sooooo i will write a bit about what i do, for those of you who are interested. first off, i am supposed to put in 6 hours/day (since i am actually a paid intern) and i usually end up working at least 7...something i definitely need to work on. i think it depends on whatever's going on at the time though, and we've been pretty busy ever since i got here. basically, i work as a general adviser for anyone interested in studying in the US. this often consists of answering questions like "where can i get the scholarship" or "i need the college application." i usually just tell people to come back for one of my general advising sessions, which i hold every saturday to tell people about the application process, required tests, choosing a school, scholarships, etc etc. i also help people individually if needed (often for those who are asking about grad school, or something specific that i don't address in my general session), for which i am supposed to charge them $20/hour...usually doesn't happen. it just seems a little ridiculous when all i'm doing is basically google searching everything that they would be unable to find themselves. in addition to general advising, i am in charge of sending US school/college transcripts to the US embassy for verification/accreditation. this actually takes up a lot of time as well, as i need to verify each school and write a letter to the embassy each time...in addition to the time i spend checking transcripts to see if i think they will be verified (which i often cannot be sure about) and telling them what i think they should do. and then of course they call me to see if their transcripts are ready, which is fine, but all they say it "i am mohammed, you remember me from last week?" no, i do not.
in addition to these things, i am in charge of 2 programs: the YES (youth exchange and study) program for yemeni high schoolers to study in the US for one year, and the OG (opportunity grant) which basically covers students' costs throughout the application process (sometimes even including travel to the US and start-up costs). we are currently in the process of collecting applications for the next group of YES students, visiting schools to advertise, holding YES alumni meetings, etc. in terms of the OG, i am getting them signed up for all the necessary tests, providing them with study resources, and making sure that they are on the right track throughout the application process.
sooooo all of this really adds up, but i think i'm getting the hang of it and just need to know when to say no to people. also, i work with some AMAZING people at amideast, both employees and interns (mostly yemeni), and i really really enjoy their company. so while i usually come home with a headache each day, at least i get to feel like i definitely accomplished something and got a lot of laughs at work. :)
alright, off to my first yemeni wedding!!!! very excited! :)
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Saturday, October 17, 2009
it is time...
...to finally finish my post about our travels! this will probably be a bit shorter and less detailed, because i am lazy and also i have probably lost 70% of my memory of that trip already. so after we swam at the lovely cove beach on kamaran, we returned to the hotel to hang out for a bit while awaiting our motorcycle taxi. we ended up meeting some crazy old russian dudes who had just arrived at the hotel and were going to be in yemen for a couple weeks spearfishing and drinking...and they of course began with the drinking. when we met the first russian, we weren't sure whether he just spoke horrible english and was kind of a weird guy, or was just ridiculously sloshed already...we were kind of learning towards the latter. his friends appeared one by one over the next half-hour or so, and they were very friendly and of course soon insisted that we start drinking with them. each had brought 6 liters of alcohol to yemen...yes EACH. the limit is 2 liters/person, but apparently it was acceptable because they were russian. so we proceeded to take way too many shots (i kept telling them that a) i am not russian and b) i am very small, but they just kept pouring us shots). i made the unfortunate decision to eat some fresh sushi with them, which would backfire on me in manakha. eventually our motorcycle taxi showed up (it was during ramadan, and so we of course had to wait until after iftar), and we sadly said goodbye to our new/soon to be wasted friends. we made the somewhat uncomfortable trip back to the dock cramped on one motorcycle taxi, and took the next boat back to salif. when we arrived in salif, it was quite late and there were no taxis or minibuses around, so we hopped into the back of some guy's pick-up truck along with a random assortment of yemenis, and made our way back to hodeidah. along this trip i had my first and hopefully ONLY experience in a yemeni public bathroom...i really really had to pee and absolutely could not wait, but (luckily i think) it was so dark that i couldn't see anything, and so it wasn't as unpleasant as it could've been.
