My Yemen Blog

When I first came here, I had been talking to a guy from Yemen via IM. He wanted me to bring him a used laptop since there aren’t any reasonably priced ones here. It wasn’t much money, something like $400, and I figured that if he didn’t have the money I could always sell it myself. So I brought it over for him. Not surprisingly, he didn’t have all the money, he had $250. He had done some things for me so I figured that I’d just give it to him and just kissed that money goodbye despite the fact that he “swore” that he’d repay me. The next month he came around asking to “borrow” more money. That got me really hot, I told him that he should ask for money from people that he didn’t already owe money to. I then told him that I didn’t want to see him again until he had my money. I still figured that the money was gone, but at least now I also figured that I wouldn’t see him again, lesson learned.

Well, last night he calls me up and tells me that he has my money! He came by and gave it to me. I am still blown away that he paid me back. Good on you Sufian, I know that’s a significant chunk of change for people here (about 37% of the “average” annual income over here) and I’m very happy that he was able to sort out whatever he had to. He’s still a bad credit risk in my book, but at least he’s an honest guy.

Yesterday, I learned the phrase that means “vacuum cleaner” in Arabic. My teacher thought a second and then asked me what the English phrase meant. I explained that it was a cleaner that used a vacuum to suck up the dirt. I then had to explain what a vacuum was. I said that is was a space with absolutely nothing in it. “So it is air?” he asked. No, no air, no nothing. He really didn’t get it. I then said that it was like outer space, that he understood. But he still didn’t understand how that worked in a vacuum cleaner. I asked him what would happen to the air in the space shuttle if you opened a window in space. He didn’t know… Seriously, he had no idea, he had never heard of a siphon (and I didn’t use that word, I explained what it did) and he had no idea how water came up through the taps. Pumps were a total mystery to him, I guess he thinks they are magic. This is a graduate of a Yemeni college. I knew this stuff by 4th grade, 5th max. He also didn’t understand how people could eat a poisonous snake and not die. He was amazed to find out that the poison is in a discrete sac.

I’ll say this, his knowledge of both Arabic and English grammar is very good. If I had to guess, his knowledge about science would be about on a 3d grade level, and I wonder if his math skills are above a 7th grade level. Like I said, this is a college graduate, talking to people on the street can be really painful sometimes. The level of ignorance here is appalling and it is easily the thing I dislike the most about this place.

There are a lot of obstacles in the way of a Yemeni that wants an education of course. Poverty is the number one problem. Teachers with what we would consider a mid high school education are another. In some areas of the country, there are so few schools, and so many students that there can be upwards of 200 kids in a class! The problem is only going to get worse. Yemen has one of the largest population growth rates in the world, over half the population is under the age of 16. With that many people getting that little education, this place will be in a world of trouble in 10 years and I don’t see any way around it…

There is a water crisis looming for Yemen. They are running out of water very quickly. All of the fresh water in Yemen is from underground or rainwater, there are no rivers or lakes here. At the current rate of consumption, it is estimated that Sana’a (the capital) will be out of water by 2015. The recent headline in the Yemen Times states that increased urbanization is threatening Yemen’s water supply. Of course when you look at the accompanying chart, it is shown that agriculture is responsible for consuming 93% of Yemen’s water. Of that, 30%-40% is quat production. To make matters worse, Yemen’s irrigation methods (when they exist at all) are really inefficient. It is estimated that they waste 40%-60% of the water they use in farming.

The obvious thing to do is to work on increasing irrigation efficiency. If you can get back 45% of your water supply by making changes in agriculture, you would think they would do it. That doesn’t seem to be the way that officials are thinking though. They are really playing up the water drying up doomsday scenario. I’m not really sure what their plan is. Some officials have come right out and said that people will simply have to live somewhere else. While that isn’t what people want to hear, it certainly makes a lot of sense. Since the government has zero control over who has access to water and how much they use (everyone just drills wells), even my favorite method of rationing, by price, won’t work. The folks on the government might have already figured out that it doesn’t matter what they do, people will keep using it until its gone.

A not so obvious reason why there is so much water used for agriculture is what the government has done to promote it. Years ago (I’m not sure of the exact date), the president banned (or at least made incredibly expensive) the importation of fruits and vegetables. This had the desired effect of kick starting the agriculture industry here in Yemen. They boast that Yemen now is an exporter of fruits and vegetables and an important part of the economy. No one seems to have wondered why they weren’t in the past… It turns out that agriculture isn’t as well suited to Yemen as it is to other places in the world, you have to use a lot of very precious water here to get crops. If Yemen had allowed the importation of fruits and vegetables, the local growers would not use nearly as much water and they might have been able to stave off the current crisis. I have a feeling that when the water shortages hit the hardest, agriculture will naturally feel the brunt of it. The water will be too brackish to water crops and they will have to go back to importing their food. In the end, it will have the same effect as if the agriculture industry had not been propped up for all of these years, but it will be devastating to the economy and there will be mass migrations and refugee problems. The moral? Governments should not screw around with artificially protecting/subsidizing industries, REALLY bad things can happen…

I just went to a juice stand and got a pomegranate/orange juice mix. Oh my God, it is the most amazing thing EVER! They squeeze the fruit right in front of you, the pomegranate juice is a really nice raspberry color, it’s much sweeter and lighter than the stuff you can buy in the states. Mix it with some fresh squeezed orange juice and it is truly the elixir of life. This juice is an excellent reason to come to Yemen, If all you did was go back and forth from your hotel room and this juice stand for this juice, it would be a great vacation. Seriously, it is a revelation, if you are ever here this time of the year, you MUST try this stuff!!!

I’ll have to go back home to write everything.. I spent about half of today’s class discussing the Iraq situation. My teacher, like so many other people over here, assumes that the US is getting all sorts of money and oil from Iraq. I told him that the US is spending TRILLIONS of dollars and not getting anything out of it. We are not benefitting from it at all. Of course he asked the obvious question of “Then why are you there?” I did not have a good answer….

Did you know that many people here are rooting for Hillary Clinton? Do you know why? One of the really obscure Republican candidates announced his idea that we should threaten to use nuclear weapons on Mecca and Medina if a terrorist uses them on the US. Of course here people think that if he is elected he will immediately commence bombing. I really wish that people would just shut up. Why even mention the possibility of blowing up Mecca and Medina, it can only cause trouble.

I have lots more but I don’t have time right now, if things go well, I should have a bunch of new posts tomorrow…

I do love Yemeni grapes. I picked up a kilo of the most beautiful looking grapes last night. I’m referring to them as Macintosh grapes since they have the identical coloration, a soft red blending into that green grape color. Anyway, yum yum! I’ve also managed to figure out what the difference is between the cashews here and back home (other than price). Unfortunately, those of you not from the Gloucester, VA area probably won’t understand. You know how Whitley’s peanuts taste different than Planter’s? Well, these are the same way, they have more crunch and just taste fresher. Now the next item on the agenda is how to tell when a pomegranate is ripe, any ideas?