Yemeni Cricket

Shifting Gears

2007-02-22T13:55:00.000-04:00

Yemeni Cricket has gone home. We're back in the Great White North and have already experienced frostbite - now that's Canadian. We'd love to bring you with us so check out our new blog, Cricket on the Hearth.

2007-02-14T16:58:00.000-04:00

We fly out in a matter of hours. See you all at home:)

Parting Gift

2007-02-13T01:21:00.000-04:00

Well last night we attended a lovely farewell dinner in our honour at a nice little outdoor restaurant in town. We sat under the trees with our friends, drinking tea and eating lots of very good food. And then they gave us this card... it's a copy of a piece of artwork done by a friend of a friend. When I first saw it I thought it was a photograph in sepia, but it's not. It's a pencil drawing. Pencil. That's all she used.
And we love it.

Twilight

2007-02-09T08:55:00.000-04:00

This is Silas

2007-02-08T00:41:00.000-04:00

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.

From a Distance

2007-01-27T14:40:00.000-04:00

It appears that we've shown you pictures of every city we've been to in Yemen except the one we live in. This is Mukalla, our beautiful coastal town. It's quite small and very compact. Arranged in a row along the top of the ridge you can see four white gaurd houses - testament to a violent past. That's a Somaliam fishing boat moored on the right.

As the mountains and the sea leave very little room for expansion, overcrowding is really the best and only option available - 'downtown' is a labyrinth of tiny streets and alleyways, crammed full of shops and street vendors. In the mornings and evenings it's insanely busy and cacaphonous, but between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. you could swear it's a ghost town, recently abandoned by every single living thing. Like most towns in Yemen, the place just shuts down for the afternoon; 1 o'clock rolls around and you can hear shop doors slam shut all over the city, all at once (they slam shop doors with startling conviction around here, just so you really know). Immediately Mukalla goes from the busyness and chaos of a three-ring circus to the busyness and chaos of a crypt. Like magic, everyone disappears and the town sleeps with a grave-like silence that says "We're not going to work and there's nothing you can do about it." (Hint: do not try to do business in Yemen in the middle of the afternoon.)

...Peaceful spot, really.

Anyway, here's another angle - what you can't see in the picture above is that the far right portion - and oldest part - of the city is actually a small peninsula, and from the east it looks like this:

This is a dhow - the traditional Arabian boat. There are quite a few of them in the harbour, and they're just beautiful (especially when they happen to glide past you at sunset). Tragically, most of them are moored next to the naval base, where I'm not allowed to take pictures:(

Mukalla Harbour at sundown. With the exception of the second one, these pictures were taken from a small fishing boat on which we spent the evening last Thursday - good times.

And that's it folks - this is where we've been holed up for the last year. We've enjoyed it a great deal and we'll miss it when we're gone, but we're also very excited to see you all at home!

Alternative Transportation

2007-01-22T14:31:00.000-04:00

Last weekend five of our closest foreigner friends accompanied us on our fourth overnighter at the turtle colony. And here we are.

This turtle had just finished digging her nest and laying close to a hundred eggs (covering herself with sand in the process) when she took a moment to rest and hang out with my lovely wife.

Strangely, we found no babies at all this time. But I do have a story to tell you:)

Around 11:00 p.m. I was following a new mother turtle back to the sea. Then I followed her into the sea. When there was enough depth to give lift to her 500-pound body, I climbed onto her back and took a ride. I was having the time of my life, but I’m not sure she even noticed. When I got on she didn’t sink an inch - just kept on swimming.

She stuck close to the surface for the first little bit, which allowed me to catch a few breaths in between being slapped in the face by rather large waves. When the water got a little deeper, down she went with me in tow. I was holding on to the front of her shell just behind her neck, and when we got near the sandy, weedless bottom she levelled out and really took off. The warm waters of the Arabian Sea were rushing past and around me as this gargantuan creature, so awkward and heavy on land, shot away over the ocean’s floor with alarming speed and grace. She would tilt left and right as though to avoid unseen obstacles, or as though she were barreling down some giant waterslide – never losing speed or momentum, just soaring over the sand.

All of this was over in less than a minute, of course, as I soon found myself out of breath and needing to surface. I may have taken the shortest joyride in history, but I will never forget it. Ever.

No animals were harmed in the making of this adventure.

Welcome to Nowhere

2007-01-21T15:09:00.000-04:00

Now entering the Middle.

Favourite. Picture. Ever.

2007-01-12T13:26:00.000-04:00

Random Sampling

2007-01-09T14:57:00.000-04:00

Here is a collection of images from our drive to Shibam, which was, unlike last time, pleasantly free of car trouble.

Deep in the desert valley, next to nowhere, a successful irrigation project yields a vibrant field of hay in a world as dry as dust.

Close Quarters: Inside Shibam's ancient wall, narrow mud-brick buildings - "the world's first skyscrapers" - become a lot smaller when you learn that the walls are all one metre thick.

One of the larger houses in the tiny city, having withstood some 500 years of constant use, ruined by a single rainfall. In a mud house, as the locals informed me, if you haven't got a good roof you haven't got anything.

View from the third floor of the ruined house.

With a paintbrush made of straw, a young man whitewashes the top of his family's home with lime plaster to prevent it from looking like the house in the pictures above.

Resting on a roof.

Frankincense burns on a table of souvenirs old and new.

A weaver plies his trade on a homemade loom in a closet-sized shop.

For centuries, water houses like this were built, maintained and kept full by wealthy landowners for the free use of passers-by; they dot the landscape all over Yemen, on rural dirt tracks and city streets. The roof prevents evaporation while the small windows allow you to reach a cup - but nothing larger - in. Troughs and basins on all sides catch spills for camels and donkeys.

The wall surrounding the city - which you can circumnavigate on foot in under 25 minutes - is twenty feet high on the outside, two and a half on the inside. The dust of the ages gets trampled underfoot and the ground just keeps on rising.

Holidays

2007-01-06T13:04:00.000-04:00

So after Christmas we taught for a couple days until the week-long festival of Eid, during which we travelled.

First it was off to Sana'a. We spent the first night inside the walls of the old city, which was fantastic. Our hotel was 355 years old, though, which makes it quite new for that part of town (it's the building on the left in the picture below).

It's one of the highest buildings inside the wall so the roof commanded a spectacular view:

And this is a spectacular view of the water closet:)

On our third day there we left Sana'a to go see House on the Rock, about a half-hour's drive from the city. This thing is probably the single most famous object in Yemen. It's a big house on a big rock. The oldest part is over 2000 years old. The great thing about it is that most of the house isn't what's on top; most of it is inside the rock. There's an entrance at the very bottom, and rooms and staircases and ancient wells go all through it.

This is us hanging out with some friends in the burial cave near the top of the rock, and a view from one of the cave's windows.

We relaxed in the courtyard for a while and then returned to Sana'a for some shopping. The next morning we flew back to Mukalla and rested for a day before making the five-hour drive inland to Shibam.

No tresspassing, please.

2007-01-06T06:10:00.000-04:00

It has occured to us lately that we don't bat an eyelash at certain things that had seemed odd when we first came here. For example:

A Yemeni security system consists of shards of glass cemented to the top of the garden wall.

We hope to post more of the "new normal" over the next few weeks.

Yemeni Christmas

2007-01-05T10:06:00.000-04:00

It's time to fill everybody in as to what we've been up to the last couple of weeks. We had a lovely Christmas with the Carroll/Boone clans forging a new family for the holidays. Maybe we could be called the Booroll's....hmmmm. Anyway, we did the usual get up, go to Arabic lessons, read the story, open presents, eat lots of chocolate kinda stuff. (Rememeber that song "Which of these things is not like the others?") We were grateful for our advent readings to keep us focused on the reality of the season because it's so easy to become detached when no one else sees a reason to celebrate. Thanks so much to everyone for sending cards, emails and packages ~it was very encouraging. We were especially thankful to be able to speak to our families on the 25th. We hope that your Christmas was just as merry as ours was!.

Merry Christmas

2006-12-22T09:23:00.000-04:00

From all of us,
to all of you.

Cafe Third World

2006-12-16T00:18:00.000-04:00

Pictured here is one of our favourite restaurants. That collection of cardboard and sheets on the roof is the employee housing programme.

Chicken is the main fare here, most of which is cooked outside like this. The rest is baked in coal ovens inside, which you'll see later.

You place your order and someone yells it very loudly through one of these little windows at the back, and moments later food comes flying out. I decided to step back into the kitchen and take a look at where all the magic happens.

First up, Man Stirring Pot. I could almost gaurantee that you've never had a better bean soup than the stuff he's got on the boil there.

This is possibly the biggest pot of rice I have ever seen. They serve a lot of rice around here.

In the back corner, some men slaughter goats while others wash dishes. As I was photographing the dish washer a distressed-looking goat was led past me; moments later he was on the grill.

