Wednesday was my first rough day in Yemen. I woke up craving a breakfast taco and it just went downhill from there. Other favorite things currently missing are avocados, queso (esp. with guac and pico in it...), veggie burgers, tofu, bicycles, my garden, ecstatic dance nights, PSC, and my favorite people. Also, I have a class to myself (just my Professor Nabil and I), which is great because I get to speak a lot and also get to focus on things I am particularly having a hard time with while moving quickly through things that are easy for me. Very efficient. But, I also feel as though I am obligated to keep things from him because that is the "culturally appropriate" thing to do. I mean I have to wear "appropriate clothes" to class because he is a Yemeni and that is respectful (and I am totally cool with that), but I feel like we have kind of developed a friendship now, and I am limited in what I can tell him about myself. Slightly frustrating, but class is fantastic besides that.
Anyhow, so after my pity-fest and reading comics in my bed for a couple of hours, I went up to the roof and ate a bowl of Cheerios, drank some apple juice and looked out at the view. The view completely mended my bad mood, seriously. Looking out at the city and the mountains in the distance was just perfect enough to motivate me to get my 5 hours of homework done before class.
Friday, five of us: Stijn, Kamal, Maxim, Alyse, and I went with Aiman and Professor Fadl to Manakha, Hajjarah, and Hoteib. All of these places are perfect examples of how Yemenis have attempted, yet again, to build beautiful structures in impossible places. We left Sana'a at about 8am and headed southeast into the Harraz Mountains, where we saw (drove and climbed) some of the largest mountains on the Arabian Peninsula. We arrived in Hajjarah where a young man named Mohammed immediately grabbed my hand and declared himself my tour guide.
Hajjarah was important for two main reasons, it was a major suq on the road between Hodeidah and Sana'a and also a place where Jews and Muslims lived peacefully together in the past. "before all of the Jews left for Israel," my tour guide explained. There were even stars of David still carved into doors of some of the oldest houses in the village, and the people there would not remove them because "it is a part of the city." Here is the oldest house in the village, over 200 years old.
Simply lovely.
Alyse and I bought some scarves and other hand embroidered crafts from the locals.
We then went into the city of Manakha were we arrived at a hotel to eat lunch, chew qat, and watch some traditional Yemeni dancing/ were forced to dance.
Anyhow, so after my pity-fest and reading comics in my bed for a couple of hours, I went up to the roof and ate a bowl of Cheerios, drank some apple juice and looked out at the view. The view completely mended my bad mood, seriously. Looking out at the city and the mountains in the distance was just perfect enough to motivate me to get my 5 hours of homework done before class.
Friday, five of us: Stijn, Kamal, Maxim, Alyse, and I went with Aiman and Professor Fadl to Manakha, Hajjarah, and Hoteib. All of these places are perfect examples of how Yemenis have attempted, yet again, to build beautiful structures in impossible places. We left Sana'a at about 8am and headed southeast into the Harraz Mountains, where we saw (drove and climbed) some of the largest mountains on the Arabian Peninsula. We arrived in Hajjarah where a young man named Mohammed immediately grabbed my hand and declared himself my tour guide.
Hajjarah was important for two main reasons, it was a major suq on the road between Hodeidah and Sana'a and also a place where Jews and Muslims lived peacefully together in the past. "before all of the Jews left for Israel," my tour guide explained. There were even stars of David still carved into doors of some of the oldest houses in the village, and the people there would not remove them because "it is a part of the city." Here is the oldest house in the village, over 200 years old.
Simply lovely.
Alyse and I bought some scarves and other hand embroidered crafts from the locals.
We then went into the city of Manakha were we arrived at a hotel to eat lunch, chew qat, and watch some traditional Yemeni dancing/ were forced to dance.
Now, on to my favorite part of the trip, the small village of Hoteib. This is an Ismaili Pilgrimage site on the eastern side of Jebal Messar. Ismaili pilgrims come to Al Hoteib to visit the tomb of the 6th century (H) Ismaili scholar Hattem bin Ibrahim bin al Hussein al Hamadi. Thousands of pilgrims visit every year from Pakistan, India, America, and other places. The Bukhara Ismailis of Bombay financed the paved road to the village because of their yearly pilgrimage there ( and thank goodness for that road!!).
The tomb at the bottom of Jebal Messar.
The small masjid at the top of the mountain, and yes, we climbed up there.
Stijn and I, climbing the eroded stairs to the top as the huge cloud moved in on us.
That cloud rolling over the mountain (and onto us) adjacent from the masjid was perhaps the most amazing thing I have ever seen in my life.
Alyse and I at the masjid atop of Jebal Messar!!
Professor Fadl
Aiman
Kamal
Maxim and I
The ride home jamming to a sweet variety of Arabic music!! What an amazing trip.
6 comments:
oops, that was maggie, not campbell. i'm logged into my friends account.
girl i thoroughly enjoyed this. i would kill for some breakfast tacos as well, i totally feel you on that. anyway, your pictures are lovely as always and reading your writing is comforting because i miss you terribly. keep up the blog because i love it and i love you. mwah!
That's an awesome post - those pictures from the mountain are gorgeous.
My friend Mark Rinniker, and his wife Kristy are in town, visiting from Yemen - and they were saying that they actually cook a lot of mexican food when they get sick of the local stuff. Apparently Kristy makes her own tortillas. So I guess it's possible to make do if you really need a Texmex fix.
Alex
يا حبيبتي!!! انت توحشني اوي اوي اويييييييييييييييي بس يبدوا انّك عندك تجربات حلوة هناك الحمدله وانا مبصوطة علشان انت مبصوطة هناك.
الجبال والمناظر هناك سبحان لله وانا عايزة ازورك وكل الاماكن الجميلة هناك .... يوم في ايام ان شاءلله.
الحمدلله على السلامة, خذي بالك من نفسك!!!!
بالحب,
سيري
Really cool. Isn't so wild how cultures across the world are so different but however they're doing it totally works for them? Go humans! It seems like Tex-Mex would pretty much work for all of them, though. We gotta go global! What comics did you read?
i can't wait until you get back so we can have another tortilla/taco party. i look forward to more updates! xo
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