Reflections by Stephen Coats based on the memories of Nancy Coats
I went back to Idaho in January of this year to visit my dad. As I gazed around the house at my mom’s old knick-knacks, one really stood out. It was the round stained-glass window that my parents brought back from Yemen and installed in our country home in Midvale. It took me back to Yemen 40 years ago and the place we would soon call home.
It was Ramadan and already dark outside when we arrived in Sana’a at 7 p.m. on Aug. 20, 1976. We didn’t know what Ramadan was; we just knew that the flights from Jeddah were crowded and that everyone was in a rush. My older sister Sara, older brother Tim and I couldn’t figure out why everyone was staring at us while we ate our dinner in the airport. Why did they look so grumpy? The owner of the Sana’a International School, where my parents were going to be teaching, met us at the airport and helped us get through customs and baggage claim rather quickly.
We loaded our bags onto Land Rovers, which were novel to us kids, since we had not seen them in Oregon. We later realized that they were fairly common in Yemen, with road conditions requiring a sturdier vehicle. We had one suitcase each, some clothes, a few essentials, one bowl, one plate and old setting of silverware apiece, and two small pans for our whole family.
New friends from the school had dinner prepared for us – chicken, rice, Jell-O, and limeade for the first time! Delicious. We visited briefly over dinner but we were all tired and jet- lagged. Settling into our new home would have to wait, since it was not ready for us until the next day. We slept that first night in an apartment of a fellow teacher who was still in England for the summer.
Our new house was on the edge of Sana’a, where there was not much in the surrounding area. While Mom and my aunt went shopping for some necessities, my dad and uncle helped move furniture into the houses. When we finally got to explore our new house, we were so excited. The house was huge to me, like a stone mansion.
It had stone walls, tile floors, two concrete slabs in the kitchen—all things we had not seen in Oregon. There was plenty of room to play in the three small basement rooms and even on the roof! We had no idea that houses could be made with a flat roof. This opened up a whole new world of imaginative play for Tim, Sara and me. We could look over the expanse of neighborhood at all the other houses.
There were several long hallways throughout the house, fun for racing toy cars and running around. There were two bathrooms – one small, one large. All the ceilings were made from a white chalky substance backed by mud and sticks that were exposed several times over the years as chunks of plaster would occasionally onto the living room floor. Perhaps we kids played on the flat roof too much!
The dining room had a beautiful big window. There were lots of windows throughout the house allowing plenty of light to come in. The amazing multi-colored stained glass atop each of them was my mom’s favorite feature. Circling the house were 12-foot mud-brick walls with shards of glass sticking out on top and a large black and green gate that became the distinguishing feature we kids used to find identify our home. The wall created a private courtyard for playing, gardening and family time, but it was mostly dirt! A broad porch also ran in an L-shape around the house.
As I reflect today on that old house, it was a place of joy, family, adventure and seeing the world in a new light. It was sturdy, with a long, rich history – just like the amazing Yemeni people that we were about to meet and get to know for the coming four school years.
TO BE CONTINUED…