In the other corner are some personal effects of the employees hung to dry.

And these are the charcoal pits used for baking chicken if you don't fancy barbecue.

The workers are a happy lot and they were excited to have me around for a while. They kept firing up different grills with no food on them and washing dishes that were already clean just to make sure I got pictures of everything they do.

It's a great spot with wonderful food and a fun atmosphere. If you come visit we'll take you there.
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The ants go marching

2006-12-10T13:30:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone, we thought that we'd share some miscellaneous happenings with you over the next little bit, while we are consumed with work and unfortunately leading very boring lives. Allison, we blame you for making us admit that our weekdays aren't that exciting;)
A short time ago, hundreds of ants moved into our apartment. They're gone now, but while they were here we sometimes felt compelled to clear large areas of them in a short time. Here's Sean using an ancient Arabian method: hairpsray and a lighter. It worked great for walls and countertops, and seems to have had a discouraging effect because all the ants moved out a few days later.
This is the inestimable advantage of living in a concrete building in the desert: the near non-existence of fire hazards. (Really though, that advantage is only truly inestimable if you have a pyro for a husband).

At It Again

2006-12-08T04:34:00.000-04:00

Getting my daily dose of news from the homeland this morning, a curious headline caught my eye. I had to wonder why Pearl Harbour vets would want to bomb Pearl Harbour "one last time" :)

Then I realized that "bomb site" is a noun and not a verb. Ah, ambiguity - making us smile one headline at a time.
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2006-12-07T09:11:00.000-04:00

Electricity in Yemen comes and goes. Over the past week it has been going more than coming.

We have a very tight schedule to follow in order to finish the curriculum on time so we’ve had to come up with some creative ways to conduct our afternoon classes without light. Sean decided to move his lesson out into the hallway to take advantage of every last ray of sun and yesterday my students had to finish their exams by the light of their cell phone screens.

This gentleman was the last to go and used our computer as a torch in order to see his paper.

Our walk through Misaken (our neighbourhood) has also become more interesting. All the restaurants, shops and fruit stands are lit by candles and the men take to the streets. They relax, drink tea and chat. As we neared our building the other day, the electricity suddenly came back and with it we heard a collective shout of joy - now they could go back to their regular routine…ummm, relaxing, drinking tea and chatting.

Running Barefoot Through the Rain

2006-12-01T23:41:00.000-04:00

...is something of a unique experience for these kids, as this city has seen rain twice in the last four years. They often get to run through flash floods coming from higher up in the mountains, but today it rained. In Mukalla. This was a pretty big deal. So this was the view from our balcony this morning - two kids, back and forth through one giant puddle, laughing, tireless.

Later on in the day we took a drive with some friends down the volcanic coast, heading west. Got through the armed checkpoints with pleasantly little difficulty - nobody even hinted at wanting a bribe - and stopped at a beach about an hour later. The storm was moving west, too, so we started out in the rain but soon outran it, knowing that it would catch up later, and catch up it did. We were sitting on a promontory of lava (not the molten kind:) enjoying the view, which looked like this:

And then the clouds rolled in and everything became very dark and wet and windy, like this:

The surf was pounding in and the rain came sideways, wind-driven through our best defenses. It was a lot of fun, and after a while the clouds broke and out came the sun, and best of all, a magnificent rainbow:)

We chased the rainbow back east for a while, until it was right in front of us, between the car and the hills - it was so broad and clear and close that we could see the view through it, and that made me want to go stand inside it, which of course I knew to be impossible. But that didn't make me stop wanting to.

This country is beautiful.

Connections

2006-11-27T08:06:00.000-04:00

Last night Ruth and I went into town. We found what we were looking for in the markets and then picked up some street food to eat while resting on the breakwater. Then a man who looked like a westerner disguised as a Yemeni walked by and said "hi" and kept on walking. Now it's a rare thing to see another foriegner here, especially one wearing local clothes, so this minor occurance led to some speculation around the Carroll table. As we were leaving some time later we found him sitting down outside a restaurant on the far end of the breakwater and he invited us to join him. Turns out he's a recent law graduate from Washington DC and he's been here before - a few years ago he taught in Sana'a and he's fluent in Arabic. This time he's been here for four months, always on the go, writing a book for Bradt Travel Guides based in Britain. This we found interesting, because the last book about this place was put out by Lonely Planet, but they stopped publishing on Yemen in '99; their only comment on this cessation was something akin to "on second thought, you probably shouldn't go there," which interestingly enough was also the only advice we were able to obtain from Foreign Affairs Canada before we came.

At any rate, this guy had some awesome stories to tell and we had a fascinating conversation with him for about an hour. He's leaving for home in a few days so by now he's seen just about everything in the entire country, except for one; he missed the sea turtle experience because he was passing by in the daytime. After hearing Ruth's enthusiastic description of our visits there, he asked us to write them up for publication in the guide, which comes out in February. So keep an eye out for Bradt's Yemen edition of 2007 - Yemeni Cricket just became a byline;)

Photo Sans Title

2006-11-23T00:37:00.000-04:00

Cutting Room Floor

2006-11-21T00:38:00.000-04:00

These are from Socotra. Until now they've managed to avoid getting posted; no one's quite sure how. They are of two boys that we met, one of them fishing for supper and the other, younger one standing by his aging dugout canoe. The dugouts still do active duty on Socotra, alongside the newer, fibreglass-and-outboard rigs seen in the first picture.

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So you say it's your birthday?

2006-11-18T01:34:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm a little late on this one - the internet hasn't been working well this week. November 16th was Ruth's birthday; work's been really crazy lately so I thought the best thing we could do would be to force her to relax. When she woke up Tanya had cooked a wonderful breakfast of crepes with mountains of fresh fruit and whipped cream, and then we kidnapped her and took her to the Hadramout Hotel, where we spent the rest of the morning swimming and snorkelling. We then whiled away the afternoon sunbathing on the dock with fresh lime juice and a few good books. It was a gorgeous day for it; now that it's winter the temperature in Mukalla has dropped to a comfy thirty degrees.

And, I bought her a window. I'm aware that this may seem strange to you, so here's the scoop: Yemeni architecture can really be quite stunning, and one of the things they're fond of here is putting these stained glass creations over every window - well, at least in the north, and you can see an example peeking through the flowers in the picture below. Down here in the south we don't get it as much, but Ruth really likes them and she had mentioned that it would be neat to have one just to hang on the wall as artwork. Also I smuggled that blanket and another one like it back from Socotra without her knowing, so she was surprised.

All in all the day went very well and we're all feeling quite relaxed on the dawn of another week.

Yemeni Cricket Goes to School

2006-11-12T23:39:00.000-04:00

You asked for a boring office-post, you've got it. Here it is - proof (or as close as it comes) that we work. Allow us to take you through our day.

Every morning we arrive at the school in the company vehicle.

Just kidding; I made that part up. We walk to school.

We're usually in the office around 9 a.m.; we then have two hours to mark tests or fine-tune our lessons or whatever. Here is the view from my desk: to the left of me, Tanya Boone, i.e. "the new girl," whom we kidnapped from Hartland NB in the summer. She is holding that fan because it is from China and she used to teach in China.

And straight ahead, over the top of the monitor, my darling wife Ruth is busy fixing many of the mistakes that we've all made here. She works in the office in the mornings, and teaches in the afternoons, while Tanya and I teach both morning and afternoon. First class is 11:00-2:00, and the second is 3:00-6:00.

Also ahead but slightly to the left is Nicholas, Acting Director of the Canadian Hadramout University College (that's us). Specifically, this is Nick getting his daily dose of frustrating news from our business partners in the Yemeni government.

Oh and here's me.

And now some classroom shots: here are Ruth and Sean earning money.

We're on an old campus and everything's made of concrete. Not the good kind, the crumbly kind. Yesterday a small section of my ceiling fell down and hit an empty desk, right beside one of my students. I was facing the board at the time and the impact was so loud I thought that the LCD projector had blown up, which it has threatened to do on occasion.

And here's me teaching a cat, because it was the only thing that showed up that day. Festivals are a little bit tricksy in this part of the world - you never know when one of them is going to jump on you. Sometimes we all get to work and then... no students. Surprise! It's a festival.

In the evenings, which are short because we're so tired, we relax in our flat and prepare lessons for the next day (Tanya's living with us for now, as her apartment is not yet ready).

And that's about it for five days of our week. We very rarely do anything adventurous or interesting on weekdays because we're working all day long.

So there you have it - Yemeni Cricket has a job:) If you want to know more about our school, let us know, because we don't want you to get the wrong idea - we really do enjoy our jobs a great deal, and we have a fantastic relationship with the students, and work in general consumes about 95% of our entire existence right now. But do forgive us if we slip back into presenting a slightly skewed version of reality here on the blog;) Ciao.

