yemeni lunch & merry christmas!!! :)

so i went to lunch yesterday at the home of the female guard from amideast, jameela. unfortunately i learned on our taxi ride to her home that she would be let go at the end of the month and nobody would tell her why...i told her that i would talk to the boss if she couldn't figure anything out, but she stayed in very high spirits and was a great host despite this bad news :( when we got to her house, she introduced me to her landlord, a man who lived in NYC from about 1960 to 1984 (if my memory serves me correctly, which it usually does not). during his rampage about how horrible yemen is and how bad the people are here (which lasted for a good 20 minutes), i learned a few interesting things. he has US citizenship and actually served in vietnam for 2 years. all of his children have american citizenship as well, i believe his exact words were: "every time i have a kid, i take it to the embassy and get it the citizenship"...not quite eloquent, but it got me wondering why he doesn't just move to the states if he hates yemen so much. he's been back here for a good 20 years and hasn't been back to visit, even though he has 2 children with his (italian) ex-wife in new york. perhaps it has something to do with the house that he bought or his yemeni wife not having citizenship, but neither of these things seems like a huge obstacle (and i don't mean that he should leave his wife here, but if she has a husband and 3 kids with US citizenship, i'm assuming it wouldn't be impossible for her). actually now that i'm talking about this i just had a dream last night where about 99% of the people i was traveling with (mostly kids, for some reason...) were rejected visas at the airport? weird. also i think gob from arrested development was there...perhaps i need to get out a bit more.

anyway, after this man (hezam's) monologue, i finally went inside where i chatted with jameela's husband and 4-year-old son while she and her sister prepared lunch. her husband now lives with his new wife in hadda, the "posh" part of sanaa, and jameela and her son midyan live in their own small but cozy apartment (where we were). he dropped by for lunch i suppose, which seemed a bit strange (and jameela complained to me a bit about the situation later). i didn't realize before that different wives lived in different homes sometimes, and i'm still not sure how often this is the case. it seems like it would be very hard for the first wife, who probably has little to no say in the matter, and jameela was definitely and understandably annoyed at the whole thing. but it was nice chatting with him, and especially with midyan, who i think is one of the smartest kids i have ever met (aside from gav and micah when they were growing up, of course! micah with his little cross-eyed looks...cute! haha). anyway, this kid has the conversational skills of at least a 10 year old, and during the past work week would ask me every day when i was going to come for lunch. he also told me throughout the week that i would eat with them, nap at their house, and that i should come back all the time. anyway, eventually lunch was ready and we ate shufuut (hard to describe...dad and micah will try it when they're here), rice and goat meat, stuffed squash/peppers (MMM!), salad, yemeni bread, french fries, salta (another tough-to-describe yemeni dish), and finally bint assakhin, which is a flaky yemeni cake/sweet which jameela drenched in delish golden syrup :) actually, she sent some home with me and now begins the struggle as to whether i should finish this post or go eat it immediately...perhaps i will continue to write for as long as possible.

anyway, as we were finishing up we had another visit from hezam the landlord. first, he informed us that his wife had lost her appetite and that he wished this would happen every day. he told us how fat she was, and later told me she was 300 pounds. he also said that when she saw and asked about me, he told her that i was his italian ex finally come to visit. he then proposed to jameela's sister, eman, a number of times. she politely declined and told him that she wanted to live alone. he said he would get her a house, and then she said she wanted a 21K gold ring. when she couldn't decide what kind of car she wanted, i suggested bmw or mercedes, then jameela suggested a plane, and i suggested a palace. all the while hezam kept feigning sighs and huffing, walking out of the door and back in. it was quite amusing. eventually he left, at exactly the right time as i was slipping into a food coma. i lied down in the mufraj, and sure enough midyan fulfilled his promise that we would nap when i came to visit. he fell on top of me, and soon slipped down beside me and passed out on my arm. i think we slept for about an hour, and when i woke up my arm was completely asleep and jameela's friend and sister had come to eat/visit. soon her sister left, and after a long and heated discussion with her friend (which i think was about why her sister had just come to eat and then left very quickly when i was just waking up), her friend left as well. after sitting around chatting and drinking some tea, i left as well after spending a relaxing 5 hours at jameela's home. it was quite a nice afternoon, and very amusing as well. throughout most of it, i think midyan was on a very intense sugar high and couldn't stop giggling and shouting and running around (often to the annoyance of his parents).

today, i'm off to have a christmas meal with debra, the women who had my job (as a real job, combined with a ridiculous number of other responsibilities) before me, and her family and friends, including various other amideast peeps. then going to see the women's side of a yemeni wedding for the first time this evening! i'm not sure how i feel about going to a yemeni wedding on christmas, but hopefully it will be a good experience and keep me in a festive mood!

MERRY CHRISTMAS to all my loved ones!!!! i miss you all TONS, and look forward to seeing the fam and many of my friends in january in pittsburgh & DC! :)

<3