Reflections by Stephen Coats based on the memoirs of Nancy Coats
It was 40 years ago that something happened that would affect every aspect of my life, something that would shape who I am today. I was only 4 years old when my parents took my older brother, my older sister and me onto an airplane for the first time ever out into a wide world that taught me to love the exotic, enjoy wonderful foods, travel, people, languages, cultures and respect those of other faiths.
That’s who I am today and it started when my parents got a call from my uncle; he was an educator and had just gotten a new job a principal somewhere overseas. My Mom and Dad were teaching at the time in Three Lynx Oregon and both passionate about education. My uncle, my mom’s sister’s husband, wanted to know if they were interested in teaching jobs in Sana’a, Yemen. Mom and Dad’s first question was “Where in the world is that?” They had no idea where that was being from small town Oregon. Yemen? Nobody in Oregon knew where that was. My mom thought it sounded like and adventure, we were a close-knit family and so with an opportunity to travel around the world with your sister and her family, and get paid to do it, what a deal. The very next day they had an interview with the director of the school and he wanted a decision within 21 hours. My dad never makes decisions that fast but talked to my mom all the way home from the interview while driving in the car and by the time they arrived at the house they were resolved and ready to go.
My mom had gone to a women’s retreat a month earlier and heard the speaker talking about “dreaming dreams!” and not being afraid to do so, so she began to wonder if this was a dream! It was a whirlwind summer in 1976. My brother told people at church, “We have a family secret, but we can’t tell you for six weeks!” Us kids all thought it was exciting to be moving! We had to scramble to get passports, insurance and visas. There were lots of shopping, packing, shots, dentist appointments, garage sales, shipping, farewells and potlucks. We were planning to be gone for two years, which meant clothes, books to take, cosmetics, anything we thought we couldn’t get in Yemen.
By August we were off to Yemen, flying for the first time, taking advantage of stops in Copenhagen, Athens, Damascus and Jeddah on the way finally arriving in Sana’a Aug. 20, 1976. We had no idea what laid in store for us, we just knew we were together as a family and the adventure was before us.
TO BE CONTINUED…