Socotra, Fourth and Final

2006-11-08T14:27:00.000-04:00

And now for the last installment in our serial....Sheikh Isa's village! We took a leisurely drive up a mountain and down the Wadi Dhiaho, through the Dragon's Blood Forest (names don't come much cooler than that) and abreast an amazing canyon. Here are some shots from the drive.

When we arrived in the village, the Sheikh, who reigns over all the villages in the Wadi (about 400 people in total) gave us a hearty welcome and prepared a feast of goat for us in the shade of a large tree. This was a very special honour as it was during Ramadan and he had cooked a meal for us during the time of fasting. He spoke very limited English but his nephew was a good translator. The goat was boiled and then seared on the fire and they didn't waste one bit. The ears, skull, brain, eyes and eye-sockets were served as appetizers and then came the main course of the meat and rice. I was able to avoid gnawing on bones and brain by pleading sickness, as even the smell was making me feel a bit naseous. Sean had an eye socket (eyelid still attached) and a very rubbery ear. The socket was not bad but he could live without eating another ear.

In the evening Sheik Isa insisted that I have some bread and honey (he was very concerned that I hadn’t eaten anything all day). The honey was from bees pollinating the dragon's blood trees; it was rich and deep red; I ate a little of it, much to his delight. In the eyes of a Yemeni, honey can heal absolutely anything.

We stayed the night in a one-room stone “guest house”; this was the view from our door in the morning - all saddled up and ready to go.

Tanya and I took the first shift on them to the base of the mountain. Unfortunately, after about five minutes of climbing I realized that I wouldn’t be able to make it up the mountain let alone complete the six hour hike/ride to follow - my sickness wasn't letting up any. Sean accompanied me back to the village thereby sacrificing his chance to ride a camel.

The Sheik and his family were convinced that my sickness was due to pregnancy (it wasn't) and so it was with knowing smiles that they very happily watched me lose all the honey I’d consumed the day before. We traveled back to our hotel and returned to Mukalla two days early, but this was no great loss
as we'd packed so many things into our first few days on the island.

We are now comfortably back into the swing of teaching, about which we will soon post just to prove to you that we work.

Socotra, Part III

2006-10-30T02:08:00.000-04:00

The next day we headed off for our hike to the cave. This particular cave is very famous within Socotra because of the stalagmites and stalactites and a 1200 year old communion cup …but we’ll get to that later.

Throughout the day we encountered much of the amazing flora and fauna that gave rise to Socotra’s nickname “the other Galapagos”. We saw bottle trees and dragon’s blood trees (one of which we're standing under in the photo below), flowering aloe plants and numerous others.

This little guy was crossing the path as we climbed the mountain. He was very cute until Sean picked him up. If you’ve never seen a chameleon hiss take our word for it that they look incredibly menacing for such a small lizard.

There were also several trees full of Egyptian Vultures who are jokingly referred to as Socotra’s waste management plan (being the only one they’ve got). They were everywhere on the island and very brazen.

Well, back to the mountain. The climb was punishing, under a blistering sun and very little shade. But we made it the cave's mouth in a high cliff, and our efforts were well rewarded. The view down to the coast was spectacular and the cave was enormous! With a fifty-foot ceiling and consistently one hundred feet from wall to wall, this gigantic cave wanders back through the earth forabout three kilometres from the cliff's face - no crawl spaces for us.

It was an hour hike in from the mouth and the only light was provided by our flashlights, with which we were constantly scanning under, above and around us because we didn’t want to miss one square millimeter of this incredible place. I’ll just let the pictures speak for themselves. The first is a shot of Wugdi, our guide, standing on a hill inside the cave, backlit by the entrance (he's that little speck in the bottom right of the light).

And here's Nic rounding the first of many massive pillars, followed by a shot of three of us in the first section where daylight was still visible.

Deep in the cave and a long way from
the light of day (but not far from the light of a camera flash) we came upon a crystal-clear freshwater pool, from which we all drank; the water was pure and cold and tasted great.

Just 20 minutes beyond that we reached the cup. Legend connects it to an early and long-extinct Christian community on the island,

which had its beginning when an early Socotran king was healed by a travelling missionary. It was partly encased in limestone and minerals but very well preserved.

After taking an obscene number of pictures we decided to turn off all our lights. A darkness thick and profound surrounded us, so intense that it would probably be useless to attempt a description.

We made our way out, passing some old writing on the way (our guide told us it was 2000 years old, but we had our doubts – he also told us it was French). I had been struggling with sickness the whole day and so it was with relief that we spotted the car at the bottom.

For the next couple of days I fought with a parasite in my stomach that caused quite a ruckus, but feeling better we decided to venture to a remote village and take some camels for a spin. That and more in Socotra Part IV!

~Ruth

Interlude

2006-10-28T02:02:00.000-03:00

All right, I just noticed in the comments on our October 6 post that my cousin Allison picked up on an interesting deficiency in our blog... she notes that the only time we've ever alluded to work was to talk about a coffee pot and paper airplanes. Now cousin Allison is an intelligent person (as are many of you) and she finds this very suspect (as have many of you). But just to assuage your doubts, we promise to post something about work - as soon as we're done talking about vacation;)

Cheers!

Socotra, Part II

2006-10-27T12:00:00.000-03:00

We arrived at around 11 am and checked into the Hafej Hotel. Our rooms were far from fancy, but at $8 per person the price was right. We met with our contact here and banged out an itinerary for the week. After eating lunch with him and his crew we settled in and toured the capital city of Hadibo which took all of 10 minutes. Hadibo has one paved road (Main Street, of course), a small market and ummm....that's it.
When we left they'd run out of petrol and hadn't had propane to cook with since June. Everything is flown in and selection in the shops is VERY limited; it makes Mukalla's stores seem extensive, and that's a stretch. Anyway, we ate at a local restaurant that night where they had their menu painted on the wall. There were three pictures: a fish, a chicken, and a chunk of goat. But we came for the sights not the food.,and Tuesday we sure got our fill! We were driven down the coast where we went swimming in a very remote cove. There were two dead sharks and a dead seagull on shore so at first we were a little wary of this beach of death tbut as soon as we entered the water all doubts left our minds.
The water was the clearest I've ever seen. We could see fish swimming around our feet and even in the tops of the waves that came crashing in on us.
After enjoying the crystal waters of the Indian Ocean we relaxed on the white sand beach until a fishing boat came in to picked us up to go fishing. Climbing into the boat was tricky as the water was so rough, I was one of the last to get in and gave Sean quite a scare because I got knocked over by a wave and disappeared from view for a few seconds, but eventually I made it in safely and we were under way toward calmer water.
Unfortunately, Tanya got seasick and had quite a hard time out there. She did manage to catch a fish however, as did Nic, Sean and myself. At first I thought I might have snagged a small shark (a few were seen off the bow a few minutes earlier); it wasn't (thankfully) but we don't have a clue what it was! We're accepting guesses by the way. The guides thought it was pretty funny that I almost dropped my catch out of fear when I first hauled it into the boat.
We returned to shore where Tanya was more comfortable and rested on a coral-strewn beach while the fish were divied up. We took Nic's and my fish to fry that night over our campfire and continued down the coast. We made it all the way to the southern tip and passed villages along the way filled with laughing children who were excited to see "ferenghi" (socotri word for foreigner).

This is an example of an older Socotri house that would've probably been used during the summer. In the summertime they experience 90 km/hr winds day and night. The locals suffer through this period in their regular houses or they move to caves where the shelter is better. Definitely not tourist season.

That night we lounged around a campfire next to a huge sand dune (see earlier mention of wind) in a small green area. Socotra is definitely greener than mainland Yemen and they get rain here more frequently. You can see a little bit of the mist covering the mountain - it will remain there for the next six weeks. There was a beautiful spring running through that supplies all the nearby villages. We ate our fried fish and enjoyed the babbling stream behind us and the crashing waves in front.

Paradise.

Socotra, Part I

2006-10-25T12:16:00.000-03:00

So Monday morning, October 16th, off we went on Yemenia flight 861 from Mukalla to the remote Inidan Ocean Island of Socotra. On Yemenia flights you have to go to great lengths to find a reliable flight attendant; we, for instance, made our own. Always there when we needed him:)

More to come...

