Party On!

Well, the semester is over and now I am supposed to be on vacation, but in reality I am learning about the hell that goes into working as a teacher. I remember back in my college days how nice I thought it would be to have a job where you could go home and forget about it. Then when I got that job, I thought how nice it would be to be in a job where you were helping people and making a difference.

But all the students did really well and the pride that made up for that was all worth it. Specifically, the food at the party that they threw for all the trainees was worth it. We had a “trainee quiz” where they went around with a mic and asked impossible questions about thermal dynamics and such. My guys rocked. I was so proud!!

The next day my boss requested that I make an appearance at what I thought was the opening ceremony for a new high tech hospital in the region. What it actually was was a talk on hip replacement surgery. Fortunately, the guy who introduced the speaker didn’t have a very good grasp of English and said that the speaker was actually going to do a talk on “head replacement”. This sent us into giggles whenever he said “hip” imagining it was head. (OK, you had to be there. I mean, we are really scraping the bottom of the barrel for entertainment here in Yemen.) Anyway, the talk perked up once he started showing xrays of people who had fake hips screwed into their hip bones. Made the ride home a lot more fun as well considering that everyone in Yemen drives like they are on a suicide mission. Good food there, too, especially the pudding.

But the BEST food was the food I sampled at French Bastille Day Party that my French roommate snuck me into. As I have told my friends, underneath this wanna-be hard-core roughing-it development aid worker is a little rich girl screaming to get out, and she headed right for that red wine. I decided to let her have it—after all, I owe her. I never let the bitch spend any money. I got to rub elbows with all sort of people including the French and Japanese ambassadors. (Although rubbing elbows was pretty much all I did—it was pretty crowded in there.) My friends got me out of there a gin and tonic short of my making a total fool of myself and we staggered home with me singing and greeting the guards in Arabic—much to their amusement as they were just as bored as I was during the head replacement talk.

Finally, Yemen continues to be very safe. What is going on in Lebanon right now is terrible but it is also having no impact on life in Yemen. I continue to live in a very safe part of town, have a very safe job and generally live a very safe life.