And The Winner Is...

Well, the election's over and the president's still the president. By the end of this term he will have been in power for 35 years; let's hear it for democracy.
On a side note, only 70 people died as a direct result of this election. Sixty of those were accidental stampede-deaths following various campaign speeches, which leaves only ten or so who were deliberately killed at the polls because of who they were voting for. You must understand that this is extremely low for Yemen, and represents major steps forward in security and fair-mindedness.



Ali Abdullah Saleh,
president of the
Republic of Yemen.

Big Pink Surprise

Or, Things You Never Expected to See in Yemen.

Yesterday we (the staff) ambled down to the nearby village of Rokub for a fun day at the beach. We couldn't help but notice the flamingos. Who knew? They were really timid so I was happy to have snagged these shots before - and during - their exit act. They circled four or five times before heading out - an elegant and awesome show.




















































The water they were wading in is normally your run-of-the-mill lagoon, about two hundred feet from shore. Sort of a brackish, stagnant thing really; on this day it was a stunningly deep degree of fuschia. No, honestly, here it is. That's the water. I'm not making this up.



















When the flamingos went away we carried on with our afternoon - sand dune races and one-legged wrestling matches, etc.






































Later that evening it was into Mukalla for a visit to the largest grocery store around. Here you can find such delicacies as PooPoo and unwrapped chicken. Mmmmmm...
















We bought the PooPoo, which tastes fine, but left the chicken for some other (and presumably more desparate) bargain hunter.

Slow Day at the Office

Here we are on the eve of Yemen's first ever bonafide democratic election. The place is, understandably, in a bit of a stir. We understood that attendance would be low today. The other teachers have reduced classes as expected. But my students... they just didn't show up at all. So the director and I (that's him in the corner), we... well, you can see for yourself.
Anyway... the president's been in power for thirty years, and nobody expects that to change tomorrow. Having an election is still kind of cool though - especially for a place that has "Democratic Republic" in its name - and the people here are excited. Good for you, Yemen, good for you.

Conflict in the Middle East

Came across this little battle in progress on the ceiling at a friend's house. In the humble opinion of all of us here at Yemeni Cricket, there are way too many cockroaches creeping about, while not quite enough geckos; so I was happy to see this underway (the gecko won, and feasted merrily because of it).

Fun With Flash Floods

We don't get any rain in Mukalla, but we sure do get the effects of it. Now and then it rains really hard up in the mountains and wadis, but the ground is so parched that it absorbs absolutely nothing; the whole lot of it comes tumbling down through the hills toward the sea. On its way it gives a thorough scrubbing to many parts of our town; so it was that we happened on this scene while travelling between the airport and our apartment.


































This is the main highway along the coast, and when the rains are particularly heavy (even though they only last for twenty minutes), the floods can easily wash away large vehicles, so we were fortunate to have met with a relatively small one.
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The Luggage-less Life

Ode to Air Canada

At the check-in counter in Moncton, NB

We trusted the airline implicitly.

Luggage was tagged and gave to the clerk,

As she nodded quite sweetly and said with a smirk

“You’ll see them in London”

(These slick words came tumbling

Over the noise of the engine’s loud rumbling).

But Heathrow was void of our stuff the next morning

So sadder but wiser, we post a stern warning

“Don’t trust them, they’ll trick you, Air Canada will

Words have no weight with this company still.”

So we filled out the forms and processed them too,

And we wait here in Yemen with possessions so few.

So cry with the Cricket and don’t fly on Jazz

or next time your bags they’ll lose with pizzazz.

~R.C.

And, carrying on with the summer (we'll get back to posting about Yemen soon:), here are some shots from a sailing trip I took with my father aboard his 22-ft ketch Wings of the Morning. She's a beautiful boat and always a pleasure to sail; it was good to be on the water again.



























































































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Before We Continue...

Here are those other shots of the British Isles we mentioned last post. It was a good time:) The first two are from Charlbury, the third is Oxford and the rest are random scenes we passed while hiking (mostly Ireland). Enjoy.

























































































































































The stone churches and round tower are from Glendalough - one of Europe's earliest monastic cities, and a fascinating afternoon's diversion for two weary hikers in the mountains of Ireland.

The tent in the fifth picture is ours; all of our campsites were every bit as spectacular as that, and we didn't pay a dime for a single one of them, which is why we love wilderness camping:)

London, Oxford, etc.

We landed, we budgeted, we conquered. London was our first stop. We strolled around the city, seeing the sights - parliament buildings, Tower Bridge, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, etc.- and were awed by the architecture and history.
It's amazing to be in a place where a 300 year old building is considered fairly new. After our inner tourist was satisfied we went on to Charlbury where Sean lived while studying at Oxford.

It was everything a quaint village should be; except hiker friendly. Signs warning against camping were on every patch of grass and so we camped illegally (and sometimes took refuge in trees) until a lovely couple who has a connection to one of Sean's friends took us in and spoiled us ridiculously. We got to attend a game of Aunt Sally, which is a game only played in Oxforshire. It's a bit like horseshoes and our host plays on one of the teams. (Good luck in the finals Alan!) Charlbury was one of J.R.R Tolkien's favorite places. He used to stay at the Bell Hotel and supposedly the river running through the town was the inspiration for the Brandywine river in the Lord of the Rings series. We took day trips into Oxford and I finally got to see Sean's old stomping grounds. After seeing Christ Church College, the Radcliffe Camera and many of the other colleges we ate at The Bear, a pub that has been running since 1242!











In between these adventures we hiked around Charlbury seeing rolling green meadows, quaint english forests and lots of farmland.






On one fine day we found ourselves in Finstock where we stumbled upon the church that baptized poet, playwright and critic T.S. Elliot.





After a couple of extremely relaxing weeks (more pictures to follow) we had to say goodbye to Jolly Old England and we started making our way to the coast to catch a ferry to the Emerald Isle.





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