Hi everyone!
Well, no pictures this time, but a good story.
On Friday, which is my weekend. I washed my hair (something wearing a scarf allows me the luxury of doing only once a week), washed my laundry (I have to do it by hand; another reason that wearing a balto, which keeps my outer clothes clean, is an excellent idea in this context), and went shopping at our local veggie market. When I got back Katherina was having tea with another German woman in our common room and they invited me to join them.
This other woman has to be one of the most interesting people I have ever met in my life. Her name is Annabell and she works for the International Committee of the Red Cross. She is a tribal negotiator! She goes up into these super remote tribal areas with a team of people and over months and months builds up a rapport with the tribes. Then, once they are willing to work with her and her team, she negotiates access to the remote villages in their territories so that the Red Cross can do a full assessment of the population in order to give aid. She also negotiates the distribution of the humanitarian aid, etc. She is an Islamic scholar and was in a Sufi order in Syria for like a year or two. What a woman, what a life!
After our cup of tea Katherina and Annabell were going to go back to Annabell's house to have a woman's night with the two of them and Annabell's neighbor, Krista (also German), and they invited me to come along. On our way we stopped at this bakery that I had heard a lot about. It was started by a Yemeni who studied to be a pastry chef in New York so there are all kinds of Western goodies. We got cheesecake, chocolate cake, custard fruit tarts and chocolate chip cookies and took them back to Annabell's. Then Krista came over.
Krista is another totally fascinating woman. She works for an organization called GTZ, (called Gee Tee Zed, being German). It's a German organization that does all kinds of development activities all over the world. Her role for GTZ here in Yemen is as their Security Coordinator, or something like that. She basically keeps her finger on the pulse of what's going on in the country and advises and arranges everything when members of GTZ are going into the field for their work.
I just sat, ate cake, and absorbed as these three incredible, interesting women talked for hours about their experiences here in Yemen and all over the world. Totally fascinating. Funnily enough though, one of the coolest things about Krista is that her and her partner just bought a farm house in Piedmont, Italy and are going to be fixing it up over the next couple of years. Her and her partner have been an item of sorts for many years, but he works on development projects too, so it has been rare that they've spent much time in the same country, so they're looking forward to this quiet time in Italy. It sounded really beautiful.
Other than that interesting evening all has been quiet. I'm making my final preparations for my trip into the field tomorrow. I'll be going with my translator/facilitator Sultan and one of the SFD drivers Abdulla. We'll be gone for three days (two nights). We're going to the governorates of Al-Mahweet and Al-Hodayda and will be visiting five villages to conduct my interviews. Sultan will be good, he seems pretty on top of it. I was disappointed to loose Khadija because she was really great, but she quit, so what are you going to do? All in all I feel as prepared as I'm going to be, so I'm just eager to get a move on.
I'll report more after my field visit. I should be back on Wednesday.
All the best!
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Some Random Fun Stuff
Here's a video I took today while driving with Katherina. We had gone to meet a friend of hers for coffee. He was interested in hearing about what I'm working on because he's working on agriculture and food security in Yemen. On the way back it started pouring!!! It was crazy.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
A Totally Random Evening
Hello Everyone!
Well, I haven't written anything in a few days because nothing has really been happening lately. I have just been cooling me heals at work, reading and refining my questionnaire for the field, but I'm unable to really make a lot of progress with work until I actually get out and starting doing these interviews. If all goes well I will be leaving for my first big field visit on Monday insha' allah. I'll be gone for three days if all goes according to schedule, but for now, just waiting.
