Explorer Mikael Strandberg

My third guest writer is Tricia Nellesen who I met at Sabris school in Sanaa, Yemen, half a year ago and she had an insight to a world which i never will get access to, the one of Yemeni women! Tricia is a reputed cultural anthropologist specializing in Yemen and the Middle East. And after working 11 years as a journalist in the U.S., she returned to graduate school for her PhD.  She became interested in studying Yemen after traveling there for language training and have since her first visit, studied the Middle East for four years and Yemen for two.  And whilst in Yemen, she learned of the water shortage and wanted to help the people in some way—so she stayed in order to learn more.  She is currently in the U.S. writing and compiling her research.

Eyes That Speak:  Lifting the Veil of Yemen

By Tricia Nellessen

Lifting the veil of Yemen....

The day after Christmas 2009, I was surprised to find dozens of messages on my phone.  How nice, I thought.  People know that I’m home in the U.S. for Christmas.  I’d been away for many months, and I had not yet turned on the television.  I went about my daily routine intending to listen to the messages later.  I sat down in front of the TV and switched on CNN.  Suddenly all of the calls made sense.  Yemen was being discussed on every channel.  One, lone Nigerian man now had my country of temporary residence in the news because he had traveled to Yemen and then attempted to blow up an airliner.

Since then, everyone has become an expert on Yemen.  I watch the news and smile as I imagine producers scurrying to find video footage that will capture the essence of the nation.  Usually this includes the ever-exotic photo of a fully veiled woman with only her eyes peering out from behind the black cloth.  As the images flash across the screen, journalists constantly stumble over names while interviewing experts who seem to have gotten much of their information from Wikipedia.  The facts are basic.  Yemen is the poorest country in the Middle East.  It sits south of Saudi Arabia and has the highest percentage of detainees from any nation housed in Guantanamo Bay.  The gender roles are strictly segregated, and women veil their faces in public.  Al Qaeda is growing in the region.  Oh yes, and Osama Bin Laden’s father was from an area called Hadramawt (which somehow seems to be pronounced Had-ra-mat, as if it were a laundry, on the news).  These are the facts that keep being repeated.  These are the basics, not the humanity.

I was first introduced to Yemen a couple of years ago at 2am after a number of long flights.  I was a thirty-two year old American woman traveling alone.  After years as a journalist, I had returned to graduate school for my doctorate in anthropology.  Yemen was to be my field site and a perfect place for further language training.  As I stepped from the plane, I took a deep breath and wondered what to expect.  I climbed down the steep stairs from the 747 to the tarmac and walked across the pavement through the glass doors lined by soldiers with rifles slung over their shoulders.  The majority of travelers were Yemenis coming home from trips abroad and my exhausted brain tried to comprehend the foreign words I heard.  As I went through customs, the man sitting behind the desk smiled as I spoke to him in Arabic.  “You are here to study?” He asked.  “Yes”, I replied.  “Welcome to Yemen,” he stated in perfect English as he smiled and handed my passport back to me.  I walked through the next set of doors and into what would become one of the favorite times in my life.

Tricia with a young Yemeni girl. One of many fantastic Yemenis she continually comes across and falls in love with.

When I’m asked about Yemen, I struggle to explain the spirit of the people.  How do I say that I wore a burqa because I chose to?  No one would ever think of forcing me to do that there.  How do I explain that Hadramawt is a beautiful, historic area with a library filled with ancient documents and some of the world’s best honey and dates?  How can I explain to those that have never been there that not everyone identifies themselves as Al-Qaeda, and in actuality Yemen is a nation living in poverty and simply struggling to survive.  I’ve traveled around the country and lived with the people, and the only way that I can tell you about Yemen is to tell you of my friends.

I met Noor at a women’s party.  These afternoons lasted for hours and were filled with music, dancing, and lots of conversation.  We would take our black robes and veils off as soon as we entered the house.  Then, the women would drink tea and eat different types of cookies.  It was during one of these parties that I met Noor.  She was a petite woman close to my age.  She smiled sweetly and offered me a seat next to her on the long pillows lying on the floor around a rug in the middle filled with tin trays of food.  Noor only spoke Yemeni Arabic, and we struggled to communicate between her dialect and my American accent.  Still, we became friends.  Once the food was cleared and the music began, Noor pulled me to the middle of the rug.  She was the first woman in Yemen to teach me belly dancing.  We danced for hours and everyone tried to help my American hips learn the foreign rhythms as we laughed the evening away.

After many such gatherings, I finally learned Noor’s story.  We sat drinking sweet Yemeni tea as others danced and I asked her about her family.  She said that she had a daughter and her eyes lit with pride.  I was surprised to learn that her daughter was seventeen years old.  She must have seen my look of confusion, because she quickly explained.  Noor had come from a poor village far outside the city.  Her father arranged her marriage to a neighbor when she was eleven, and a few years later she gave birth to her daughter.  I sipped my sweet tea and digested this information.  I asked her delicately about her husband.  “He’s dead” was the quick reply.  Noor’s face hardened and I knew that the conversation was over.  Months later she told me that he was fifty years old when they were married.  A few years ago, he passed on.  Noor retained his wealth and now remains single.  She is proud and intelligent and amazingly independent.  She moved her family to the capital city of Sana’a and her daughter attends the university there.  Noor even hinted that she might remarry in the future, but this time it would be a man of her choosing.

