{"id":1025,"date":"2016-07-12T18:46:14","date_gmt":"2016-07-12T15:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/?p=1025"},"modified":"2017-11-12T18:47:51","modified_gmt":"2017-11-12T15:47:51","slug":"yemen-through-the-eyes-of-an-american-boy-40-years-later-sanaa-the-exotic-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/yemen-through-the-eyes-of-an-american-boy-40-years-later-sanaa-the-exotic-city\/","title":{"rendered":"YEMEN Through the Eyes of an American Boy, 40 Years later: SANAA the Exotic City"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reflections by Stephen Coats based on the memoirs of Nancy Coats<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Our new home city of Sanaa was mesmerizing! Our first impressions were good, for the most part. \u00a0Sanaa\u2019nis\u00a0seemed to like to shake our hands (especially the children.)\u00a0 The women wore pants, with a long dress over that, and sweater or whatever over that plus a black veil to cover their face.\u00a0 All you saw was their eyes. This was very new and different for us! Children were all warmly dressed too being a city with nearly a mile-high elevation.<\/p>\n

Our favorite part was the old city, a walled-off section dating back to the 15th\u00a0century.\u00a0 The wall was crumbling in many places, but the old gate was still in place and that was the way to enter.\u00a0 My mom, aunt, sister and cousin loved going to the souk (shops) to spend birthday money on gorgeous locally made Yemeni necklaces and rings.\u00a0 The streets and alleys were very narrow lined with small shops that were loaded from top to bottom with various wares. \u00a0Not a square inch of space was wasted, items hung from the walls and ceilings.\u00a0 As you moved away from the shop area, there were residential areas with buildings touching each other and extended families living together on the many floors of most buildings.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0The windows dated each building.\u00a0 Small white round ones were the old alabaster type, translucent, but couldn\u2019t see through.\u00a0 As the building progressed upward, windows became more modern and the newest ones were on the top floor\u2026 Yemeni style colored glass, usually. \u00a0Some dwellings even had stables on the bottom floors of the houses.\u00a0 Here, sheep, goats, and larger animals are kept if they had them.<\/p>\n

The impoverished seemed to follow us everywhere while we shopped and asked us for money constantly.\u00a0 We were not used to that coming from Oregon.\u00a0 We often gave them bread instead of money. Many of the poor ladies often carried an under-nourished baby on one hip.\u00a0 Near our house there was a small rural \u201cvillage\u201d community area made mostly of old car bodies and cardboard houses. All of these houses had people living in them, many came from another part of Yemen\u2026 typically the Tahama area<\/p>\n

The traffic\u00a0was shocking for us!\u00a0\u00a0We could not\u00a0immediately discern the\u00a0traffic laws or rules, no driver\u2019s licenses, limited\u00a0use of turn signals, very\u00a0few traffic signs or lights and the most widely used\u00a0form of driver to\u00a0driver communication was the horn!\u00a0\u00a0Honk honk!\u00a0It really was an\u00a0amazing experience\u00a0for my dad and my uncle who were the main\u00a0drivers.\u00a0\u00a0If the men saw a foreign woman driving a car\u00a0there were a lot\u00a0of stares in her direction.\u00a0\u00a0The roads were not in good shape, with lots\u00a0of\u00a0rock piles to go around, even to get into our driveway.\u00a0And yet\u00a0somehow everything seemed to function well.<\/p>\n

Most intersections had a traffic cop directing things which worked well.\u00a0 Even the neighborhood kids jumped right in and would direct traffic as needed.\u00a0 It really did take a community to keep the traffic flowing.<\/p>\n

The taxis, cars and motorcycles were decorated out of this world.\u00a0\u00a0They covered the dash, inside the doors, etc. with fake fur.\u00a0\u00a0They plastered pictures from magazines inside the door.\u00a0\u00a0They hung any bobble they could find from the mirror.\u00a0\u00a0Some even had fancy paintings on the outside.\u00a0\u00a0Even the trucks and pickups were flashy, decorated elaborately and with much pride.\u00a0\u00a0One thing we never saw were \u201cpin\u2013up\u201d girls (sexy pictures of women), at least not out in the open like we had seen London, much to my mother\u2019s relief.\u00a0\u00a0All the pictures of women showed their faces, and I guess that was the limit in this conservative country.<\/p>\n

Sana\u2019a was a city of contrasts and wonders and we were just beginning to explore its many facets.<\/p>\n

TO BE CONTINUED\u2026<\/p>\n

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