{"id":950,"date":"2016-08-30T02:08:16","date_gmt":"2016-08-29T23:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/?p=950"},"modified":"2017-10-30T02:12:14","modified_gmt":"2017-10-29T23:12:14","slug":"yemen-through-the-eyes-of-an-american-boy-40-years-later-getting-caught","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/yemen-through-the-eyes-of-an-american-boy-40-years-later-getting-caught\/","title":{"rendered":"YEMEN Through the Eyes of an American Boy, 40 Years later:\u00a0GETTING CAUGHT"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

 <\/p>\n

There are those pivotal moments in a young boy\u2019s life when you make a choice for better or worse that shapes who you are.\u00a0 One of the first I remember was when I was 6 years old, living with my family in a foreign land, not knowing the rules of behavior. I was also a very adventurous kid that didn\u2019t use may head very well.<\/p>\n

I had a friend named Jonathan who clearly stood out as a foreigner in Yemen with his bleach-blond hair and pale white skin.\u00a0 His mother was a fiery Irish woman who shouted things that sounded very strange to me.\u00a0 One day when I was playing over at Jonathan\u2019s house, his mom yelled out, \u201cShut up!\u00a0and eat your\u00a0bloody dinner.\u201d That was shocking to me on several levels.\u00a0 First of all, why would you want to eat bloody food? \u00a0And as a kid, in my home, no one ever told anyone to \u201cShut up!\u201d<\/p>\n

Like most houses in Sana\u2019a, circling Jonathan\u2019s house was a 12-foot tall mud brick wall with shards of glass sticking out on top. \u00a0Looking back now as an adult, I presume the glass was there to keep unwanted guests out.\u00a0 The wall created a private courtyard for playing, gardening and family times.\u00a0 On this particular day Jonathan and I ventured outside the walls. \u00a0Inspired partly by childlike creativity, partly by peer pressure and partly by pure na\u00efvet\u00e9, we conjured up an idea.\u00a0 We decided to collect all the glass shards, make a long mound of dirt running the width of the road and place the glass shards straight up, poking out of the mound.\u00a0 Just as we were halfway through our focused creation, a loud honk of a car horn bellowed from behind us. \u00a0Our reflexes told us to jump up and get out of the way quickly so we would not get run over.\u00a0 We did not think to say anything to the Yemeni man driving the car, who yelled out at us as he passed by, \u201cMa Feesh Mokh\u201d in Arabic, which roughly translated means, \u201cYou have no brains.\u201d\u00a0 And then, POW!\u00a0 His tire hit the glass shards and exploded.\u00a0 We were in shock and all we could think of was to make a run for it.<\/p>\n

Evidently, the driver who was faster than we were, jumped out of his vehicle and chased us down as we tried foolishly to escape into Jonathan\u2019s courtyard.\u00a0 The scene of the crime happening to be right in front of his house.\u00a0 We were doomed.\u00a0 The Yemeni man knocked hard on the door.\u00a0 He was furious and demanded justice.\u00a0 My mom who was inside visiting with Jonathan\u2019s mom somehow with very limited Arabic skills got the angry driver to calm down. \u00a0As a consequence, and the right thing to do, my mom forced me to apologize to the man and then the two moms negotiated a price to replace his exploded tire, which came out to be around $33.\u00a0 That was a lot of money for a 6 year old in any country!<\/p>\n

I felt ashamed and embarrassed in front of my friend. \u00a0I had shamed my parents in front of the Yemeni man, and I had offended the driver not long after arriving in his home country.\u00a0 Not a very good thing to do as a new guest in a foreign land.<\/p>\n

My mom recounted the event in her memoirs:\u00a0\u201cI wonder why things like this have to happen.\u00a0 I just hope Stephen will learn the proper lesson from it.\u00a0 He was spanked hard, and will have to give us the Yemeni Riyals that he has been saving to help pay for it.\u00a0 He is pretty repentant, and I feel sorry for him, but he has to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

As I reflect back on that childhood incident today, I am glad I got caught.\u00a0 It was a pivotal life moment.\u00a0 I learned that it is\u00a0not\u00a0good to succumb to peer pressure.\u00a0 I learned that it\u00a0is\u00a0good to think before I act.\u00a0 I learned it\u00a0is\u00a0good to apologize when I do something hurtful or offensive to others.\u00a0 I learned that there are consequences for my actions and that I am responsible for them.\u00a0 It\u2019s memories like this one that inextricably tie me to Yemen.\u00a0 Yemen is where my mom and dad taught me this key lesson in responsibility that day that I will never forget.\u00a0 And I am forever grateful for good parents who taught me life lessons as a boy and also modeled for me how to parent my own children.\u00a0 As I raise my own three children and pray for them, I pray to God that when they make a bad choice in life, and all kids do, that they will get caught just like I did, and that they too will learn some pivotal life lessons that will shape their characters into honorable, responsible, respectful adults.<\/p>\n

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

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