Dana left this morning. She was really excited to be going home, but we were all sad to see her go. I’m going to miss you sweetie, take care of yourself and I’ll give you a call when I get back to the states. SIGH, the place won’t be the same.
That’s the problem with being here for a while. I meet interesting people, and then they leave. Oh well, I’m glad I meet them at all…
I joined Facebook (a networking site) basically just to keep track of my cousin at Cornell. It turns out that she isn’t very active on it these days, but a lot of the people going to CALES (my current institution here in Yemen) are very active on it. So I’ve added a bunch of contacts. Besides linking with people, you can also join groups. I’ve joined a handful like:
CALES
It’s way the fuck down Hadda (because everything here is indeed why the hell down Hadda street)
Hans Wehr is my copilot (It’s pronounced with a V, that German made the best Arabic dictionary ever)
and a few economic related ones like Marginal Revolution and the Mises Institute.
There are some groups with great names. Some of my favorites are:
I’ve made a fortress out of my folders so assholes like you can’t cheat (it shows three paper folders surrounding a piece of paper)
I’m so hot I’m almost Haraam (haraam means forbidden in Islam)
Che Guevera was a murderer and your shirt’s not cool.
There are an endless number of these things, I’m getting a real kick out of the creativity that goes into naming them. If I see anymore that I think that people should know about I’ll let you know.
My cold got better several days ago, but I’ve been doing stuff all the time. The teaching is going well. I’m enjoying it and the students seem to be enjoying it as well. The only real problem is that I don’t really know which class I’ll be teaching when I get to work. The principle did make a schedule for me, but it was immediately ignored and things were shifted around so much that it doesn’t make any sense any more. I’ve walked into several classes and had to ask “Which level is this?” It’s not too bad once I have the correct book, the lessons are pretty much all right there. I read out of the book, demonstrate their examples, and then answer questions. Even if the class starts out hectic, it always settles down into a good class by the end.
My apartment stuff is pretty much taken care of. I’ll be moving into it in January. It’s only $100 a month! My only difficult thing now is coming up with the first three months rent and the price of all of the furnishings. I’m over a bit of a barrel, if I don’t buy the stuff, the landlord will and then he’ll charge more per month since it’ll be a “furnished” apartment. I’ve got until the first week of December to come up with the money. After I do this, the money will not be a problem, but this big purchase and three months rent is a big chunk…
I’m doing well with the new teacher. Every once in a while, he is unable to explain a new word well enough and we have to resort to a dictionary, but most of the time it isn’t a problem. Being forced to speak in Arabic all the time, even about grammar, is making my brain work, and hurt on occasion.
My time is suddenly at a premium. That’s a huge difference from before. It used to be I’d have two hours of class and then the rest of the time was mine. Now I’ve got the two hours of class, teaching is taking up about 4 hours (with commuting time), and then I’ve got homework, I have to eat (and getting down Hadda or cooking takes time), and I have to attempt to prepare for teaching. I’ve got a window of time every day for using the internet, but it keeps getting squeezed. Anyway, it’s good to be doing productive stuff again, but I forgot how much time it uses up!
I just can’t shake this damn cold. I don’t feel too bad, but this morning my voice was pretty hoarse. Talking seemed to hurt so I decided to play it safe and call in sick for my lesson and teaching gig. I feel stupid calling in sick on my second day of work but I figure that I’m there so they an hear how I talk. If I can’t talk well, I’m pretty much useless. I really don’t want this to develop into laryngitis, so I’m staying home and keeping talking to a minimum. I hope I’m better tomorrow….
Not only was today my first day teaching, I got a bunch of other things accomplished as well. I got a new teacher and scheduled a new time for my lessons. This one doesn’t speak any English, it’ll be a challenge but I think that it’ll improve my Arabic. I picked up my ticket to fly home, everything is official now. I’ll leave here 4:50PM on Dec. 13th and I will be at Dullas at 10:10 Dec. 14th. There’s a killer layover in Doha, but my ticket looks mercifully simple. I even got some of my Christmas shopping done, how’s that for early shopping? I just wish that I had more days like that…
Woot! I went down to the school today and worked out most of the details. I’ll be teaching everyday from 3-6PM. That’ll get me about $600 a month. Doesn’t sound like much (it isn’t really) but it is way above what the average Yemeni can make, even the English teachers. I shouldn’t have any trouble living off of that. I’ll have a maximum of $200 a month in rent (with any luck it’ll actually be $100), and another $200 a month for living expenses, and that’s living well. I could get it down to $100 a month if I made some effort… My Arabic lessons will cost about $600 or 3 months worth, so that works out. Anyway, this is cool because it means that I can stay for another year! I knew going in that getting where I want to be in Arabic in just one year wasn’t going to happen, I’m sure glad that I can do this properly.
