In the Field Day 3

On the last day we got up early again, because even though we only had one village to visit that day, we had to drive back to Sana'a, and we wanted to get back before dark. It took us a while to get to the last village because it was pretty remote, although the road wasn't bad. They are pretty high up in the mountains, and are the only village I've seen so far the grows coffee. While Yemen is famous for it's coffee, the market for it doesn't really exist to the extent it should in order to bolster Yemeni coffee production and export. Here are some pictures from the last village.
This picture is a close-up from the center of the first picture. The stone hole is what is called a "majeel" and is kind of a naturally occurring open containment that collects water used by the village.


The structure built along the cliff face is a water diversion canal used to divert water onto the coffee terraces.

After finishing at the last village, we stopped one final time in Bajil for lunch, and then started the long drive back to Sana'a. The road we took back to Sana'a is apparently one of the oldest modern roads in Yemen built by the Chinese before the Yemen civil war in the 1960s. It meandered through wadis for the most part, and was quite beautiful. We stopped at a fruit stand on our way because I told Abdulla that I hadn't tried the fruit called "kharbish" in Arabic and I guess custard apple in English. It looks like a soft pine cone on the outside, and you break it open and eat the soft white flesh. It's really really perfumey and floral and quite delicious. Here's where we got it.
Finally we made it back to Sana'a. Here's Sana'a from the mountains coming back towards it.

All in all the trip ended up being quite fun. Unlike on my first trip out where the car was filled with four native Arabic speakers and me, I got to be a part of the conversation this time. Abdulla and Sultan where very patient with me and let me stumble through my Arabic. It was nice with Sultan there to smooth over the rough patches and translate when need be so we could actually have a conversation.

All in all, a successful trip. I leave for my second trip on Sunday. We'll travel to and stay in Ta'iz and travel to villages in Lahaj governorate. Insha allah it will be as smooth as the first trip.