So I got back from my last field visit on Thursday. This visit was a bit different than the first two because on this one I was accompanied by a guy named Wadia, as well as Sultan (the translator). We had a different driver too, his name was Yahiya. Wadia is the head of the agricultural unit at the social fund, and he organized the trip for me. It was a good trip all in all, though a little frustrating. Because on my first two trips it was just Sultan, Abdulla, and I, I was accustomed to being in charge and making all the decisions. With Wadia though he was in charge and he didn't really consult me on many of the decisions. Also, he had a different idea about how the field visits should go, so we had to try and negotiate around each others' styles. It felt a little bit like too many cooks in the kitchen. I did, however, get to learn a lot, and all it all it was worthwhile.
We started out going to Al-Mahweet and meeting with the Ministry of Agriculture office there to talk about which villages in the area had been involved in terrace rehabilitation projects in the past conducted by an organization called CARE. We got some advice about where to visit from the guys at the ministry, then went to a village to check out one of these places that had experienced one of these programs. Here is a picture of the area of terraces that had been rehabilitated under the CARE project. According to the villagers, the project was a success and they were happy with the result.
This first visit was the first time I realized it would be difficult reconciling Wadia and my separate styles. We showed up at the village and started chatting with the villagers and they walked us out to see the terraces. Wadia started spouting off questions about the project very casually while we were outside looking at the terraces. I had to kind of propose that if I were going to be able to ask my questions, I would need us to go inside somewhere and sit down with several farmers for some time. He agreed to this, although it seemed like it's not what he would have done himself. We got everyone inside and settled and I started going through my questionnaire. In all the previous villages I had visited I had taken around an hour to an hour and a half to get through all of my questions and discussion, and in this case I actually had an additional short questionnaire as well as the one I usually went through. I started in on the short questionnaire and wasn't even two-thirds of the way through it when Wadia said it was time to go. I had to kind of contradict him and ask if I could ask a few more questions. He agreed but I could tell he was trying to read me just like I was trying to read him. I ended up insisting on staying a little while longer and finishing the first questionnaire and asking at least a few questions from the second, but I didn't get to ask nearly as much as I wanted. Then, because he hadn't planed on how long I would need, he said we wouldn't have time to visit the second village in that area that we were going to visit because it was getting too late.
Because we called it an early day we got back to the hotel somewhat early, maybe at around 4pm or so. We were staying in Al-Mahweet city, and I knew it was a bit of tourist spot, so I asked if there was a souk (market) there and if we could go to it. Sultan agreed to take me, so we arranged to meet at 5pm to go. Unfortunately this didn't get to happen because at around 4:55pm it started absolutely pouring. It rained harder than I have yet seen in Yemen. It even hailed at one point. Anyway, Wadia didn't want us to go out to dinner because he said it was safer for me to stay in my hotel room. While I appreciated his protectiveness, I was a bit frustrated to have to sit around in my hotel room for 5 or 6 hours doing nothing when we could have taken a couple more hours to visit the second village, or something like that. I was used to being with Sultan and Abdulla who usually took me to see something cool if we had some extra time, and who usually took me out to dinner and made a point to have me try interesting foods and stuff like that. As it was, neither Sultan nor I was in charge anymore, so Sultan brought me my dinner in the hotel room, and that was that.
The next day we left early to go to some more villages. Here are some pictures from that day.
It is later on in the agricultural season now, so Al-Mahweet governorate was much more green than the first couple times I'd been there.
You can barely see it, but there's a little donkey grazing on the edge of that ledge.
The cloth covering the rock pile is one version of a scarecrow they use here. Sometimes it's just a pile of rocks, sometimes it's a pile of rocks with a cloth over it, and sometimes the cloth or cloths are made to look more like a person.
Later in the afternoon we were heading to another village and we ended up driving right into a cloud. I've been in mist before, but this mist was so thick it was like it was a solid object. It was crazy. I took a little video as we drove down the switch-backs to get to the second village of the day.
This is a picture of part of a town called At-Toweela, which means the highest place.
After visiting the villages that day, we started heading back to the hotel. On the way back I told Wadia and Sultan that I was really interested to see the village that we had skipped on the first day. I was told that even though we were leaving the area the next day, that it would be on our way, so we would be able to stop. We headed back to the hotel that night and I spent another night cooped up in my room. Luckily it was a nice hotel, with the best shower I have taken in Yemen! In the morning we started off. We had been driving for a while and I started feeling like we had gone past where I thought that village was. I asked and Sultan explained that Wadia said we couldn't stop because we wouldn't have time to see that village, and the other one we were scheduled to see that day. I was really frustrated at this point, because for the type of information I was looking for, I really wanted to be able to see that village, and on top if it, it was the perfect example of how I had lost control of the agenda for this trip, and I was finding that very irritating. I fumed for a while, but decided I had to get over it, so I was prepared to make the best of it. Unfortunately, this went out the window when we finally made it to the town where we were going to be staying in Al-Hodayda governorate, called Bajil. It was 11am, and blistering hot and muggy. Because it was early for lunch, but too early to head to the village, Wadia stuck me in my hotel room and said we would rest for a while and then have lunch then after lunch go to the village. All the work I had done in the car to try and relax and let go of my frustration disappeared and I was pacing in my hotel room, totally frustrated. I finally managed to relax after some meditative breathing and a self-administered pep-talk and I waited patiently for about an hour and a half in the room. Finally Sultan came to check on me. I asked him what time we would go for lunch. I could tell he was frustrated too, because no one was telling him what was going on either. He said he didn't know, but he though he had heard Wadia say we would have lunch at 2pm. I almost lost it again. I had been in the room for an hour and a half and I would have to be in there for another hour and a half, and on top of that, in the amount of time we had waisted sitting around in the hotel I could have visited that village I had wanted to visit multiple times. I was pretty pissed at that point, but there was nothing I could do about it, so I just let it go. After lunch we headed into the district of Bura' to go to the village we would be visiting that day. Here are a couple of pictures taken while we were waiting for our local consultant to meet up with us. That's Sultan on the right and Wadia on the left.
