Celebrating Michel's 21'st Birthday, 8 December 1993

Hootoksi Tyabji, Sana'a, December 1993

 Brilliant architecture, bleak yet haunting landscapes, and wild-looking men in futas (traditional man’s dress, a kind of skirt worn with a belt and jacket), sporting Kalashnikovs and jambias (curved daggers) are part of the everyday scene in Yemen.

Boys in secondary school carry their guns into the classroom and nobody thinks anything of it! A man unarmed is no man at all!

 It was 1992 and Michel, Farhad and Adil were home for their Xmas break. As Michel’s 21’st. birthday was around the corner, we decided to celebrate with a large party. Our house was perfect for outdoor entertaining in the summer, but December is too cold for that, so we put our heads together and came up with plan B.

We would rig up a tent and have the BBQ going inside it.  Perfect...but where would we find such large pieces of tarp? Could one rent them?

After searching a few days, Farhad's friend Mohammed led us to a wonderful store on Taiz road which rented just the stuff we needed. It had all sizes and shapes of canvas, complete tents, ropes, coal burners, lamps, sofas, chairs, cushions and what have you. We picked out three large pieces of tarpaulin and after much bargaining settled on a daily rate to be paid in advance, and in full. Perfect! Robert counted out the money and handed it over to the owner of the store, a wild-eyed Yemeni, his cheek bulging with qat (a leaf rich in amphetamines which Yemenis chew). He took it and told Rob that in addition to the money we were paying, he would have to leave his gun as additional security. When Robert explained that he didn't own a gun, the shopkeeper laughed at what he thought was a poor joke! He was absolutely incredulous when he realized we were serious and proceeded to inform us that if there was no gun as collateral, the deal was off!

We begged and pleaded and offered all sorts of things in lieu of the gun. Our car registration, Rob's UNICEF ID, some extra cash?  No, no, no none of these would do! it was clearly “No gun, no deal!”  What sort of man doesn’t own a gun?

By now, we were all getting a bit tired of the saga and decided that we would have to manage without the tarp when I noticed a sudden gleam in the shopkeeper's eye! He pointed to the four gold bangles that I always wear and indicated that those would do as security. A quick family conference resulted in my handing them over in the interest of the 21st birthday celebrations, and they were taken from me wrapped in a scrap of newspaper and thrown into a drawer. Would I ever see them again? Tarp for gold? Were we all MAD?

The party and our "tent" were a great success and on the day that the tarp had to be returned, I went to the shop with bated breath. Would the owner have disappeared? Would the shop still be there? Would the bangles? I needn't have given it a second thought! They were returned to me wrapped in the same dirty scrap of newspaper and there we were with yet another memory of our times in Yemen!