The window of Yemen, Tricia looking out at life outside her room...

The capital city of Sana’a which hosts the university is a fascinating mix of old and new.  I love walking the streets past the ancient walls of Bab Al-Yemen.  Bab Al-Yemen literally translates to the “door of Yemen”, and indeed it once was truly this.  Two gigantic wooden doors rest eternally open in the middle of a tall stone wall.  The wall used to encompass the entire city of Sana’a, but now it only contains what is lovingly referred to as the Old City.  I have wandered Bab Al-Yemen for hours.  Sometimes I’ve worn the abaya (black robe) and niqab (face veil), and sometimes not.  It really depends on whether or not I want to be noticed as a foreigner.  When fully veiled, I can blend into the crowd.  Why might I not want to be seen as a foreigner?  It is certainly not out of fear, but rather because of all the shouts of “Welcome to Yemen” and “Hello, how are you?”  If I walk the streets as an American, the children run up and scream “soora, soora?” Soora means photo, and the children always want theirs taken.

On the street where I live in Sana’a, the children from the nearby houses run and play in front of my door.  I live on a side street running perpendicular to a main road.  The children of my neighborhood know me well.  When they are out of school, they play marbles and soccer on the cobblestoned alleyway between our buildings.  Mustafa is twelve and is the oldest.  He is respected by the others because of this, and sometimes brings his three year old baby brother out with him.  Mustafa and his brother were orphaned when their parents were killed in a car accident.  His grandfather is raising the boys on a cab driver’s salary.  Ahmed is ten and always full of spunk, ready to play soccer.  He saves bits of change that he finds and sometimes buys me plastic necklaces.  I wear them and he smiles and tells the other boys that I am his wife.  Nabil is ten as well and shares his fireworks with me whenever they have them.  We toss the little caps on the ground and laugh as they pop.  The children’s laughter and shouts are always present outside my door.

Across the street from my house is a café set into a thick mud brick wall.  Its pink, metal doors beckon you in for kabob (fried meat balls) and fool (bean soup).  Ramsey runs the place and is sits by the door to welcome you.  When water became scarce in the countryside, he moved to the city to earn money for his family.  Ramsey is the father of six.  His wife and children still live on the farm, about four hours away.  He works for a month or more before being able to travel the distance to see them.  He doesn’t own a car, and the business needs him in order to stay open.   I always ask him how his family is, and he’ll pull out his cell phone and show me pictures.

"The capital city of Sana’a which hosts the university is a fascinating mix of old and new. I love walking the streets past the ancient walls of Bab Al-Yemen."

So, you see, as the exotic images of Yemen appear on television screens across the world, I can only think of my friends.  There are so many other stories that I could tell which would humanize the stark photos being shown across the world of the tiny little country that no one knew of but that now is in all the headlines.  The scenes the news agencies show are from streets that I have walked dozens of times.  As others see only mysteriously veiled women and foreign landscapes, I see my friends and paths full of memories.  It is true that Al-Qaeda exists in Yemen, but it is also true that the majority of people are simply trying to make a living in a country which was forgotten until this Christmas when one man suddenly brought the spotlight of the world to bear.  Yemen has faced Al-Qaeda attacks for years.  It sits on the brink of civil war as the South threatens to secede once again, and rebels to the north of Sana’a continue to fight the government forces.  Amidst all of this, Yemen is projected to become the first country in the world to suffer a complete lack of groundwater as its aquifers drain and the rains move away from the Arabian Peninsula.  Yemen and its people have been, and will continue to be, facing serious challenges.

I sat in Sana’a sipping tea with Michael a few months ago and he asked me what it was like to be a woman living in Yemen.  I remember telling him tales of my friends and experiences.  Michael understood, as explorers do, that societies are complex and varied.  To truly understand a people, one has to delve beneath the obvious and experience the everyday and mundane.  To me, the veil has yet to be lifted from Yemen in the eyes of the world.  Rather, the information coming out of Yemen from the outside media is vague and unsubstantial because of lack of attention in previous years and the newly escalating security situation with Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.  It is my hope, as days move forward, that a distinction will be made between the people and the destructive elements driving Yemen towards becoming a failed state.

Tricia can be contacted here!

At the moment we are living here, trying to figure out how we are going to get America on board the Expedition. Because without the USA, the Expedition will not reach its goal....

“Why do people join Al-Queda?”, my Arabic teacher in Yemen repeated my question to himself, “Well, because in most cases they don´t have a choice. Take this friend of a friend I knew from my home town. He couldn´t get a job in the village, came here to Sanaa, didn´t get a job here either…so he ended up in crime, got caught, sent to prison, treated badly there and when he came out, the only one´s which helped him, fed him and gave him some direction was the fundamentalists and the next time I heard about him, he was the suicide bomber who blew himself and some tourists up in Hadramawt. It wouldn´t have happened if we would live in a fair society.”

