Aaron and Anne-Sophie

There was a rare landslide in a small village not far from Sanaa. Last I heard 30 people were killed and many were still missing. The cause of the landslide is still unknown. I’m not sure if that made the news in other parts of the world.

However we were even more surprised to see the BBC news footage of Egyptian police dispersing (quite violently) a crowd of Sudanese refugees protesting outside the UNHCR building in Cairo. Basically identical to what happened here, Sudanese like the Somali refugees in Sanaa were protesting/camping outside the UN Refugee Center for days demanding more rights or a chance to seek refuge in another country that can give them a better status. Unforunately the dispersing of the Somali refugees here didn’t get the same news coverage. We did meet someone who actually filmed some of it on his cell phone. If there’s anyone out there that has any ideas on how we can get the Somalis more press to help their cause, let me know. At least write and complain to the UNHCR (see previous blogs for the link) for not doing anything to help these refugees. Frankly though I’m worried for them, and it’s been a while since any of my Somali contacts have updated me on what’s happening.

This weekend we were invited to lunch twice; (more…)

I hope all of you had a Merry Christmas. For us it was a little special as obviously it is not widely celebrated here, but we still had our own holiday. (more…)

In less than three weeks we will have some time off, because most of the nation will be celebrating Eyd Kabeer (if you recall the first Eyd is after Ramadan and we went to Aden then and this is the second one just before the new year on the Islamic calendar). We’ll tell you more about the second Eyd when it comes. We just wanted to let you know of our travel plans during that time. We’re flying to the island of Socotra, who some have called the Galapagos Islands of the Indian Ocean, because of its isolation and number of species of plants and animals exclusive to that island. After that we will be returning to Al-Mukalla and going by land to Wadi Hadramot (where Saywun is on the map in the East of Yemen), and then returning to Sanaa via Marib. Since this will probably we our biggest break, we decided to take advantage by doing some more long distance travelling within Yemen. Of course we’ll tell you all more during and after the trip. We just wanted to entice you a little bit to come visit the beauties and wonders of Yemen. We have 5 more months here and it would be a shame for any of you not to take advantage of our being here and having local contacts to enhance your travelling experience. So if you’ve ever thought about coming to Yemen, now’s the time. From North America, flights to Europe are at their cheapest and then you can fly from there to Sanaa, Yemen. There’s no rain during this time, and the heat is at its lowest. Tourist visas are available at the airport for 60 US dollars. We’ll come and get you and help you arrange some visits. Below is a map so you can see where we’re going and where you might want to go when you visit here.

After over a week of being unable to contact my Somali contacts, and there always being police around their protest, we went today and found out that the police had dispersed all the protestors yesterday after over a month of protesting. The two streets surrounding the UNHCR building once filled with hundreds of refugees (see prior photos in our Sanaa album) was completely empty except for police. According to one of the guys who works in the restaurant that we frequent near the protest, protestors resisted by throwing things, and the police used riot gear, probably tear gas (my Arabic is not good enough to know for sure), etc. to remove all the protestors. Surprisingly the Yemeni restaurant worker was very supportive of the Somali cause, citing that they were poor and had nothing to eat. Yesterday we helped him help them write a sign in English for their protest. We’ll try to find out more of what happened and what they plan to do next if I can get a hold of my contacts. I know some of the leaders in the past had been put in jail. We’ll see . . .Update 12/22/05: Please read the article in the comments by a human rights group telling in more detail what happened to the Somalis. (more…)

To be honest I knew very little about the life of my grandmother outside of knowing her just as my PaPa (grandma). For some reason all my grandparents told us almost nothing about their lives in China, or their struggle as immigrants in the US. (more…)

No matter where we are, or what we’re doing, our thoughts are with the people back home when tragedies occur. (more…)

I just got word that my grandmother has passed away after months of battling cancer. She died on December 8th. In many ways this is a relief for the family to see her suffering end . . . unfortunately I neither have the time nor disposition to write much further on the matter at this moment. . . I think I still have to let it sink in before I can even begin to ponder this and write something half eloquent about her. The other question is whether or not I’ll be able to return to California for the funeral. For those of you in the Bay Area, her funeral is on the 19th. Please contact my family for more details if you wish to attend or send your condolences.

Aaron
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One other side note. For future commentators on political issues, please read the following comment I made to another comment in a previous blog.

We had another interesting weekend. After being unable to talk with the Somali refugees, because (as some of them wrote in the comments) the UNHCR is paying the Yemeni police to keep press away, we headed home to watch some TV. (to contact the UNHCR in Sanaa or Geneva to appeal for these Somali refugees click here). Click here for a comprehensive article on the situation. We forgot to mention that we have our own satellite TV now, full of the Dubai English speaking channels and TV5 which is French speaking, so fortunately and unfortunately we can now watch American movies and re-runs of American reality shows. On the French news we immediately heard three major reports in a row closely relating to us. (more…)