My colleague from UC Berkeley, Daniel, arrived day before yesterday. He's also a PhD student but he's in the Economics department. He's been here a couple of times before so he has some friends here. One of the people who knows him and knew he was coming had gotten us on the invitation list for a big event at the house of the French ambassador. The event was last night, so we went with a group of people, mostly Italian, but a couple of French and Yemeni people as well. Daniel's friend Fawsy told him that the party would be casual, but of course he was dead wrong, so here was our group showing up with almost all the guys where jeans to this party where people were absolutely dressed to the nines. They almost didn't let us in because we were such a scruffy lot. The event was for the French national holiday. There were hundreds of people there. It was fun to try and guess which countries everyone was from because there were diplomats from all over the place. The decorations were quite excessive, including ice sculptures! In Yemen! Ice sculptures! I had to take a picture of one.
The food was actually not particularly good. I kind of expected better. They had some good stuff, but then they had a bunch of these pre-frozen friend snacky foods including what looks suspiciously like pigs-in-a-blanket.
Anyway, it was quite a surreal experience walking around with all these high mucky-mucks. I wanted to take pictures of everyone, but that would have been quite rude, so I didn't. But I tried, unsuccessfully, to get a couple of photos to capture the feeling.
We only stayed for a short while because Daniel had some friends he was meeting up with later that evening and offered to let me come along. We left the ambassador's house and walked to his friends' house which was only a couple of blocks away. They were really interesting people. The woman's name is Roberta and her husband's name is Tim. She's Italian and he's American. She works with an organization here that's working on the problem of child labor and child trafficking and he's an engineer that works on water projects all over the country. It was actually quite serendipitous meeting him, because he worked with an organization called CARE that did a pilot project on terrace rehabilitation several years ago. I had heard about this project, but hadn't found any documentation on it. He has agreed to email me a bunch of information about it, which is great for my work. Also, the fact that he's involved in water projects is really interesting to me. That's one of my main areas of interest in general, so I'm hoping to be able to talk to him more about it. Unfortunately he and his family are leaving in a week or so until the end of August, so any further contact will have to happen soon.
Speaking of his family, they seem really interesting! They have two sons, one of whom is 14. He apparently speaks perfect street Yemeni and roams around the city taking the little mini-van-like-buses called Dababs everywhere. He writes articles for the Yemen Times, which is a small English language publication here that apparently anyone who speaks English can write an article for. He wrote one article on a random event that took place here in Sana'a where there was apparently a spontaneous "Drifting" event where hundreds of people came out to watch street car races! He went a took pictures and wrote all about it, crazy!
But, one of the other main things this kid is interested in is animals and for that reason he volunteers at the zoo here in Sana'a. Apparently someone came to the zoo with these kittens that they thought were panthers or something and was trying to sell them to the zoo. It turned out they weren't panthers, but rather Caracal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caracal). The zoo already had a bunch of Caracal and didn't want to hand-raise the kittens, so the kid brought them home and the family has raised them. They are in the process of trying to donate them to a zoo in Greece, but the paperwork for transporting protected wild species across national borders is quite extensive and is taking a long time, so the cats are living on their roof! They took us up and let us check them out. They're really incredibly beautiful, and despite how it looks in the pictures, not psycho cyborg cats. The female, which is the one I got photos of, is a bit standoffish, but the male was snuggling and playing with Roberta and was quite friendly. They are absolutely gorgeous! I wish I could have gotten better pictures. They are about the size of a large bobcat. Really sleek and beautiful. With these cool pointy tufted ears.
Anyway, it was a really random evening full of odd experiences and serendipity. I'm hoping that the connection made with Tim will be an interesting one for me.
Hope everyone is well back home! More soon.
Well, I haven't written anything in a few days because nothing has really been happening lately. I have just been cooling me heals at work, reading and refining my questionnaire for the field, but I'm unable to really make a lot of progress with work until I actually get out and starting doing these interviews. If all goes well I will be leaving for my first big field visit on Monday insha' allah. I'll be gone for three days if all goes according to schedule, but for now, just waiting.