All This and Turtles, Too

2006-10-13T10:59:00.000-03:00

Perhaps we should explain why we have vacation a month and a half after summer. The following two weeks are the end of Ramadan and the beginning of Eid (another festival). So everything pretty much shuts down until November.
Anyway, it is now 3 days until we leave for Socotra. This weekend, being free, we had planned to take a bus to Aden (as we've not yet been there, you see). Aden is a former British protectorate in the west of Yemen, and due to the outside influence is remarkably different than, say, Mukalla, a city which was happy to welcome no outsiders for... ever. But now we're here. The road to Aden goes through Shabwa Province, though, and that's a bit of a kidnapping hotspot. As there's recently been a rash of foreigner-napping, the police wouldn't let us through the first checkpoint. Then we decided to go to Sana'a. About the same time that we were booking bus tickets in the travel office, some villagers were busy kidnapping more tourists on that road. *sigh*. So we abandoned all of that, borrowed Nick's truck and headed east instead - back to the colony of green sea turtles, which you will have read about in another post if you were around for Season One of Yemeni Cricket.
This was our third visit, and the best one by far. Saw about 75 babies and 15 adults, four of which we got to watch lay their eggs (they lay close to 100 eggs each). Eat your heart out, Discovery Channel. And the icing on the cake - we arrived around 1:00 in the afternoon and stayed until 9:00 this morning, and had the entire beach to ourselves the whole time. It was marvellous.

A few times we stumbled on nests in the act of hatching - these little fellas came bubbling out of the sand like water.

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Search for Solitude

2006-10-13T07:58:00.000-03:00

hermit

• noun

1 a person living in solitude as a religious discipline.

2 a reclusive or solitary person.

— DERIVATIVES hermitic adjective.

— ORIGIN Greek eremites, from eremos ‘solitary’.

Where there’s smoke…..

2006-10-11T15:19:00.000-03:00

Apple butter. Apple butter is a very tasty jam-like substance that's great on cornbread. The recipe I’ve used before was for a slow cooker, but I decided to alter it a little bit to use the oven instead. Well, all was going smoothly (and smelling heavenly) so we decided to watch a movie to pass the time. We hadn’t gotten too far when I thought I smelled smoke. We dashed to the hall and had to fight our way through a thick, acrid cloud . The apple butter was reduced to a dark, apple caramel/glue. Apparently, when you cook, you’re supposed to check the progress once in a while. Hmmmm.

Well, needless to say it’s ruined but we had a pretty good laugh about it – now to clean the oven!

(Tanya and Sean thought it might make a good ice cream topping. That theory didn’t last too long).

Split Rock

2006-10-11T14:59:00.000-03:00

These are a couple friends of ours; they teach English at a local school. A few days ago we took a drive with them down to Split Rock
(seen in the background), a formation which has a couple of different explanations. One is that a prophet struck the rock with his staff and it split in two. Translated into Canadian-speak.......Glooscap did it. The second: workers cut through to make the road (the water used to be a lot higher before they constructed the breakwater).

So, we all spent the afternoon there and had a great time exploring the beach, tidal pools, an abandoned restaurant project and watching a couple of guys fishing. The tidal pools revealed sea cucumbers, baby lobsters and giant barnacles.

These fishermen... one was tossing chum into the water while the other was throwing out his line and brining it in/ keeping it organized by wrapping it around his neck and torso. Does this sound unsafe to anyone else out there???

As we were leaving we noticed another fisherman on the beach who caught this interesting toothed specimen. Sean quickly bought one to cook up for dinner but found to his chagrin that its scales were made of steel. He could barely cut through it, but once fileted it made a nice meal.

Not a bad way to spend an afternoon, eh? It hasn't snowed in NB yet has it? *Insert evil laugh here*

Two blind mice

2006-10-06T12:15:00.000-03:00

Some of you may remember Yemeni Cricket's first pets - Isaac and Blewett. This dynamic duo provided endless entertainment.

They were quiet - as churchmice you could say. Their favourite activities included eating, sleeping, stuffing their bedroom full of wood chips and running through toilet paper rolls. Yes, they were intellectuals. Isaac died peacefully in his sleep. Blewett was taken to live with a classfull of elementary children where he probably died of an anxiety attack. Ah well, you win some, you lose some. Above is a shot of Blewett (or Isaac) looking especially adorable. What is the point of this ramble you ask...well, today we visited the oasis again and Sean and I spotted a couple of mice tumbling out of a tree.

They were very groggy, with their eyes half closed and unsteady on their feet. Do mother mice kick their babies out of the nest?

Anyway, we had to go over and see how they were doing and we managed to get some great shots in the process. We really wanted to take them home (because their chances of survival were not looking good) but we are going to Soqotra for vacation on the 16th! Woohoo! So, they wouldn't be any better off. Sigh. We wish you well little mice - wherever you are.

*Dedicated to Isaac and Blewett - We hope you scampered towards the light.

Suq Samak

2006-10-01T14:41:00.000-03:00

Stopped by the fish market the other day. It's something we hadn't done in all our time here, but always meant to. The place is massive; the boats just keep coming and coming, unlaoding their catches and then leaving again. Quite an operation. You can find anything here: baby shark, mama shark, tuna, lobster, octopus, along with dozens of varieties of fish unknown to the Cricket. Ruth bought some fresh tuna (cheap!) and I picked up a couple Arabian Sea lobsters, which are slightly different creatures than the ones we're used to in the North Atlantic, but tasty nonetheless.

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Happy Campers

2006-10-01T14:28:00.000-03:00

We've just had a wonderful weekend, on account of our luggage arriving!! Got a call Thursday morning (that's Saturday to all you Westerners) informing us of its location in the Mukalla airport. Took a drive out through the desert and sure enough, there it was... full of sand, considerably beat up, but nothing was missing! This is an especially impressive fact, given how long it had been in the hands of the "authorities."
The retrieval of our missing luggage has been a primary concern this last month, as it contained certain invaluable items, namely maple syrup and Tim's coffee. Thursday night we feasted on a pancake supper, drowned in maple. Few things have ever tasted so good.

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And The Winner Is...

2006-09-24T01:49:00.000-03:00

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

2006-09-23T12:46:00.000-03:00

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

2006-09-19T10:44:00.000-03:00

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

2006-09-16T02:46:00.000-03:00

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

2006-09-14T05:13:00.000-03:00

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

2006-09-13T07:38:00.000-03:00

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.

2006-09-11T01:41:00.000-03:00

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...

2006-09-09T02:03:00.000-03:00

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.

2006-09-08T07:45:00.000-03:00

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.

************************************************************************************

In transit

2006-07-10T11:00:00.000-03:00

Sorry that we haven't been posting lately, but internet access in London is outrageous! We're having a wonderful time exploring the cities and countryside. Gathering lots of great photos which we'll post when we're in Canada (sometime after the 24th).

Love, the Cricket.

PS- Mind the gap.

Yemeni O'Cricket

2006-06-29T02:49:00.000-03:00

So we'll be leaving the middle east tomorrow to make our long trek home for summer vacation. On the way we'll be backpacking through England, Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. We'll arrive in New Brunswick July 24th (inshallah) and post lots of great pics at that time. Until then, please keep us in your prayers as we are travelling (specifically that we'll meet lots of friendly strangers who like to help out dirty, weary, hungry hikers AND that we won't get lost or eaten by Nessie). So bye for now - we'll be back now and then to let you know how the summer's going, and we're returning to Yemen in September.

Cheers!

Awadh's Village - The saga continues

2006-06-24T09:15:00.000-03:00

Hello everyone,

I hope that we’re not boring you with our pictures but we wanted to show you a few more shots of Awadh’s village. We went for another visit this past weekend and this time Ruth had a bilingual friend with her, which made for a better time all around.

We were able to take some pictures of the girls on this visit. They were so eager to pose for a picture and they’d all dressed up for the occasion-especially this little girl in pink. She’d braided her hair and donned her best dress.

And this my friends is the hottest kitchen in the world. I have no idea how they stand it, but the ladies cook rice and other dishes in this small stone building while the goat meat is roasted over coals outside.

As we mentioned before there is quite a good farm in the village (dates and limes mostly). They are quite adept at scrambling up the palms to snag the dates.

Thankfully they do have running water, but the pools in which it collects are green with algae; the water doesn’t even look fit for irrigation, but this is for drinking. And yet this is considered one of the “lucky” villages.

In closing, we'd like to introduce you to Mr. Leo-Gek (leopard + gecko ~he is spotted like a leopard) . This little guy was running around in the bushes.

One of the villagers caught him and was going to kill him because apparently the lizards "milk the goats", whatever that means!

Since then he has become the pet of a 12 year old boy (who was the one who named him by the way).

The last time we saw him he wasn't looking too good and very bloated so maybe Mr. Leo-Gek is actually a pregnant she. Yemeni Cricket isn't up on lizard anatomy: )

The Castle and the Cave

2006-06-19T15:24:00.000-03:00

We were riding around in our automobile…when all of a sudden we look over and see the remains of an old mud structure. Now, I’ve got to admit that we’d become pretty ho hum about the whole ancient mud houses thing during our trip to Shibam; but this caught our attention. You know that plastic mold that you could buy at the store to make the perfect sand castle? Well, this, umm… castle of sand… was the exact shape (but not size) and since we were on vacation, after all, we decided to stop and relive those lazy childhood summer days. I wish we could give you some reassurance that we wisely assessed the situation and discussed the structural integrity of the castle, but who am I kidding?! We climbed on up and checked it out, and we've got no regrets - it was fantastic.