A day after I landed on the prairie outside Minneapolis in freezing cold, hauling snowstorms and a geographical flatness that made me numb, a Nigerian bloke once again caused serious harm to the way the west sees the Muslim world. And he put Yemen, once again, in the center of the worlds attention. I have spent pretty much all my time reading the global newspapers, both from the East and West, and what worries me the most, is that it seems like the Western media, at times, seriously thinks that most Muslims worldwide condone what is happening. And, as serious, is that pretty much all reporting from Yemen, comes from journalists who are browsing the Internet for information. They are not actually there themselves. And this is the picture reported to the West. As you readers know, I have devoted my life to do this upcoming Expedition, for the main reason to try to present a more balanced and real picture of this exiting part of the world. Therefore I have traveled extensively in the Arab World to prepare for this Expedition. And I have met a lot of people all over the Arab world. And, only a few have voiced support for Al Oueda and its violent cause and they have all, without exceptions, been people with no decent education. However, I have met many educated Muslims, who doesn´t like the one sided view presented in the West that we are the saviors of the modern civilization. But that is a much bigger philosophical question. I just want to add my own voice and experience here and my quest to do this Expedition is stronger than ever. But, the question is, what kind of a Yemen will it be within a year?

One of few signs of Christmas that I have encountered in this small village where we we stay right now....

There´s no doubt there is more obstacles to the Expedition now, compared to when I start planning it about a year ago. And on paper, it seems more difficult than ever to accomplish. And the major threat to it, is this continuous hatred between the West and East.  And pretty much all due to the lack of conversation and understanding. And misinformation. But, I am the first to say, that when you hear something many times, after awhile it sticks like truth in the back of your head. Therefore, when I arrived in Chicago and got briefly detained, I feared the worst, since I have come across so many travelers saying that the US immigration are the un-friendliest on earth.  I spent a long nervous time waiting to see what would happen and saw a lot of people being detained and not one of them was treated badly. Most of them time with kindness and respect. And I, as always, was lucky to come across a real human being, not judging, just trying to understand and help. And this scary visit taught me a very important lesson, never, ever stop believing in the good sides of humankind. They are everywhere.

Once again, this spectacular country is in the news again. In a very negative way. It is such a sad reality, when the truth is also that some of the best people I have ever met, live here, in one of the most spectacular countries in the world.

We have been almost ten days in Minneapolis now, we have once again set up a kind of a normal life with a temporary home, a temporary car, but most of the time we have been sitting inside watching TV, hiding from the cold and trying to figure out, once the bell of the new year have called, how to get America on board. There´s no doubt, if we can´t persuade America to believe in this vision, the Expedition, not a lot will change at all. There´s many obstacles along the way. The quest continuous.

We will return to Oman soon again. In the meantime, I will enjoy a traffic which is easy and uncomplicated, good bread and a state which has a Scandinavian presence which is very interesting. It means one can get lutfisk, Kalles kaviar, hard bread and ginger biscuits here! And the locals are really down to earth and in fact, where we live right now, it could be Särna, where I used to live and a place I loved. People are laid-back, big, comfortably dressed, hunt and fish, drive snow mobiles and don´t care that much for what life looks like outside their houses. So, in one way, it is like being home over Christmas!

“Taxi, Taxi, taxi, we have to help this guy!”

Hussein - the perfect sanaani!

The old man shouting was, as always, Hussein, my landlord in Old Sanaa, where I am renting an apartment so I can work in peace, feel the atmosphere of the old town plus invite people to my mafrag. I take the expedition and Yemen seriously and to be able to show people how much I love Yemen, I want to offer them the same hospitality. So, with the help of my friend Kyle, I ended up renting this three roomed apartment. And got two good new friends, Hussein and Mohammed. Hussein is, if I am to believe other friends, a typical sanaani, a Yemeni from the Old Town of Sanaa. Warm, generous (every day one gets invited to break iftar and eat with him), always shouting and doing pretty much everything needed just by sticking his head out of the door and shouting for assistance. People always turn up. The mobile still have a distance to go before it is accepted here. I asked him yesterday if he got unnerved by all fighter planes continously leaving and returning to Sanaa over our heads and his answer was typical:

Every step in the souk is amazingly exiting...this must be the most exiting place on earth!

“We can´t worry all the time, what good does that do? We just have to leave it to the government to sort things out.”

Hussein has tried to get me to go to the Turkish bath (hammam) with him many times, but I just haven´t had the time, but two days ago I joined him for a tour of the great souk and ended up at his sons story selling the traditional belts and jambiyyas. The making of the local and traditional jambiyyas has been in his family for generations and suddenly I realised they were making me a belt and a jambiyya. And before I could think, one hour later I was dressed up as a local sanaani!

Me trying on a thub....

Walking through the souk dressed as a local sanaani drew attention, but I liked it! And most of all, out of nowhere people would show up and without me asking for it, correct details in my dress or the position of my knife! I did realise that locals actually felt honoured by me dressing like them, which surprised me, since I have found out through many years of travelling, to 113 countries, that most of the time, local people think it looks ridiculous when foreigners go native. But not in Yemen! A country different in many ways. Like for example, if I am not in my flat the same time every day, Hussein calls me to see if everything is ok and I am getting to know pretty much everything in Husseins neighbourhood. The baker of kuddams for example. the young bakers care as much as Hussein and tells me they have worried when I don´t show up in time. Not that anything would happen in Sanaa, I feel safer here than any other place on earth.

Me together with friends in the souk.....

And Hussein seems to know everybody. Another thing I have noticed in Sanaa is that everybody knows everybody, like in a village, and if you need to meet somebody of importance, Hussein will fix it! So today he has arranged for me to meet the sheikh of sheiks! Don´t miss the next report from Sanaa!

