This morning, as I sat in the midst of schoolbooks, notebooks, pencils, crayons, and children, I suddenly felt the urgent desire to just get out. It was too late for a walk to the beach, and the flies are terrible right now, so jumping rope or sitting upstairs on the[…]
The last ten nights of Ramadhaan are a time of increased prayer, contemplation, supplication and good works. Somewhere in these last ten nights is The Night of Decree, the night in which angels descend in abundance and there is peace in every matter. All supplications are answered in this blessed[…]
During the month of Ramadhaan, the Yemenis turn their worlds upside down. Night literally becomes day, and day becomes like night. We don’t follow this custom, preferring to keep things in their usual up and down state, but we can’t help but be affected by it throughout the entire month.[…]
The “protests” here in Yemen have been going on for about five months now. Five long months of lives disrupted, work neglected, schools closed, periodic violence, and shortages of fuel, food, and water. When I read of these protests, of the tent city set up and populated largely by young,[…]
Our house in Old Sana’a was near to two major outside markets–Bab ash-Shuab and Bab as-Sabaa. To get to either one of them, we had to walk down cobblestone streets, doing our best to avoid goats and the small children that seem to be everywhere in Yemen. Even after we[…]
