My departure from Aden involved fighting yet again with Yemenia airways...I really do hate them. However, this time I had my Yemeni friend Aziza who has friends at the airport along with my Sudanese friend Magdy. Magdy is amazing in that he is probably the most generous person I have met in my life. After the woman bitched about how I was way over my weight limit, Magdy took one of my bags saying he would bring it to me in Sana'a next week.
My flight from Aden to Sana'a should have been 45 minutes. However, I had the grand opportunity to fly from Aden to Mukalla, Mukalla Sana'a, thereby making the flight 2 hours travel time. It was a strange flight...they were transporting all these patients from hospitals in Sana'a, so a lot of the seats were folded down to allow the patients to lie in them...a makeshift hospital. I really can't describe it, but it was odd.
After realizing I was surrounded by invalids, I chose to change my seat and found myself next to a student of mine from MALI Aden. He insisited that his family escort me to my new home in Sana'a...considering my boss was not able to send me anyone to greet me at the airport, I accepted.
The student, named Ala'a, and his family then began to give me juice and food...anything they had on them. When we landed, Ala'a told me to sit while he collected my bags, not allowing me to help in any way. The mother discovered I had not eaten lunch and became very upset, telling me that it was necessary to feed me. We met Ala'a's uncle, a man named Waleed wearing the traditional Yemeni white dress and sporting an impressive dagger, complete with a red head scarf. Waleed runs a tourist agency here in Sana'a, and I must say he is gorgeous.
They took me to their car, told me I had to sit in the passenger seat so I would be comforatable, and then they proceeded to load my luggage into the car. I laughed when I got into the car, because there was a huge stack of qat leaves wrapped and waiting to be chewed...actually Waleed had already begun to chew. This was a preview of what my night would be like.
After taking me to my new home and carrying all my things, Waleed and and Ala'a took me for dinner and then bought my favorite kind of sheesha and we went to a place chosen by Waleed to sit and chew qat and smoke sheesha.
Waleed had his laptop with him and he proceeded to show me loads of photos from all over Yemen and then his machine gun collection. I complimented him on his choice for a screen saver which is a semi-automatic rifle. I am living in the north now where it's more of a 'Wild West' kind of feeling. Everyone is tribal and packing heat.
We sat for hours, smoking, chewing, talking and then we watched Pirates of the Carribean. Somehow watching Johnny Depp playing a pirate while sitting in a tent full of men with daggers smoking sheesha and chewing qat seemed quite surreal, yet completely ordinary at the same time.
Oh and most importantly...the weather is amazing. This is the first time in four months I have not been hot. I think I will like it here.
