Went to Mamoud’s house today for lunch. I usually avoid these types of things, but for some reason I went along this time. First, the good… The food was really good. I had some things I hadn’t had before, like stuffed eggplant. There was also this spaghetti, egg, cheese thing that had been baked, it was pretty good too.
Now the bad. As usual, we all sat on the floor. This causes me all sorts of problems, my hips ache and my butt falls asleep. After we finsihed eating, we went into the next room so some of them could chew qat. I got a wicked cramp in my left leg, I couldn’t stand up and it hurt like hell. They thought it was hilarious, they laughed and laughed… I got into the usual discussion about qat, they kept insisting that I chew and I kept refusing. One of the guys said that I should spread the word about qat in the US, and I just just couldn’t help myself, I asked him, “Oh, so that the US can be like Yemen?” It was actually pretty edgy humor, some of them appreciated it…
The rest of the chew involved the usual mishmash of racist and sexist comments mixed in with a healthy dose of ignorance. These things always depress me and I always wonder why I go. The irony of an Arab, a Yemeni telling me that blacks, and Africans in particular, couldn’t be trusted because of what they have done to Africa killed me. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! If an African had said the same thing about Arabs (and they just might), the guy at the chew would have been livid. I’m done, no more accepting invites to people’s houses unless I know them really well, the racism and ever present sexism is killing me. I try to be culturally sensitive, but really, c’mon. Some things are just wrong…