When walking around in Yemen you can help to notice two things. The first being the obscene amount of Qat that is consumed every day (I will leave this for a later post) and secondly, the traditional costume that most Yemeni men wear, including the traditional knife (the Jambia) they have around their waists. Then ever you go to the airport you will see a long row of men standing in front of a police office to check-in their Jambias before entering. I always wonder what you do if you have to travel. Do you pack you Jambia into yout checked in luggage or do you just leave it in the airport until you return? The Jambia is very important symbol of status for Yemeni men. Most Jambias cost between 10,000 and 50,000 Riyals which is between 50 and 250 US$. However depending on the materials of the handle they can cost much more. The most expensive jambia ever, belonged to Imam Ahmed Yahia Hameed Al Deen before Sheikh Naji Bin Abdul Al Aziz Al Shaif, the sheikh of all sheikhs of the Bakeel tribes, who forked out a million dollars to buy it for himself.
Anyway, below is a picture of our drivers on our day trip. I never managed to ask Abdulla how much he had paid for his Jambia.
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23/4/06 17:46
Hallo, dear family.
To our pleasure we have seen that you already have continued your blog after all that busy times. You are right that we enjoy the picture of the kids most, although
the other pictures are as nice as well. We take this opportunity to thank you both four the three weeks we spend in your lovely house where we enjoyed your hospitality gratefully. In spite of Joke's many unlucky coincidential complaints she does not regret that she came to Yemen to meet the whole family! It was quite a decision but she has a lot of courage! A lot of hugs and kisses.
Oma & Opa
And many thanks for the DVD which we saw already three times after arriving in Vlijmen.