I get many emails from people regarding the situation and war planes are still going back and fort to Sadaa.

My friend the kuddam baker.....

A facade belong to Old Sanaa.....

“It´s is all haram (forbidden)!”, my new very good friend exclaimed with disappointment and threw out his hands, turned his new Mercedes Benz around and returned back to what was not long ago a foul-smelling sewer canal, which is called the silo in local tongue, but now turned into an exiting main road through the city and he continued: “Every good idea to turn things around for the better for everyone in this country is killed by the religious fanatics and called haram!”

Can the Silo be turned into a floursihing Yemeni variety of le Seine?

Let us call my very new good friend the Self-Made Man. A true description of this fighter in every sense turned into a powerful factor in this great, but complicated country. He was showing me one of his great visions to turn one part of the Old City of Sanaa into a great possibility to draw tourist from all over the world. Which is something the country desperately needs to have a chance to handle the future. My new friend is also a great visionary. He sees the silo, the main street, free of traffic, which is covered on both sides of the great buildings of Old Sanaa, turning into a Yemeni version of both sides of the river Seine in Paris, France. Cafés, an array of entertaining street artists, open door exhibitions, museums, open theaters for opera and local music. And, I fully believe, like him that it would be a great success!

Early start in Old Sanaa

It is early morning in Old Sanaa. Life is slowly starting up, I hear one noisy motor bike only, a car with a silent motor passing with blaring classical music, people walking past with tired steps on the stone layered street below my window, a dog barking in a distance, a neighbor having a shower and the call of the muezzin just finished. I haven´t slept many hours, because I enjoyed the meeting tremendously yesterday and this new friend of mine. Like me, he is a self made man and I do, naturally, prefer self made people far more than that other group of spoiled brats who have made their way up in life. I believe I have met another brother here in the Arab world, just like Talib in Oman. A soul mate. Ever since I had this vision to do this Expedition, the most amazing things have happened and I think this is part of the true Arabian Experience. Amazing things, almost un-explainable, does happen. Some of them almost like it would be a grace of God and like they would already be written in the stars. Another piece of the jigsaw of life falling into place. It happens all the time. My best friend here in Sanaa, Pam, is one of these almost un-explainable meetings. It was one of her friends in the US who knew The Self Made Man. She is also a self made person, a fighter of enormous strength. She has helped me with great energy with the planning of the Expedition.

Early morning, Old Sanaa waking up....

I feel extraordinary privileged to constantly running into people who understands my vision and want to help. Most of the time, it is pretty much the same type of people. People with a positive attitude who´s lives have been up and down, but everything handledwithout bitterness, hate or negativity. Very positive, energetic people who want to make a difference and understands that big visions makes a difference. Like the Self Made Man. He liked my vision and after having spent an evening together, meeting a lot of powerful Yemenis, we realized that we have the same instincts. And love for Yemen. My friend, The Self Made Man, who you will meet more, in shallah, in my dispatches from Yemen, has really, better than anybody sold me the overwhelmingly positive aspects of Yemen and I will finish this off with him recounting when he came back to the country from abroad a few days ago:

“I returned back in the middle of the night from abroad, not really knowing if it would be good or bad to come back to this disorganized, sometimes hopeless country, but I decided to drive through the Old City. I turned up the the Verdi opera on my CD-player, opened all the windows and slowly passed through the winding and narrow alleys and souks. Suddenly I felt something grip my soul, like a belonging, like a major part of me belonged here, and I realized how privileged I was to almost daily to encounter the spirit of the Old City of Sanaa.”

The Self Made Man could well be the solution to the Yemeni problem. Both to the country and mine. Future will tell.

Me and.....

I do get a fair amount of questions from readers who wish to know the development of my Arabic…..well, the truth is that it is better than when I came! It is like life itself, it has gone up and down, but since the first term is almost over, one day to go, I am more than happy that I took the choice to come here.

View of the old city of Sanaa from a well placed mafrag.

There´s no doubt that I have had some of the best moments of my life here. Much of it is due to the people I have come across here. It has been such a busy month where I have had problems catching my breath in between lessons, meeting people, planning the Expedition and trying to handle all these, at times, unbelievable impressions that you continuously run into here in Sanaa. So, just to get a bit of a break,and meet my great friends in Oman, I will head for Yemen’s neighbor for a four day visits. I will keep you updated about the visit.

Learning anything new in life, you need a good setting -it couldn´t be better than Sanaa, due to that very few Yemenis speak English plus that they´re very happy to take their time to listen to you- and you need a well established school plus good teachers and if you like me, are in a group, inspiring fellow students.  I have very strong opinions on the subject of teachers, I firmly believe they have the most import work on earth, and therefore, you need good teachers -good humans with a mission- to get inspired to study. I have had one teacher which has inspired a lot, Rashad, during my first term studies.

Rashad - engaged teacher

Rashad´s life is like any other Yemeni teacher, meaning a lfe dominated by lot´s of preparations and patience mixed with how to handle and survive the pressures of normal life.  Take Rashad, he is married with kids, his wife studies, so he supports them both, plus two of his brothers who are studing at university plus his father who´s not in the best of shape in life and he dreams of an easier life with better payment and the possiblity to buy a car, a house and to gather enough money to be able to do a pilgrimage to Mecca. But the cost to do this is enormous.  Yesterday he was away from school due to an eye problem caused by stress. So, the same applies to modern people all over the world, life is plagued by stress to fulfill dreams of the many.

