It rained quite a bit last night. I was on my way to get something to eat and go to the grocery store on hadda street. Luckily for me, I only had a quick dash from the dabob to the restaurant in the rain. By the time I had finished eating, it had stopped.
I still had to go shopping, and that led to getting a close up and personal look at the drainage situation on Hadda. I had written before about this, but now I was a pedestrian and it gave me a slightly different view. It turns out that the roads are indeed crowned. This means that the road itself was relatively free of water, it was all directed towards the edges. Here’s where the problem is… All of the water is directed towards the edges of the road, but there is no drainage system. There’s no grates or drains for the water.
Waterproof shoes are a wonderful thing. As a matter of fact, I highly recommend them if you’re coming to Yemen in the summer. Of course, they are only as effective as they are high. I’m really glad I have waterproof shoes, but I estimate that the water was 5-6 inches high along the gutters. I had to go down the side streets to find a place to ford the street. The good news is that I was one of the only people stupid enough to go shopping right about then, the store was deserted.
The sailia was a raging torrent. It was probably around 4 feet deep with a really swift current. People come out and admire the sailia when it’s like this. Actually, it was only men and boys last night. Maybe that was because of the hour, women are discouraged from going out after dark in the old city.
Anyway, the upshot is that I would avoid going anywhere within several hours of a heavy rainfall, it’s a mess and a little nasty. If you have boots, the city would essentially be yours, but I’ve never seen anyone wearing them here. There were several times that I thought that water had gotten into my shoes. Turns out it was just the cold water cooling my foot from the outside. I shudder to think of that water getting inside my shoes, how would I ever clean them? Of course the locals just waded through it with their sandals. I sure hope that they didn’t have any cuts on their feet…
2 replies on “Water water everywhere…”
Where’d you eat?!?! i think it should have been ‘the amazing shawarma place’ but i don’t think you’d go for that. did you ever make it to fluffy bunny or whatever? i miss the indian restaurant. i’d have to drive half an hour plus to make it to an indian restaraunt around here. though the chinese is cheaper and mexican is too be found. i guess i win. i’d better hear from you when you get back!
I was going to the Turkish place on Hadda. BTW, it has BETTER shwarma than the so called amazing schwarma place:-)
Isaac