Isaac
1) Good shoes. That may seem obvious, but I recommend having shoes that have a relatively stiff sole. I have some really nice “walking” shoes, but they seem to be made for Europe/US streets. The cobblestones here are really uneven and lumpy and I find that my feet get sore very easily when I use these shoes. The ideal shoes would be light, breathable, with a fairly stiff sole. It doesn’t hurt to have them be waterproof. Sandals are very popular, but beware of burnt feet, stepping in “stuff”, and people stepping on your toes in the souk. I like my shoes thank you very much… I found a pair of Soloman shoes to be ideal (but my feet are now too wide). Can’t remember the model, but they have the “seamless” construction and have a soft shell.
2) A flashlight. When I first got here, power outages at night were very common. They seem to be not as common any more, but they still happen. It is very very very common in the other cities and outlaying villages. My flashlight stopped me from walking over a cliff in Kokahbahn… I have a 3 watt LED flashlight that uses 123 lithium batteries. I recommend a similar one highly. It is small enough to carry almost all the time, it is BRIGHT, and I get about 15 hours of useful battery life out of a pair of 123s. I brought 4 sets of batteries and I’m still using the first set.
3) Sunglasses. Make sure that they are actual sunglasses and not just dark glasses. You can get very cheap dark glasses here, just like all over the world. But if you are going to wear dark glasses, make sure that you are blocking as much UV as possible! Darker glasses make your pupils dilate, if you don’t have UV blocking sunglasses, you’ll actually be doing more damage with them than without them… One hint, prescription glasses here are pretty cheap. I got an eye exam, new lenses for my regular glasses, and a pair of prescription Ray bans for around $160. You can get much cheaper if you don’t want the fancy name brand. Bring your prescription and get new glasses!
4) Pocket sized English Arabic dictionary. Try to get an MSA or Fusa one. I don’t think there’s a Yemeni dialect one. The MSA will be closer to the locals speech than the Egyptian one will be. Most people do not know English, so knowing the words for bathroom, doctor, etc. can really be useful. There’s a good book called “Emergency Arabic” which is pretty good for those sorts of phrases, but it might be a little big to carry everywhere.
5) If you are coming from a place that really knows sun protection like Australia, the EU, South America, basically any place except the US, bring your super duper sunscreen. If you’re coming from the US, buy some in Dubai or Egypt or whatever connecting airport you go through. The US sun screens are really wimpy and oily in comparison to the good stuff.
6) Plug adaptors. The electricity is 240 volts here, but God only knows what kind of plug you will see. I have seen everything except the US style ones. The most common is the large 3 prong jobs. You can usually get a set of adaptors and that should cover you.
If you will be here for a while, here are some other things to bring.
1) A laptop computer. There are internet cafes here, and many of them will allow you to use your laptop. That’s a good thing since the computers at the cafes are inevitably slow, virus and adware plagued pains in the ass. I have not heard of any wireless spots outside of the school, but if you are willing to drive around the richer areas, I’m sure you can find a hot spot somewhere. Bring a jump drive as well. They are great for printing things at the cafes, much easier than trying to navigate their printer system, trust me… Also bring a decent laptop case, the ones here are cheap, but they suck and fall apart in no time. Once again, trust me…
2) If you shave with a blade, bring them with you. For some reason, the good blades cost a fortune here. Back home Mach III blades are almost a third of the price here.
3) Meat. This may sound strange, but if you are staying for several months it may make sense. It is difficult to find nice beef here, and of course impossible to find pork. I am wishing I had brought a couple of sticks of pepperoni in with me… I had a couple sharing this house with me and they had brought their own beef. They didn’t regret it.
4) A lot of patience and/or the occasional flight out of here. You really can get just about everything else that you’ll need here, but you will need some patience. I am assuming that you’ll be in Sana’a. If you plan on staying in an outlaying area, you’ll have to bring more stuff. Drop me a line if you have any questions!
