My mother pasted away on 15 August after a long and ultimately loosing fight with cancer. When we first made this blog it was to keep her and Oma and Opa informed with our actions abroad and keep them posted with pictures etc. That others took and interest was only an added advantage. My mother managed to visit us in all the places that we lived and would have loved to also visit us in Yemen had she not become sick. We will miss her dearly.
A couple of posts ago I wrote about our accident. I finally got around to taking a picture. You can see the massive dent on the right side.
What is especially nice in the new house is that it is very light and airy. In the middle of the house there is a “swimming pool” without water, which we will have to use some time on child securing, but as there are windows out the this pool from three out of four sides there is a lot of light coming in. Here is a picture from the corridor with the windows to the pool on the right. It is the furniture of the one of Lieke’s collegues that you can see, though it would be nice if she would leave them! We still have a guest room so you do not have an excuse for not coming down to see us.
After much discussion, and many nights counting the pros and cons, we have now decided to move to another house. Though we love the house we live in right now, and it is probably a once in a lifetime experience, the kids have not been very happy with all the stairs and it has also been a bit hard on us with all the running up and down. To get from where I am sitting writing this and down to the kitchen it is descent of 15 meters or so, so it is an outing every time you want to go down to get a cup of coffee. We have also found out that though we have a very nice rooftop we do not use it enough and would like a garden where the kids can run around instead. So the last month of so we have been looking at the houses that the people who are leaving over the summer are moving out off, and we have now finally found our dream house. It has a big garden, though 2/3 is right now dessert and all rooms in the house is on one level which will be good for the kids. It is very close to the supermarket where we do most of our shopping and is not too far from Lieke’s office or the school of the kids. The only disadvantage about the house is that we will have to move before we take off for Europe on the 6 July. So, the next few weeks will be all about packing and getting ready for the move. Below you see a picture of the house and some of the garden. If you want to see a bit more detailed picture, just double click on the picture.
Over the last few days the rain has returned to Sana’a . Though never very serious it creates the most amazing skies. Below is the view from our top floor from yesterday night.
The thing with this kind of blog is that you will have to keep it for people to come back once in a while to check it out. We have now had a small break but here is the latest news. The big news here in Yemen is that both the kids are now finally off the bottle. Liva, being the oldest has now for a while been without milk doing the night and has also now started to be without a diaper all the time (including nights) whereas Joop seemed to have stepped up her milk consumption during the nights. So five days ago we took the big jump and stopped all together with the milk. The transition has been much easier than we had feared though Joop still is waking up. She has however stopped asking for milk so that is great.
Over the weekend we had a couple of parties. On Thursday there was a housewarming for a Dutch-Yemeni couple and Friday we went on a picnic with the whole Dutch community. It was the first time that we took the car off-road and it was a bit stressful – especially going up and down a 40 degree hill with a lot of loose rubble on, but the car did absolutely fine. After this trip it has been a bit easier to get Lieke to understand why we needed a four-wheel drive.
Talking about the car, we have now gotten the first dent in it after a car drove up into the back of our car while we were at a traffic light. So we have now gotten to know the insurance business in Yemen, but it seems to be working fine, though it somewhat time consuming as we have to take the car to two different workshop to get quotes for the repair. It however hurts a bit to already have a dent now with only 1900 kilometer on the odometer, but with the traffic here in Yemen it was bound to happen sometime or another.
Besides that there’s nothing to report from here. We are getting ready to go to Europe for the summer. We will be there from the 6th of July as Lieke has to attend a course in Maastricht and will stay until after my mother turns 70 on the 6th of August, so it will be a nice and long summer holiday. Anyway, below is a picture of the girls showing off their new “pom-poms” that they got from Betty, our young girl, today.
After a week when Lieke was first in Aden (a costal town south of Sana’a) and after that in Dubai to attend a workshop on Girls education and communication we are now finally all at home. Lieke managed some serious shopping while in Dubai. Though we can get most things here in Yemen there are some things that are a bit more difficult, so Lieke took this opportunity to do some shopping. Dubai is of course like any other big city in the developed world so they of course also had an Ikea. Lieke therefore brought home 40 new plates, of 4 different types, so we now can have at least ten visitors over (or at least eight if we want the same plates as the rest). She also brought quite a lot of clothes for herself, me and the kids. Below is a picture of the girls showing off their new t-shirts.
As I never appear on this blog I would also like to publish a picture of Liva and her dad at the kids’ konninginnedag. As you can see I have dressed up in orange to show my respect for the Dutch Queen.