My visit to Yemen constantly reminds me what a privileged human being I am!

The future of Yemen with his dad

”You have to speak up” , Abdullah Rahman shouted, ”I am almost deaf after spending so much time standing next to cannons!”

The palace of Imam Yahya....

We were heading for the palace of Dar Al-Hajar, which was constructed as a summer residence for Imam Yahya in the early 1920`s, in an area which the locals of Sanaa in those days used as a weekend trip to rest their nerves after the busy life in the city. They still do. We passed through the outskirts of the city, where construction seemed to rest due to the demanding circumstances. It´s like people just began building and suddenly just ran out of money. We passed through several cramped stops for shared taxis, where people hurried around trying to find a seat that would take them out of the city for the weekend. My first thought was:

“Africa and matatus!”

The village of Wadi Dhahar

There’s definitely a feeling of the great continent of Africa, on and off in Sanaa, even though the enormous amount of impressions one gets continuously can only be equaled by India. But Sanaa is far more genuine. And I can only imagine what the life outside the capital is, since no matter how you look at things, country life is always more genuine than city life. I would say that Yemen is easily one of the most interesting places on earth and in many ways perfect for visiting as a tourist. And that was the reason I was travelling with Abdullah Rahman and our common friend Kamel. To find out the possibilities to bring tourists to Yemen. Abdullah Rahman runs a hotel in the centre of the Old Sanaa named Dawood Hotel and loves his country and wants people from all over the world to come and enjoy its history and culture. But as always in Sanaa, after awhile, no matter how spectacular the surrounding, it is the Yemenis themselves which impress. Even though the palace was located in a spectacular surrounding, it kind of erupts out of a rocktable like a giant red and white toad stool, it was as interesting to listen to the stories of Abdullah Rahman and Kamel.

At home with the general

Abdullah Rahman used to be a general in the army up until 5 years ago, when he decided he wanted to spend more time with his family. His career is the modern history of the country. He commanded his troops in the, or always it seems like, troublesome north. But now he takes care of his country side mansion which is dotted with relatively lush gardens offering tasty fruits like pomegranates, a spiky cactus fruit called tiin schauki and plenty of the famed grapes of Yemen.

“If we would make wine out of these grapes” , the old General shouted, “one liter would cost a thousand dollars!”

Exclusive and expensive grapes.....

The general pointed out the fact that half his garden was dry due to serious water shortages in the country. One of many major problems this spectacular country faces at the moment. One thing they don´t lack is generosity. The general being one of the most generous of men, we ended up in his fine red bricked mansion where the females of the family had prepared an enormous meal of local Yemeni food. Salta of course.

“The traditions say” , Kamel translated, “That we cannot finish until we´ve eaten 7 bowls of salta.”

This he said just after we´ve stuffed ourselves with roasted chicken, delicious veal, chips, rice and lots of great bread. And the general himself portioned out the best pieces to us, as the tradition says, to show he was utterly honored by our visit and therefore serves the guest himself. A tradition I like a lot personally. There´s so many things I like with the Yemeni traditions. The salta was delicious, but we stopped after two giant bowls and the last time I was this stuffed on the brink of exploding was in another Arab country, Algeria. An oasis called Laghout, located just southeast of Grand Erg Occidental in the year of 1986. That time my overeating made me throw up just outside town, and I had to set up the tent in 50 degrees Celsius in the desert and I spent four hours sweating the problem out, until it eventually gave me enough energy to speed through the Sahara Desert on a bicycle from north to south. One of the first in history to do just that.

“You just have to meet his daughter!” Pam shouted happily in a way that would make the general happy to me whilst I was laid back on the traditional Yemeni cushions on the floor after the filling lunch, the main meal of the day, which I love, “She has given me a black dress to try, a dress she has made herself.”

My friends Kamel and the general discussing during kat chew....

Pam is my best friend at school and I often ask her to join me on my visits outside school, because we will always meet women which otherwise is impossible. Pam is full of energy and life and her knowledge of the Arab world is astounding to say the least. It was the first time I shook the hand of a local woman in Yemen, however she was veiled whilst doing it. Amazing how different traditions can be globally!

“Do you want to chew kat here or in town?”

It was around four and about time to chew according to the general, so we went back to town and all the way up on the roof of his six-storey hotel, to its beautiful mafrag (place where you chew kat) and sat down with some of his own kat.

“Let us not talk business today” , the General said, “Let us just enjoy life.”

We spent three hours talking about the three most common subjects, politics, the Arab world and sex. All three subjects discussed in a very frank way, that even I, a Swede, felt slightly uncomfortable regarding the sex part. Regarding the other topics, I love the frankness, but let me just say that I have discussed this topic in many other parts of the world throughout my life, but it is never as blunt as in the Arab world, Oman apart, I have to say. It is the only subject I do not enjoy. As love it should be handled with respect.

My friends Pam and Kamel buying fruits at local fruitstand along the way....

However, I really like the kat chew as a forum to have time to talk and discuss things. (I have received plenty of emails from Sweden where kat is a forbidden substance and I jst want to add that I do not chew kat. )And as always in Yemen, you end up with new friends after each kat chew. If all goes well, in shallah, Sanaa will be full of privileged tourist again!

