Yemini Total Blog

Wednesday 2nd July
Manchester airport and waiting for my flight to London and then on to Yemen, returning on 13th if that's a Saturday. I have been encouraged to take a big question with me... To kind of pursue at all costs.
For Yemen it is going to be: "what place does religion play in building a resilient community?"
I think, but don't know yet that this is one of the main contributions that faith groups can make is the ability to keep communities of people going when things get difficult. That is certainly their role in Yemen as far as I can see from Britain...
But maybe it's like in the Simpsons movie, when disaster hits the people in church run to the pub and the people in the bar run to church!

Sweeping down into Adan the first of our Yemeni stages we are presented with 1950s architecture left by the British after the Suez crisis began the collapse of the British Empire in this region. It's 7 o'clock local time and it's good with open doors to sniff fresh air rather than the recycled stuff we've gathered on the way.
Lots of evidence of the oil industry mixed in with dramatic landscape of desert sand and black islands of rock. Hard to imagine anyone living here let alone loving here.
Tony and I talk of population growth up from 3 million in 1970 when he first came to 18 million with the engine of health care bringing the changes. They reckon locally it's only the education of women that will reverse the growth but that will take time. Time is the thing none of have.
As Carl Sagan said: "time is the oxygen in which we burn!"
At the moment they are asking if we are sure we are going on to Sana, as they have three extra passengers! Maybe the population is still growing even on the plane.

Sanaa and we arrive with a physical and cultural bump.
The first thing is how scruffy the outside of things are. This isn't helped by the unfinished buildings. These are a result of a tax dodge... You have to pay a tax if you finish a building, so no building is ever fully finished. I am beginning to wonder whether this thing of not completing things might also be part of their character... I quite like it and wonder whether every project would benefit from being left a bit unfinished.
The second shock are the children begging by the car and selling things. Generally there were more children around but less women.
The third shock is the miltary road blocks which are to stop guns running to the north. I smile as I am told there's always trouble from the north.
The fourth shock is the hospitality of men. The separation of men and women seems to give men permission to be very close publically to each other. So they hold hands and when they meet one another there is much kissing. They are bit shy with new people so I haven't been kissed yet! Tony says this closeness of men is what he most misses when he is away from Yemen, I can see why you might.
Its very hot and Yemen's gone to sleep a bit. At four we go to visit the minister for water a good man and an interesting one I am told... Till then I think I will join the Yemenis for a zuzz.

Thursday 3rd July
Extraordinary journey up the wadi which is used as a "main" road when it's not got water in it. Made me think about whether we could do something similar with the Calder!
We were on our way to the minister for water's house which is well guarded but gorgeous on the inside. Talked about projects and issues and discovered a fear present in britain too I guess, that some religious NGO's pretend not to be political but are. Incidentally why don't we have NGO's in briitain? We export them to other places and we certainly have organisations that fit the bill but but they are not called NGO's, rather third sector.
The police check situation we encountered this morning was about such an NGO. Some grass roots community development groups pretend to be a charity but have a hidden political asperations.
I guess this is where some of the nervousness lies in giving money to faith groups.
I would still contend that partnership provides a corrective on this. When you are visiting and advising how can hidden agendas remain hidden?
We're going shopping then up into the mountains tomorrow, God willing, bismillah(i think is what they say here) or is it enchallah! Tony says its good to use an odd word of their language as it shows respect to their culture and their faith as they learn it through the Koran.
EVENING
Much, much later 6 hours on the most amazing road I have ever been on I am now in Tise which is a dump. It has sewers running in the street. It has expanded too quickly and the sanitation can't keep up. It's like a nightmare on regeneration street.
The hotel is the best of a very bad bunch. I have seen more of Yemen good and bad in the last twelve hours than I can quite take in.
Hoping all will look better in the morning when we go up into the mountains again.
Already feeling better as there is air conditioning in the room.
Please pray for safe journeys tomorrow as we venture up another mountain apparently.