My colleague from UC Berkeley, Daniel, arrived day before yesterday. He's also a PhD student but he's in the Economics department. He's been here a couple of times before so he has some friends here. One of the people who knows him and knew he was coming had gotten us on the invitation list for a big event at the house of the French ambassador. The event was last night, so we went with a group of people, mostly Italian, but a couple of French and Yemeni people as well. Daniel's friend Fawsy told him that the party would be casual, but of course he was dead wrong, so here was our group showing up with almost all the guys where jeans to this party where people were absolutely dressed to the nines. They almost didn't let us in because we were such a scruffy lot. The event was for the French national holiday. There were hundreds of people there. It was fun to try and guess which countries everyone was from because there were diplomats from all over the place. The decorations were quite excessive, including ice sculptures! In Yemen! Ice sculptures! I had to take a picture of one.
The food was actually not particularly good. I kind of expected better. They had some good stuff, but then they had a bunch of these pre-frozen friend snacky foods including what looks suspiciously like pigs-in-a-blanket.
Anyway, it was quite a surreal experience walking around with all these high mucky-mucks. I wanted to take pictures of everyone, but that would have been quite rude, so I didn't. But I tried, unsuccessfully, to get a couple of photos to capture the feeling.
We only stayed for a short while because Daniel had some friends he was meeting up with later that evening and offered to let me come along. We left the ambassador's house and walked to his friends' house which was only a couple of blocks away. They were really interesting people. The woman's name is Roberta and her husband's name is Tim. She's Italian and he's American. She works with an organization here that's working on the problem of child labor and child trafficking and he's an engineer that works on water projects all over the country. It was actually quite serendipitous meeting him, because he worked with an organization called CARE that did a pilot project on terrace rehabilitation several years ago. I had heard about this project, but hadn't found any documentation on it. He has agreed to email me a bunch of information about it, which is great for my work. Also, the fact that he's involved in water projects is really interesting to me. That's one of my main areas of interest in general, so I'm hoping to be able to talk to him more about it. Unfortunately he and his family are leaving in a week or so until the end of August, so any further contact will have to happen soon.
Speaking of his family, they seem really interesting! They have two sons, one of whom is 14. He apparently speaks perfect street Yemeni and roams around the city taking the little mini-van-like-buses called Dababs everywhere. He writes articles for the Yemen Times, which is a small English language publication here that apparently anyone who speaks English can write an article for. He wrote one article on a random event that took place here in Sana'a where there was apparently a spontaneous "Drifting" event where hundreds of people came out to watch street car races! He went a took pictures and wrote all about it, crazy!
But, one of the other main things this kid is interested in is animals and for that reason he volunteers at the zoo here in Sana'a. Apparently someone came to the zoo with these kittens that they thought were panthers or something and was trying to sell them to the zoo. It turned out they weren't panthers, but rather Caracal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caracal). The zoo already had a bunch of Caracal and didn't want to hand-raise the kittens, so the kid brought them home and the family has raised them. They are in the process of trying to donate them to a zoo in Greece, but the paperwork for transporting protected wild species across national borders is quite extensive and is taking a long time, so the cats are living on their roof! They took us up and let us check them out. They're really incredibly beautiful, and despite how it looks in the pictures, not psycho cyborg cats. The female, which is the one I got photos of, is a bit standoffish, but the male was snuggling and playing with Roberta and was quite friendly. They are absolutely gorgeous! I wish I could have gotten better pictures. They are about the size of a large bobcat. Really sleek and beautiful. With these cool pointy tufted ears.
Anyway, it was a really random evening full of odd experiences and serendipity. I'm hoping that the connection made with Tim will be an interesting one for me.
Hope everyone is well back home! More soon.
Friday, July 10, 2009
The Stone Palace
Well, hello there everyone. I have had an eventful couple of days. Yesterday was my half day at work, kind of the start of the weekend. When I got to work, my boss, the director of the Social Fund, (her name is Lamis), invited me to lunch at her house. Her family was having a big get-together to welcome back a nephew of hers that is back visiting from his studies in Canada. After work we were picked up by her family's driver and stuffed in the car along with her parents one of her nephews, a person I believe was one of their maids, the driver, Lamis and myself.
