Wednesday’s the new Friday

Greetings from Yemen!

It took me a while to log in just now because Blogger appeared in Arabic. As usual, with my luck, I clicked almost every link on the page before finding the right one. (Note to self: fix this)

Day 1 in Yemen. As I write this, I’m in our new house, waiting for S and an IT technician to come back with the new password for my internet connection. Right now there is a man still working on the toilets; he brought along his son (~10 years old) Khalid - his little apprentice. It doesn’t look like we’ll be moving in right away – perhaps in a couple of days.

I just can’t get over how lovely the house is – you can see beautiful flowery shrubs and greenery from every window in this place. Apparently we live next to a VIP working at the UN. (His house is in the middle of the street and they’ve cordoned off one stretch of road to his villa – using terrorist-proof concrete barriers, mind you – so we can only access our house from one end of the street.) Opposite, someone is building an apartment block and until that’s done, our front garden will be quite private and is a good size for badminton! The company’s maintenance people have done a good job with the repairs we'd asked for.

We’ll probably spend the weekend going round the furniture shops in Sana’a, as I’m not too keen on the beech-effect, minimalist IKEA furniture already in the house. (No offence, IKEA-lovers!) It reminds me of my student days and in the UK, we and many of our friends had IKEA furniture so we would go to each other’s apartments and recognise bits and pieces from the catalogue and sometimes remember which page number!)

Even though it’s Monday, in Sana’a we’re already in the middle of the working week because weekends here are on Thursdays and Fridays. During Ramadhan the shops open at 1 p.m. and close at 4 a.m.! Even though I said before there were no traffic jams in Sana’a, during Ramadhan things are different. The streets are chock-a-block during afternoons and evenings as shops open, and people rush home and then go out again in the evening. The normal working hours (7.30 a.m. – 3.30 p.m.) have been shortened to 9 a.m. – 3.30 p.m.

Earlier this morning, we flew in from Dubai and got in at 8 a.m. As the shuttle busses pulled out from the landing area and headed for the arrival terminal, we saw three jet fighters take off.

Gulp. Hope that’s just a routine exercise.

We were quick to clear immigration but the bags took longer to come out. I would say the airport is about the same size as Luanda’s 4 de Fevereiro Airport but is less chaotic. I noticed some bags on the carousel – there is only one, just like in Luanda – were marked with X’s using chalk; I suspect those were to be inspected by customs. We’ve been put up at the Taj Sheba Hotel. S already has a dinner engagement tonight so I will be alone at the hotel after iftar.

After dinner...

Just finished taking a shower. I had a buffet dinner at the hotel while S had a pre-dinner snack before heading to the restaurant. The hotel staff remembered us from the pre-assignment trip!

I called up L, who worked for the previous tenant in our house, to let her know that we've arrived and to ask if she was still available. We met her while seeing the house in August. She is half Ethiopian, half Italian and became a Muslim to marry a local guy but "he very bad, madame" and they got divorced and she vowed she'd never marry again. (Got all that from the first meeting)

Me: Hello, is that L?

L: Madaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaame!!!! Where are you???????????

Me: I am in Sana'a. How are you?

L: Me not good, madame, because I have no job. Is not good, begging...

Me: (thinking holy sh.. and feeling bad I didn't call her before we came) I'm sorry to hear that. But we would like you to work in our house. Can you come next week?

L: YES, madame! I clean house before you come, is better for you...

Bless her.

Tomorrow I have to work (in the hotel room) but will go back to the house in the afternoon to test the internet and router.

Good night!