Yemen and Stuffffff

I realized after I posted my last blog that I didn't actually let anyone know that I am officially back in Salt Lake. I got back on the 20th at about 11:30 pm. From the time my plane took off in Sana'a to the time I landed in Salt Lake it was a total of 32.5 hours of travel. On top of that, my flight left Sana'a at 12:01 am on the 20th, so that means I didn't get any sleep. I woke up on Friday at 10 am and didn't get to bed again until Saturday/Sunday at 2 am. I calculated that out to being 48 hours. Needless to say, I did not make it to my 9 am church Sunday morning. In fact, I slept until noon on Sunday. I completely needed it. So here's the last of my Yemen Trip Pictures.

These first ones are from Dar Al Hajar. Imam Yahya built this palace as a summer residence in the 1930s. Now it's just used for visitors/tourists but it still stands as the image of what Yemen looks like.




Here's a few pictures of the magnificent views from up on top of the 'summer home'.




A lady came to the center one night and I got henna on my feet. It was pretty cool. And it actually stays for a really long time on me. She was able to do it so quickly too. Both feet were done in about 20 minutes. Here's a couple pictures of what it looked like.



And here's a few pictures of Old Sana'a. Old Sana'a is my absolute favorite part of Sana'a. It's just so amazing and it's about as close to time travel as anyone can get.

Just your average, everyday brass store.
This is a Camel-Mill. The camel is blind folded and walking around in circles grinding sesame seeds into oil.
Just some neighborhood kids.

66-342

Things have been a bit crazy and I haven't been able to update until now. Right after I posted the last entry the internet in Yemen went down. There was no wireless for almost a week. Then when it did come back, it took far too long to upload pictures, so I just didn't update. Sorry. Sometimes it would take me an hour to just upload all the pictures. It was just getting far too time consuming.

Anyway, I think I mentioned in a previous blog that my bedroom is on the 5th floor of a building without an elevator. I walk up 66 steps every time I need to go to my room. I usually make 3-5 trips up the stairs a day. At school my first class is on the third floor and the second class is on the fourth floor. There are 32 steps to the third floor, 48 to the fourth. One day I calculated that I climbed 342 steps. I imagine that's about average.

This is what walking up the stairs to my room looks like.





Life was extremely exciting.

Another Weekend Trip

So it's been a while since I've updated. oops, sorry. It's just that here in Yemen the internet connection is quite slow and it takes a good hour to load all the pictures and everything. blah blah, excuses excuses. Things haven't been too busy here, just the usual busy. Last weekend I went on another day trip. The landscape here just keeps getting prettier and prettier.

The first place we stopped was in Wadi Dhahar. We really didn't do much there other then just go to this overlook spot and see the town/landscape. Here are some pictures from Wadi Dhahar:



After Wadi Dhahar, we went to Thula. Thula is about 55km northwest of Sana'a and is considered one of the major theological centers of the country. There is a solid stone wall surrounding the city and was considered the least conquerable in all Yemen. During the Turkish occupation in the 16th century this city remained unconquered. There is only one door or entrance to this city and up until VERY recently the Imam would close and locked it every night at 8pm. This used to also be a Jewish village.

I like these first two pictures because you can see exactly how the wall of the city looked.


This is just a cool picture of the city and of two women carrying jugs of water on their head. They still have to go to the community "watering hole" (I don't remember the actual word for it) everyday to get the water they need.



Then we went for lunch in Shebam. Sitting on the floor eating from low tables (if you even have a table) is how they do it here in Yemen. They place bowls/plates of food on the table/floor and everyone tears off a piece of bread and eats from the main dish. I can only imagine how many American health code violations they're breaking.


After lunch we went to the village of Kowkaban, walked around and took some more pictures from the spectacular view. The only door to this city is still closed and locked every night.