Anywho, we had a great time looking in and around the place.

Found some Arabic writing carved into the wall and also these little bug houses. More like villas really, those are some industrious bugs!

We were interested to know how old it was or who it belonged to but the only Yemeni who strolled by seemed very disinterested in its history so we didn’t have much luck as far as information goes, but that's ok, we had fun. We even managed to collect some old shards of pottery to put in our apartment.

You just never know what's going to be around the next bend in the road.....which brings me to our next adventure.

While following a back road down the wadi we saw this gaping hole in the wall of a dried-up river bed. "Looks like a cave," we said. "Let's stop and explore," we said. And we did.

We climbed up to the mouth and followed the winding tunnel. We had standing headway for most sections of the journey, connected in parts by dusty crawl spaces.

It was very dark inside (as caves are wont to be) but a lot of fun. Here we are in the largest "room", which was about midway in and had a small hole at the top, letting in a rather photogenic amount of daylight.

The cave, like the castle walls, was riddled with these bug houses, the inhabitants of which we were grateful not to encounter (especially since they appeared to have at one time outnumbered us significantly).

The other end (much smaller) opened into a series of mini-canyons, which were also a good time, and merited a time investment of their own.

But alas, the day was dragging on, and we had other destinations in mind. So we crawled/ walked/stumbled back through the cave, across the river bed, and off into the evening for more fun in ancient villages.

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Children of Shibam: Say cheese!

2006-06-16T13:21:00.000-03:00

We never get tired of taking photos of children! In the hope that you aren't tired of seeing them, here are a few more.....

Monkey-boy here was a wee bit frightening, but cute in a googly-eyes sorta way.

Some of our subjects were a little more shy, while others objected quite strongly to Sean's artistic vision.

But alas, eventually our muses dispersed one by one....

...until we were left with a different kind of "kid" to capture on camera.

Al-Hawta and The Hike

2006-06-15T04:09:00.000-03:00

So on Friday afternoon we decided on lunch at the Al-Hawta Palace Hotel in nearby Al-Hawta. It really is a palace - or, it was a palace, for a long long time. Now (as the name suggests) it's a hotel. It's a huge walled property with many buildings, all surrounded by the most green we've seen since coming to Yemen. In olden days it would have been self-sustaining; inside the wall is the palace proper, as well as towers, servant-buildings, barns, gardens, wells... incredible.

We spent a couple hours in the swimming pool before we left, constantly attended to by juice-bearing employees who had nothing else to do, as the entire place was empty and we had it all to ourselves.

The couple pictured here were travelling with us - relatives of a fellow Yemen-based teacher (also travelling with us).

By and by, in wandered Martin - a French-German-Australian fellow who asked us if we'd hiked the canyon wall over Shibam yet. We said no, but we would probably do it later that day. So he came with us:) It was a lot of fun, and good to have a guide. It was hot that day, hovering steadily around 44 degrees.

The view was amazing! The ridge is really high, and we could see everywhere - across the Wadi, up and down it for miles.

Imagine what a mighty river once carved this place out!

It was getting dark near the end, and we figured that, as tricky as the ascent was, the descent would probably be harder, so we should definitely do it before nightfall. A bit of a shame, as we would have loved to stay longer in that breathtaking panorama.

We were right about the descent - it was really tricky; the rocks in the last half were very loose, it was getting dark fast, and the trail was hard to keep track of. And we were all wearing sandals. Martin took a flying head-first leap when the rocks gave way under him; he sort of twisted in the air and landed on his feet again, so I gathered he's not new to this sort of thing.

We reached the bottom a little while after sundown - our legs were trembling from the exertion (this cricket should get in shape:) and we were very dusty, but it was a lot of fun and it all felt wonderful; a wholly enjoyable hike.

Shibam - finally

2006-06-14T16:00:00.000-03:00

After a few more hours of driving in the highlands - which looked a lot like the surface of the moon - the road took this crazy drop to the bottom of the Wadi (valley). We snaked through ancient villages and surprisingly lush farmlands; it was a beautiful drive.

Along the way we met these camels, who were far more friendly than the camels around our place.

We spent the next three nights at a gorgeous guest house beside the city wall, which was our base from which we took day-trips to nearby towns, etc.

And as for Shibam itself, here it is. The whole place is made of mud - the wall, the houses, everything. A lot of those buildings are seven stories tall and over five hundred years old! It's an incredible example of early urban planning. Many of the streets are too narrow for anything but a bicycle; almost all the animals in the city are free-range; enchanting shoppes abound. The whole look and feel of the place is like something out of A Thousand and One Arabian Nights.

In other news, I stood for a while under this pot, trying to discern its purpose, but to no avail. Notice the elaborately carved window-shutters, though. They're designed to give maximum ventilation while minimizing visibility (from the outside).

The city is currently asking the government to fund a project that would see more of its buildings plastered on the outside, as Shibam was recently hit with a rainstorm and some of the buildings (like this one) didn't fare so well.

And that's it for Shibam, but there's lots more to come from the weekend - stay tuned.

And the adventure begins.....

2006-06-13T13:02:00.000-03:00

Thursday’s itinerary: meet at Nick’s place at 8:20 a.m., pick up our fellow travelers at the airport at 9:00 a.m., be on the road by 9:30 a.m. for our 5 hour drive to Shibam. Check in at the hotel around 3:00 p.m.

Thursday’s reality: we get a call at 8:00 a.m. telling us that Nick’s car is in the shop getting the electric windows fixed, as the air conditioner quit the night before – some ventilation would be nice in the 40+ degree heat (that’s Celsius folks, oh yeah). We were assured that it would be fixed by 9:00 and would only throw our schedule off by a titch. By 12:20 the whole group was questioning whether the windows were worth the Yemeni pace of repair. But a mere 10 minutes later we were on our way! Speeding towards carefree fun in the sun, we encountered our first checkpoint where the guards let us through with only 15 minutes of hassle and two phone calls - not too shabby. At the checkpoint they also had a lot of coconut vendors who gladly demonstrated the shucking/hacking technique employed to make a cute little coconut-cup from which to drink. Then we made our way up a steep, snaking road through the mountains – or tried to. We were halfway up – and way beyond civilization - when trouble announced itself with a sudden and very loud rattling under the hood.

It wasn’t nearly as serious as
it sounded, though: the alternator belt had started to shred, so the loose bits were cut free and on we went. Home free? No way. A few miles later, up on the plateau, that belt flew off and took the fan belt with it.

With a menacing hiss the radiator emptied itself all over the engine and, in the middle of a barren desert, the Land Cruiser ground to a sickly halt. The windows, by the way, stopped working about five minutes into the trip. Anyway we sat in the scorching heat for a bit until two trucks stopped (one with tools). Everything was fixed up (minus the alternator belt, voted unnecessary) and we nursed the car to the nearest “town”.

It was a desert truck stop with a little restaurant, so we decided to stay for a lunch of grilled goat and rice. The guys who stopped for us followed us there and paid for the lunch, the belts, and an oil change!

They wouldn’t take no for an answer, and the hospitality made us feel a little closer to home:)

We pulled into Shibam – a UNESCO World Heritage Site – around 7:30 p.m. Stay tuned for the rest of Yemeni Cricket’s crazy capers. Car trouble free - for the most part ;)

We're Baaa-aaack...

2006-06-12T01:40:00.000-03:00

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the flurry of inactivity on our blog - we've been travelling:) It was a four-day weekend, and we'll let you know all about it in a series of posts coming soon!

~The Cricket

Canadiana

2006-06-05T10:35:00.000-03:00

Fact: Most shopkeepers in Yemen have a TV on in the shop all the time, usually playing an obscure Arabic soap opera. That's all the background you need for this one.

We stopped into a shop on our way to school the other morning, so as to purchase a couple Hadrami cakes (local speacialty - flat, very dense, dry as dust and kind of bitter - what can I say, they grew on us). I was paying when we heard a strangely familiar voice say, "You can club baby seals with Honduran immigrants for all I care."

Surprised to hear English, we turned around.

It was Dog River's own Hank Yarbo! CORNER GAS WAS ON THE TELEVISION!!! In our shocked excitement we hollered with glee, to the great bemusement of the shopkeeper. Calming down, we pointed to the screen and said "Canada!"; he gave us an understanding smile, then motioned for us to stay and watch. Alas, we were already running late.

Even so, I'd have to call that one of the highlights of our year.

What's new pussy cat?

2006-06-03T12:36:00.000-03:00

There are cats in Yemen, many cats. The locals believe they have souls; perhaps it is considered sacrilegious to un-tom a tom cat. In any event, they outnumber the people three to one, and I think they are becoming aware of this. The kittens are cute, cuddly; adorable. The adults are harder to categorize. Lean faces, sharp noses and intelligent eyes give you an uneasy feeling when you see them. And you do. See them that is. They are lurking around every corner, hungrily yowling at each garbage can and slinking under every parked car.