This is a plant that Sultan said some people smoke like a drug, he said it knocks you out.
Here are some sheep grazing nearby. The sheep here in Yemen are really weird. They're small, about the size of goats, and short-haired and they have really small heads and almost no ears. They also have these really weird bulbous tails.
When we got to the village I decided to put my foot down and go through my entire questionnaire and then some. I figured since we had waisted that much time that day, I would at least get what I wanted out of this village. Not only did we do my questionnaire, but Wadia did some participatory exercises to get at the relative importance of some of the problems we were talking about with the villagers. Here are some pictures from the interview and the exercises.
Wadia let me take as long as I wanted, but after he got bored, he left me to finish up and waited in the car. I think we never really did get on the same page about our styles of doing field work. The interview was also funny at this village because there was another incident of too many cooks in the kitchen, but this time it was poor Sultan who was frustrated. Now, not only did Sultan speak English, but so did Wadia, and also so did the local consultant. Not only that but the local consultant was really eager to practice his English. So, there were times when I had all three of them trying to translate something to me. It was pretty irritating, and I could tell Sultan was having a little bit of a hard time concentrating. Despite all this, we made it through the interview and back to the hotel.
That night, because I had sat alone in my hotel room all night the previous two nights, I insisted that I wanted to go out to dinner. Wadia agreed and said it would be fine as long as it wasn't too late, but he chose not to join us, as he had some emails to catch up on, so he went to an internet cafe.
Sultan and Abdulla always used to make fun of me because whenever they asked what I wanted for food I always told them to just pick whatever they wanted and it would be fine with me. I did this mainly because I never remembered what the options were, and also because it was a good way for me to get to try things I normally might not try, like liver for breakfast, which is actually one of the more delicious dishes. Anyway, this night I decided that I would actually request something, and because we had eaten fish for lunch in Bajil the first time I had been there, I asked for fish. Sultan wanted to be nice because it was the first time I had ever asked for something specific, so he didn't tell me that Yemenis generally don't eat fish for dinner, so we got in the car with Yahiya and started driving around trying to find fish.
While we were driving we ended up getting in a little fender-bender. A truck was turning left as we were going straight. Both vehicles were only inching forward since it was a very crowded intersection, but the truck still hit the side of Yahiya's car and dented and scratched it. Yahiya jumped out of the car and started yelling at the guy and all of a sodden the busiest intersection in town was absolutely packed with onlookers gathering around to see what the fuss was about. I found myself surrounded by about a hundred curious pairs of eyes and I thought to myself "well, now everyone knows there's a foreigner in town." As the situation played out Sultan explained to me how it works when something like this happens in Yemen. Basically the issue has to be settled on the spot, a police officer and an engineer are brought in to assess the damage and determine the fault and then money changes hands before anyone goes on their way. So, we waited through many rounds of negotiations about the damage and finally the issue was settled and the other guy paid Yahiya 10,000 rial, which is about $50. So, the hunt for the fish started up again. Finally we found a restaurant that had one fish. They had one fish left over from lunch, but it was a HUGE fish. They agreed to cook it up for us, but then Yahiya was still upset over the accident so he decided he didn't want to eat, so here we were, Sultan and I and this enormous fish and Sultan, being Yemeni, didn't even like fish for dinner! We ate as much as we could and then headed back to the hotel. It was a pretty crazy night.
The hotel was not too great, but better than many I had stayed in. I took a picture of the bathroom facilities because this was sort of one of the nicer examples of the classic bathrooms you find in Yemen. Note the shower right above the squat toilet... something one has to get used to.
I saw one cockroach in my room before I went to bed, but it was small and on the other side of the room, so I didn't worry about it and just went to sleep. In the morning when I was waiting for them to call me to tell me it was time to go I saw probably six more cockroaches all over the place. I was so glad I hadn't seen them the night before because otherwise I wouldn't have been able to get to sleep. As it was it was fine and so I took a picture of one, just to show it I didn't harbor any ill will, as I was about to leave the hotel anyway.
All in all it was a somewhat frustrating trip, but okay in the end. I was certainly happy when we made it back to Sana'a.
