February Wrap Up

Lobster! (and khat in his mouth, yum)

Fish market 

Visited the Aden Fish Market for the first time. Saw a shark gutted, ginormous fish and a beautiful lobster.

Started a regular running routine. I go at night in an enclosed field, which is part of our compound. It’s a bit creepy but I play my music and take off in circles and it feels great. Twice a week for now. UPDATE: The binat’s interest is perked and I’ve had a few days in a row of 3 girls running with me.

Sweeet!

Mosque of one of the 8 villages surrounding the camp (irrelevant photos I know)

Realized that I am addicted to dates. But is that a bad thing? Why go on dates when you can be sitting home in your pjs eating them? And I found date dhibs, which is like honey made from dates. Very amazing and probably super good for you.

On the road to Aden

There is a family of crickets living in my room. I originally thought I was hearing rather loud crickets outside every evening, until I began finding one after another coming from my closet. I really need to get them out of my room. Or maybe I need to be getting out of my room more.

UPDATE:  Every evening, one or 2 baby crickets come out and I scoop them up and take them outside. The noise is less now.

I hold back the women as one casts her ballot

IHeld elections for the Oromo people in the camp. Oromos are from Ethiopia and a strong, very proud people. Of course I heart them as they are from the motherland. I spent the whole morning holding back women in their lines, telling them to ayzosh, berchee, abshir jabadu, tarteeb, any mix of Amharic, Oromo and Somali I could think of to get them to wait patiently for their turn to vote.

Had lunch cooked by a man for me – first time here and so surprising since men are so uninvolved in domestic life. It was one of my Somali staff and he is a real gem. I played with his nieces and ate with them and talked to his sister-in-law while she henna’ed her feet… it was a lovely afternoon.

Village outside of Sana'a

Went to Sana'a for a long weekend- the first time since the few days I spent there when I initially arrived. Can't say it was refreshing necessarily, but there was some good times and a relaxing day at the spa.

On my way to the spa 2 hours northeast of Sana'a

Had a meltdown in weekend #3… hmmm… it's too complex to explain and I end up deleting everything I write about it. Perhaps when I find a clearer way to express myself, I'll write a post on it. Because the meltdown is definitely not overL

Instability in the south has affected my work, my movement, security and... The south was colonized by the British, and then groomed by the Soviets; 2 large reasons ahead of many other tribal/political issues which lend to why the south want to separate from the north. The complex issues feeding their separatist spirit have blossomed in the last couple years of unrest, and now they are declaring a ‘civil disobedience’ campaign. This has equaled small arms fire, burning tires, large protesting groups, a handful dead and dozens injured in the last 2 weeks of the month. It's peaceful now but this next month but March will be full of squirmishes like this as the National Dialogue is on the 18^th. Inshallah people tire of the violence and find peaceful ways to solve this problem or this already fragile state could take a turn for the worse. This would also mean my evacuation, booo…

Separatist protests found their way to the camp but they were very small, short and completely peaceful

Teaching the schoolgirls to laugh in photos

By month’s end, after the tumultuous middle, I am somehow feeling upbeat, refreshed, relaxed, happy. As the binat have told me, “It takes a big heart to be here. If your heart is small, you cannot take it.”