Isaac
I had gotten to the embassy early again, but this time instead of just hanging out on the corner, I decided to look around. The first thing I noticed was how close we were to Zubairi and the supermarket I wanted to get to. I knew I was in the neighborhood, but it was a block away. Walking along the road, I found a couple of spice shops. Spice shops here are a trip. They are a combination of cooking supply, herbal remedies, and traditional cosmetic care. One shop had recipes plastered all over the place, presumably to spur buying things you wouldn’t think of otherwise. There were anti-hemmeroid tea recipes, anti-acne, shiny hair, and many other recipes that I would never have guessed that I would find. One shop was rather narrow, the proprietor had to squeeze between his counter and his back wall. If I faced the counter, there were a bunch of cubbies to my back. Most of his more expensive stuff (various nuts mostly) were in glass displays in the counter. I did notice that he had a bin of saffron in the area in front of the counter and behind the customers if they were facing the counter. There must have been over $2000 worth of saffron there. At lest that’s what it would sell for in the US. I’ve never seen that much in one place before. Even the guys in the spice souk keep it behind their stall and in individual packets.
Another place I went to had an amazing collection of oils. Mint, linseed, clove, fenugreek, cod liver, saffron, rose extract, coriander, marrow(ew!), and more were arrayed in an island in the store. I’m pretty sure that these were intended for the hair because they had a special “For the hair” blend and it had many other hair products around them. In any case, I doubt that the oils were pure in some cases (what would pure saffron oil cost?) but probably diluted with corn oil or something. Still, interesting…
After I was shooed away from the embassy, I went back to one of the shops and bought about half a pound (1/4 kilo) of cashews. I don’t know if they were fresher, lacked the preservatives, were higher quality, or I was just much more hungry than I thought, but those were the best cashews I have ever had. 2 bucks, that’s what it cost for a half pound of perfect, whole cashews. Those, along with a glass of fresh squeezed OJ made up my breakfast/lunch.
It’s a good thing I did that before I went to the store. I only go to the actual supermarket for things like soap, tooth stuff, TP, etc. I loaded up on stuff that I had been waiting to get for a while. One of the things I go to this store for is Listerine, it’s the only place I can find it. It has always been expensive, around 7 bucks for a smallish bottle, but now they only have the size that is just a little larger than the travel size. At 5 bucks for that I finally had to look at some other stuff. I had always thought that the Listerine was expensive because not many people bought products with alcohol in them. Well, I found another mouthwash with alcohol in it for less than half the price, so now I have no idea why there is such a huge difference.
Anyway, I got all of my stuff and I had a bright idea, why not walk back a different way? Zubairi goes right by the store, and it also goes by tahreer square, which is where I have to go. I have always taken a more circuitous route because that’s the way it was shown to me and I had never made the connection before. So off I go, enjoying the weather (not a cloud in the sky, no humidity, low 80’s in the sun) and looking into the shops as I pass by. I had seen some landmarks that looked familiar to me, but after a while I didn’t recognize anything. Just after the thought “I’ve been walking for a while,” occurred to me, I noticed that the old city was on my left. Uh oh, that’s not good. I was expecting to walk to Tahreer and to make a right into the old city. I figured out that I was somewhere between the Bab-Al-Yemen (the door of Yemen, one of Sana’a’s most famous sights and the entrance to the main souk) and where I wanted to be. I could either walk along the wall around the old city, or I could try cutting through the city. Why walk more than I needed to? I went into the old city and tried to go in a diagonal towards where I wanted to go. The sun was directly overhead, and there are no “blocks” in the old city so I was soon turned around. I thought I knew were I was for a bit, I recognized one of the shops, but it turns out that I was going the opposite way that I thought. I wandered and wandered and ended up at… Bab-Al-Yemen. At least I knew where I was, on the opposite side of the old city from where I wanted to be.
I walked back via a familiar route. I had walked from a point about a mile from the old city, past it and onto the other side. I then had wandered aimlessly for a while only to end up at the far end and then walked home from there all with carrying my groceries, probably 7 or 8 pounds worth. I estimate I did around 5 or 6 miles in total. Good thing I cancelled class, I’m wiped out! Thank God I ate something and got some calories in me. In hindsight, I think that I veered at an intersection when I should have drifted. I’m pretty sure I can do what I had in mind, but that means that it is not Zubaiari that goes in front of Tahreer…At least my laundry was dry when I got home. With weather like this, it only takes 20 minutes or so for most things to dry, maybe 30 for my heavy socks, and probably just under an hour for my jeans. Forget about making hay while the sun shines, I’ve got laundry to do!