the next morning, jared went out to find us a shared taxi while i waited in the hotel with our things (which wasn't really necessary at all, but very kind of him...especially cuz i was still being so cranky). he came to get me once he found one, and we eventually got going after the guy filled up his taxi. i became gradually happier and happier as the temperature cooled with the rise in altitude, and we soon arrived in the beautiful mountain town of manakha. we checked into the hajjarah tourist hotel, which was an extremely refreshing change from our hotel in hodeidah. it was a bit expensive, $15 each/night, but well worth it as they are very used to having foreigners and really make your stay very pleasant. our room was beautiful and clean, with a western toilet and windows on 2 sides overlooking the town and the mountains...since we were the only ones staying there, i think it was their nicest room. our delicious and sizable meals were also included in the price, along with a very fun night of yemeni jambiyya dancing, shisha, and tea. dad and micah, i will definitely take you guys here when you come!!!
the day that we arrived, we basically spent our time in the hotel relaxing and recovering from our somewhat exhausting trip to kamaran. we ate a huge meal, participated in the yemeni jambiyya dancing, and generally had a very nice time. the next morning, we were supposed to go on a baby hike to a nearby town called hajjarah, but unfortunately i got really really sick shortly after we set out (from the sushi, of course), and had to spend the remaining time in manakha back in the hotel recovering to the point where i could made it back to sanaa. but at least we got to stay in manakha, take beautiful pictures of the mountains (i especially liked the views at dusk/dawn), and recover from our "vacation" of the previous few days. :)
the next morning, jared went out to find us a shared taxi while i waited in the hotel with our things (which wasn't really necessary at all, but very kind of him...especially cuz i was still being so cranky). he came to get me once he found one, and we eventually got going after the guy filled up his taxi. i became gradually happier and happier as the temperature cooled with the rise in altitude, and we soon arrived in the beautiful mountain town of manakha. we checked into the hajjarah tourist hotel, which was an extremely refreshing change from our hotel in hodeidah. it was a bit expensive, $15 each/night, but well worth it as they are very used to having foreigners and really make your stay very pleasant. our room was beautiful and clean, with a western toilet and windows on 2 sides overlooking the town and the mountains...since we were the only ones staying there, i think it was their nicest room. our delicious and sizable meals were also included in the price, along with a very fun night of yemeni jambiyya dancing, shisha, and tea. dad and micah, i will definitely take you guys here when you come!!!
the day that we arrived, we basically spent our time in the hotel relaxing and recovering from our somewhat exhausting trip to kamaran. we ate a huge meal, participated in the yemeni jambiyya dancing, and generally had a very nice time. the next morning, we were supposed to go on a baby hike to a nearby town called hajjarah, but unfortunately i got really really sick shortly after we set out (from the sushi, of course), and had to spend the remaining time in manakha back in the hotel recovering to the point where i could made it back to sanaa. but at least we got to stay in manakha, take beautiful pictures of the mountains (i especially liked the views at dusk/dawn), and recover from our "vacation" of the previous few days. :)
Monday, October 5, 2009
things i bought today that were cheap
just so you can get an idea of how much things cost here:
taxi to work: $1.50 (have gotten too lazy to take the mini-bus, which is 10 c)
shayy bihalib (tea w/ milk): 15 c
sandwich w/ beans and cheese: 35 c
bottle of fanta: 30 c
taxi home: $1.75 (a lil extra cuz he stopped for me)
credits for my phone: $10 (actually not sure how long these will last, hopefully a while)
shawarma at a street stand: 25 c
fresh guava juice: 35 c
2 maps and a book on arabic translation: $5
arriving home to find my landlord fixing my table: priceless
(must add! delicious ethiopian dinner including beverages: $3.50)
sooooo, all in all not bad!! and today was the type of day where i actually spent a lot more than usual (the maps and phone credits).
in other news, my landlord told me that there's an older woman who works at the UN moving in downstairs, inshallah. she apparently wants to rent both the first and second floors, which sounds a little ridiculous (my apartment is one floor and often seems too big for one person), buuuut whatever you gotta do lady!
taxi to work: $1.50 (have gotten too lazy to take the mini-bus, which is 10 c)
shayy bihalib (tea w/ milk): 15 c
sandwich w/ beans and cheese: 35 c
bottle of fanta: 30 c
taxi home: $1.75 (a lil extra cuz he stopped for me)
credits for my phone: $10 (actually not sure how long these will last, hopefully a while)
shawarma at a street stand: 25 c
fresh guava juice: 35 c
2 maps and a book on arabic translation: $5
arriving home to find my landlord fixing my table: priceless
(must add! delicious ethiopian dinner including beverages: $3.50)
sooooo, all in all not bad!! and today was the type of day where i actually spent a lot more than usual (the maps and phone credits).
in other news, my landlord told me that there's an older woman who works at the UN moving in downstairs, inshallah. she apparently wants to rent both the first and second floors, which sounds a little ridiculous (my apartment is one floor and often seems too big for one person), buuuut whatever you gotta do lady!
