I took these photos when I was working in Yemen in 2007. The top one is of the fortified town of Hababah in the Haraz Mountains. It is built around a huge cistern, which not only supplies the town's water, but also serves as an impromptu public swimming pool at weekends. Here you will see youths with rifles slung over their backs watching scores of children swimming with the town's pet duck, which I felt sorry for as it wanted to get out of the water, but they wouldn't let it. The second photo is of an old man on his way to buy qat in the souq of the old city of Sanaa. Most of agricultural land is given over to qat production and Yemeni women told me that they are not happy about it.
Two things you see everywhere in Yemen are guns and qat. I got asked to try both. The effect of qat is like a combination of marijuana and alcohol. You chew the leaves and then after a while, you get a high, find that you are getting giggly and talking much faster than usual. Then you enter a sleepy, mellow phase. Finally, you get a sore throat, red eyes and a hangover.
