Ethiopia

I took 5 days and headed to Ethiopia. Why not, right? It's about an hour and a half flight from Sana'a, and pretty cheap, so I caught a last minute flight outta town when I realized practically everyone else in the office was going to be gone that weekend as well.

Ethiopia is an interesting place. It's a land of castles, six-fingered men, and towns called Gondor... All things that make great movies and great history.

I won't go into detail about all I learned... I'm just going to mention a few things that struck me about the little bit of africa I was able to get to know.

1. Walking: people are walking everywhere and all the time. no matter what time of day I was on the bus or on the streets, there seemed to be people walking down the highway with their animals or their vegetables to be sold in the nearest town.

2. Cleanliness: while some of the cities were about what you'd expect for the third world, the countryside is quite clean. They don't buy many packaged products.... I'd guess that's why.

3. Orthodox Christianity: yeah.. this place has got it, and it's big. very interesting castles, churches, and monasteries.

There's plenty more to talk about when you tink of Ethiopia. Talk to me if you'd like.

I'll get a picasa album up asap.

Weddings, Weddings, and more Weddings....

I was starting to wonder if I was going to get out of Yemen without going to a traditional wedding. I had heard so much about them, and I really wanted to experience it firsthand. Well, I ended up being invited to no less than four weddings this past week, two of them taking place this past week. So Tuesday and Thursday were experiences that I will not soon forget. Much of what is done is difficult to explain in words, so I will let the pictures in the album (http://picasaweb.google.com/tystandage/WeddingsWeddingsAndMoreWeddings#) do much of the talking. Feel free to skip my dry writing and go directly to the pics. In any case, I’ll try to give a few details that might help in understanding the photos.

Tuesday afternoon at about 12:30 Essam, a coworker, picked me up from my place. I had donned my Thaob, sandals, shawl, and suit jacket, hoping to blend in as much as possible. We headed over to the photographer with the rest of the family. The feeling in the photo shoot were about as you feel at any wedding Ive ever been to. People are excited to be at the wedding, and they are generally excited to finish with the photos as soon as possible.

You’ll see pictures of the grooms from the two different weddings. Their dress tells you where they come from and what kind of lineage they have. For example, in the pictures where there is just one groom, you’ll see that he has two different outfits. The darker one tells you that he has a lineage from the judiciary. The other I think has colors and patterns that correspond to his homeland and economic status. The pictures of the two grooms show that they are from Taiz, a town about 100km south of Sana’a (I haven’t confirmed the distance…. That’s what Im told).

You’ll see a lot of what look like flower leis like you’d find in Hawaii. That’s pretty much exactly what they are. The flowers have a incredibly strong and beautiful smell. I brought one home and hung it in my dining area. Apparently the flowers come from the Taiz and Epp areas. Wherever they are from, they are beautiful handmade ornaments that fit perfectly at a wedding.
Following the photos we met up with a larger family group that gathered for some food. They had rented out a hall used for lunch for wedding parties. Basically it was an unfinished building with an open area in the basement. They laid out rows and rows of plastic where all the men squatted and waited for the food to come. Those serving the food (generally those with the closest relation to the grooms) ran back and forth and literally dropped trays of food in front of us. There were a few plastic spoons that we could use to pick at the food, but for the most part everyone ate with their hands directly from the trays.

There was more food than all of us (probably around 150) could possibly eat in three sittings…. And the food kept coming. Flat bread with yogurt and vegetables, trays with rice and huge sides of lamb, Salta (ground beef in a Yemeni sauce that can only be described as full of grease, spice, and goodness), bananas, watermelon, an amazing dessert that is a flaky version of Indian fry bread smothered in honey….

The men ate feverishly… I could hardly believe how fast they ate… within a half hour we had all been served, had eaten, and had washed up, ready to get on to the qat chewing session… Yet, even with all of that, the room where we ate was filled with lively talk and laughing. If there is one thing Yemeni men do often and do well, it is YELLING. They’d yell their thoughts to each other between bites. The servers ran around the room with large platters yelling at us to make way for more food. We’d yell back saying we wanted more of this or of that.

Once stuffed and washed up I went with Essam and his brothers to their home where we relaxed for about an hour in their sitting room (that’s where I am in the pics of me in traditional Yemeni dress). His brother is quite the gardener and we spent some time talking about the plants that he had around their property and in their home. The longer Im here, the more I find that this place is so much like the Phoenix valley: Jakaranda trees, different kinds of mesquite trees, bushes identical to ones I had grown up with in my own back yard, and others that I couldn’t remember the names of, but which were the same species as some which are very common in AZ.

After some rest and prayer, we headed over to the main hall in downtown Sana’a. They had rented out a hall that looks like a giant sitting room… There was enough room in this place for over 500 men to sit, chew gat, and enjoy eachother’s company. The groom sat at the front of the room and greeting the guests who then found a place among the crowd with friends and family.

An important part of a traditional wedding in the music. They hired a group that performed traditional songs and traditional poetry (which sound like singing… thought they will tell you that they aren’t songs) which is not quotation of the Quran, but which is meant as praise to God. Im not sure whether they did this at the first wedding (if so, no one pointed it out for me), but at the wedding on Thursday, they had a particular praise that was meant also as supplication for those in the room who were still single… that they could find a good woman to marry. When I understood what was going on, I joined in as best I possibly could and asked those who were married around me to supplicate on my behalf… Everyone got a kick out of that (yeah… I know… jajaja… very funny, Tyler).

I'll put some videos of the music up on my facebook page soon hopefully, so check there if you want to hear the band and see some of the dances, etc.

After about 6-7 hours of sitting around and talking about everything under the sun, the music started to pick up and the groom gets up, moving toward the door. Friends and family gather around him and chant and clap, walking slowly with him to the car out front. He is then taken by car toward his neighborhood and his home where his bride will be waiting. The procession of cars moves painfully slowly through the streets. Sometimes you’ll find such processions (in vehicles or on foot) walking through the streets in downtown Sana’a during rush hour traffic without a care in the world that people need to be on their way.

Once closer to the groom’s home, he gets out of the car and walks the remainder of the way to his home and to his bride. This walking through the streets can take up to an hour before he gets to his home. His friends and family continue to chant and clap in the traditional way all the way to the door of the house. At that point, the party is over (except for the couple, of course) and we mull about talking about the same sorts of things we’ve been discussing all day… On Tuesday night this didn’t happen until 1am. Long day for everyone involved.

The younger boys still had a ton of energy and most of that energy was focused on the white guy in the group. I spent quite a while messing around with the teenage boys. Even though this is the capital city, these boys don’t get much interaction with foreigners… certainly not Americans. After some talking, some joking, and some pictures, I hopped in the car with Essam and headed home. Work is coming early.