Their house was amazing. Totally ornate and enormous. I only got to see the first few rooms since those were the mufraj (the women's sitting area) and the dinning room we used, but you got the impression that there was much more to it. Because one of the men there was distant enough of a member of the family to be marriageable to some of the women there, there was separation, meaning the men and women ate and socialized separately in the house. I don't know how many men were there since I only saw a few fleetingly, but there were quite a few women: Lamis' mother, two of her sisters, two of her sisters in law and a handful of nieces, plus several kids running around. The food was very good and basically consisted of rice, smoked and roasted meat (lamb I think), sulta (which I described in an early post), this bread and yogurt mixture with herbs which was delicious, and bread. Then came the watermelon (called hub-hub in Arabic... cute), then the بنت الصحن (bint as-sahin) which means "daughter of the plate" which is a huge layered flaky flat bread with little black seeds sprinkled on top and then honey poured over the top. Finally, after the meal, we retired back to the mufraj and had some pastries and Qishr for dessert. Qishr is a really yummy drink traditional here in Yemen made from the husks of coffee beans. It's mild, less strong and less bitter than coffee, and tastes a little like chai but less spicy. Not only that but the Qishr was from coffee grown on Lamis' family's farm. All in all I had a very nice time despite feeling very exhausted by the end having tried for hours, and failed, to follow the quick Yemeni Arabic going on around me.
Today was another great adventure. One of the other women staying at the hostel, Gail, said she wanted to go and visit Dar al-Hajar (The Palace of Stone) which is an ancient site on the outskirts of Sana'a. She's leaving Monday and really wanted to go see it, but didn't want to go alone. I decided to go with her. So, to be on the safe side, I decided to call Ali, who is a taxi driver for the Raha taxi service. I got his number from my work and he is intended to sort of be my taxi while I'm here in Yemen. That way I don't have to end up in taxis with strange men. Anyway, I had not met Ali yet, but decided that this would be a good opportunity to meet him so that we would know each other in the future. I called him and arranged for him to meet us on the main street by our hostel. We walked out to the street to wait, and pretty quickly a taxi pulled up and the driver motioned to us. We went over to the taxi and got in and I asked in Arabic "are you Ali" and the guy nodded. We started going down the street about a block or two and I was just about to reach in my purse and grab my phone to call Ali's number, just to make sure this guy was Ali, and my phone rang. It was Ali. We had gotten in the wrong taxi and the driver had not understood me, or chosen not to understand me, when I asked who he was. So, we quickly told the driver to pull over and we got out. Unfortunately at this point we didn't know what street we were on, but I had Ali on the phone, and there were some old men selling grapes next to us, so I had one of the old men tell Ali where we were. It was actually kind of funny because the guy had his hands full of grapes that he was trying to give us so he had me hold the phone up so he could talk into it. While waiting for Ali we almost got into a second non-Ali taxi that had pulled up and waved at us, but found out quickly that this guy's name was Salih, so we didn't go with him. Finally Ali's taxi pulled up and, after verifying that it was indeed Ali, we got in. The old guy who helped us came over to the window and admonished Ali to watch out for us and gave him some grapes.
Anyway, Ali turned out to be a very good-natured person. He drove us out to Dar al-Hajar and came with us inside to show us around. Here are the pictures from the palace. It's from the 17/1800s originally and is built half-way from the living stone of the cliff it's on. It was really cool walking around there because most of the site-seers there were Yemeni. Everyone was out and about with their families, dressed in their Friday best, and enjoying the sites. It was really cool.
When we first entered the compound of the palace we saw that some men were doing a demonstration of a Yemeni dance where they dance with their knives. These knives, called jambiya, are traditional in Yemen, and about 70% of the men walking around in the street are wearing them in these cool ornate sheaths in their belts. I got a short video clip of the dance. I wish I had gotten more, but I felt self-conscious. Note that I happened to capture one of the illusive Sana'a women in the frame as well.
