Happy another year in the early 2020s! I think it’s becoming increasingly clear as the COVID pandemic turns endemic that we’ll all look back on this time as one four or five year chunk rather than as individual, distinct years. I am typing this post poolside, under a breadfruit tree, 50 yards from the Indian […]
Yes, that Mediterranean city you may or may not have heard of that is located in the North African country of Algeria. That is where we will be living from 2019-2021. I’m not super stoked, but I’m not dreading it or anything. Literally every one of our friends and colleagues here in Jerusalem thinks it’s […]
Every day, tour buses come to Bethlehem, drop off a load of passengers at the Church of the Nativity, and then load them back up and leave Bethlehem and the West Bank. For many, all they see of Bethlehem is the church (a very famous church, granted). After living a few miles down the road […]
We’ve been in our new city for 10 days now and each day I decide to put off blogging a little longer until I get a better feel for the place that will be our home for the next three years. “Jerusalem is a complicated place,” everyone keeps telling us. I’m already seeing a bit […]
So apparently, it’s the holiday season, but I wouldn’t really know it. In Yemen, it’s 70 degrees every day; “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” hasn’t played once on the radio; and there are no commercials indicating that Mr.YemenEm should go to Jared or buy me a Mercedes with a red bow and deliver it […]
As a lifelong animal lover, vegetarian since adolescence, a one-time dog, hamster, and degu owner, and several times cat-owner, I have a soft spot for animals. Had my life taken a different trajectory, and I hadn’t moved to a big city full of small apartments, I could see me still living in Michigan with several […]
I love reading restaurant reviews, and was an avid reader of Tom Sietsema’s reviews in the Washington Post of the various dining establishments in and around Washington DC. But since I got to Yemen, reading those reviews just makes me sad that I don’t get to eat all that delicious food so I stopped reading. […]
A Yemeni asked me recently what the U.S. is like. Of all the adjectives that appeared in my head: “fun,” “beautiful,” “amazing,” and some word that would encapsulate the fact that you could pick two random people from the U.S. and they could very well have completely opposite views on politics, religion, and social justice […]
For my job, I recently had to pick out a photo that illustrates how the U.S. is working to improve health in Yemen. While the U.S. really does a lot to improve health here, the photo selection was slim. I asked a Yemeni co-worker where I might find some pics and he led me into […]
Well it appears to have calmed down a great deal here in Sana’a and today actually feels like a normal weekend. Which is somewhat notable because it’s not a weekend here, it’s the weekday. But still, the lockdown in our hotel was lifted for a few hours today. I used my reprieve from the confines […]
The Next Dinner Party 