Isaac
Tonight we are going to an Indian place, I am beyond excited to find a (what sounds like) a decent Indian restaurant. I’ve been craving Indian food since before I got here. I hope it lives up to what people have told me….
Isaac
I do believe that there is a trade off between preventing crime and preventing irresponsible/impaired judgement/children getting a hold of guns/accidents/and situations where guns are present pose a clear risk. For example, I don’t think that anyone would claim that your second amendment rights extend to when you are visiting someone in prison. There are obvious and serious consequences if people found out that you had a gun there. Similarly, courthouses present a dangerous combination of high tensions and not always responsible people. It seems logical to limit the presence of weapons in these types of circumstances. A college campus is, IMO, a similar situation. Campuses are notorious for the amount of drinking and “partying” that goes on. I believe, and I think that most people would agree with me, that the incidence of stupid things happening with guns would most likely go up on campus. Here’s the kicker, Ex Ante that outcome is SO much more likely than a rampaging lunatic (at least in Blacksburg), the costs of many students having guns on campus would not outweigh the benefit of possibly (possibly mind you) preventing what happened at Va. Tech.
Courthouses and prisons are fairly easy to keep weapon free, campuses not so much. This means that someone could (and did) walk onto campus, guns a blazing, and no one could do anything about it. If people are really worried about a similar event occurring at Va. tech, or any other campus, make sure that there is some sort of deterrent and/or defense against it. Perhaps allow or encourage faculty and Residence directors to carry a weapon and let it be known that some of them do. There’s also the tried and true idea of hiring professional armed security people. If they have a visible presence on campus, and it is well known that they can be anywhere on campus in a matter of minutes, that would most likely be enough.
So random carrying of weapons is indeed a powerful deterrent against crime, but there are situations where widespread gun distribution will most likely lead to more problems that it solves. Obviously there is a sliding scale, and different places will have to figure out where they are on that scale. Guns can be good and bad, sometimes all at the same time.
Isaac
Isaac
While I was writing it, I had a brainstorm on why so many people cling to the idea of wealth being a zero sum game. While any given transaction is indeed zero sum (the more money I pay, the more you get and the less I have), that does not translate into how the economy generates wealth. Just like the confusion between accounting profit and economic profit, the confusion between money and wealth befuddles many people. I’ll put up another essay (I’m sure you’re all holding your breath) about that later. I better get to bed…
Isaac
Isaac
The largest employer in the world announced on Dec. 15 that it lost about $450 billion in fiscal 2006. Its auditor found that its financial statements were unreliable and that its controls were inadequate for the 10th straight year. On top of that, the entity’s total liabilities and unfunded commitments rose to about $50 trillion, up from $20 trillion in just six years.
If this announcement related to a private company, the news would have been on the front page of major newspapers. Unfortunately, such was not the case — even though the entity is the U.S. government.
To put the figures in perspective, $50 trillion is $440,000 per American household and is more than nine times as much as the median household income.
The only way elected officials will be able to make the tough choices necessary to put our nation on a more prudent and sustainable long-term fiscal path is if opinion leaders state the facts and speak the truth to the American people.
The Government Accountability Office is working with the Concord Coalition, the Brookings Institution, the Heritage Foundation and others to help educate the public about the facts in a professional, nonpartisan way. We hope the media and other opinion leaders do their part to save the future for our children and grandchildren.
DAVID M. WALKER
Comptroller General of the United States
Government Accountability Office
Washington
This is much worse than Enron, much worse than Worldcom, but why doesn’t it get the press that those other two did?
Isaac
I wouldn’t have come over here if there was any danger and I certainly wouldn’t stay if there was any danger. This place is not dangerous, yes even if you are a woman. Keep in mind that men are forbidden to touch women here. That isn’t just some sort of law passed by the government, it is how they are raised and part of their religion. I’m not saying there aren’t any jerks here or that groping couldn’t possibly happen, but I think it would be less likely here than any city in the US.
So come over and visit!
Isaac