A few days in Yemen
A few days in Yemen: transported by some special time traveling airplane to the late Ottoman empire. The women in Yemen are flowing black draperies looking like casper the ghosts with little rectangles for eyes. Occasionally a pair of glasses interrupts the pattern. The men are dressed in some variation on the theme: light colored robe, dark blue sport coat, Yassir Arafat style red checked head scarf, and a decorated belt with a curved knife (jambia) that is entirely phallic. I could laugh except that it is oddly dignified, especially compared to the Saudi white angel look.
And every afternoon almost every man spends about 4 hours chewing qat, looking like he is sucking on a golf ball and occasionally exposing some sickening green froth between his teeth. I chewed some and walked around the market, but I was no more existential than usual.
And the hospitality: I was invited to a family dinner, to a qat chewing afternoon, and a policeman insisted on paying for lunch.