If I am able to arrange some private lessons (and that’s a big IF) I could squeeze another c-note or two out a month. That’ll let me travel a little. It only costs $100-$200 to go to places like Ethiopia and Syria. This also means that all of you will have another year of chances to get over here!:-) It’s a cheap vacation and I guarantee that you’ll never forget it…
Karl has come back! He’s one of the cooler roommates I’ve had and now he’s back for a second tour. Last night karl, Henry, Michael, Denato, Tami, and I all went out to dinner. Henery is also one of my favorite ex roommates, and Michael is a current and previous favorite. Denato is a current one. All I needed was for Luca and Nollaig to be here and I’d have a collection of all of my favorite roommates. Dinner was fun and when we got back to my (our?) place, I broke out my bottle of cognac and we finished out the night with lot of fun conversation. Denato was sharing some of his cigars, we got several comments to the effect that they had not expected to finish the night in Sana’a with cognac and cigars, but that they were glad that they did.
Michael will be going back home tomorrow (although I might see him sometime in Jan. in the States) and Karl will come back to this building after him. It’s people like this that make me wonder if moving into my own place is a good idea. Luca and Nollaig made me sure that I had made the right decision when I moved in, and I’ve met a handful of other people that I’m glad I’ve met in the meantime. Of course I’ve also had to put up with some not so pleasant people as well. In the end, I think that I will move out, for money reasons if nothing else. I’ve never had my own place before, and the thought of not having to wait to take a shower, wait to do my laundry, or wrestle for space in the kitchen (and deal with other people’s dishes) makes me smile.
I’ll enjoy the company of Karl and Henry until the end of the year, then (In’shalla) I will move out. Karl and Tami will be here for a while. We’ll see what I think of my idea after they leave…
I’ve uploaded (assuming that everything has gone well) some audio files. There’s a couple of calls to prayer and what I believe is the first sura in the Q’uran. Let me tell you, this is how a religious text should be, it can be downright beautiful. Unfortunetly, I’ve never heard anyone quite as good as this here. I think this guy is from Egypt and I think he’s pretty good. Anyway, let me know if there are any problems…
I don’t know what my problem is, no matter what time I go to bed, I can only rouse myself at noon. I’m blaming ramadan for this, I’m still sleeping on a ramadan schedule. It took me a couple of weeks to get into it, and I guess it’ll take a couple of weeks to get out of it as well… Luckily, my class isn’t until 4, so there hasn’t been too many problems. Of course the diretor of the school leaves at around noonish, so I’ll have to drag my carcass out of bed at the crack of 10 O’clock one morning so I can pay him.
One of my housemates left today and I can’t say I’m unhappy about it. He was unusual for a housemate that I didn’t care for in that he didn’t do anything big wrong, but he did every little thing wrong. He didn’t do his dishes, he (and his room) smelled, he constantly interrupted me while we were talking, was always asking to borrow things, and generally got on my nerves. He was from Austria and lectured me several times about the domestic American political situation. If that wasn’t bad enough, he even made me jealous by doing things that I can’t do through his connections at UNDP. Anyway, he’s gone, and after we air the place out a bit I’m sure I’ll get back to normal…
Morris also left yesterday. He’s an odd guy, probably in his mid 60’s and from North Carolina. He’s had an interesting life, including living in various parts of Africa for 13 straight years in the 80’s and 90’s. He is the only person I have ever met that could drop lines into conversations like, “That reminds me of a time when I was working on a railroad in Gabon…” An educated redneck, that’s what he called himself, he’s got degrees from American U. and UVA. While he had many interesting stories to tell, he could be a bit difficult to be with for a while, hard drinking and smoking are two attributes that describe him well. With a few drinks in him, his North Carolina redneck self came out, he dropped N___ bombs without compunction.
We get an odd group here at the school. i guess it’s fair to say that it takes an odd person to come here at all. Even the people I don’t like add a little something to the experience here, I’ll remember all of them.