Hangin' with Royalty
Trip Start
Oct 13, 2005
1
5
22
Trip End
Dec 22, 2006
Sana'a,
Yemen
Saturday, November 5, 2005
Following a number of enquiries as to whether I had been kidnapped or was even still alive, I thought I'd better drop you a line to assure you that I'm okay. I just thought I'd give you a rest from my incessant babbling and prolix ways for a while. Anyway, as if yanked from that blissful email-free state, I have a couple of trivial things to apprise you of before I head off for another spot of travelling.
Firstly, today marks the end of Eid, the festival that marks the end of Ramadan. It's not been a productive festive season for me as I've not had classes since last weekend and won't have any until next weekend, and during this period I've forgotten the smidgen of Arabic that I'd learnt because everything's been shut down and every Arab seems to have disappeared back to their family villages, which has reduced my opportunity to practice the language. So I kind of feel like I'll be starting from scratch again when I get back to it.
Anyway, having found Ramadan difficult to begin with I shall miss certain aspects of it now that it's finished. For a start those coriander-tasting somosas were a special Ramadan thing so I'll have to do without them. I'll also miss the shuddering echo of the daily cannon-fire that signals sundown. But mainly I shall miss Iftar, the evening meal that marks sunset. It was a great opportunity for people to get together and eat and chat and drink shai. I think a few of us Westerners will try to keep like a weekly Iftar thing going, not that we'll have the locals to make such wonderful food for us anymore.
In other news, the other night a big group of us gathered in the mafraj for a meal and a night of socialising. Some time into the evening, a new guest arrived who had been invited over by this local Yemeni woman also with us. She was absolutely beautiful and wore totally Western clothes and made no efforts to cover herself. This is incredibly bold for an Arab woman out here as it is totally 'haram' (bad sin) to show your skin - usually if a woman were to try they would take so much abuse from the men as to make it impossible. Anyway, it soon became clear that this was no ordinary Yemeni woman, and that she could basically do what the hell she liked. It turns out she's Saudi royalty, is very rich and nobody would dare speak a bad word to her because a mention of the family name would send fear into their soul. Yup, her mother is a daughter of King Fahd, and as such this woman in our presence had led a rather privileged existence.
Just to put it in perspective though, it's not really like sitting in one's living room back home having a few beers, then Prince Harry turns up at the door with a 4-pack of Carling. This woman's mother was presumably one of several thousand daughters of the King! She was nevertheless royalty and had apparently got bored of being waited on by her many servants back in Saudi (as you do, obviously), so had come to Yemen some years ago to earn an honest living. Well, whatever, she was just stunning - rather upsettingly so actually, as I have a sneeking suspicion that the granddaughter of the (late) King of Saudi Arabia might be somewhat out of my league. That said, she did seem to take a liking to me. Unfortunately, a closer analysis would suggest it was more a morbid fascination at my pasty hue - much like one is compelled to glimpse at a car wreck as they drive by an accident - rather than any semblance of attraction on her part!
Either way, this was the first real look at an Arab woman that I've had since arriving so I'm thinking that now everytime I walk past a local woman wearing their 'balto', 'hijab' and 'nakab' (that dress and headscarf malarkey), I will imagine them to look like this Saudi royal. On second thoughts, that could be even more frustrating than it already is out here if you know what I mean.
What else.. umm, oh yes.. I'm having difficulty sleeping these days having discovered a few days ago that I'd been sharing my room with a scorpion! Yup, I found the little curly-tailed f**kwit casually clinging to the wall just above my pillow without a care in the world. Anyway, he was alot easier to catch than the notoriously big house-spiders that reside rent-free in my house back home, but I suspect the stakes were slightly higher on this occasion. Maybe I should invite around Sumiyo, that impossibly-loud-snoring little Japanese girl - I'm sure after one night with her any potential scorpion squatters would pack their bags!
Okay, well I'm heading off to Hadhramaut with Sabine and Veronica (the efficient Germans) tomorrow for four days or so. It's supposed to be a spectacular area of the country. I shall let you know how I got on upon my return - you have been warned. Incidentally, we bumped into this French photographer guy who will now be joining us on the 9 hour coach-ride there. It turns out he was in Rwanda during the genocide, so I'm looking forward to chatting with him about that (assuming he's not too traumatised by it).
Ma'a salaama,
Tom