Sunday, October 4, 2009
some catchin' up
SO. time to catch up a bit on my bloggin for all y'all big FANS out there. there are two things i previously promised to post about, if you recall, namely, my apartment and jared and my trip during the eid (too many commas? perhaps). you can see a bunch of pictures of my apartment on facebook, so you know already that it is BIG and beautiful and has a western toilet :) it is i suppose kind of lonely sometimes living alone, but i think that i prefer it after some experiences sharing kitchens/bathrooms before. i reaaaally don't like sharing kitchens and bathrooms other than in my own home (where to be honest mom does most [read: all] of the cleaning, but i think the dishwasher helps and the fact that nobody in my family is disastrously messy). i have visited a few houses where a bunch of ajaanibs (foreigners) live together, and while i very much like many of these ajaanibs, i can't see myself living in such a house. some factors that compound the loneliness/occasional freak-outs are that i am in fact the only one living in my entire building and that there are power outages every night around 11 pm or so...so that's a bit scary. there are 4 floors in my building, each of which is an individual apartment unit, but the other ones are all empty right now (i think a tunisian is renting one of them, but apparently he is never in the country). hence, i try to be in bed watching a movie with my computer fully charged and all four doors (gate, building, apartment, and bedroom) locked around this time haha. i've been meaning to buy some battery lights/lamps for...a while now, but obviously i never remember. i'm hoping that at some point in the near future my landlord will get on trying to find some other renters for the building, but i think the family is quite rich/unconcerned (they own a hospital) and many of them are often traveling. if i mention this to the one brother who has been taking care of getting me settled in, however, i wouldn't be surprised if he took the task to heart...he has been extremely nice and concerned about every little thing and always in-and-out of the place. he let me move in about 5 days before the beginning of the month with no extra fees (i was quite eager to get out of the hotel), has been paying all of the bills through september without any concern as to water/electricity i may have used, got me a discount on my modem/router, picked up said modem/router in addition to beginning my internet service himself (all i had to do was sit at home and pay him when he came), replaced every light in the house when some of them weren't working...etc etc. very kind guy, and i think EXTREMELY, almost unbelievably efficient by yemeni standards. so that's my basic housing situation, and i am quite happy and will be completely content once i get the place organized and start having people over, inshallah :)
aaand the trip! you can also check out the trip on facebook, i posted pictures from every leg of the journey, but i'll just tell you a bit about it as well. during the eid (holiday) that muslims celebrate after ramadan, jared and i took a 3-day trip to the west coast of yemen/the red sea and through a beautiful and quaint town in the haraz mountain on our way back. we started off on a 4 am bus to the port city of hodeidah southwest of sanaa, which took about 7 hours if i remember correctly. the bus was perfectly fine/pleasant, but i can tell you that speeding up and down winding mountain roads in a rather large bus (and when you look out the window seeing nothing but an immediate drop) is quite scary and a bit sickening. we (or at least i, as jared managed to pass out for much of the trip) comforted ourselves with the fact that the bus driver had probably driven this route hundreds of times, and we would most likely arrive in one piece...which of course we did. any mild unpleasantness i had experienced on the bus was immediately multiplied billionfold upon our arrival in hodeidah, where unfortunately this time of year it averages about 3000 degrees with about 40 billion percent humidity...and there are very few taxis to be found. needless to say, we did not explore much and spent basically our entire night (except for a brief dinner) in our air conditioned hotel room trying to decide whether the tv or the fan deserved the one power outlet shared by the two...i think we ultimately decided on the fan, and watched a bunch of episodes of prison break on my computer. i won't dwell on it much, but i will mention (for those of you who have not experienced it firsthand, and to jared's credit) that hot/humid weather turns me in a raving b**** and a red-faced sweaty psycho, and thus from the moment we stepped off the bus until the point when our taxi reached higher altitudes/cooler temperatures on our drive back through the mountains 2 days later, jared was forced to deal with quite a few irrational outbursts and generally unpleasant behavior...sorry boo!!!!
