A Life Far Removed from Durian Trees

Saudi forces 'fighting in Yemen' - Al Jazeera

Before I get into it, some updates: 1. Weather is now 11C - nice! Not looking forward to Dec/Jan when it's colder inside the house than outside! 2. Arabic teacher giving birth in 2 weeks and she will be off for a month or two. (Looking forward to the break because I am way behind in revision!) 3. Tomato prices have gone up 200% 4. I now have a bullet-proof bathroom. (Friends who are planning to visit - don't worry, it's been planned for a while - just a precaution) 5. I'm allergic to something here - my eyelids are itchy Ok, the hospital. There are a lot of hospitals in Sanaa but they look more like clinics. Some are funded by the Saudis, some are private, there's an Iranian one that's been shut down by the government for political reasons. So my maid was screaming in pain. We pull up at a hospital and someone comes by with a wheelchair. I think I was expected to push her to A&E but the porter took one look at me and didn't think I was up to it (and I di...

I've had so much DRAMA this week. My maid/cleaner and one of the guards were fighting. Guard called the security supervisor and then there was some counselling. Some workmen came to the house and some small items were stolen. They did a bad job and have to come again on Monday to fix things. Promised to reimburse me for the stolen shaving stick and deodorant (they insisted!), but didn't seem surprised or try to deny that one of them had done it. The maid and guard accused each other of stealing, to get the other in trouble. Big bust-up in front of the house. Doorbell rings and security supervisor is back again. Told me I had to decide which one to get rid of - cheeky since he's not paying my maid's salary. I said guard should go (not that he would lose his job, just assigned to a different house). Supervisor says ok but guard hangs around until S comes home and begs to be reinstated. S says ok but no more fighting. More workmen come round to fix the wiring. Then ...

Last weekend we went to an art show held by the International Womens Association (IWA). It was hosted by an English lady who lives a typical HUGE Yemeni house. Let's put it this way, it was big enough to be used as an art gallery! They showcased (and were selling) paintings by about 10 Yemeni artists, with some of the proceeds going to charity. The nice thing was the artists were there to explain what the pieces were about. I bought a Shawki Mohd Abdul original called "The Golden City". I felt sorry for the guy, nobody had bought any of his stuff yet. I did like the painting...and compared to the other pieces, it was a "bargain" at $50. What the heck, it was for charity. I did like one particular piece that was on glass, but we've had glass items broken before during moves. S was hung up on this one abstract piece of a woman's face (only after we were told what to look for did we see it) but he thought it was too expensive at $150. To me the price of art...

The world of the Arabs

A couple of days ago, our driver showed us a video clip of a lion killing a man. In a cage. Somewhere in Iraq. I didn't see the beginning but did see the part where the lion was sitting calmly with his mouth around the man's neck. The whole thing was being filmed on someone's phone I think, someone who was standing outside the cage waiting for help to come. Help finally did come - a guard came with a gun or electric stun gun and shot the lion. Two loud shots. Lion collapses (stunned? dead?) and two people rush in to retrieve the man. But they were too late. Apparently he was the lion's trainer and had been in the cage alone with the animal. Pretty shocking. I couldn't eat my dinner.

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 th...