Changes
Back in Sana'a after a three-week break. Weather has cooled down and is the perfect combination of cool dry air and sunny days. New shops have sprung up and a couple of buildings near the house are almost done.
But the best thing of all is in the supermarkets. The Asian food shop now has a better selection of Asian veggies and food. Yeterday we found TEMPEH as well as kangkong, fresh tauhu, taugeh, gado-gado mix, chives, bok choi, lemongrass, etc. At Shumaila Hari, smoked beef is now available in the deli section and you can also get bottled sambal paste, frozen and fresh liver (me LOVE liver), frozen and fresh chicken breast/drumsticks/thigh/wings/etc., laban (said to be even better than yoghurt) with live AB cultures, and most other things.
I guess the big deal for me is that all this is HALAL. You could get various meats in Angola but only the frozen imported beef was halal...I can count the number of times I ate minced meat in those three years!
Al Jazeera reported yesterday that the President says the war in Saada will be over soon. I hope so. Very sad to read about the displaced and starving children - I wish I could adopt some of those kids. I do get a bit nervous when I hear fighter planes flying over the house; there was a lot of that during Ramadan but less so now it seems.
The power cuts are now shorter, maybe a few hours a day - a big improvement from Ramadan, when the power was off for about 12 hours a day. In our area, the blackout period seems to be around lunch time. We have a generator so it's not a big deal, but many people don't.
Our new driver, A, is good. Drives safely and actually comes to work early. With our old driver, if the drive was more than 20 minutes, I'd be queasy (and thus cranky) by the time we got to our destination. With A, I don't have to worry and actually enjoy watching the hustle and bustle of the streets.
Otherwise, the two guards, the 'joker' (fill-in guard) and the cleaning lady get along - mostly. Sometimes arguments flare up about who didn't order the water etc. but I try not to get too involved. There are few secrets in this "household" (it does feel like we have 4-5 more people in this family), e.g. everyone knows how much everyone else got for their Eid bonus...and who didn't get one.
S has been invited to lunch by his Yemeni barber. They'll meet at the mosque today after Friday prayers, and presumably go to the barber's house. I've never met the barber before but his shop is just down the street from our house. He charges hubby 500 riyals ($2.50) per cut - not very expensive but I think the locals only pay a few hundred. From my past year here, I've realised we tend to pay the 'tourist' rate - no matter how good Malaysian-Yemeni relations are and even though we're 'local'. After some bargaining, you might get the 'Yemeni' rate plus a small mark-up. After checking with my Arabic teacher or other locals, I've found that the mark-up is not much - usually a few dollars - so I don't push it once the guy stops budging. Helping the local economy and all that.
There might be some more weddings in the next six months. One friend is getting married in November and has promised to invite us; it will be S' first wedding. And A is having his wedding in April 2010. According to local tradition, men are not allowed to even look at his fiancee's face, who is usually chosen by his mother. But according to Islam, it is allowed to see the woman's face and hands. Because A's fiancee is his cousin, he's seen her before, during visits to his grandfather's house, and is allowed to hang out with her (within limits of course).
S and I are still a little jet-lagged from the holiday, but this gives me the opportunity to keep waking up early and do some exercise/errands before I start work in the mornings. We'll see if things start to slip - I've never been a morning person.
But the best thing of all is in the supermarkets. The Asian food shop now has a better selection of Asian veggies and food. Yeterday we found TEMPEH as well as kangkong, fresh tauhu, taugeh, gado-gado mix, chives, bok choi, lemongrass, etc. At Shumaila Hari, smoked beef is now available in the deli section and you can also get bottled sambal paste, frozen and fresh liver (me LOVE liver), frozen and fresh chicken breast/drumsticks/thigh/wings/etc., laban (said to be even better than yoghurt) with live AB cultures, and most other things.
I guess the big deal for me is that all this is HALAL. You could get various meats in Angola but only the frozen imported beef was halal...I can count the number of times I ate minced meat in those three years!
Al Jazeera reported yesterday that the President says the war in Saada will be over soon. I hope so. Very sad to read about the displaced and starving children - I wish I could adopt some of those kids. I do get a bit nervous when I hear fighter planes flying over the house; there was a lot of that during Ramadan but less so now it seems.
The power cuts are now shorter, maybe a few hours a day - a big improvement from Ramadan, when the power was off for about 12 hours a day. In our area, the blackout period seems to be around lunch time. We have a generator so it's not a big deal, but many people don't.
Our new driver, A, is good. Drives safely and actually comes to work early. With our old driver, if the drive was more than 20 minutes, I'd be queasy (and thus cranky) by the time we got to our destination. With A, I don't have to worry and actually enjoy watching the hustle and bustle of the streets.
Otherwise, the two guards, the 'joker' (fill-in guard) and the cleaning lady get along - mostly. Sometimes arguments flare up about who didn't order the water etc. but I try not to get too involved. There are few secrets in this "household" (it does feel like we have 4-5 more people in this family), e.g. everyone knows how much everyone else got for their Eid bonus...and who didn't get one.
S has been invited to lunch by his Yemeni barber. They'll meet at the mosque today after Friday prayers, and presumably go to the barber's house. I've never met the barber before but his shop is just down the street from our house. He charges hubby 500 riyals ($2.50) per cut - not very expensive but I think the locals only pay a few hundred. From my past year here, I've realised we tend to pay the 'tourist' rate - no matter how good Malaysian-Yemeni relations are and even though we're 'local'. After some bargaining, you might get the 'Yemeni' rate plus a small mark-up. After checking with my Arabic teacher or other locals, I've found that the mark-up is not much - usually a few dollars - so I don't push it once the guy stops budging. Helping the local economy and all that.
There might be some more weddings in the next six months. One friend is getting married in November and has promised to invite us; it will be S' first wedding. And A is having his wedding in April 2010. According to local tradition, men are not allowed to even look at his fiancee's face, who is usually chosen by his mother. But according to Islam, it is allowed to see the woman's face and hands. Because A's fiancee is his cousin, he's seen her before, during visits to his grandfather's house, and is allowed to hang out with her (within limits of course).
S and I are still a little jet-lagged from the holiday, but this gives me the opportunity to keep waking up early and do some exercise/errands before I start work in the mornings. We'll see if things start to slip - I've never been a morning person.
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