Yemen Mukalla 4

We had come to Mukalla for the International Islamic Fair that experienced a last minute unexpected change in location. The change in location cost me and my fellow travellers an extra Rm 3000 in airfare but that was not all that happened. It also meant all our preparations for the fair were wrong. We had prepared for a Dubai market but found ourselves instead in Mukalla . By Yemeni standards it was a large town, the main industry here was fishing. The average salary here was between US$100-200. While the people loved to see the things we brought, they simply could not afford our prices.

These girls were from the university, Faiza was very talkative and her English was superb!

We did manage to do some of the thins we set out to do that is to make known our NGO to the local people and to make known the work we do. I think we will never really know the impact of what we had done for perhaps amongst the people we made contact with , there may be some who were inspired by our presence and what we represented and perhaps it would spur them to do action to do something similar in their own country.
More bad news hit us just then. The freight company had experienced a lot of difficulty bringing the goods and exhibition materials to the fair and could not bring anything back. Just throw it all away he had said to me.The problem was the sudden change in location. There is a 12 hour drive to Mukalla from the International airport of Sanaa. It is a long and hazardous journey and lorry companies charged more than the freight company had anticipated. He had suffered a loss and thus refused to offer freight back.

Mas packing the T shirts that were seemingly overpriced!

Many of the souveniors we brought were not ours to throw away or give away so we had to bring them back with us, at least as far as Sanaa where we could leave them with a friend to sell for us. We now had another dilemma on our hands , another set of troubles. How do we bring back the buntings, the catalogue stands, the t shirts and other things we had brought for the fair home?

Financially, the trip was a disaster.

What I did to keep my spirits up was to change the perspective of my journey. I focused on the educational aspect of being in Yemen and kept in my mind that the experiences I was having were nothing that money could buy.

The fair for us lasted two days. We missed the morning of the first day because of being held at the airport over the lost box and we stayed till the morning of the third day when all the other Malaysians had left Mukalla. This was because I had booked the tickets myself and not relied on the group travel agent .It turns out that this move saved the three of us from a long bus journey which started for them at 3 am, only to find their names were not on the flight to Dubai from Sanaa.
When all the cares of the Trade fair lifted from our shoulders in the afternoon of our third day in Mukalla, I felt as if a load was off my back . Our ordeals were not yet over , for we had to face trying to bring back more that the allocated luggage and in the long run it may be cheaper to abandon our goods rather than pay for excess baggage, only the goods were not ours to abandon .
It was the young man from Wadi Doan that had made the rest of our stay a wonderful adventure never to be forgotten.

Fiona had asked Mohammad to help us with the lost box. I was reluctant to surrender the report , thinking it was my only link to the lost box and not fully trusting a stranger to arrange for the box to be returned. My fears were totally unfounded for Mohamed is the most reliable person I had met in a long time.On the first night that we arrived in Mukalla, totally exhausted from the day' s adventures I had gone to bed early only to be awoken by the room phone. It was Mohammad telling me the box was on its way to our room and he will arrange for it to be sent to the Exhibition Hall next morning!Mas could not understand my delight when I gleefully pointed to the box the next morning .She did not know my doubts and she did not fuly realise the miracle of having a person who could be relied upon under the circumstances we were in.

Mohammad is from Wadi Doan. On the third day we would be on our own. I am amazed that the three of us were not very worried about being the only Malaysians in Mukalla at that point in time. Having been around the Yemenis for the past few days , we had become familiar with the friendliness and laid back simplicity of their ways. I think we had absorbed some of the laid backness so that our moments of anxiety were very much muted and cushioned and a sense of peace had prevailed throughout our travails here.

When we asked Mohammad to find us another hotel , he had hesitated only for an instance before offering us his apartment which was newly built. In Yemen as in Egypt , people build their houses floor by floor. Mohammad had a house here in Mukalla and it was now 3 stories and the third story was just completed. We were quite happy to accept his offer having by then full trust in him .

He had arranged for us to be taken from the hotel by a taxi driver called Muneer who proved to be another Yemeni gem. Handsome gentle helpful and polite as well as speaking a reasonable amount of English , we found Muneer to be very obliging and he brought us to the beach , to lunch and to Mohammad's apartment .

At the beach , I had removed my shoes and stepped onto the pebbly part barefoot ( yes it was quite painful but I wanted to) before my feet felt the warm sand . A sense of exhilaration filled my heart . Leaving the exhibition , Mas had remarked she had felt a bit sad , as if reluctant to leave the Yemeni people who were still there since there was one more day of exhibition left. We had made friends with many of them and their warmth kindness and hospitality had touched our very souls. Now, at the beach a peace and joy seemed to emanate from the clear waters that were teasing at my feet as I carefully ventured to the water's edge only to find the waves swishing onto the legs of my trousers. I had let out a scream , was it out of relief, or delight? I do not really know nor is it important. The wind against my face, the gentle afternoon sun, the Sapphire blue of the Arab sea in the distance and the sound of seagulls painted a perfect picture of the beauty of the Mukalla coast and filled my soul to its depth with the fresh beauty of God's earth . I was moved to tears.

What is it about this place I wondered , that made me feel calm in spite of the uncertainty of our situation ? I think wealth should not be measured in terms of money , perhaps there is something more important, a wealth of the spirit , a generosity which was not limited by vested interests. We would be experiencing more of the Yemeni hospitality in the next days .

Next , Muneer's lady boss, A Yemeni restaurant, Wadi Doan and more

to be continued.....