Sana'a

The first night there, there was a wedding in a nearby building and we were treated to traditional wedding music for several hours. The music was beautiful. As far as I could tell, there was only one man singing and playing a stringed instrument with a deep rounded body. It sounds a bit like a guitar with lose strings. I was able to find a cassette with that instrument and it is playing now. Sana’a is an interesting city.

In the center is the Old City which is a United Nations’ World Heritage Site. Leah and I walked through the alleys of the Old City twice, taking pictures and buying scarves. You can see from the attached pictures that the traditional clothing is intriguing. The fabric of the men’s skirts is really beautiful. The women wear black. Sort of like birds the males of which are usually more brightly colored! Four days later we were leaving the city.

After checking in at the airport, we asked the guide who had driven us which gate we needed to go to. He just laughed. There is only one gate! He was right, and he laughed again. The people here are very friendly. The guide book emphasized the conservative nature of the country the most conservative Islamic nation next to Saudi Arabia, but we have found everyone to be very kind and helpful. In the Old City we were looking for one of the public baths and a group of people dispatched an old man with us on a ten minute walk to the Saba Bathhouse. A man who owned a tea house the tea urn and three tables at the corner of a building with a blue tarp for a roof motioned for us to come have tea. We went to an internet café one evening and when we were leaving the manager asked where we were from then he said, in rough English, "New Orleans we are sorry."

Then we were off to Aden.