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Hello. My name is Gina Knarich and I
have been a teacher at MALI for over two years. I thought I
would take this opportunity to tell you a few things about
Yemen from a personal point of view. Living in Yemen is like
nothing else that you have experienced. For those of you who
have traveled in the Middle East or who have studied about
it, though this may be difficult, try not to have any
preconceived notions about it. Yemen is unique in the world
in its steadfast grasp of the traditional. I arrived here in
late April 1996, towards the end of the rainy season, and
was immediately struck by the men walking around holding
hands and wearing what I, at the time, thought of as long
white dresses or skirts belted by a belt with a dagger.
The weather here in Sana’a is great! I
never imagined that summer in the Middle East would be
better than the summer in NY (there is no humidity!!!!!!!)
For those of you not from NY please disregard my exuberance.
For those of you from NY, I’m sure you can relate. Because
Sana’a has a relatively high elevation it may take a week or
two to adjust to the thinner air. I found myself a bit out
of breath at first (though I’m sure the 40 extra pounds that
I carried around and the half pack of cigarettes that I
smoked a day and the fact that I was suddenly walking a lot
had absolutely nothing to do with it <<grin>>). If you are
here for the rainy season, I would suggest that you bring an
umbrella and some really good shoes (not all of the streets
are paved so you may be hoofing it through some mud). Just
so you don’t panic when you hear “rainy season” I’ll let you
know about it. If you are picturing a steady rain for months
and palm trees bent almost in two by the force of the
monsoon winds you may now breath a heavy sigh of
relief….don’t worry, I’ll wait. Finished? Good. Okay,
basically what the rainy season means here is that once a
day, usually in the late afternoon, there will be a major
downpour. It will probably last about 15 minutes and then
“khalas” (finished). The winter here reminds me of visiting
my grandmother in the mountains. For those of you who didn’t
join me on that trip I’ll explain. Basically, the days are
bright but the sun doesn’t provide any real warmth and the
nights can be downright cold (no heating). I would suggest
that you bring a turtleneck, a flannel shirt, a sweater (or
two) and flannel PJs.
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