Aaron and Anne-Sophie

Turkey, where we have spent the last 4 days, because we didn’t get the ıranıan vısa on tıme. but we mıght be able to go there later though. to be contınued…
everythıng ıs fıne, we’ll try to post somethıng longer soon.

Have any of you ever seen the movie “Groundhog’s Day?” 2 days ago it was like that for us. (more…)

We’re starting to get sad as we get ready to leave Yemen. It was our home for 8 and a half months and we felt comfortable here. At the same time I’m not sure if there’s that much more space for personal growth here. I think we’ve already outgrown Yemen in many ways, but I’m sure it will have influenced us more than we will know. So forgive us if we have a hard time going to bathrooms sitting down and using forks and knives. Forgive us if we stare at a woman with a tank top and a short skirt. We’ve been Yemenized. We vow to come back some day. Perhaps one of you can make that journey with us. Until then Yemen will continue to develop and change hopefully for the better, but we hope that they are able to keep some of the Arabia that has been lost due to globalization and that has been distorted by Western depicitions of Arabs. Even many Arabs think of Yemen as the last place they’d want to live or visit. Yemen is truly a beautiful country with amazing people though. We will miss it. (more…)

My friend Joel, who worked with me as an EA (Ecumenical Accompanier) in 2003, is a great travel writer. He traveled for over a year from China to Turkey by land while all the time writing about his journey. He has compiled and edited most of his stories and is now trying to publish them. His writings include descriptions of culture, natural beauty, and ponderings about religion, politics, and history. He invited me to a site called gather.com, where people can post stories and photos based on their interests. His (http://jcarillet.gather.com/) features some of his photos and travel stories. So if you’re interested in joining go to: http://jcarillet.gather.com/memberInvite.jsp There you can read more travel stories besides ours, post some of your own if you like, and meet people with similar interests and experiences. Below is a sample of his writing about Shanghai. Enjoy! (more…)

Nojoom means “stars” in Arabic. Just like when we saw Paula Abdul before going to Yemen, we saw a famous Arab singer on Thursday less than a week before our leaving Yemen. After 8 months here, we can’t but help watch some of the many Arab music video stations. (more…)

To those of you in California, we apologize, because we were finally able to get return flights on our previous ticket, which will save us a lot of money, but will mean that we will arrive back in San Francisco on the 17th of August and not the 9th as previously planned. However that means we’ll have more time in France for those of you who will be there this summer. We’re looking forward to our return home. (more…)

There are photos in the “More Yemen” and “Sanaa” albums.

We had the pleasure to host my mom and my sister for a week, and to help them discover Yemen. Although it was short, we managed to do quite a few things. We started off with a weekend in the mountains of Harraz, where we stayed at our friend Issam’s place. It was a very authentic experience, in a traditional Yemeni family. We got to enjoy the breathtaking landscape of green terraced mountains during long hikes (that reminded Aaron and Florence a little of Maccu Piccu in Peru), as well as the hospitality of Issam’s family who grow coffee (a once a famous export of Yemen . . . the word Mocha comes from a port in Yemen where they exported it) and qat of course. The village is very remote, with a very strong sense of tribal identity. (more…)