Beautiful Yemen

Well, I had my first field visit yesterday and it was great! I learned a lot and saw a lot. I have included pictures here, but let me tell you, they don't even come CLOSE to doing the Yemeni landscape justice. You really can't get any sense of the shear SCOPE of these mountains and valleys from the pictures, especially because of the haze in the air, but here you go anyway.

The morning started very early. We left around 6am. I had a hard time sleeping the night before and my stomach was bothering me in the morning so it was a bit trying forcing down some oatmeal before we left since I knew I needed to eat something or my stomach would never settle.

The driver, Mudhaher, picked me up first, then we picked up my translator, Khadija, and her brother whose name I think was Ahmed. Last we picked up my colleague Jaweed and we headed off out of the Sana'a bowl up into the mountains.

We had to stop at several checkpoints through the course of the trip. I think they were at the borders of each governorate. We had no trouble getting through. Mudhaher would pass them a photocopy of my travel papers, they would ask where I was from, and then we'd be through. We had to wait for maybe 5 or 6 minutes at the first checkpoint because the guy decided he wanted to inform headquarters that an American was going to Mahweet (the governorate we were going to), but they quickly waved us through. Apparently Mahweet is know for being a great governorate for tourists to go to because it's very passive safety-wise, and also very beautiful.

Shortly after leaving Sana'a I made my only obviously clueless move of the trip. We were driving through stands and stands of small trees that all looked like they had been recently planted. I, being an environmental economist, wondered out loud whether they were recent aforestation project, but I was quickly informed that they were Qat trees! I hadn't realized Qat was a tree, which I find kind of funny since it's been such a major area of discussion while I've been here because it is a somewhat controversial subject. This launched us into a heated conversation that lasted most of the first half of the trip. The conversation was pretty much all in Arabic, so I was only able to follow a small amount, but Jaweed would occasionally break off to tell me what was being discussed at the moment. The basic breakdown was that Jaweed was one of those who opposed Qat in general because he thought it was a drain on the economy and natural resources of the country. Mudhaher and Ahmed both chew Qat daily and were taking up the other side of the discussion. Khadija was leaning more towards Jaweeds side of the debate, but it's also interesting because she told me later that her father recently return to his village to expand his crop land and plant Qat because, while he had been promised a government job, they weren't hopeful that anything would come of that any time soon.

We stopped in a little village along the way to get some breakfast. It was interesting because I got to experience for the first time the common way that restaurants work in Yemen. There is what is called the family room where women and children can go and eat and men are not allowed. This is because, in order to eat, the women have to remove their veils. So, Khadija and I went into the family room and the guys all went and ate in the other room. This was cool for me because I got to actually see Khadija's face for the first time and we got to get to know each other a little bit without distraction. She's very nice and very intelligent. She told me that I was the first native speaker of English she has ever spoken with which was surprising to me because she speaks really well.

After breakfast we headed back out on the road. We had already been driving through the most incredible scenery and this continued for the rest of the trip. Here are some pictures, but as I said in the beginning, they really don't do it justice. There were these incredible valleys that you couldn't even see the bottom of when you were at the top because of the haze, and then 10 mintures later you'd find yourself at the bottom surrounded by incredible mud-brick houses built into the mountainsides. Apparently the villages tend to be built on high ground for safety.



That is a stand of Qat trees in the middle there on this one:




Apparently there is a seasonal waterfall that comes down at the low-point in that cliff face off in the distance. The rainy season has just started though, so it wasn't there yet.

Here's one of those villages built atop the cliffs, really cool looking up close.
Apparently the horse is the symbol of the current ruling party and the sun is the symbol of the main opposition. There are apparently several other small opposition parties as well.

Here are terraces. You really can't see how cool it looks from this picture. Also, I'm sure later in the season they're much greener and more distinct. There were so many and they were really cool looking.

Here's the little road we took to get to the first village (Ghazal) we stopped at to interview people. I really couldn't believe that we made it over this road. Mudhaher was a miracle man with that vehicle.

