nuns.

dana, after mass, back in black hijab and abaya
nun: oh, you look like a nun!
dana: um...
a little later
different nun: oh, you look like a Carmelite!
(now i'm trying to figure out if that's better or worse than "oh, you look like a Yemeni" except you can see my face! I'm going with better)

dana, in the street, in black hijab & abaya, surrounded by children
Edward: you remind me of a school nun, you know, with the all black and children flocking to you....
dana: i am now seriously freaked out.

from the BCP

Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy name; through Christ our Lord. Amen. ~Book of Common Prayer, 323 (Holy Eucharist Rite I)

gat

I chewed gat yesterday with Morgan, John and Bryan, (though Bryan didn't actually chew) on the roof. The process was something like : I walk around the corner with Noah (the American gat addict), who picks our gat out for us. Gat is basically leaves. no. it really just is leaves of this plant, that is supposed to be a mild stimulant.

So, you chew these leaves and then hold them in your cheek, basically all afternoon. and it's not like tobacco that you spit out. so this wad forms in your cheek. and it's kinda gross, really. more so when it's evening and time to spit the wad out. NA-STY.

and after like four hours of chewing this stuff, nothing. no high, no extra energy, nothing.

And then I smoked shisha with the same group. the end.
~dana.

camera update

I broke down and bought a new camera yesterday. So there will be new pictures sometime. (sony, cybershot or something)

sad times, yo.

my camera broke. i'm figure i'll try some "home remedies" i found on the internet, and when they don't work, i'll ask my teacher or someone who's been here a long time about camera repair places in sana'a. here's to hoping.

Catholicism.

Before I came here, I thought a lot about the church/jesus situation. I was very sad to leave my church. I had basically just found it, was finally opening up to people and then, the opportunity came up to come over here. I looked into it and I thought yeah, I can do the Catholic Church, it's basically the same thing, right? and nuns, surely the opportunity to be with saving-the-world nuns will make up for the theological/liturgical/accepting differences between the Catholic church and my amazingly-beautiful-in-oh-so-many-ways Episcopal Church (both particular and world-wide)

And now, now I'm not so sure. Let me start with: I can be extremely shallow when it comes to church. I went to four Episcopal churches in Des Moines during the three months I was there (not counting the Anglican/TAC that I attended pre-moving). I attended all of them twice, except the one I decided was good enough, which I attended thrice.

I really don't have any other (liturgical) options, though I heard about this ultra-protestant one that my mom would probably rather have me go to, but the stories, they scare me. But in some ways, the liturgical route just makes me realize what I'm missing. I miss the "subtitles" I miss the Nicene Creed (they use the Apostle's). I miss a hymnal - words on a screen, not the same. I miss the organ - guitar, not the same. I miss the confession of sins, [especially now that St. Stephen's is using the "most merciful god" (which is my favorite) or at least they were for Easter. Now, I don't know.] I miss hearing things Mother Kathy says. Acutally, I REALLY miss hearing things Mother Kathy says. And the cadence of the prayers is all wrong. (one of the churches in des moines, I decided not to go there because i hated how the priest ran through the Eucharist (rite d) as fast as he possibly could. (I personally don't like rite d, but doing it faster makes it even worse, not better.)

That's probably enough. I'll probably get used to it, I don't really want to, but I do want to continue to go.

And that's that. I swear I'm not miserable all the time, just some times.

Yay for meeting random Americans in Yemen.

Yesterday I went out to eat at this Indian restaurant with Isaac and we took a debab over to the street it was on (which incidentally runs right by the MT house, so I just cut at 40 min walk into ... a whole lot less than 30 min.) But I sat next to this girl, before we got on, I was totally checking out her balto, it was very nice. Afterwards though, I wasn't wanting to move my head because I just knew my hijab was going to fall off, so I didn't even realize that she wasn't wearing the niqaab until she started talking to me in English. Anyway, we hated on the men here and then exchanged numbers. Sweet. Also, the indian food was good. Not spicy, because I just can't take that.

finishing the day

1. run errands with Jennifer
2. curse a lot about stupid yemeni boys
2. walk, walk, blah: CELLPHONE!
3. yemeni boy tries to rip me off. bastard.
3. wash abaya. it's dirty.
4. decide to finally eat something todayt
5. run outside to get beverages
6. come back home, find huge loogie on abaya
7. restart/continue to curse stupid yemeni boys.
8. wash abaya again. g-d-m-f.
9. cook/eat/curse.

that's pretty much it.

if you honk at me i will not get in your taxi.

today i have:
1. gone to the bank and set up an account
2. got lost
3. backtracked to tahreer
4. took a taxi to the blood bank
5. been utterly confused by some girls
6. had blood drawn for a test
7. got so lost i couldn't backtrack
6. finally caved and took a little bus to tahreer
7. was very confused about where in tahreer i was
8. miraculously ended up on a very familiar street.
9. made it home
10. checked my email.

and it's only 12:30. too bad i still have stuff i need to do today.

The mosquitos like me here.

Now, I just need to work on evening out the days. Less sucky ones, more generally okay ones. The past couple have been amazing/generally okay.

I made it out to Mass last night, with a German guy. The priest is Indian, and I think by the time I leave we will have had some very interesting conversations. The nuns were there and they are like "come over any time except between 12-3, we don't receive visitors then", so on Wednesday (insha'allah) I will go after class and find out what all is up with that. I'm very excited.

Today I headed over to the US Embassy to get a letter of no objection to stay in Yemen. The cab driver on the way over ripped me off, and I walked home, which I was intending to do anyway, but it took about an hour. Then to the supermarket (which is quite another walk) with Jennifer, my flatmate. I'm pretty sure I have a sunburn now. I'm so totally not diligent in sunblock application (or vocabulary memorization, or food consumption).

I'm exhausted now, so I should probably go.

i'm still not muslim

So class today was pretty much awful. I am unsure if it's depression, stress (unlikely) or just normal cultural adjustment. Things are a bit better now, but I'm hopeful that by the grace of God tomorrow will be better. Or if nothing else, it will take the wrath of god to make things worse -- which I don't think is upon me. In Surat al-Fatiha (the opening sura to the koran, recited at every prayer, I believe) there is a line, "Show us your straight path, not the path of those upon whom is your wrath" or something similar (this is my memory of a translation or of a conglomeration of translations)