Last weekend it was konninginnedag (or for the non-Dutch speakers Queen’s day). Being abroad this day is of course celebrated more than it would be if we were in Europe. Coming to think about it, the only times I have been celebrating the Queen’s birthday has been when I have been attending functions at the Embassy while I was abroad. Anyway, the celebration consisted of 3 different components. First there was the reception attended by 700 people. I missed this part as I had to be at home to look after the kids. After that there was a party, or as they say in Dutch Oranjebal, for the Dutch community in Yemen. They had really gone through quite an effort to make it nice, including flying down a band from Holland, Frank and Friends. Anyway this was followed the day after with the konninginnedag for the kids. Below you see a picture from the konninginnedag for the kids, that was held in the garden of one of the employees of the Embassy.
Lieke is off to Aden today and to Dubai tomorrow and the next four days. She will be attending a workshop on communication and girl's education and we will of course miss her. However, to show her that we can survive here is a picture from the girls getting breakfast this morning. As you can see they look rather happy.
A woman fetching water in her colorful "Sitarah" veil - to learn more see post below
The thing I have found most difficult moving to a Muslim country has been that I have lost contact with half of the society. That I am talking about is of course the women, whom I am not allowed to talk to and whom I can never see. That is most striking when we first arrived to Yemen was the veiling of women. In Yemen there are two different kinds of veils. The original veil is the colorful "Sitarah". It is still worn by the more traditional women in the old city or by those who need a quick cover up. The "Sitarah", with its bright red and blue patterns, resembles a block printed Indian tablecloth, and the women are totally covered looking out through the material. The more common dress is the black "Abaya", also worn by women in other Arab countries, and the "Sharshaf", the traditional Yemeni women's outer garment, also black. The "Sharshaf" was brought to Yemen by the Ottoman Turks who occupied Yemen in the 16th century and again in the 19th century. Living in the older part of Sana’a we of course see both types of veils whereas the Abaya is predominating other parts of the city. As the Abaya is black it can constitute quite a danger in traffic. When driving around at night I have more than once almost run over women walking in the street in their black dresses. The other issue that isolates me in the Yemeni Society is that I cannot talk to women. Lieke of course do not have all these problems. She can attend special women parties where she sees Yemeni women without veil (judging by the dresses you can buy here in Sana’a they can be rather stunning dressed) and she can talk to women. Whenever we go the supermarket, Joop always make quite a commotion because of her blond hair and her blue eyes, and women always comes over to touch her hair or to give her a kiss. Lieke very often gets a chance to talk to them but the very quickly disappear if I come over. So I am left with one half of the society being totally alien to me. I guess that I just will have to do with my 3 girls at home. Below you see a women in a Abaya with her son.
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.
In our house as in most houses in Yemen we have a half circle of colored glass over the windows. While Lieke’s family was here Lieke’s sister Margje took pictures of most of these windows in our house. It was quite an undertaking as there are more than 30 in our house. Below you will find a couple of the pictures - the first on from Wadi Dhar and the second one from our house. As you can see the one from our house is just as nice as the one from Wadi Dhar. Anyway looking at all the pictures that Margje had taken got me to wonder about the purpose of these windows. As everything else, this information is of course available on the net. Below is a quote from Yemen Times:
Above the windows, a half-spherical shape of marble and glass is built. This shape is known as Al-Kamariah from the Arabic word Kamar or the moon. The function of this shape is derived from its name, i.e. to let the light of the moon come inside the rooms during the nights where there is a full moon. The pure transparency and variety of colors of Al-Kamariah glass creates a magical atmosphere during moony nights.
Our life has now returned to normal. Today we enjoyed a quiet lunch at the Mövenpick Hotel, where the kids had a chance to get their faces painted. As I know that the grandparents of the family would prefer that most pictures on this blog were of the kids I have now given in to popular demand.
The landscape of Yemen is so magnificent that it can be difficult to capture in a picture. I have however tried here with a picture of the view to Kawkabam. If you want to study it a bit closer you can of course dobble click on it as you can with all other the pictures
Lieke’s family stayed in Yemen for over two weeks and it gave us a great chance to get to see a bit more of the country. With all the hassle of getting settled here in Yemen we haven’t had a chance to get out of the city at all (and I must also say that I am of course a bit nervous about taking our new car out on the open and disorganized roads of Yemen) so it was nice to get a bit out. We rented three Land Cruisers with drivers from Universal Travel so I didn’t have to worry about the car. I now also know the way to Tulla etc. for when the next visitors arrive. Anyway, we made two day trips out of the city. This Picture is from the second Daytrip where we visited the mountainous region of Kawkabam. This picture is from a small village next to Kawkabam called Hajjara.
While Lieke’s family was here we had a chance to take quite a few walks in the Old City. This picture is the view from the top of the Old Sana’a Palace Hotel; a hotel that does not quite live up to it’s grand name but that has a beautiful view from the roof top
After a long, stressful and busy period of getting settled here in Yemen we have now gotten our act together and have gotten an internet connection. I will therefore revive our blog so I can share a few of the picture that we have taken the last few days where we have had Lieke’s whole family down here. The first picture is a shot of the view from our TV room on the 4th floor.