Friday 4th July
MORNING
Just met up with people from islamic relief that the minister connected us with. Interesting conversation as one of them was Khalid a british muslim from Birmingham. Talked a bit and discovered that internationally they belong to Disaster emergency relief committee which includes many christian charities. Wondered if we could use this structure in britain as well as internationally..
Talked also about how we can be regarded with suspicion as active people of faith. "what we are about is challenging people's opinions of faith - by your actions you are known." They sensibly said.
Talked about partnerships too and they suggested they were more sustainable in that they give pool of funding available.
PARTNERSHIPS RULES
Build trust with governments
Have to be very open
Not what you know who you know
ISSUES
Sometimes ngo 60 per cent goes to consultants
Bringing in experts undermines local people
People have own agendas
Credibility
BRIGHT IDEA
Beneficiary committee - non party grouping of thise who might benefit.
Silver oxide - clears dirty water.

At the moment I am being driven up into the hills to Tise? The two drivers are both chewing the local drug qat. They say it makes them better drivers.
I hope so!
EVENING
Much, much later 6 hours on the most amazing road I have ever been on I am now in Tise which is a dump. It has sewers running in the street. It has expanded too quickly and the sanitation can't keep up. It's like a nightmare on regeneration street.
The hotel is the best of a very bad bunch. I have seen more of Yemen good and bad in the last twelve hours than I can quite take in.
Hoping all will look better in the morning when we go up into the mountains again.
Already feeling better as there is air conditioning in the room.
Please pray for safe journeys tomorrow as we venture up another mountain apparently.

Had a bit of a disasterous evening after a good day. Today we travelled on an amazing mountain road over 10000 feet. It's funny to think of having driven over three times the height of Ben Nevis. Some of the villages we saw were amazing as they clung to the mountainside with their terrace housing. After this amazing journey we reacted badly to our otherwise reliable drivers losing the hotel.
It turned out to have been the victim of a recent flash flood which had wrecked the street outside, turning into what seemed like a mud bath although was probably worse.
The hotel made us feel unwelcome and made me feel homesick for the first time. To bed then and with text messaging out... Good night and dreams of Mytholmroyd.

Saturday July 5th
Everywhere we go we are asked for a tesseria. This is a document that is signed by the minister to say we are on official business. It is probably best not to think about what would happen if we didn't have it.

Having come up in the car from tajs this morning I am sat at 12000 feet drinking tea with the men of the village as they chew qat. Its very relaxing, and no I am not chewing qat. We have been welcomed to this village as old friends. The comeraderie coming from our shared humanity though not language. Teaching the boys to make popping sound further builds a link. The food eaten with fingers is shared, the cigarettes shared, the building is shared, so is it surprising that work is shared.
Partnership comes from doing other things than work together. My partnership with Yorkshire Forward really began when we spent a night at Schipol airport.
This is a place for thinking. As they make their midday prayers I make mine and in this place I am overwhelmed by a great sense of thanksgiving flooding like the sudden into the terraces of my life causing this greening of praise. I am thankful for the great goodness of God in my journey so far, the great goodness of a wife and family, the great goodness of a community, a calling, an equipping, a partnership, a covenant, a love. I cry a little with the sense of God's goodness.
In the middle of prayers they break off in a chat then back to prayer, no threshold between spirituality and life. No bumps.
It will be hard to come off this moutaintop.

Tonight is my last night in Tais with which I now have mixed relationship. Last night it was a dump, today it's beautiful. The difference is to do with the state of mind when we arrived. Last night we arrived late in a dingy hotel with twitchy staff (as it turned out they had just had a flood that afternoon and were cleaning up the mess when we dropped in.) Having given me a speech about being careful because the streets were filled with sewage the hotel clothes accidentally dropped his clothes in it.
Tonight after a spiritual experience with a mountain top village we arrive to be greeted by friendly staff who after we bathed treated us like kings on their rooftop restaurant where viewing Tais from a distance we see it as a fairy land of lights and atmosphere.
Is Tais any different? No.
Any safer? Not really.
What's different?


We are...
As I told Tony this morning quoting Oscar Wilde; we may be in the gutter but we're looking at the stars.