“The best time to sit in the mafrag an chew kat…” , Kamel, this very intelligent and kind local poet and writer said; “….is when its is raining, because at these times you will see the Old City of Sanaa change its dress many times.”

Arabic is such a poetic and beautiful language. In shallah, soon I should understand a bit more….

View of Sanaa from the Dawood mafrag!

I met these ladies on the way to the gym.....

The evening muezzin is calling for prayer over Old Sanaa, dogs are barking, kids are playing football on the street below my window, I can see straight in to the backyard of a neighbor, a covered woman washing clothes, cars are giving noise a new dimension and motorbikes seems to try to set world records in highest speed in most crowded environment. I am sitting in the dark, another electricity brake is hounding the city and I am eating laban, a kind of a salty, thin youghurt with a taste of smoked milk. It is one way to add protein to the body. But building muscle and power in Sanaa is no easy thing, basically due to that it is hard to find enough protein. I eat a lot of eggs, youghurt, milk, but it ain´t enough. I have in a mere three weeks lost so much power and at the gym today I had to fight with ridiculous weights. So I am not surprised that all the young men who train there don´t have neither muscle or strength. It isn´t easy in an adventurous city like Sanaa!

Everyone needs a gym card....here´s mine!

Just walking to the gym is kind of an adventure, mainly due to the traffic which is really a world of its own, but it is good for training as well, since you spend most of the time dodging buses and avoiding to get run over by a speeding motorbike occupied by at least three young men. But you also pass through some spectacular souks full of life and when you eventually arrive at the gym, having stopped, conversed in poor Arabic a few times, one is really tired….

The gym....

No women are allowed to train in the gym, only men dressed from toe to top. Most of them have no idea how to train and it makes me distressed to see them doing it all wrong. Too heavy weights and using the wrong muscles. It will take a life time, if ever, for most of them even getting close to the body builders, who´s posters dot the walls in the gym. The favorite is a Facebook friend of mine, The Lebanese Lion, Samir Bannout. The gym in itself is ok, barbells and dumbbells which is fine, but a bit disorganized. But, full of extremely friendly Yemenis which at times are so friendly I don´t even get a chance to do my reps properly.

Selling sweets...not good to eat after a workout...

I train for an hour and than I slowly cruise back home through the souk and once back home in my room, I am more tired than ever. Not through the traing session, but through the enormous input of fantastic images gathered in my head going back and forth to the gym!

To find out more, why a train in gyms in preparation for the Big Expedition, see http://preparingforthenextexpedition

A lad I met who wanted to have his photo taken....

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Next Expedition, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3GI-YeZP5E

“You see, it shouldn´t be called chewing kat” , my new good friend Kyle said, “It should be called storing kat, which is the Arabic meaning of the word.”

Selling kat on the way to the kat session....one bag costs about 750 rials, which is the equvalent to 3.5 dollars

The chewing, or storing, of kat is a controversial issue not only in Yemen, but also in the surrounding countries. There´s a loud opposition against kat (read about kat on wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khat) because it is said to have a big negative effect on Yemen’s economy. It is not an exportable product, it uses an considerable amount of the countries natural resources, lots of manpower and most of all, apparently almost 40% of the countries water resources. It is also said that it creates a lot of problems within the family, like for example alcohol, since it strains the family economy (a small bag of a one session chew is 750 rials, which is a lot of money for the locals, about 3.5 dollars) and it damages family bonds since the men are always gone chewing kat with male friends. All this is of course the same effects that any consumption of alcohol and such stimulants that we humans seem to need worldwide.

An avid kat chewer at the session....

Anyway, chewing kat is after all the national past time in Yemen, and has the same social consequences as vodka in Russia, that it is through a kat session or a vodka party that you get the real insights into the country and its workings. It is said. So I joined Bob Burrowes , political expert of Yemen from the University of  Washington, who´s spent more than 7 years all together in this diverse country that he visited the first time 1976.

“I hope you will find that there are some very positive aspects of the kat sessions” , this veteran of thousands of kat sessions told me whilst we walked through the spectacular old city of Sanaa heading first for lunch together with another big Yemeni ex-pat personality, Kyle, “Whatever one´s position regarding kat, its presence is undeniably and impossible to ignore.”

The famous Bob Burrowes to the right, next to as famous Abdul-Ghani and Kamil

These two veterans are two of the major personalities I have come across during my visit here.In Yemen, even the white people are interesting, which says a lot about the country. Kyle for example, has lived here for many years, speaks fluent Arabic and have been married to three Yemeni ladies and is a storyteller of sorts. One of these jagged personalities, dented by life, driven by curiosity and good humor, that one has the privileged to come across on and off on the global arena as a traveller. He first took us to a great restaurant, then we ended up at the kat session with a mix of expats and Yemenis. We spent almost 8 hours storing kat. Because that is what you do, store kat in one of the cheeks until it would like to bust. But you don´t spit this green substance out until the session is over. So in this case, we are talking almost 8 hours of storing. I have to say it is one of the most relaxing and enjoyable moments I have had in a long time, sitting in a group talking about the most amazing things of life. And you do learn a lot of Yemen during such a expanded session.

Me and Kyle and a couple of friends at the session...it was my first, but Bob he has the expat record of 58 kat sessions in a row!

