This is Silas

He's a baby desert tortoise who we adopted two weeks ago. He's a pretty fun little guy, if you can catch him when he's awake, and he's had quite an adventurous life for such a little reptile.

The last time we were in Sana'a one of our travelling companions found him inside the wall of our guest house. She decided he would make a great pet for a little boy we know here in Mukalla. So she put him in her pocket and hopped on the plane. This is probably the only Yemeni tortoise to have reached 30,000 feet, and he took it quite well.

Unfortunately hyperactive little boys and mild-mannered little tortoises do not mix. If you know of a little boy who desperately wants a tortoise, get him a dog instead. After a few days this boy's father, concerned for the health of monsieur Silas, asked if we would come steal him in the night (the tortoise, not the boy), and we did.

Now I know what you're all thinking - we're leaving in one week and he's too little to open the fridge. No worries kids - the girls downstairs (the other half of our teaching staff) have asked to adopt him once we're gone.

He also waxes philosophic now and again. Here he is contemplating mortality and extended families when confronted with that sea turtle skull we found at Sharma.
And that's it. He is in possession of a remarkably voracious appetite and eats a mountain of lettuce three times his size everyday, in between sunbathing on the balcony and sleeping in the shade. Quite a life.