Sunday 6th July
Despite the comfy room a bad nights sleep. How do you know if your temperatures up if its hot? Anyhow a sweaty night and a better morning.
Troubled this morning by a question what part did faith play in what we saw yesterday? I think quite a lot but not too obvious. There was the spiritual attachment and love of the land. The uniting of community prayer sung out across the mountain to remind one of the spiritual dimension of what they are doing. The reconciliation of disputes by the Imman.
Would the system work without faith? I don't know but my guess would be that it would not be as sustainable.
So here's another question for today, does faith make a community more or less sustainable?
Later on the way to Adan where we are catching the plane to Socatra the island where Toni does most of his work we find a bit of an answer. A community with the help of Islamic relief to pump water 12000 feet up a mountain so the women of the village don't have to carry the water on their heads. Originally the government scheme faltered but now through the mosque the local "parish council" it is flourishing and sustainable because of faith they are in it for the long haul.
Going up a half made dirt track in a very old land cruiser to the village 12000 feet up a mountain did wonders for my faith too.

Monday 7th July
HOME THOUGHT FROM ABROAD.
I missed church yesterday in both senses of the word, it's a big wrench being away from my community on the day when we celebrate our faith. The journey is very hot but the meal we eat in a massive canteen is delicious. We pass the Anglican church in Adan which looks like someone picked up a village church and parachuted it into the centre of the town. A bit Adan which shall remain forever England which looks quite frankly a bit bonkers.
The place we are staying for a night makes up for it a bit. A resort hotel in elephant bay, Adan, gives me an air conditioned room and a door that opens onto the beach. It is very beautiful and rests us ready for Soqotra.
Waking up early on the day of our flight I listen to the prayers which are accompanied by a chorus of crows who have also woken early... Not sure who woke who up but at the moment the crows are beating the prayers in volume in a weird dawn chorus.
It is five o'clock and I have home thoughts from abroad.
Tony asks every person we meet where are they from... Nobody is from where they are now but each has a village somewhere that is really home, a tribe which is really their people.
Maybe that's why the British when they were here built a church that looked like home, a tribal reminder that they had a home somewhere

Soqotora
We have arrived on the Island which looks like a dry version of treasure Island. No phone signal so I hope no-one thinks the pirates have got us.
The nice hotel in Aden because we got the plane proved not so nice when it came to the bill as they tried to rip us off... "Bloody Indians" said the Yemenis "at least the British didn't rip us off." Funny how people get rosey views even of invading armies if you give enough time.
The flight to the island was a bit scary, it sits in the indian ocean just off Sudan but is very Yemini. The wind was such that the Yemenis were relieved as they unloaded their baggage which included two dustbins and a child's bike.
We had fish and rice in a scruffy café, but as is arab custom we washed our hands thoroughly and it tasted delicious. It's actually much easier to eat fish with your fingers as any good Yorkshireman on a day trip to Scarborough will tell you. Any remains would be scooped up from the rubbish by Egyptian vultures.
It was from there we visited a nursery where they are growing many plants unique to Yemen to put back into the wild. The quiet dignity of the man who invited us to eat dates and drink tea under a canopy. Business was done, regeneration planned, family stories were shared, a little laughter, a few tears. A good meeting then... to our rooms.
A tourism project, a hut, with no light or sanitation... Beams that jut out, perfect.
Tonight we sleep here but the Soqorans think we're mad... I am not sure... I will have a better idea tomorrow.

Talking tonight around a tilly lamp with Adib. Joined by his adult daughter Fatima who wants to learn to teach English. It would be nice if she could, but there are so many hurdles. "Could we begin by e-mailing you?" No e-mail. "what's your address?" Don't have post. Telephone - mobile is available but it's patchy.
Left me feeling completely stupid not to have known this. I wonder how many others are excluded from participation because they are not connected. I always that clean water, good food etc were the essential for development but communication is crucial too.
Morning brings an exciting trip to the facilities which are some way from where we are. I am lead in a mini procession as an honoured guest might be to a banquet. The ablutions take a little longer than usual due to the exotic plumbing but I am clean!