Here are some views from the palace. Most of the trees you see growing around there are Qat trees.
This shot is in a little niche off of one of the rooms. Apparently it's a cooling chamber. The hooks were used to hang water bottles to keep them cool.
Most of the palace was bare of any furniture or anything, but they had a couple of rooms appointed in the traditional fashion and displayed behind glass.
These shots were taken in the area that is built into the live rock. The sign in the second picture says "Pre-historic burial cave" which leads me to believe that possibly these caves pre-dated the palace and were used for burial in ancient times. I have to do some digging (no pun intended) and find out if this is true or not. I took this first picture to try and catch the cool scratches in the rock from when the cave was hollowed out. You can see them in the second picture better though.
More views from the palace.
It's so crazy to see so many of the buildings made from mud-brick just melt over time.
Another illusive Yemeni woman captured by accident.
I've been meaning to take some pictures of local plants for mom and my grandma to enjoy and haven't gotten a chance, so a took a few here. I just posted a few of my favorites.
This is Qat.
After finishing at the palace Ali took us back to the hostel and we met up with Katherina and went for lunch in a "fancy" restaurant called Shay Bani. The food was absolutely delicious. Here are a few of the dishes including a spicy shrimp dish in the bottom right corner and a spicy fish dish in the top right being placed on the table. Yemen has really good sea food.
After Shay Bani we went to get Turkish coffee at this other nicer restaurant. All in all it was a very fun day and now I know who Ali is, so next time I need him, no problems!
Their house was amazing. Totally ornate and enormous. I only got to see the first few rooms since those were the mufraj (the women's sitting area) and the dinning room we used, but you got the impression that there was much more to it. Because one of the men there was distant enough of a member of the family to be marriageable to some of the women there, there was separation, meaning the men and women ate and socialized separately in the house. I don't know how many men were there since I only saw a few fleetingly, but there were quite a few women: Lamis' mother, two of her sisters, two of her sisters in law and a handful of nieces, plus several kids running around. The food was very good and basically consisted of rice, smoked and roasted meat (lamb I think), sulta (which I described in an early post), this bread and yogurt mixture with herbs which was delicious, and bread. Then came the watermelon (called hub-hub in Arabic... cute), then the بنت الصحن (bint as-sahin) which means "daughter of the plate" which is a huge layered flaky flat bread with little black seeds sprinkled on top and then honey poured over the top. Finally, after the meal, we retired back to the mufraj and had some pastries and Qishr for dessert. Qishr is a really yummy drink traditional here in Yemen made from the husks of coffee beans. It's mild, less strong and less bitter than coffee, and tastes a little like chai but less spicy. Not only that but the Qishr was from coffee grown on Lamis' family's farm. All in all I had a very nice time despite feeling very exhausted by the end having tried for hours, and failed, to follow the quick Yemeni Arabic going on around me.