you might be asking why we even came to hodeidah if we were just going to sit in our hotel room and do nothing but watch episodes/whine and moan...and the answer is of course the island of kamaran!! a bit north of hodeidah just off the coast of a town called salif lies kamaran, a somewhat beautiful, somewhat desert-like and deserted island that is home to a few yemenis, many motorcycle taxis, scattered withering plant life, one hotel, and a beautiful multitude of surrounding underwater life. after wasting much of the morning sleeping in our hotel room in hodeidah, we finally wrestled up the nerve to venture outside and find a ride to salif. after waiting entirely too long in the ridiculous heat for the driver to fill up his vehicle, we departed in a "dabbab (mini-bus) with 16 year old driver, smelly man and bicycle, and niqabi in the back" (these are jared's words...for some reason, most likely the fact that i was born without the gift of memory, i don't really remember this ride). we arrived in salif a few hours later and had to wait for another at the shurta (police) stand near the dock for the 90 pound police officer to get permission to let us leave for kamaran (even though we already had permits from the tourism police in sanaa...go figure. i haven't been mentioning it, but all throughout the trip we had been stopping at various check-points to present our travel permits). when we were finally told that we could go, the only boat that seemed to be available was an empty boat willing to take us for the sensible price of 3000 riyals...about $15, and probably more than anything should cost in all of yemen. after a short period of time, another boat started inexplicably/silently filling up with goods and people, and after a bit we came to our senses and started asking why we couldn't go on that boat. nobody really gave us much of an answer, so we just hopped on the boat and ended up paying 250 riyals/person...quite a discount.
upon our arrival on the island, we had to AGAIN pay a visit to our friendly island police to register yet again, before hopping on a few motorcycle taxis to the island hotel. it would be absolutely haram (forbidden, most often used in an islamic context) for a woman to ride a motorcycle taxi in sanaa and probably in most of yemen, so i felt quite daring and adventurous on my very first such ride, and took a short video that i will hopefully remember to post. we relaxed at the hotel for a bit before making our way to a nearby cove beach recommended by the hotel owner. fortunately for me there was nobody else there, as i had forgotten my burkini and was stuck with only the real thing. we swam in the beautiful, warm and clear water and took some gorgeous pictures of the beach, sunset, and underwater life. i also collected a few decorations (some shells and a crab claw) which are now adorning my lovely apartment, along with an egyptian trinket from a very sweet student at AMIDEAST who traveled to cairo during the eid.
as it turns out, this post is getting to be quite a bit longer than i expected, and if i want to continue my narrative in such an engrossing and humorous fashion, i think that i must now retire and leave the rest to another day (inshallah tomorrow). my brain is feeling a bit fried from the combination of my non-stop 7+ hour work day (supposed to be 6), some intense g-chatting, and of course narrating with such cleverity...yep, cleverity.
aaand the trip! you can also check out the trip on facebook, i posted pictures from every leg of the journey, but i'll just tell you a bit about it as well. during the eid (holiday) that muslims celebrate after ramadan, jared and i took a 3-day trip to the west coast of yemen/the red sea and through a beautiful and quaint town in the haraz mountain on our way back. we started off on a 4 am bus to the port city of hodeidah southwest of sanaa, which took about 7 hours if i remember correctly. the bus was perfectly fine/pleasant, but i can tell you that speeding up and down winding mountain roads in a rather large bus (and when you look out the window seeing nothing but an immediate drop) is quite scary and a bit sickening. we (or at least i, as jared managed to pass out for much of the trip) comforted ourselves with the fact that the bus driver had probably driven this route hundreds of times, and we would most likely arrive in one piece...which of course we did. any mild unpleasantness i had experienced on the bus was immediately multiplied billionfold upon our arrival in hodeidah, where unfortunately this time of year it averages about 3000 degrees with about 40 billion percent humidity...and there are very few taxis to be found. needless to say, we did not explore much and spent basically our entire night (except for a brief dinner) in our air conditioned hotel room trying to decide whether the tv or the fan deserved the one power outlet shared by the two...i think we ultimately decided on the fan, and watched a bunch of episodes of prison break on my computer. i won't dwell on it much, but i will mention (for those of you who have not experienced it firsthand, and to jared's credit) that hot/humid weather turns me in a raving b**** and a red-faced sweaty psycho, and thus from the moment we stepped off the bus until the point when our taxi reached higher altitudes/cooler temperatures on our drive back through the mountains 2 days later, jared was forced to deal with quite a few irrational outbursts and generally unpleasant behavior...sorry boo!!!!
