Beyt Qatina

I'm going to do this installment the same was as I did last terms trip to Hadramout, in three pieces. Each day was so full, I'm sorry!
And don't get excited, it's not my camera, the pictures are all stolen from friends.

7/31 - Day One

The second term big trip! I signed up for a “strenuous hiking trip” to the region of Beyt Qatina in the mountains south of Sana’a. It was a small trip, 14 students as opposed to my 60 person trip to Hadramout, with 3 girls and 11 guys. We met early on Thursday morning and headed out of Sana’a in a bus. 2 hours later (after passing Shibam and Kokaban, we pulled off to the side of the road in a valley of qat fields. Awaiting us were a pickup truck and a Land Cruiser made circa 1970. There was a hole in the floor of the Land Cruiser and to be quite honest, I doubted its ability to make it through the weekend. I had no idea what this car, both cars, were capable of. Let’s just say I have some new plans for the adventure truck when I get home.

We piled into our two new cars which were going to take us around for our trip, as our bus ‘couldn’t handle the roads.’ NO KIDDING! After about 10 minutes on paved roads, we thought the bus driver was just lazy. I moved from the bed of the pickup truck where 10 of us were crammed onto the top of the cab in order to have more room. Then we came around the bend and the wonderful paved road disappeared in front of our eyes.
In its place was simply a blasted path on the side of the mountain. Rocks and sinkholes included. Riding on the top of that pickup was like riding a mechanical bull. What a workout. There were several times we struggled to get up a 45 degree incline on straight rocks, but our trucks never failed!

Before heading to our house for the weekend, we visited a small, hilltop village for a rural wedding! We were all excited, made even more so by the gunfire we heard as we drove up. They used to do this at ever wedding in Yemen – a traditional shooting of Kalashnikovs to celebrate. It’s been banned in the cities due to a tendency of people to shoot each other accidentally, but in the mountaintops of rural Yemen it is a common form of wedding celebration. While the men talked guns, beat drums, and danced with their curved knives called jambiyyas (ah, the manliness of being a man), the women thought it would be even more fun to go and join the women’s party. In Sana’a the women’s wedding parties are a blast. Whistling and yelling, loud Arabic pop music (although if you’re lucky you just might get ‘I’m a Barbie Girl’), an overdressed bride, and the Mecca of 80’s prom gowns and sequins. Same thing right? Wrong... nothing could have been more wrong. First of all, the bride was 13. We sat in a dark room with a scared girl in a wedding dress a couple sizes too big, huge fake purple flowers and gold bracelets and tiara, and women who realize that this is not an exciting day for the bride. Silences mixed with words of comfort to the girl. But we thought it would be ok, we could eat and then be happy. In the rural villages the women eat the leftovers of the men. Literally. One of the guys took an after picture of their lunch. That was the before picture to ours. Once you got over the fact that you were eating someone else’s leftovers, however, the food was pretty good for the boonies!

We joined our male compatriots at the qat chew following lunch. I set next to a Yemeni man who, before we arrived, had apparently told another member of my trip that all he wanted was an American wife. I guess I’m all set! I consented to try a leaf – the evils of peer pressure! DISGUSTING! I know it’s bad for the economy, and I know how incredibly unattractive chewers are, and I know how its inhibiting agriculture, but honestly, the taste is enough to make me never want to touch it again. I don’t know how 80% of the country chews it for hours a day. Gross.

We left the wedding to head to our house for the next 2 days. A normal Yemeni farmhouse, the building had two rooms with cushions around the walls for us to live and sleep in. The locals chewed more as we played cards, after which we took an effortless stroll around the qat and coffee fields adjacent to the house. The highlight of that short hike was the local kids, who use small pieces of metal to slide down the irrigation tubes at breakneck speeds.

Dinner that night was a simple meal of beans, bread, cheese, and tea. Night falls early, especially because the house is in a wadi (valley) and the sun sets earlier for us. With an ancient propane lamp we were able to gather inside and play Mafia ( a game of deceit, lying, persuasion, and death – hours of fun!). Highlights included the consistent killing of the sole British kid in the beginning stages of the game leading to calls of a nationalistic form of racism, allegations turning as petty as ‘Well, he’s twirling his hair….’ (guilty, that was me, and it worked), and our big lovable Blake being unable to defend himself against allegations of being in the Mafia because “The light, it’s so round…and bright…I can’t take my eyes off it…”

Being in the country is not complete without an uncomfortable sleep – so bring on the floor!

P.S. Only thirty people from the Yemen Language Center in its 23 years have been to Beyt Qatina and we're pretty sure they're the only center that runs this trip into the tribal lands. Baller!!!