I had no idea what to expect when we got to the village. I knew Jaweed had been here before so I didn't know if maybe he would introduce me first or what. I was therefore quite taken aback when we got out of the car and he more or less said, "All right, go for it." You can't imagine how much Khadija was a lifesaver. She just marched right off in among the little mud-brick huts and houses and started calling out to people. We were quickly taken into one house and given cushions to sit on. There were maybe 5 to 7 women gathered all around us with a slew of children all staring. There were flies everywhere and earthen floors. Quite poor and minimal. Eventually a very old man came in and sat down. He did most of the talking and it became clear that he was the Sheikh of the village. Khadija was a little nervous, I could hear it in her voice. She just launched right in to my questions which she had a copy of and started working her way down the list making notes as she went. While I was overwhelmingly grateful for her initiative given my own loss for how to proceed, it quickly became clear that she wasn't going to be translating every answer to me. After a couple of minutes I stopped her and asked her what they had said and she told me. After that she did incredibly well. I would ask a question which she would relate to them. Then, if they were veering off course or being unclear she would ask follow-ups and clarifying questions and then she would turn to me and tell me what they said. The fact that she took a lot of initiative is perfect because as she worked with them to get the information, I had time to make some notes and think ahead to the next set of questions.

After we got through my questions we went back outside and Jaweed showed us a couple of locations and we talked about the ecology a little bit. This is a photo of the cistern they use to collect rainwater.

After finishing at Ghazal we drove down to a little village at the bottom of the set of tributaries where Ghazal is located. The same thing happened at this village. The guys stayed at the car and Khadija and I marched off into the little mud-brick houses to find people to talk to. More or less the same thing happened the second time. It was a group of women and children with one old guy who was basically the Sheikh of that community. This community didn't do any agriculture and the main problem that they had, being located at the mouth of the major tributary where it met the main water course at the bottom of the wadi (or valley), was that when it rained really hard there would be destructive floods with lots of soil, rocks and debris in the water that would come and often destroy houses. This is a picture of the gravel bar that made up the wadi floor right now. There was no water at this time, but from the way the wadi was structured you could imagine how much water could flow down it, and it seemed like a lot!

I was shy of taking pictures of the village or the people because I didn't want to be rude. I hope I can find a way to get some pictures of people at some point, especially the women. The women at both of these two villages were very different. At the first village they were more arab looking and, while they wore colorful clothing compared to the black-draped women of Sana'a, their colors were pretty muted. In the second village on the other hand it appeared that there was a bit of Ethiopian or Eritrean blood. The women had darker skin and were taller and they dressed in really bright colors.

After finishing at the second village we went farther down along the wadi so that Jaweed could show me some more stuff. We stopped at a well to take a look. The man in the second picture is Khadija's brother Ahmed. He accompanied us to be her chaperon. It's lucky for her we're doing this work at this time because he's a teacher and the only reason he has time to just tag along with us right now is because he's off for the summer.


After the well we went down into the main part of Wadi Ayan, which is the main valley in the area. Here Jaweed showed me the fields that are cultivated using what is called flood irrigation, or in Arabic Al-'Ala F-Al-'Ala (الأعلى فالأعلى) which means "the highest then the highest". In this system the flood waters coming down the wadi are channeled into the fields by way of a canal, then the fields, which are separated by low berms of earth, fill with water and then as the higher ones fill the water pours down to fill the next highest ones, so "the highest then the highest." We drove along and tried to find a farmer to talk to here, but we couldn't find anyone.

After this we started the long drive back. The trip took about 4 hours each way I think. On the way back we stopped at the same place for lunch where we had stopped for breakfast. After lunch we waited for a few minutes so Khadija could pray, then headed back onto the road. The water in the restaurant had stopped working, and this proved to be a problem for Mudhaher and Ahmed because they had bought some Qat to chew but couldn't chew it until we found somewhere where they could wash it. We stopped at like 4 or 5 different places before we found somewhere with water. This is a picture I took of them washing their Qat. That's Jaweed in the foreground waiting patiently. Meanwhile Khadija and I, exhausted, were rolling our eyes waiting the car.

I snapped this while we waited. It's too bad it's so hard to get effective pictures with all the haze. Jaweed said the haze was mostly moisture in the air and not dust, but we're just below the Arabian Desert and this country is pretty dusty too, so I think it must be some particulate matter as well as the water vapor.

I snapped this when we stopped for gas. A great name for a TV and Radio repair place.


We got back around 6pm. I was sooooo tired. I managed to make myself some food and then lay down to read, but next thing I knew I woke up fully clothed at 10pm. I had just enough energy to get up and brush my teeth and give Jim a quick call when I passed out again. I can't believe I slept for like 11 hours. I think I must have been more "on" than I realized all day, plus 12 hours spent more or less in the car the whole time going up and down these crazy mountainous switch-backs. I think I was tired from just having to stabilize my body in the car for so long.

Anyway, it was a great first trip. There's a bit I will change about future trips, but I know a lot more now than I did before, so I'd call it a success. Plus, it was outstanding to learn what a great asset Khadija will be.