Tuesday 8th July
Talking last night around a tilly lamp with Adib. Joined by his adult daughter Fatima who wants to learn to teach English. It would be nice if she could, but there are so many hurdles. "Could we begin by e-mailing you?" No e-mail. "what's your address?" Don't have post. Telephone - mobile is available but it's patchy.
Left me feeling completely stupid not to have known this. I wonder how many others are excluded from participation because they are not connected. I always that clean water, good food etc were the essential for development but communication is crucial too.
Morning brings an exciting trip to the facilities which are some way from where we are. I am lead in a mini procession as an honoured guest might be to a banquet. The ablutions take a little longer than usual due to the exotic plumbing but I am clean!

Feeling a bit queezy this morning also a bit sad. We have been listening to Abid talking about the death of his daughter a month ago. She was a twin and I guess about ten. Her twin is with us and stares in a rather sad way at these noisy foreigners. Her sister as far as we can work our had some form of epilepsy. There is no hospital on.the Island and so it sounds like she couldn't be got help in time.
It's a good reminder that this is an underdeveloped country with all that brings. Any development needs the basics but the list for basics is a big list for any community.

Later in the day we climb to the mountains in the middle of the island where there is a limestone pavement worthy of the dales. Except this one has people living in caves and keeping sheep and goats. They are rugged farmers and the meeting is like an Arabic version of the Archers. They are very interested in what I do and wonder if we could exchange councillors. The councillor I talk to is on the school governors, involved in the project, etc. We talk about the importance of networking and introduce them to the concept of added value!
Following this we make a very arduous journey up a dirt road for what seemed like hours, to the wild Indian Ocean where tony is trying to build a jetty in the chalk cliffs. It smelt like the East Coast.
Then finally we arrived at the Sheik's village where I became a local celebrity by falling asleep! I have given up on food today so whilst I hear the feasting and smell the smoke, and with a bit of a headache I sit in my tent and I pray that I won't have to go to the loo, there isn't one.
Incidentally the place we are camped is a failed regeneration project; a garden built by the french and given to the whole village. Because they couldn't decide who owned it they fell out and abandoned it for the sake of harmony in the village. Next door is thriving garden, planted by one man, so private enterprise rules even in the republic of Yemen.

Thursday 10th July
Island of heroic failures

This morning at 4.30 I am woken by the wind rattling the door. The monsoon wind is strong at this time of year and batters the island relentlessly making it unattractive for tourists, hence an empty hotel. The wind is warm and dry and extremely powerful. I saw huge concrete wall yesterday that had been blown down in the last wind. It kind of defines Soqotra and people are constantly asking about it or talking about it. It's funny how weather often defines a place: Skegness is so bracing, Mytholmroyd, it rains a lot! It's the one thing that we can do little about.
Then again you can turn it round... Last night we met a man who was talking about Kite Surfing for which the constant is ideal. He has an idea for a business... Then again he is Soqotran.

It's lunchtime at Adib's nursery after a morning talking to various groups about their projects. They are at very different stages; talking to one at idea stage, one at association stage, one at injecting sheep stage. Everybody drops in at the office for a chat so that Mohammed complains he gets no work, but this is the work.
Makes me even more convinced that this is how the community enterprise at Mytholmroyd will work and I am very excited about what we might do.
I am feeling a lot less queezy today so I am looking forward to lunch.

Tonight we go to the beach @ 5.00pm to catch the last of the sun before it switches off at 6.00pm. The sun and the prayers are the only regular things on Socatra. On the way there, as is the custom here we pick people up. If you have a space you give a lift, at one point we ended up with five people on the back seat. It's the ultimate car sharing scheme, you share your good fortune.
Along the way we see a number of failed schemes. Socatra is the island of heroic failures. The successes are amazing. The men we met this morning were living on the hills in caves ten years ago. Now they have twenty fishing boats, with help they are excavating a harbour and making an ice making plant. Sheik Noah has boats now and a successful tribe.
You need a few heroic failures to succeed a few times, ask Noah.