“We Yemenis are not an aggressive people, we like to talk, see how it is here, a kat session is an important way to socialize and solve problems” , Kamal told me in perfect english, “Therefore as you see on the streets of Sanaa, people take life is easy, even though the reputation of instability is racing across the country. But I don not feel worried. We will talk ourselves out of this problem and I think a federal initiative, to give all regions more autonomy is the solution. The only problem as I see it is the terrible corruption in the country.”

The restaurant serving the best salta and kebabs according to Kyle....I believe him...we stopped here for a great lunch!

Since my days in Siberia , I have long ago realized some basic facts about the human mind and its quest to be a being. There´s no doubt that we are a homo conversencis, a being who needs to continuously communicate and socialize to feel content with life. Some of the happiest people I have come across during 23 years of traveling are people who continuously communicate with each other. And a kat session is very much like that. It is a very important social function and we humans need this gatherings, even though they put a heavy toll on other things in society. Life is a about finding an equilibrium, not just painting life in white or black. So far, my first kat session wasn´t only a success when it came to getting profound insights into the Yemeni life, hearing some amazing stories from Mali by a true story teller or a perspective of being Yemeni in Finland, it was a very basic way for human beings to interact and talk leading to a much less aggressive approach to life. Everything has a backside to it, it is just that things take time to understand and develop so if demanding and slightly negative people went to a kat session instead of moaning about the negative aspect of life, we would have a better and more fair understanding of the world. Especially the Yemeni one.

Do not miss this slide show from this great country!

It was such a long kat session that we passed in darkness return through the old city home to the school....

The seven o´clock muezzin just took tone and the prayers from the holy Koran spreads across the darkness which dominates the old city of Sanaa…it is the day before Sunday (Friday here) and I wouldn´t like to be in any other place at the moment….

The traditional jambiyya knife, can like the one you see on the photo be hundreds of yeras old and have a handle from the black rhinoceros.

On the other hand, some professional opinion makers think that Yemen is on the brink of war. That Yemen could turn into a new global tragedy like Somalia, a country dominated by violence between armed fractions belonging to different tribes and where a solution right now seems almost impossible. And there´s no doubt that the situation is dire. The local newspapers,Yemen Post, Yemen Observer and Yemen Times are full of bad news regarding the conflicts within the country and when you read the editorials, yes, it can well be said to be a slightly unstable and dangerous country. A country where kidnapping seems to be a national sport. According to the Yemen Observer there’s been more than 200 separate kidnapping incidents the last 15 years.

But if you, like me, an independent visitor walk the streets of the capital Sanaa, it is almost impossible to believe that the country is considered by many as one of the most dangerous countries in the world. If that means the traffic, yes, I would definitely agree, but just cruising the streets, it is hard to believe. I know that the conflict is in other areas of the country, but still, I see very few armed people….well, most Yemeni men in traditional dress wear the fearful jambiyya, but they feel just symbolic….and the people are so friendly and relaxed that it seems impossible. War planes pass my head a few times a day, just to remind me that there´s a conflict and people, everyone you meet, talks about the situation, but it is hard to spot with the bare eye. If you for example pass a government office or building, it is guarded, but the guards seem to spend more time chewing kat, than to be observant. They sleuth and chew and greet you with a big smile.

The souk of the Old City of Sanaa during another power break...

Nonetheless, I have before passed through areas on conflict in Baluchistan just below the Afghani border and Central America, well, I remember Nicaragua very well which I passed on a bicycle early 1987. At that time the country weren´t on the brink of war, they were fighting mercilessly from both sides, the Sandinistas against the contras. It was, I thought at that time, an exiting place to be. It was full of personalities in the shape of aid workers, nuns, mercenaries, travellers, adventurers, Russian and American soldiers and spooks and even though the military presence and the amount of security police was heavy, I managed to cycle across the country and loved that atmosphere that existed. That time I was too young to see all the overwhelmingly negative aspects of war, as violence, terror, evilness and suffering people. But I have a strong memory that local people were great but terrified.

A kat chewer taking life easy in the belt souk of the old city of Sanaa

Another two hour electricity break there…this does remind me of a war torn  Nicaragua. Really what I want to say about the situation is that I wouldn´t like to be in another place right now and I can honestly say I feel safer here than any other country I have visited. Including my native Sweden. And as everything else in life, life in Yemen presented through Western media, well in this case, global media, whom I know well, and reality is often very different. I have looked closer at these kidnappings that has happened to foreigners and if you look at it clearly, there´s only two kidnappings which has gone wrong. All other ones, the hostages have been released and spoken well about their captivators. The first time it was wrong, according to Yemen Observer, was in the south of Yemen 1999, where three Western tourists were killed in a shoot-out between kidnappers and government troops. The second time was just this past June, when two German nurses and a South-Korean teacher were found dead and six hostages are still not found. There´s a belief among many observers here that the culprits come from another country and belong to the infamous haters called al-Qaeda. It, if you look at history and have come across the Yemenis, it makes sense. For me.

And yes, there are areas which should be avoided, but some of the major tourist areas like The Old City of Sanaa and Hadramawt Wadi, Suqutra and the Haraz Mountains are still accessible.

So, I would definitely say to people who travel, Sanaa and Yemen is a paradise and has to be seen. Especially this amazing souk which has to be the most interesting place on earth. I will write more about this global giant soon!

