middle East. This should really help to expand my vocabulary when speaking about current issues.
One of the first people I met here was a Canadian guy who came for a month to get a quick introduction to Arabic. He and I were talking and discovered we both shared a passion for diving. He had planned a weekend away at Kamaran Island in the Red Sea off the western coast of Yemen. I agreed to join him and we would set off on Friday and return on Sunday. Friday and Sunday would be travel days and we would dive on Saturday. Thursday evening we stayed up late with some students and it made a rough start for Friday morning. Our bus left from Bab al Yemen at 6:15 AM and I was feeling a little sickly. The bus trip took six hours and ended in Houdida, a city near the port of Asslif. I continued to get worse during the trip, but I hoped it would go away after a few hours off the bus.
The bus trips here a bit of an adventure. Arabic music and/or movies blare from overhead speakers throughout the trip. It's a challenge at first to follow along but after about three hours it just gets obnoxious. There are also several stops during a six hour trip. On average every hour and half the bus stops in a village to offload passengers for twenty minutes to buy food and drink and also the all important qat. Qat is the national pastime of Yemen. Most men and women chew the leaf and it acts as a stimulant. I don't Yemenis could survive a bus trip without qat. The other charming part of my bus trips seems to be my ability to choose a seat next to the on-board toilets. Not nice.
Houdida and the surrounding area was a bit Wild West meets Sudan. The coastal populations of Yemen have mixed African and Arab ancestry; most of the north is dominated by Arabs. The temperature in Houdida mixed with humidity was stifling, 42°C with 85-90% humidity. There was almost no breeze which made standing outside nearly unbearable. Our hotel hosts arrived quickly to collect us and let us sit in an air conditioned room for about an hour before we went to lunch. The hour in A/C was the second best part of the entire trip.
For lunch our group of ten headed to a local mendi restaurant. Mendi is a style of food popular in Yemen and the greater Gulf region. It consists of a base of rice topped with meat (mutton, chicken, or fish) served on a communal plate. Its eaten with your hands, but you mix yogurt and sauce with the rice and meat to solidify a mound that you scoop into your mouth. It may sound terrible but it actually is great once you get the hang of it. The meat is perfectly seasoned and cooked underground and the flavor really comes out with the yogurt and sauce.
After lunch ended we left via the hotels delivery trucks. We had to make a quick stop at the qat market to pick up a supply of qat for the workers. It was an eye opening experience to wander around market and witness the shouting, haggling and general chaos of the qat scene. The drive to the port of Asslif took about an hour through a desolate arid/desert peninsula. I was expecting the ferry to the island to be a drive-on heavy duty type. Er, wrong. Workers unpacked the bus and put our things into a 15 foot rowboat with a motor. It was starting to get interesting.
The ride across the strait to Kamaran took about twenty five minutes. The "hotel" didn't come into view until we almost reached the shore. It consists of a main lodge type area with dining tables and six separate huts for guest quarters. The owner doesn't believe in air conditioning so it was a bit hot. No, really; it was hot. The hotel is separated from Kamaran village by at least fifteen kilometers. The total island size is 80 square kilometers inhabited by less than three thousand people. The terrain is basically a mixture of rock and desert. Wide white sandy beaches are not in abundance.
We had dinner, played dominos and I settled in for the night. It was defiantley one of the most uncomfortable nights of my life. Air couldn't circulate in the hut and the humidity was intense. I eventually passed out. The next morning came early thanks to the rather rude rooster who began crowing at 5:30 am. We had breakfast and got ready to dive. Jason, the Canadian, and I suited up and took our equipment to the boat with Ahmad the divemaster. We were joined by two locals who work for the hotel; they are fishermen and provide security for us.
The first dive spot was about twenty minutes from the hotel dock. It was an amazing dive. It was fairly shallow at on 10 meters but we stayed under water for more than an hour. I saw all kinds of amazing fish, lobster, and even a few stingrays among the coral. Awesome dive. The second dive wasn't as interesting. We dove to about 30 meters but couldn't stay down long because of the diminished oxygen supply due to depth. There was a lot of silt kicked up on the bottom and the current was strong. All in all not a great dive. The good part was that I gained confidence in my diving abilities. I used less air than usual and controlled bouncy better. I think it had a lot to do with being in salt water instead of fresh.
I had hoped for more diving later in the afternoon but it wasn't to be. This wasn't too bad because sunburn was starting to set in. That afternoon I sat around and finished a good book. I was still feeling sick and I think I became dehydrated. I lay down and only got up briefly for a dinner I didn't eat. Sunday morning came early again and I was still feeling sick. We saw some dolphins that morning in the bay near the hotel. That was cool and reminded me of a few summers ago in South Carolina. We said our goodbyes around 9:30 and boarded the boat for the return trip to Asslif.
Jason and I had decided to skip the bus ride and instead travel back to Sana'a with Sultan in his Landcrusier. Did I mention I love Landcruisers? I do. He has an 80s model FJ62 and the thing is a tank. We couldn't wait to get out the flat costal area and into the mountains where the temperature drops. Along the way we were stopped at every police checkpoint. The police are not used to Westerners traveling in the area and made sure to take all of our details before releasing us. At one checkpoint near the mountains it was decided that this wasn't enough. The army manned the checkpoint and insisted on giving us an armed escort through the region. An army Landcruiser bushanab loaded with six men and a mounted fifty caliber machine gun stuck close to us for about half an hour before pulling off. Rural Yemenis are notorious for capturing Westerners and holding them for ransom to force the government to build infrastructure in their villages. The government figures it cheaper to prevent abductions than to continue building roads and powerlines to the middle of nowhere.
The ride back through the mountains took about six hours. I was still sick and dehydrated. I was starting to feel a bit delirious. We only stopped once so that Jason and Sultan could take lunch. I began feeling better once the climate cooled. The mountains are beautiful. The houses are built into the sides and tops of cliffs. It is the exact same style of building and decoration that I saw in the mountains between Dibba and al Fujariah at the southern end of Musandam. I have no doubt that the occupants of those mountains were orginially Yemenis who migrated to the far eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula. We had one small traffic incident on the way back but no big ordeals. It was an interesting trip that I would rather have taken about three months back. I am hoping that the sick leaves me soon so that I can get back to full strength.
Talk to you ya'll soon.
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Don Amboyer
amboyer@gmail.com+971-050-8894656