We have been making a habit of giving our lunch scraps to the cats in the quadrangle. They looked healthier, they looked appeased. We have not had leftovers in many days. They look mangier, they look displeased. Rebellion is stirring - it may be the heat, it may have been only a matter of time. Whatever the reason, I think they are organizing. Can a creature have a soul, yet be without conscience? We shall see, we shall see………

Memento Mori

2006-05-29T14:09:00.000-03:00

The Village People

2006-05-23T01:11:00.000-03:00

How soon has Time, the subtle thief of youth,
Stol'n on his wing my three and twentieth year...
~John Milton, Sonnet VII

Well the 18th was my (Sean) twenty-fourth birthday, and a most surprising birthday it was. Nicholas, Ruth and I left at 7:00 a.m. for the village of Awadh's tribe (Awadh is our office assistant). We had been invited out there for a day of eating, shooting, and general cultural exchange. Five minutes down the road we turned off the highway and into the wilderness. Nick dropped his '86 SUV (the new company vehicle) into 4WD and we were in for a treat - two hours down a winding, narrow, dusty track through mountain, oases, and desert.

This is a shot of Awadh being sarcastic about Nick's speed along the way (the sense of humour thing is rare among locals but Awadh was actually raised in Kenya so maybe that explains it:)

We stopped just before the village for some preliminary practice shooting one of the Kalashnikovs. We both did all right and had no trouble whatsoever hitting the mountain that was right in front of us.

And here's a picture of what the village looked like on our approach - it appeared very small from a distance but when we got up close we discovered... it really is that small! Three mud houses and some stick huts for the animals. Home to a surprising number of people, though.

We were welcomed into the biggest house where Ruth was promptly ushered off into the women's living room (muffrage) while Nick and I sat with the men in theirs. For about an hour we had tea and took pictures (which delighted them) while Awadh translated little bits of the lively discussion happening between the elders - it was a debate on the current political situation in and between local tribes. One of the young men brought in an appetizer of bread and soup on a straw mat, while another asked Nick for his keys. Nick and I looked out the window to see his car, packed with the man and eight of his closest friends, disappear around the mountain. The gleeful expressions on thier faces made us a little nervous, but we trusted them... mostly.

When they came back the car was dirtier, they were still very happy, and there was a goat in the back seat! It was a spotless goat, very healthy too; they had chased it down on a mountain side and were slaughtering it in our honour. So it was out to the shed to watch the butchering, tell more stories, and hang out with the children while the meat was being prepared. Here's me with some kids and a shot of one of the elders processing various bits of goat innards. There was a little argument over who got to eat the raw kidneys, but other than that all was peaceful.

So the goat was grilled on rocks over coals and a wonderful feast was had (those are intestines in the lower left... nothing beats Intestines on a Stick;).

With lunch over someone decided it would be hilarious if they dressed up the ayjnabees (foreigners) in traditional Beduoin wedding clothes. So here we are with the children (although I'm wearing my own clothes here); everyone got a kick out of us, and it was great fun entertaining them.

I love this shot (no pun intended). Ruth says it's hard to take aim when your face is veiled, so considering that and the distance of the target, she did pretty good!

The drive back was quite eventful as well - we had to stop the car three times for animals in the road: once for goats (maybe looking for their missing friend), once for camels, and once for baboons! About twenty of them, but they disappeared before we could get our camera out:( A shame, though I'm sure we'll see them again. In the greener parts of Yemen baboons are quite common, and famers often capture them to use as gaurd animals - a post they fill with remarkable effectiveness given their ferocious and territorial nature.

Of all the animals, the baby goats were the most sociable - they didn't mind being held one bit:)

We arrived back in Mukalla at dusk, had a lobster dinner - blue lobsters - in a lovely restaurant, and took a cab back to our village. It was a wonderful way to spend my twenty-fourth birthday.

Under da sea!

2006-05-22T06:44:00.000-03:00

Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink.

Sean and I have had the pleasure of going scuba diving twice in the last six weeks and we have seen incredible sea creatures on both occasions!

Our first scuba experience was as follows: Sean, Nick and I went with an instructor-the actual instruction was a two minute briefing and in we went-to explore the bottom.

Tropical fish like the ones in this photo were everywhere!
Trumpet fish, clown fish, and dozens that I don't know the name of. We also saw blowfish (but no Hootie) with spines and some without.

I saw a strange fluttery looking fish that oddly enough neither Sean nor Nick had seen. It turns out it was a squid! When they swim along they keep all of their tentacles together so they look like an elongated fish from far away. Upon closer inspection I could see the "fluttery" part was a translucent sack over the head. Who woulda thunk it!?

On a sadder and somewhat dim-witted note.....
Mishap 1: I kicked a sea urchin. And not one of those adorable roundish sea urchins that you sometimes see washed up on the shore of the Maritimes, no! An extremely sharp-spined black sea urchin (see left)
that possesses a very eerie, vibrant blue glow in the centre.

Mishap 2: I had a lot of pain in my ears during the dive and afterwards because I hadn't understood our instructors mime-directions of how to pop your ears. I thought he meant to only pinch your nose (I missed the blowing part of his demonstration) and somehow this would help the pressure in your ears. I know, not one of my more brilliant moments, but I was a little nervous, ok? Well, needless to say my technique wasn't very effective, but after we came up I was correctly informed and all set for our next trip out.

Round two!

We added one more person to our motley crew and headed back to the Hadramout Hotel for another invasion of the Arabian Sea.
This time we were taken out along a coral reef which was teeming with fish of all colours, big and small. I was in the lead with Mohammed (our patient instructor) as he had seen from our last excursion the impressive level of my incompetence in the water. The others followed behind as we saw more than we knew existed. Although it was a little embarassing that I was so inept at scuba diving it did allow me the priviledge of having a guided tour with an eight-year veteran in these waters.

We saw blue-spotted stingrays, different varieties of tropical fish, larger versions of the ones previously seen, crabs , sea cucumbers, starfish, anemonae, stonefish (very hard to spot-but not for me thanks to my guide!) and Sean even saw a red octopus!

All this for $60 each! Welcome to Yemen everybody.

Disclaimer: These photos are not our own, but we saw all of the creatures in them very close up. The picture of Sean and I with the starfish and sea cucumber is from a previous snorkeling adventure in the same spot.

Daily Bread

2006-05-15T14:58:00.000-03:00

A baker in Old Sana'a dealing with a fresh batch of soldier bread.

Treasure Hunting

2006-05-10T15:51:00.000-03:00

We made it back to the enchanting little village in the oasis; had some more time to explore and take photos. We also came out of it with a bit of a souvenir, which we're quite happy with. See that broken water jug at Ruth's feet? The other pieces were nearby, and now it's reassembled (minus the bottom, unfound) and sitting comfortably in our apartment. The fragment sitting beside it appears to be from the rim of a pot, but there were, unfortunately, no other pieces of that. The tables behind them are from India and were purchased in Old Sana'a.

More Trouble Brewing

2006-05-10T01:44:00.000-03:00

Ruth (maiden name Coffey) found my coffee maker sign and modified it accordingly. It now reflects a little more accurately what really goes on around here.

It's getting hot in here.

2006-05-04T16:45:00.000-03:00

Well we're one day in to the arrbaa'oon - the Forty Hottest Days. We'd heard rumours, whispers in the crowd. Nervous, shifty whispers. Around here the arrbaa'oon have a "those-we-do-not-speak-of" sort of presence. We don't know why the hottest days are in Spring and not in Summer. And how do the locals know exactly when they will start? Not sure - something to do with the moon. Earlier this week a student cautiously approached the subject in class: "Teacher... they start on Thursday." It was the way he said "they" that got to me - that and collective simultaneous grimacing of his classmates. Nobody likes the Forty Hottest Days.

Anyway, with deadly accuracy, he was right. The humidity is choking; the sun oppressive, violent. Yesterday we went snorkelling again (Thursday being the Yemeni Saturday) and that was a relief. Now it's Friday morning; one down, thirty-nine to go.

Recipe: cover country in sand; place in oven, bake until golden brown and completely dehydrated - about forty days.

Crab on Coral

2006-05-03T01:43:00.000-03:00

Found this little fella climbing mountains all his own at Turtle Beach. Rock on little guy.

Trouble Brewing

2006-04-25T15:50:00.000-03:00

The Director likes weak coffee.
I don't have a problem with that; my problem is that he keeps making weak coffee. In the office. So I thought I'd post him a friendly reminder.

Oasis!

2006-04-21T15:10:00.000-03:00

Look - we found something green! Today we went on a picnic with some friends to a huge and beautiful oasis just thirty minutes from our dusty desert home.

