After a looooooong flight to Dubai yesterday and short night there and a short flight to Sanaa, I've arrived in Yemen! Everything is great so far. I'm really pleased with both my work situation and my living situation. I went straight to my workplace, the Social Fund for Development, from the airport and met all of my colleagues. Everyone was really nice and really welcoming. I got a great feeling from everybody and I’m sure that everything will go well on that front. Then, after getting oriented there, I went to the place I’m staying, which is called the American Institute for Yemeni Studies. It’s a scholar’s residence/hostel and is totally awesome! I have a private room with a bed and dresser and desk and it’s totally spacious and beautiful ( do take careful note of the awesome bedspread!).
The place has a library and kitchens and a common area. It also has wireless internet for free (although it just cut out as I was writing this email so I’m finishing it in Word and will send it later… apparently there are pretty frequent electricity outages so sometimes the internet goes on the fritz). Anyway, the woman who is working here at the hostel is totally awesome. She’s about my age from either Wisconsin or Minnesota (sorry Catie I know it’s criminal that I’m mixing those up) and she’s been living here for about a year. She was totally awesome and not only showed me around the hostel, but took me out into Sanaa and showed me the neighborhood around the hostel. She bought me chicken and rice and cherries and juice, since I haven’t gotten money changed yet, and pointed out all the places where to buy and where not to buy things. She gave me her impressions of living in Yemen, which are overwhelmingly favorable. She says she likes it more than Egypt or Lebanon or most other Middle Eastern places she’s been, and feels quite safe here for the most part.My first impressions of Sanaa are that this is definitely a developing country. I snapped a few random pictures of the streets on my way to the hostel, but they don’t do it justice.
It’s quite hustley-bustley and traffic is insane, with no traffic laws to speak of. The buildings are made up of an interesting mix of fully and partially completed structures. Most are made of crumbly tan brick, but then really cool ornate window frames are set into them. There are a good number of motorcycles and scooters zipping in and out of traffic, and they really make me think of Mad Max or something like that because the young men driving them are all wearing the most random array of clothing from traditional wrap-around skirts that men wear with a sports coat over the top and an orange construction helmet for a helmet, to other varieties of leggings, pants, t-shirts, robes, etc. Additionally, everyone adorns their motorcycle seats with sheep or cow skin or woven fabrics so that they are zooming down the road with hairs from the shaggy cow skin blowing and billowing around their legs.I would say a good 99.9999% of women wear a balto, which is a long black robe. I’m going to buy myself a couple as soon as I can. In addition to that, I would say 95% of the women I saw out and about today wear a niqab, so their faces are completely covered other than their eyes. They appear to do this as is convenient for the most part. For example, there were women on the plane who were just wearing a hijab (head-scarf) but when we arrived to Sanaa they put on their niqab. Also, most of the women at the Social Fund wear only a head-scarf when working. Women are out and about though, although not nearly as many as there are men, and I even saw women driving, so this isn’t Saudi Arabia.
All in all I feel quite optimistic at this point. My Arabic will be good enough to get me by for the most part and everyone I’m working with are totally great.
I will report more when I know more.
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