Please visit my other blog for info about life before the old souk of Sanaa at http://preparingforthenextexpedition.blogspot.com/

I feel more amazed than upset. This nasty incident happens in every country in the world, but, the reasons it happened in Sanaa, Yemen, are two. First, the major reason, I am in Yemen, the unlikeliest place I thought it would happen. Best of the best when it comes to the quality of people. Two, I am very naive and always trust people. But the more I think about the whole drama, I realize how good he was and how I did everything wrong and should have seen the warning signs early on in our very common conversation. How much did I loose?

The idiot.....couldn´t find the conman for a photo....however, I was worse off by another conman in Zimbabwe 1992.

Well, read it until the end and you will find out. In any matter, it is a good story!

Once again I went off to the local gym and once again, I failed to get a membership to train and lost the monthly fee they charge, the Club, where the local gym is located.  Since my Arabic isn’t good enough to sort out  the paper work, I asked a couple of guys in the queue, if they spoke English. Nobody did, but suddenly this geezer turns up, a middle aged, well dressed gentleman and asks if he can assist me.

“I come here to do gymnastics once a week, the rest off the time I chew kat” , he explained whilst he told me what I needed in the way of paperwork to be able to train, I neither had photos or copy of passport and visa, so he says: “I will take you to an express photo shop close by.”

Now gymnastics was dead in the early 90´s, I should have known already there.

“You are at the Institute aren’t you? I have seen you there many times” , he said and I answered jolly: “Yes I am, how happy I am to find you here. What do you do there?”

“You mean the one at the 26th of September?” he says and I smile, I should have known…he didn’t say the name of the institute…”Well, I am Doctor Mohammed Ali Al-Moto Said and I teach Arabic at the Institute. But only two days a week, so you probably don’t remember me. The rest of the time I teach at the University.”

See how clever….Anyway, off we go to this photo shop were he is not only very overwhelmingly helpful, but we sit down and wait for the photos to be developed, we talk and he speaks about his country in a kind of upset tone regarding what he calls the terrorists in the south, that if nothing happens the country will fall apart as Somalia or worse, so I ask him:

“You have never thought about working abroad?”

Of course this incredible good human being says:

“I would never leave my country. I couldn’t be without my beautiful children. A life without one’s family, is not a life. I am sorry my English is so bad.”

I pat his shoulder and say:

“I admire you very much. Your English is perfect. How old are the children?”

First he kind of measures their height with his hand showing them as very young, but suddenly he says:

“I have two son’s and one is studying in Moscow and the other in Malaysia. Economics.”

Of course. Economics. Always economics. Maybe his sons were dwarfs. Suddenly he hands over a piece of paper to me with his name and phone numbers, mobile and home. (I have tried both. Subscriber doesn´t exist.)

“I have this English book with phrases in Arabic and your headmaster has forbidden me to give it to his students, because they would learn Arabic too fast and he wouldn’t get any money. But I will give it to you. Only you. Can you come to my house for lunch tomorrow? I see you as my brother now.”

I said yes to both his fantastic book and lunch and hands over my precious business card which very few people have (See what trouble that one will put me in….puuuh….) We are now buddies!

When the photos are ready, he moves up to the desk to pay them, I say no way!

“What a fantastic human” I think and feel very warm inside. “Another fantastic Yemeni showing the best side of the human being.”

“I will show you were I live” , he says and we return in the direction of the Gym, turns a bend and he shows me a nice red mansion overlooking Old Sanaa. “I live there with my three baby daughters and wife. My father, he is a teacher at the University of Bahrain, he built the house before he left and I am looking after it.”

I should have realized that he suddenly added on three kids to his dwarf sons studying economics in Moscow and Malaysia. But no, I felt so happy having met such a superb human being again here in Yemen. The country is full of them. Then he picks up a piece of stale bread somebody has chucked on the road and says:

“It makes me feel bad when people do this. It is against the will of the Prophet to throw bread on the street.”

I even liked him more and he continued:

“I was supposed to meet my friend and talk at the club, but he didn’t show up.”

Suddenly he looks full of worries.

“Well, such things happen” I say, but he answers: “It would never have happened if my friend had been a foreigner.”

See how clever he was! He has in a short while pulled a lot of information out of me, have found out my interests, noticed that I am philanthropic and wants to help people, he has in this short time built up trust and now, the kill is close, so just before we get to the gym he says:

“I see you as my brother and you see me as your brother, than I just need a little favour from you.”

I went a little cold, I think it was my experience warning me, but before I could say something he said:

“This friend I was supposed to meet owed me money, I have 40 000 rial with me now and he was to give me 8 000, so I could buy this car for my son when he comes back. Could you lend me the 8000 until tomorrow?”

I felt uncomfortable but I said:

“The only money I have is for the fee I am paying for the club membership, can you take that?”

Yes, he happily said and went off. In shallah, Allah will punish him for cheating another human so blatantly nasty. So that is what I lost, a mere 15 dollars. From a common conman. And, yes, it doesn´t feel good, of course, you do take a bit of a beating when it comes to trust people and from now on, I will have a little bit of hesitation meeting people. However, just a tiny bit, because, even though I am very gullible, I rather take a few mistakes like this to be able to continue to trust other people.

And on the whole, yes, it is a good story!

For more reports on the preparations for the Expedition, see http://preparingforthenextexpedition.blogspot.com/