Most oases in this part of the world are home to some palm trees and a few other plants - this one is full of papaya, mango, and banana plants, along with many others that we couldn't identify. Fruit was falling from the canopy onto our blanket while we were eating - we didn't know what all of it was, but it all tasted great!

Sitting in the shade near the brooks and ponds was absolutely delightful; such a wonderful relief from the heat. This is starting to become a very popular spot for local family outings now that the hot season is getting closer......but let's not think about such things yet, eh?

Pleasant though it was, we couldn't stay in the lush vegetation too long; we were tempted back into the searing sunlight by the sight of a cliffside ghost village up the valley a little ways - a ruined town begging to be explored. The buildings are made entirely of stones, mud and sticks (which leads us to an important anthropological conclusion: the builders were real stick-in-the-mud kinds of guys). Given the materials, the sheer existence of these places - ruined or not - is phenomenal.

I feel I should mention something about that thing I'm wearing; it's not a skirt, or a towel. It's a futa - casual clothing of choice in Yemen (yes, for men:) Being casual, it's against the university's dress code, so I usually only wear the thing on weekends. We're not supposed to let our students wear them, either, but sometimes it's best to choose your battles.

This ghost town was one of the best adventures we've had in a while. So many buildings to explore, and not nearly enough time! We'd love to make it back there again soon.

Until next time, this is Yemeni Cricket, signing off.

Children of Old Sana'a

2006-04-17T02:41:00.000-03:00

Bab Al Yemen

2006-04-16T12:59:00.000-03:00

Well, we’re back! We flew to Sana’a Wednesday afternoon and immediately made our way to Old Sana’a (Bab Al Yemen – “The Gate of Yemen”) wherein we spent the majority of the weekend. This is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on earth, there being some debate as to whether it’s older than Jerusalem. The streets of Bab Al Yemen form a vast and bustling market, divided regionally according to merchandise. The silver district is particularly beautiful, though Yemen’s present-day silversmiths can’t compare to those of past times. For hundreds of years the Jews were this country’s master artisans, but back in ’49 they all left in the middle of the night. The shops are filled with antiques – guns, swords, lamps, anything you can imagine- antique French rifles are going for $30-$40! It’s an intricate maze and we got turned around a time or two but found some great spots along the way. We also benefited from gaining a volunteer guide named Salim for a couple of hours. It all started when Sean ordered some food, and it kind of snowballed from there.

Yemenis (generally) are very friendly and eager to help you find whatever you’re looking for. After paying for our meal (Allah will reward him for his kindness) he showed us some great sights.

For example, this is a view from the roof of a gallery building, on the top floor of which we were able to buy a beautiful painting from the studio of a local artist. Last time we were in Sana’a Sean bought a Jambia (the ceremonial dagger worn by northern tribesmen - the color of the sheath often signifies which tribe you belong to; depending on their age and previous owners they can cost from $20 to $5,000 US), and this time he had a belt made for it. We also picked up a couple of gorgeous tablecloths, some frankincense, a set of tables from

India

and many other little treasures! The spice, raisin and date district (no puns please) was also a sight to see - I never knew there were so many types and colours of raisins, and to see spices in that quantity was quite amazing.

One of the highlights of the old city for me was bartering. I wish wehad this custom in Canada because it’s so much fun! In this male dominated society Sean usually takes the lead in our day-to-day transactions, but this was my time to shine. The shopkeepers usually increase prices by at least a third for foreigners, and sometimes even for Yemenis because bartering is expected. I was able to get the price down by that much every time, and even by half or more on occasion (Sean isn’t bad at it, but the vendors always know when he’s going to fold. Hee hee!).

We also found a Blockbuster (of sorts) which was opened by a guy who lived in America for a couple of years, and was apparently inspired. We weren’t surprised that our membership cards didn’t help us here;) It’s literally impossible to purchase legitimate electronic media in this country – CD’s, DVD’s, computer software – they just don’t exist in their original form, not even in the larger computer stores.

To sum up, we love long weekends, and Sana’a is a great place to spend them.

~Yemeni Cricket, the better half;)

Woman at the Well

2006-04-12T05:15:00.000-03:00

Here's Ruth at the well (no relation to Jhn 4). It's a little ways back in the desert behind our village. It's dry but not filled in, so we get the impression that during the wet season (haha) it's still used. Drop a stone and you'll also learn that it's very deep. What we'd really like to learn is how old it is; we'll let you know if we find out.

Also, we're in an airport right now (but probably not by the time you read this). We instituted a long weekend at the college and we're heading to Sanaa for three or four days. Should have some neat pictures to post when we return, but we're not sure if we'll have internet access while we're there, so we may or may not disappear until early next week.

Pax.

You're On

2006-04-10T15:14:00.000-03:00

We took something away from you, and now we're giving it back - your ability to post comments on this blog. They'll be filtered through our email, so it may be a little while between when you post a comment and when it actually appears. Go ahead: express yourself:)

By the way, do you ever get an overwhelming urge to mail packages to people in the Middle East? That's an interesting urge, isn't it? Hm.

In totally unrelated news, here's our mailing address.

Nicholas Schofield
P.O. Box 60040
Mukalla, YEMEN

I know what you're thinking... neither of our names is Nicholas Schofield. He's the director of this little college of ours, and it's his box. Mail sent to him goes to whichever staff member recognizes the name on the return address.

And finally, I (Sean) am wondering if any of my students from Fredericton High School are reading this thing - I know of only one so far (hi Joe) and if there are more of you, drop me a line! I'd love to hear from you. seananthonycarroll@gmail.com

Salaam!

Chelonia Mydas

2006-04-09T15:40:00.000-03:00

Chelonia mydas: bilaterally symmetrical exotherm of the family cheloniidae, genus chelonia. Average size: 3-4 feet; average weight: 400lbs. Largely herbivorous but exhibiting omnivorous tendencies at various stages of the life cycle…

About two and a half hours from our village is the town of Ra'as Sharmah, home to a sea turtle colony at which we’ve spent the last two weekends, helping baby turtles make it to the ocean (past hundreds of crabs), and watching the adults dig their nests. Though slow and awkward on land, their flippers are still very strong and Sean got a mouthful of sand when he got too close! The mothers come up on land shortly after sundown to settle on a suitable digging spot. Sometimes they dig for a while, hit a batch of eggs and have to move on. They lay up to 200 eggs, and they do this every 2-3 years. There are thousands of turtles using this particular beach (though only a few each night, of course).

Around the same time that the new mothers come up from the sea, the babies that were laid a couple months before emerge from the sand and begin their long journey to the water. Some of the nests are very far up on shore and it is a miracle that even a few of the babies make it past the obstacles! Besides all the crabs there are also birds and wild dogs to contend with.

Here are various shots of the young ones. The overjoyed woman in the upper right is our friend and colleague Priska Corum.

There is a guard house at the entrance of the beach because the turtles are a protected species, but the guards don’t mind if you only eat one. I wonder how you say “endangered” in Arabic…

And this… well, sometimes it’s frightening what Sean comes up with when you leave him alone for any length of time. He finds the weirdest things.

Moving on… when we did sleep (between turtle-related activities) we did so very comfortably in one of the unoccupied nests; the only hitch was an early morning brawl between five of the wild dogs, about fifteen feet from our heads. I guess they were deciding who gets to eat us. Just kidding (don’t worry mom and dad). I have to say though, I have seen few things as surreal as watching Sean chasing that pack down over the sand, turban flying, club swinging, threats ringing through the pre-dawn desert air. Were we really playing in the snow just two months ago??

Then came sunrise and the end of our adventures. I never would have thought that I’d get the chance to watch mommy turtles digging nests, to save some baby turtles, and snooze in a comfy hammock made of sand. What a beautiful way to start the day. Thanks be to Him for His wonderful creation!

Mmmm...

2006-04-05T04:35:00.000-03:00

This, by the way, is an example of the kind of thing we eat now and then. It's called Fetta (for short) and it's made of bananas, unleavened bread, milk, and sugar all mashed up together and served warm. Ruth hates it. Sean could eat it every day. Yemeni Cricket stands divided.

Home Sweet Home

2006-04-03T09:29:00.000-03:00

Presenting the long-awaited photos of our day-to-day lives. We apologize in advance for the lack of excitement in this post.

The tour begins on our street - our building is the last one visible on the right. Entering it you'll see a staircase. Look up - look way up. We live at the very top.

Half a flight of stairs above our door is the door to the roof. Here are the views looking out over the back and the front of the building. Note the proximity of the loudspeakers on that mosque tower; the first prayer call is at 5:30a.m.

The apartment itself is fairly standard, with a few twists. The sinks are in the hallways instead of inside rooms. This is to facilitate washing after you've eaten your meal with your hands. And yes, the toilet is in the shower stall.

Here's Sean making toast in the absence of a toaster, and a shot of the shower-toilet in full operation.

Lots of wooden furniture around, and elaborately carved. Otherwise, the apartment is still quite bare, but we're working on it.