Friday 11th July
Today I part company with Tony and the Socotra conservation fund and fly solo to Sanaa for the night and then in the morning home. It's really another part of my personal adventure and development but I wish I could go straight home.
Tony has been a great companion and has been very brave to let me walk so closely and climb so slowly alongside him and his NGO. It's a fine organisation and I will try and do all I can to promote its work when I get home. What comes across most is his tremendous love for Yemen growing from a first encounter over thirty years ago. His love and passion for the people here is only matched by the respect they show him.
As I leave him at the airport I am a bit emotional which in the push and shove of the crowd I think he interprets as nervousness. The reality is much more complex, it it is the parting of companionş people who have been places together physically and if it's not too pompous spiritually. Just as with Leon and Stephen my companions in Sweden I know that we will not walk this way again.
I hope my love for people I care for in the Calder Valley, like his for the people of Socotra and Yemen is always as real. We need more people to fall in love with people, and places, it is the seed from which a good world will grow into a good one.

When ever anybody wants to do anything on the island they form an association. So today we are talking to the fishing association. This makes ownership less of an issue because much aid is given to associations.
The aid that comes always comes with training and people who have made a good job in the past are often given more. This principle of a tripartate aid + training + partnership = successful project when working with community groups is a good model for us in Yorkshire Forward. Of course you also need time and commitment in the long term.
I met the Mullah this morning who is following in his father's footsteps. I had actually met him before but he looks the same and is fully integrated in village life. I guess that is what most of us of faith hope, that we might just a part of life. He gave me a goat wool prayer mat.
It smells a bit!

It's lunchtime at Adib's nursery after a morning talking to various groups about their projects. They are at very different stages; talking to one at idea stage, one at association stage, one at injecting sheep stage. Everybody drops in at the office for a chat so that Mohammed complains he gets no work, but this is the work.
Makes me even more convinced that this is how the community enterprise at Mytholmroyd will work and I am very excited about what we might do.
I am feeling a lot less queezy today so I am looking forward to lunch.
This afternoon and evening thoughts about schools and I hope that we can set up a real link between our schools and the Soqotra ones. Meeting with parents of one school tonight they wanted what all parents would want, a good school for their kids and a better world for every one.
So on my last night on Socotra what have I learned.
The incredible adaptability of humanity who can move from caves to fishermen in ten years
The importance of associations and using traditional structures to create them
To always want more than what you are offered. To push and push those who are in partnership.
The community enterprise centre and its place in any community a staffed office.
I am not breakable!

Just experienced a Yemini phenomena, a riot with laughter. People were waiting for the doors to open onto the runway at Soqora and for some reason there was a bit of a tussle. Yeminis don't queue so it was everyone for themselves. A small riot ensued but throughout it all everyone except the man at the door was laughing they even suggested I body surf to the front!
Was just about to suggest they form a queue but left it as this was much more fun. Also fun in that I met three people I knew, so much for travelling on my own.

Saturday 12th July
Just been for a walk around the sucke in Sana'a, I can't tell you how safe I feel on my own wandering about. Obviously it's me that has changed, picking the mood signals in people's faces, is easier now, working out what is safe is also easier. Friday afternoon is like Sunday afternoon in Britain, everybody's a bit chilled. Mind we don't have the Qat they traditionally chew after Friday Prayers. Tonight I either dine alone in the hotel or possibly the minister will invite me, he said he might. Quite frankly I don't care!
What makes a place safe we often ask in regeneration? A better question would be "what makes us feel safe?" what makes us feel safe is the journey we make inside our heads.

To the airport early for a departure to Aden and then London. Meet a man from the Yemeni community in Birmingham. It turns out he taugtht Khalid the young man from Islamic Relief we met a week ago. It feels right to come around to that first meeting making a bit of a circle. I think perhaps a trip to Birmingham in September would be a good idea.
As I sit on the plane silent, for a change, for eight hours Yemen starts to distance itself from me as the miles role on. Its impact and the insights I have discovered will not fade but hopefullly become all the clearer as I share my experiences with others.
I can't wait to tell my tales.

5.20 pm finds me home in Britain