you might be asking why we even came to hodeidah if we were just going to sit in our hotel room and do nothing but watch episodes/whine and moan...and the answer is of course the island of kamaran!! a bit north of hodeidah just off the coast of a town called salif lies kamaran, a somewhat beautiful, somewhat desert-like and deserted island that is home to a few yemenis, many motorcycle taxis, scattered withering plant life, one hotel, and a beautiful multitude of surrounding underwater life. after wasting much of the morning sleeping in our hotel room in hodeidah, we finally wrestled up the nerve to venture outside and find a ride to salif. after waiting entirely too long in the ridiculous heat for the driver to fill up his vehicle, we departed in a "dabbab (mini-bus) with 16 year old driver, smelly man and bicycle, and niqabi in the back" (these are jared's words...for some reason, most likely the fact that i was born without the gift of memory, i don't really remember this ride). we arrived in salif a few hours later and had to wait for another at the shurta (police) stand near the dock for the 90 pound police officer to get permission to let us leave for kamaran (even though we already had permits from the tourism police in sanaa...go figure. i haven't been mentioning it, but all throughout the trip we had been stopping at various check-points to present our travel permits). when we were finally told that we could go, the only boat that seemed to be available was an empty boat willing to take us for the sensible price of 3000 riyals...about $15, and probably more than anything should cost in all of yemen. after a short period of time, another boat started inexplicably/silently filling up with goods and people, and after a bit we came to our senses and started asking why we couldn't go on that boat. nobody really gave us much of an answer, so we just hopped on the boat and ended up paying 250 riyals/person...quite a discount.
upon our arrival on the island, we had to AGAIN pay a visit to our friendly island police to register yet again, before hopping on a few motorcycle taxis to the island hotel. it would be absolutely haram (forbidden, most often used in an islamic context) for a woman to ride a motorcycle taxi in sanaa and probably in most of yemen, so i felt quite daring and adventurous on my very first such ride, and took a short video that i will hopefully remember to post. we relaxed at the hotel for a bit before making our way to a nearby cove beach recommended by the hotel owner. fortunately for me there was nobody else there, as i had forgotten my burkini and was stuck with only the real thing. we swam in the beautiful, warm and clear water and took some gorgeous pictures of the beach, sunset, and underwater life. i also collected a few decorations (some shells and a crab claw) which are now adorning my lovely apartment, along with an egyptian trinket from a very sweet student at AMIDEAST who traveled to cairo during the eid.
as it turns out, this post is getting to be quite a bit longer than i expected, and if i want to continue my narrative in such an engrossing and humorous fashion, i think that i must now retire and leave the rest to another day (inshallah tomorrow). my brain is feeling a bit fried from the combination of my non-stop 7+ hour work day (supposed to be 6), some intense g-chatting, and of course narrating with such cleverity...yep, cleverity.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
i am REAL!
as usual, i am too lazy (and too exhausted) to post much, buuuuut i just wanted everyone to know that i am now a real adult: my name is now listed on the amideast website :) yayy!! right above the driver haha. work is quite exhausting, and i think it's going to be quite hard to limit myself to 6 hrs/day (which is what i'm supposed to be working), but i really like what i'm doing and the people i'm working with. i am in charge of general advising for anyone interested in US higher education, as well as the coordination of two programs (a high school exchange program and a college prep grant) funded by the state department...and a few other things here and there. while there are a few americans working at AMIDEAST (the country director and some english teachers, etc.), i work mostly with yemenis which is very nice...and beneficial to everyone involved in terms of language exchange :)
well, i must go close my windows now in a desperate/hopeless attempt to block out the chorus of calls to prayer (many resembling screeching), some very impassioned sermonizing, and an extremely aggravating and ceaseless number of fire crackers being set off right below my window. some important advice: if you don't like fire crackers, never come to yemen.
well, i must go close my windows now in a desperate/hopeless attempt to block out the chorus of calls to prayer (many resembling screeching), some very impassioned sermonizing, and an extremely aggravating and ceaseless number of fire crackers being set off right below my window. some important advice: if you don't like fire crackers, never come to yemen.
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