Now to the school: the university building is a little on the spartan/utilitarian side, but I like the open-air hallways and the place is home to some nice plants; an abundance of blossoms makes the quadrangle smell wonderful. Moving on...

This is the stand where we buy most of our fruits and vegetables, and it's a fairly typical example. Some are freestanding and others, like this one, are stuck to the sides of other buildings.

And let's not forget the guy across the street who keeps offering to be our servant. Maybe he's not happy as a shopkeeper. We purchase some dry goods here, as well as our drinking water. There is a large tank in the corner that is refilled by a truck, and from that tank we fill two five-gallon jugs whenever we need to.

Lastly, some neighbours. This town keeps its goats locked up, which is unique; they're free-range in most places (which begs the question, how do the people keep track of their goats?).

Naturally there are many things that have not been included here. Something else you want to see? We take requests - drop us a line. For now, salaam.

The Cricket was here...

2006-03-30T03:21:00.000-04:00

Detail of a Traffic Jam, Old Mukalla

2006-03-28T07:07:00.000-04:00

She Sells Seashells...

2006-03-25T15:54:00.000-04:00

Well, our plans for the long weekend have been postponed until next weekend, but this one was still pretty cool. Today we were snorkelling at a nearby reef, hanging out with the most beautiful tropical fish you can imagine; all the characters from Finding Nemo were there:) And no, Ruth doesn’t snorkel in her balto – the dive centre has a private beach so she can wear a bathing suit. We do wish we could get our hands on a waterproof camera, and so be able to share more of the adventure with you! Stingrays, giant starfish, sea urchins the size of basketballs, and sooo many dazzling fish. Click here for photos that we didn’t take but are nonetheless representative. A wonderfully exciting afternoon.

The pictures that are in this post are from a picnic that happened yesterday. It was on a rocky stretch of coast with some wonderful tidal pools to wander through. Here you can see some of the little fish, urchins, and a weird sort of toothed clam. The conglomeration of shells is also an urchin – things tend to stick to them. We didn’t do it.

I might as well tell you about those plans that fell through. We’ve been working on getting up the coast to a highly populated sea turtle colony. For the past few days a couple of our staff have been ill, and Ruth was one of them. But it wasn’t serious and they’ve both made a full recovery, ready to go exploring next week.

Click on any of the images to view larger versions of them. I recommend this particularly for the urchin colony and the Snorkelling Muslim.

Coming soon, by popular demand: Yemeni Cricket, the Mundane Details edition! You’ll see pictures of the everyday things – where we live, work, and shop.

Climbing Mountains

2006-03-22T11:54:00.000-04:00

Here are some shots from the hike we mentioned a couple posts back. The lake in the crater of the second volcano looked beautiful and inviting, but was too far down to reach on that day. The garment Ruth is wearing is not a burka but a balto, which is cooler. And yes, she does climb mountains in it; John and Lois raised a trooper.

The shot on the right is of Ruth and some others climbing the first volcano. Its crater was dry, and full of the skeletons of small animals, including the blowfish pictured below (and others like him). The birds take them up there to eat, but we also found numerous bird skulls. Do unto others...

The last shot is one my favourites. Yemeni Samurai Chick (Ruth's objections to this name have been noted). The lava formation beside her was unique in that landscape - very few upright rocks remain on the mountain. Shortly after this was taken, we climbed down to the sea in the direction she is facing. The slope was sandier than the one we had climbed up, and the shifting rocks beneath us made for a tricky descent. Lesson learned: don't be an idiot. If the route you took up the mountain was safe, take it again on the way down.

It was a beautiful day, all told, and we look forward to many more adventures. Keep thinking of us as we deal with the daily struggles, too - there are more mountains to be climbed.

With Love,
The Cricket

In the Bullrushes

2006-03-22T11:21:00.000-04:00

Yemeni Cricket: now coming to you in full polychromatic technicolour!! We have solved our photo posting problems; many thanks to Josh and Andrew for their helpful advice. We were about to resort to sending our pictures back home via the Camel Express but this is quicker (and less smelly).

This is a shot of Ruth at the beach near our house. The shoreline is teeming with life and is a beautiful place for a walk. More to come...

Filling In

2006-03-21T06:19:00.000-04:00

Right, we forgot to mention the classes. Sorry, and thanks to Bob and Heather for reminding us. They have started - we've been teaching for a couple weeks now, and we're enjoying it a lot. Sean teaches two three-hour classes each day, and Ruth is in the computer lab from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., facilitating interactive exercises with which students practice what they learn in class. Every student spends three hours in class and one hour in the lab each day, and there are roughly 110 students in the programme. Ruth also does some administrative work between labs.

We live close enough to the university to walk there. For other destinations, the public transportation is wonderful (beating New Brunswick by a long shot, I'm afraid). Every few minutes a small bus rolls by - more of a van really, Toyota's answer to the VW Westfalia - with the side door open, and you hop in. Any time, day or night, you walk out your door and within three minutes you're on a bus. It will take you through town for 20 Rials, or to another town for 30 Rials - about 15 and 20 cents Canadian, respectively. They are in various states of age and repair, and this makes it fun. You can cruise down the highway in one, and since the door is open and most of the windows are missing, the wind is always blowing around you and it feels great. If most of the roof is there, you can get out of the sun, too. The towns are an average of fifteen minutes away from each other, and at 20 cents, it can't be beat.

As far as driving your own car goes, it can be done if you know the rules. Here they are. 1) General: the best defence is a good offence. It's true in hockey and it's true in Yemen. 2) Intersections: if your bumper is in front of his, you have the right of way, no exceptions. He who hesitates loses his bumper - make a new one out of old exhaust pipes. And that's about all there is to that.

Last weekend we went hiking and climbed up - and into - two volcanoes. In the crater of one was a lake, and in the other one was sand, bones and fossils. The beach beside them was littered with bits of coral, very beautiful. Every weekend tends to turn into an adventure like that. We love it.

The food is wonderful. Each day around noon our assistant goes out into the town and comes back with the best grilled chicken we've ever had. And another thing: wander anywhere in this country and you'll soon pass a man with a pile of fresh fruit, a blender, and an extension cord. He's waiting to make you some juice, and you should let him; it's phenomenal, and it'll cost you about a nickel.

That's all for now. A long weekend is upon us (Wed-Sun); we're heading up the coast a little ways with the rest of the staff, and it should be a lot of fun. We'll let you know;)

2006-03-19T06:16:00.000-04:00

Hello Everybody! Well here we are, one month later and still no phone line (this is to explain the long silences and meager emails). There have been many delays and a handful of frustrations, but the joys definitely outweigh the annoyances. We have been in our apartment for a couple of weeks now and are settling in nicely. I think we have become the neighborhood entertainment. I hadn’t realized that watching white people walk and shop could be spellbinding but day after day we continue to amuse the children and bewilder the adults. We are within walking distance of the university, the beach and food. It seems Foah (our town) has as many shops as people. There are three convenience stores within eyesight of each other and 3 fruit stands within 5 minutes of each other (that we’ve discovered so far!). Restaurants abound although ordering is always a challenge, but the Yemenis sure have a good time watching us try.

Soon I hope to fill you in with more details about what we've been up to. We've had many adventures already, and the pictures are coming! Take care everybody.

Love, The Cricket.

On Delays

2006-03-02T09:04:00.000-04:00

Ok, I know. We broke our promise. It's now after Feb. 25th, and still no posts or information. We're sorry, but there's something you should know: things don't go as planned in the Middle East. Consequently, we are having a very good time, but not a productive one. Our class start date has been postponed and we are still not living in our apartment. We moved in a couple days ago, for about an hour. Then we moved back out. We're no longer sure when we will move in to stay. But it might be soon, and once it happens, there really will be more information!
Beyond that, it is March in Yemen. The sun falls like a bludgeon. The land is parched and barren, but beautiful. Twice we've been swimming in the open sea, and the water is warm. You will see pictures when our own computer is up and running in our own apartment. So check back later:)

Just a Note

2006-02-21T11:33:00.000-04:00

We've disabled Posting on our blog for security reasons, but feel free to continue emailing us! We've arrived safely in Yemen but are still more or less in transition - it'll be a while before we're completely settled in, but we will be posting much more frequently when that happens (promise!). Have a great day, and check back here, say, sometime after Feb. 25!

We're Off!

2006-02-13T15:11:00.000-04:00

Well, tomorrow is the big day! We will be flying from Fredericton to Montreal to Frankfurt to Sana'a (Yemen) and we hope that our luggage will make the trip too :) I can't wait to get in the air but I'm also starting to feel a little nervous too. Did we really agree to move half way across the world for a year?!? We would love to hear from family and friends so please feel free to post comments, questions and updates on how things are with you. A little reminder of what's happening at home will no doubt be a welcome reprieve.

With lots of love, Ruth.