Today was another great adventure. One of the other women staying at the hostel, Gail, said she wanted to go and visit Dar al-Hajar (The Palace of Stone) which is an ancient site on the outskirts of Sana'a. She's leaving Monday and really wanted to go see it, but didn't want to go alone. I decided to go with her. So, to be on the safe side, I decided to call Ali, who is a taxi driver for the Raha taxi service. I got his number from my work and he is intended to sort of be my taxi while I'm here in Yemen. That way I don't have to end up in taxis with strange men. Anyway, I had not met Ali yet, but decided that this would be a good opportunity to meet him so that we would know each other in the future. I called him and arranged for him to meet us on the main street by our hostel. We walked out to the street to wait, and pretty quickly a taxi pulled up and the driver motioned to us. We went over to the taxi and got in and I asked in Arabic "are you Ali" and the guy nodded. We started going down the street about a block or two and I was just about to reach in my purse and grab my phone to call Ali's number, just to make sure this guy was Ali, and my phone rang. It was Ali. We had gotten in the wrong taxi and the driver had not understood me, or chosen not to understand me, when I asked who he was. So, we quickly told the driver to pull over and we got out. Unfortunately at this point we didn't know what street we were on, but I had Ali on the phone, and there were some old men selling grapes next to us, so I had one of the old men tell Ali where we were. It was actually kind of funny because the guy had his hands full of grapes that he was trying to give us so he had me hold the phone up so he could talk into it. While waiting for Ali we almost got into a second non-Ali taxi that had pulled up and waved at us, but found out quickly that this guy's name was Salih, so we didn't go with him. Finally Ali's taxi pulled up and, after verifying that it was indeed Ali, we got in. The old guy who helped us came over to the window and admonished Ali to watch out for us and gave him some grapes.
Anyway, Ali turned out to be a very good-natured person. He drove us out to Dar al-Hajar and came with us inside to show us around. Here are the pictures from the palace. It's from the 17/1800s originally and is built half-way from the living stone of the cliff it's on. It was really cool walking around there because most of the site-seers there were Yemeni. Everyone was out and about with their families, dressed in their Friday best, and enjoying the sites. It was really cool.
When we first entered the compound of the palace we saw that some men were doing a demonstration of a Yemeni dance where they dance with their knives. These knives, called jambiya, are traditional in Yemen, and about 70% of the men walking around in the street are wearing them in these cool ornate sheaths in their belts. I got a short video clip of the dance. I wish I had gotten more, but I felt self-conscious. Note that I happened to capture one of the illusive Sana'a women in the frame as well.
Here are some views from the palace. Most of the trees you see growing around there are Qat trees.
This shot is in a little niche off of one of the rooms. Apparently it's a cooling chamber. The hooks were used to hang water bottles to keep them cool.
Most of the palace was bare of any furniture or anything, but they had a couple of rooms appointed in the traditional fashion and displayed behind glass.
These shots were taken in the area that is built into the live rock. The sign in the second picture says "Pre-historic burial cave" which leads me to believe that possibly these caves pre-dated the palace and were used for burial in ancient times. I have to do some digging (no pun intended) and find out if this is true or not. I took this first picture to try and catch the cool scratches in the rock from when the cave was hollowed out. You can see them in the second picture better though.
More views from the palace.
It's so crazy to see so many of the buildings made from mud-brick just melt over time.
Another illusive Yemeni woman captured by accident.
I've been meaning to take some pictures of local plants for mom and my grandma to enjoy and haven't gotten a chance, so a took a few here. I just posted a few of my favorites.
This is Qat.
After finishing at the palace Ali took us back to the hostel and we met up with Katherina and went for lunch in a "fancy" restaurant called Shay Bani. The food was absolutely delicious. Here are a few of the dishes including a spicy shrimp dish in the bottom right corner and a spicy fish dish in the top right being placed on the table. Yemen has really good sea food.
After Shay Bani we went to get Turkish coffee at this other nicer restaurant. All in all it was a very fun day and now I know who Ali is, so next time I need him, no problems!
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
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.
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.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Rehabilitating "Terrorists"
Well, I head out to the field for my first field visit tomorrow morning bright and early at around 6am. I'm eager to see how it goes. I'm sure it will be interesting regardless.
There's been quite an entertaining ongoing pattern that's happening whenever I talk to people about why I'm here that I feel I must relate. Inevitably the conversation goes something like this.
Other: So, what are you doing here in Yemen?
Me: I'm doing research. I'm working with the Social Fund for Development doing some preliminary research on rehabilitating terraces.
Other: Oh really!?! That's very interesting!!!
Me: Yes, I think so.
Other: And you're getting your PhD you said?
Me: Yes.
Other: In what area?
