>And one more

>As I never appear on this blog I would also like to publish a picture of Liva and her dad at the kids’ konninginnedag. As you can see I have dressed up in orange to show my respect for the Dutch Queen.

 

>Konninginnedag

>Last weekend it was konninginnedag (or for the non-Dutch speakers Queen’s day). Being abroad this day is of course celebrated more than it would be if we were in Europe. Coming to think about it, the only times I have been celebrating the Queen’s birthday has been when I have been attending functions at the Embassy while I was abroad. Anyway, the celebration consisted of 3 different components. First there was the reception attended by 700 people. I missed this part as I had to be at home to look after the kids. After that there was a party, or as they say in Dutch Oranjebal, for the Dutch community in Yemen. They had really gone through quite an effort to make it nice, including flying down a band from Holland, Frank and Friends. Anyway this was followed the day after with the konninginnedag for the kids. Below you see a picture from the konninginnedag for the kids, that was held in the garden of one of the employees of the Embassy.

 

>Morning in Sana’a

>Lieke is off to Aden today and to Dubai tomorrow and the next four days. She will be attending a workshop on communication and girl’s education and we will of course miss her. However, to show her that we can survive here is a picture from the girls getting breakfast this morning. As you can see they look rather happy.

 

>Sitarah veils

>A woman fetching water in her colorful “Sitarah” veil – to learn more see post below

>The other half of society

>The thing I have found most difficult moving to a Muslim country has been that I have lost contact with half of the society. That I am talking about is of course the women, whom I am not allowed to talk to and whom I can never see. That is most striking when we first arrived to Yemen was the veiling of women. In Yemen there are two different kinds of veils. The original veil is the colorful “Sitarah”. It is still worn by the more traditional women in the old city or by those who need a quick cover up. The “Sitarah”, with its bright red and blue patterns, resembles a block printed Indian tablecloth, and the women are totally covered looking out through the material. The more common dress is the black “Abaya”, also worn by women in other Arab countries, and the “Sharshaf”, the traditional Yemeni women’s outer garment, also black. The “Sharshaf” was brought to Yemen by the Ottoman Turks who occupied Yemen in the 16th century and again in the 19th century. Living in the older part of Sana’a we of course see both types of veils whereas the Abaya is predominating other parts of the city. As the Abaya is black it can constitute quite a danger in traffic. When driving around at night I have more than once almost run over women walking in the street in their black dresses. The other issue that isolates me in the Yemeni Society is that I cannot talk to women. Lieke of course do not have all these problems. She can attend special women parties where she sees Yemeni women without veil (judging by the dresses you can buy here in Sana’a they can be rather stunning dressed) and she can talk to women. Whenever we go the supermarket, Joop always make quite a commotion because of her blond hair and her blue eyes, and women always comes over to touch her hair or to give her a kiss. Lieke very often gets a chance to talk to them but the very quickly disappear if I come over. So I am left with one half of the society being totally alien to me. I guess that I just will have to do with my 3 girls at home. Below you see a women in a Abaya with her son.

 

>Jambia

>When walking around in Yemen you can help to notice two things. The first being the obscene amount of Qat that is consumed every day (I will leave this for a later post) and secondly, the traditional costume that most Yemeni men wear, including the traditional knife (the Jambia) they have around their waists. Then ever you go to the airport you will see a long row of men standing in front of a police office to check-in their Jambias before entering. I always wonder what you do if you have to travel. Do you pack you Jambia into yout checked in luggage or do you just leave it in the airport until you return? The Jambia is very important symbol of status for Yemeni men. Most Jambias cost between 10,000 and 50,000 Riyals which is between 50 and 250 US$. However depending on the materials of the handle they can cost much more. The most expensive jambia ever, belonged to Imam Ahmed Yahia Hameed Al Deen before Sheikh Naji Bin Abdul Al Aziz Al Shaif, the sheikh of all sheikhs of the Bakeel tribes, who forked out a million dollars to buy it for himself.

Anyway, below is a picture of our drivers on our day trip. I never managed to ask Abdulla how much he had paid for his Jambia.

>And the one from our house

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>Al-Kamariah

>In our house as in most houses in Yemen we have a half circle of colored glass over the windows. While Lieke’s family was here Lieke’s sister Margje took pictures of most of these windows in our house. It was quite an undertaking as there are more than 30 in our house. Below you will find a couple of the pictures – the first on from Wadi Dhar and the second one from our house. As you can see the one from our house is just as nice as the one from Wadi Dhar. Anyway looking at all the pictures that Margje had taken got me to wonder about the purpose of these windows. As everything else, this information is of course available on the net. Below is a quote from Yemen Times:

Above the windows, a half-spherical shape of marble and glass is built. This shape is known as Al-Kamariah from the Arabic word Kamar or the moon. The function of this shape is derived from its name, i.e. to let the light of the moon come inside the rooms during the nights where there is a full moon. The pure transparency and variety of colors of Al-Kamariah glass creates a magical atmosphere during moony nights.

>Back to the normal life

>Our life has now returned to normal. Today we enjoyed a quiet lunch at the Mövenpick Hotel, where the kids had a chance to get their faces painted. As I know that the grandparents of the family would prefer that most pictures on this blog were of the kids I have now given in to popular demand.

 

>View of Kawkabam

>The landscape of Yemen is so magnificent that it can be difficult to capture in a picture. I have however tried here with a picture of the view to Kawkabam. If you want to study it a bit closer you can of course dobble click on it as you can with all other the pictures