Katmandu living

Life seems to go in circles – When we started this blog more than 2 and half year ago it was to report about our move to Yemen – and now having been here for two and half year we are getting ready to move on. Lieke has accepted a job for Unicef in Nepal and we will leave Yemen in a couple of weeks time.

So this is also why there has not been many updates lately on our blog – We are slowly getting organized  - we have sold the car (always the biggest worry when you have to move) and most of the other stuff that we do no longer need – the only thing left is the television and I have been trying to convince Lieke that we should just bring it and have two televisions, but she is still a puritan and is not going for it. We have still not settled on a moving company but the choice is not tremendous – there are only a small handful of options in Sana’a and most of them are doing a terrible job.

We have gotten our tickets and will be leaving on the 16^th of October. We are flying on business class (as it is more than 9 hours flight to Nepal and the difference in  price is so little that we will not make much should we have opted for economy) and I am looking very much forward to that – Qatar Airlines, that we are flying with has been voted one of only four 5 star airlines in world and the service should be absolutely amazing (at Doha airport the first class passengers are being picked up by BMW 700 series at the plane for the short drive to the dedicated business and first class terminal).

Anyway we are of course still here and trying to get the most out of our last days in Yemen – that is, it is the last days for Lieke and kids – I will return to Yemen at the end of November for a consultancy job and will probably also have at least a couple of missions next year so I have plenty of possibilities to enjoy the city in the time to come. Right now it is Ramadan going on Eid so Lieke has had a couple of days off (being that I work in a Ministry we of course have the whole week off). The other day Lieke and I took the opportunity to go to the old city, and though it was a typical morning during Ramadan and therefore with hardly any people on the streets, it was nice to enjoy the life of the old city. With our move from Sana’a to Kathmandu we are of course leaving one UNESCO world heritage site to go to another, so we will not be deprived of this kind of thing in the future.

With less than one week to go we are getting ready to take of for our yearly summer holiday to Europe. We will arrive in Amsterdam next Tuesday and are therefore also in full preparation mode. As a part of the preparation this year I have had to get a Yemeni driving license. Until now I have been able to use my Mexican license (to be fair, I have not used it much, as Lieke has done most of the driving whenever we have been to Europe, as I am still suffering under having learned to drive in a country where automatic transmission is the norm) but as my Mexican international driving license was running out, I had to get a Yemeni International driving license. This meant that I would first had to get a Yemeni normal driving license. It was with some reluctance that I started this whole venture. Just after buying our car we had to get the plates changed from normal Yemeni plates to diplomatic plates – to do this I had to spent two days at the Interior Ministry’s Police headquarter going to what seemed to be random offices getting signatures and rubber stamps. At the end of the whole thing I had a form with what must have been at least 15 stamps, signatures and comments (the Yemeni bureaucracy loves to put comments on paper), so the whole thought of having to return to this place didn’t appeal to me. However, I was very pleasantly surprised to find out how efficient the Yemeni driving license system has become. That is – the system is still distinctly Yemeni as I started the whole process by paying bacsish to avoid having to take a driving test as this had to be done with a car with stick shift – 1500 Riyal later I had passed the test! However, the place where the licenses were issued seemed to belong in another country. Besides the fact that sign for Highway on the poster of traffic signs was turned sideways (probably stemming from the fact that they do not have any highways in Yemen and therefore never use the sign) it looked more like an office in Europe (not Northern Europe though, as they did not have any design furniture). To get a license you had to go though a number of tests, including a test of your sight, and everything were automatic. In the end you were issued a small credit card size driving license. So all in all I was deeply impressed with the efficiency of the whole thing. However, it also makes me wonder – if they have such an efficient system why is it that I see 10 and 11 year old boys driving around in the father’s big Toyota Land Cruisers every Friday. Like most things in this county the law is good and so is the execution of the system, but the consequent implementation on the ground is non-existent. Getting the International license was absolutely no problem. For some strange reason the International licenses in Yemen is issued by one of the big travel agents! I guess they won the concession for this. Anyway, you should look out from next Tuesday onwards, as this whole exercise has give me the right to drive freely around Europe.

My sister and her family is down here right now and I will try to post some pictures of their visit shortly. In the meantime I am posting a story that I found in a newspaper the other day. It seems like Camel urine is in demand here in Yemen these days:

Camel urine, considered an ancient Islamic 'remedy' from the time of the Prophet Mohammed, has become big business for men and women in Yemen.

The urine has become fashionable recently among Yemen's young people, who claim that it strengthens the scalp, slows hair loss and promotes healthy hair.

According to the Arab TV network al-Arabiya, hair salons throughout the country are requesting this precious 'tonic' and selling it at four dollars a litre - a high price considering the income level of most of the buyers.

"I have been using camel urine since I have been going to elementary school," said Amal, a university student in Sanaa.

"The first time a neighbour told me that she had been using it (urine) for many years, because it made her hair more beautiful and shiny. Now everyone in my home uses it."

The use of the urine is not just limited to women. Men have reportedly also been using it to prevent or stop hair loss.

"Many young men use the camel's urine. I am forced to buy large quantities for my business," said Hasan, a barber.

A boom in the sale of camel urine has prompted people to begin breeding more camels, and they are constantly being given liquids in order to collect more urine.

Nomadic camel breeders have benefited the most from the sale of urine. The breeders are usually in the most remote areas of the country such as Hudeida and Mukallah provinces.

Some people also claim that camel urine is good for the liver, a claim discredited by the University of Sanaa that said it was harmful for the digestive system.

The use of camel urine could have its roots in Islamic religion. In the Prophet Mohammed's "sunna" (or tradition), it talks about the benefits of camel milk and urine.

In a "hadith" (or narrative), foreigners are said to have gone to the holy city of Medina with high fever and the Prophet Mohammed ordered them to leave the city and drink urine and milk from a camel to help them recover.

Lieke had her birthday on the 12 June and this year it was extra special as her parents were here in Yemen. She of course got celebrated with the mandatory cake at the breakfast and in th evening we went to a very good Yemeni Restaurant, courtesy of Lieke's parents. So all in all we had a very nice day.

Opa and Oma is currently visiting Yemen. They are of course mainly here to see the kids so our activity level has been pretty low. We have however managed to go to Thulla and Opa and Oma has been the old city. In the weekend we had a photo session where to took some pictures of the whole family with the kids dressed in the kimonos that they have received from Tante Maki.

Today while I was surfing a bit around Sana'a in Google Earth I stumbled upon some pictures of Sana'a from 1932. Living here, it is of course fascinating to see Sana'a from a time where nothing was build outside the town walls - What is even more fascinating is that the street scene from inside the town walls could have been shot yesterday. Here nothing much has changed except for the occasional LandCruiser.

Our living room
Our hallway - Liva and joops room is behind the door in the far end
corridor going to our dinning room and kitchen

Though you might not be able to see it in Yemen, because of the lack of greenery, spring is now arriving. It is still cold in the mornings but is very pleasant during the day. This weekend Lieke had arranged a picnic for the Unicef Staff in one of the Wadis just outside the city. It was really beautiful with all the almond and apricot trees in bloom. What was more surprising was that there was a small forest at the end of the wadi to which the most energetic claimed.

Wednesday there was a party for the parents at the school where we could see how far the kids have gotten with Arabic. As it was after all a party, Liva and Joop insisted on getting dressed up in their party clothes and they sang a song in Arabic and there was a puppet show. All in all it was a nice afternoon.