Me: Agricultural and Resource Economics.
Other: huh... what does that have to do with terrorists?
Me: Oh, no no no, not terrorists... terraces.
Other: Ahhh, interesting... uumm, but I have to say, much less interesting than rehabilitating terrorists.
(it's nice to constantly be letting people down by the end of our conversations... oh well, at least I think it's interesting)
This miss-hearing has happened three times now. It's actually quite indicative of where peoples' minds are, being here in the Middle East.
There was one particularly choice instance of this exchange when there was a three-way conversation going on between me, Katherina (who had already gone through the miss-understanding and so now knew we were talking about terraces), and a new guest at the American Institute, Sophie. Katherina and I were talking about the economic theory behind how the funding for rehabilitating the terraces would work and Sophie was nodding sagely but starting to look more and more puzzled. By the time I brought up the fact that one of the things we were trying to solve was a problem of mudslides she finally chimed in to ask what that had to do with terrorists. So now there's a grand ongoing joke about how rehabilitating terrorists helps avoid mudslides. We're all getting quite a kick out of it.
Here are a few photos I took today at work. These are some views of Sana'a from my office window. In this first one you get the sense of how the city is snuggled in among the mountains. Sana'a is really kind of in a little bowl, right at the top of the mountains. It's cool.
This is my work area (see mom, I'm drinking water!)
Nap time! (I was watching this guy sleep outside my window for a while and really wanted to try and catch a picture but right as I was fishing out my camera he got up and I thought I had missed my chance... but then 5 minutes later he was back!)
The girls next door playing in their yard outside my window at the hostel. They're really cute! Especially the little one. I wish I got some better shots, but I'll try again another time. Sometimes they play soccer! Girls after my own heart...
There's been quite an entertaining ongoing pattern that's happening whenever I talk to people about why I'm here that I feel I must relate. Inevitably the conversation goes something like this.
Other: So, what are you doing here in Yemen?
Me: I'm doing research. I'm working with the Social Fund for Development doing some preliminary research on rehabilitating terraces.
Other: Oh really!?! That's very interesting!!!
Me: Yes, I think so.
Other: And you're getting your PhD you said?
Me: Yes.
Other: In what area?
Me: Agricultural and Resource Economics.
Other: huh... what does that have to do with terrorists?
Me: Oh, no no no, not terrorists... terraces.
Other: Ahhh, interesting... uumm, but I have to say, much less interesting than rehabilitating terrorists.
(it's nice to constantly be letting people down by the end of our conversations... oh well, at least I think it's interesting)
This miss-hearing has happened three times now. It's actually quite indicative of where peoples' minds are, being here in the Middle East.
There was one particularly choice instance of this exchange when there was a three-way conversation going on between me, Katherina (who had already gone through the miss-understanding and so now knew we were talking about terraces), and a new guest at the American Institute, Sophie. Katherina and I were talking about the economic theory behind how the funding for rehabilitating the terraces would work and Sophie was nodding sagely but starting to look more and more puzzled. By the time I brought up the fact that one of the things we were trying to solve was a problem of mudslides she finally chimed in to ask what that had to do with terrorists. So now there's a grand ongoing joke about how rehabilitating terrorists helps avoid mudslides. We're all getting quite a kick out of it.
Here are a few photos I took today at work. These are some views of Sana'a from my office window. In this first one you get the sense of how the city is snuggled in among the mountains. Sana'a is really kind of in a little bowl, right at the top of the mountains. It's cool.
This is my work area (see mom, I'm drinking water!)
Nap time! (I was watching this guy sleep outside my window for a while and really wanted to try and catch a picture but right as I was fishing out my camera he got up and I thought I had missed my chance... but then 5 minutes later he was back!)
The girls next door playing in their yard outside my window at the hostel. They're really cute! Especially the little one. I wish I got some better shots, but I'll try again another time. Sometimes they play soccer! Girls after my own heart...
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