Random Snapshots in Aden...

I found this on the side of an old blue truck. You may recognize this from the flag of Saudi Arabia. It is the shahada or Islamic declaration of faith (written in a special script):
لا إله إلا الله محمد رسول الله
la ilaha illa llahu muhammadun rasulu llah
"There is no god but Allah; Muhammad is the Messenger of God"

An old friend from Mauritania grows wild here...Calotropis Procera. There's actually some useful latex fibers produced by this shrifty shrub. But watch out for the milky substance that oozes out of the leaves. It is reputed to blind one permanently should it come into contact with the eyes.

So riding on a minivan from the university to my place, I noticed this steering column sans the epidermis. It caught my attention immediately. It seems to be like a "How Things Work" Encyclopedic diagram brought to life.

Fellow English Language Fellow Whitney and Amideast Academic Coordinator Nafisa enjoy a moment of laughter. Whitney wears the abaya now because it makes life easier, in the sense that she gets less attention out in public than she would otherwise. Nafisa laughs and jokes a l'Africain quoi...after all she grew up in Kenya and still speaks Swahili fluently. Nafisa has good memories of San Antonio when she attended the TESOL 2005 conference on the Riverwalk. :)

I whipped up some guacamole last week and it wound up being a hit with the Amideast staff. It didnt last long in the teachers lounge and several of them asked for the recipe. And that wasn't even MOLCAJETE guacamole!!!

Wonderful News

CONGRATULATIONS NUHA!!!!

Today, I received some wonderful news from Nuha Gamal, one of my university students. She has been awarded one year of undergraduate study in the USA! I am so elated that one of my students won this prestigious award. I feel a special honor with her success because I informed her of the opportunity and wrote a letter on her behalf.
Ultimately, her superior academic accomplishments and language abilities have earned her this life-changing opportunity. She is an exemplary student that seeks to excel in English and I'm very proud for her, her family and her community.
And so, as my year in Yemen draws to an end and I prepare for a return to America, Nuha is at the beginning of an incredible journey where she will leave Yemen for a year and head to America this fall. Mabrook Nuha! (Congratulations!)

Dramatis Personae

I want to present some colorful characters I've met here in Yemen. They have spiced up my journey in their own unique ways and merit mention...

This is Wusfi. (Pronounced [wuss-Fee]) Since he was one of the guards at Amideast, he was one of the 1st people I met and that I saw pretty much everyday. Within a week of being here, I wanted to buy a bicycle and Wusfi offered to help me find one in Cheikh Othman. He is a robust man with a big enough belly, and, as is often befitting of those physical attributes, jovial to the bone. Wusfi is a funny guy and loves to joke with everyone. He enjoys qat and studying for exams while chewing qat. He believes it helps him concentrate and memorize. As a result of this desire to chew and learn, his teeth are often stained from this sacrifice. The color, however, goes well with the occasional henna-dyed highlights he has done on his hair. One funny incident occurred, when a student left him the keys to his automobile, in case it needed to be moved. Wusfi had to move it, but in that process, he mistook the gas pedal for the brake pedal and wrecked into a wall. It frightened some people, but luckily there were no casualites. Afterwards, everybody worked rather efficiently as a team to repair the wall that had been damaged.

This is Teacher Louis:
Louis is from Montreal, Canada and had lived here a year before I arrived. As he was the savvy veteran, he always had good advice and interesting anecdotes. Plus, having worked abroad considerably, he possessed a worldly vision. Louis actually converted to Islam and was and remains quite beloved by the students who knew him. He is a very nice man and had also lived in Mexico before. He also is one heck of a ping-pong player to boot.

This is Mahfood at the Sheraton Hotel Beach at Elephant Bay, Aden. Can you guess why they call it "Elephant" Bay? Take a good look at the picture.

Originally from Aden, Mahfood left about 15 years ago and didnt come back until this year. During his time away, he studied and/or worked in Russia and Estonia. He is now a Professor at a Techonology School in LA. This year when his mother was very ill, he returned here to spend some time with the family. He was here for about 5/6 months and we became buddies. He used to work out at the Sheraton Hotel gym, and I'd tag along with my guitar and hang out on the beach. Mahfood is quite a talented singer and often would do a set of popular songs in English at the nearby Aden Hotel. This usually included some Bob Marley, "Bailamos" by Enrique Iglesias, and "Don't Go Changing" by Billy Joel. He is rumored to be learning Spanish and taking Tango lessons in Argentina.

noshing on sealife

Jogging along the corniche, basking in the Arabian heat and humidity listening to Fatboy Slim, the Rolling Stones, Donovan, Juanes etc on my iPod I spotted a family in the harbor collecting clams at low tide. Somehow out of place this seemed amidst the buzz of morning traffic and the rising heat of the volcanic crucible called Aden.

But Yemeni seafood is one treasure I'll definitely miss when I leave here. The other day I went again to the market bought some fish (derak=kingfish) and ran home to make sashimi a la Shohei. Not quite Niki's Tokyo Inn on Hildebrand and San Pedro in SA, but hey raw fish is raw fish and it was good enough for me. Domo arigato to my sashimi sensei Shohei the shutterbug from Tokyo I met in Mukalla.

Then the other day, I opted for a crab boil...I bought 1/2 a kilo o' crabs for $2 and googled for a recipe. It's quite easy. All you gotta do is boil some water with plenty of salt, throw in some chili powder, coriander, pepper or whatever spices you like and then toss in the crabs with shell and all. 10 minutes later your mouth is teleported to the docks of B-more as you voracioiusly crack these crustaceans into oblivion. They went rather well with a garlic butter dipping sauce I conjured up. ummm yummy.

and today...i'm doing ceviche....the fish was alive at 4am, caught at 5am, brought into Aden's fish market at 7...I bought it at 7:30, at 7:45 it was deboned and filleted. By 8:30 it was sittin in my fridge marinating in the ascorbic acidity of freshly squeezed lime juice. 6 hours from now, my mouth will teleport to veracruz and prompt me to belt out some son jarocho.

I'm also gonna make a crab dip. For seafood lovers and seafood cooks, aden is another playground. I wonder what I can do with clams...some kind of pasta clam dish comes to mind....linguini...hm, i gotta go google now. peace out