Photos

I've been slowly uploading photos now while I have the luxury of broadband. so finally you get to see some images of where I've been.

While I'm at it, I thought I'd add these ones. Missy is taking over the burlesque world and naturally her stunning style is copied. Especially her distinctive hair which is turning up on the heads of many in the UK burlesque world. Here is one of her imitators:

And below is one of the photos of Missy and myself - showing a wee bit much thigh. This is just plain annoying for professional performers who work hard to create their own unique look. But for me, you can see behind the Missy-copy (you can't see her replica hair in this shot), is her very own red-headed, curvy Foxy-alike. I'm tickled pink. Flattered.

Yemen... utterly reccomended

It's just stunning here. After one year in Africa I'm totally awe inspired by the beauty and magnificence of human accomplishments. To sound like a Victorian arrogant wanker, it's just so civilized here. People don't piss on the streets, and they don't chuck rubbish everywhere. The buildings are old and well kept and well thought out.

On the aeroplane coming here there were a whole pile of Ethiopian and Yemeni women who got on. One of them had typical dress for a young woman: tight jeans and t-shirt. Her hair was bleached and cut in a funky short style. When I got off the plane the women had all been replaced by a combination of large black triangles and large black triangles with faces. One of the robed women was having difficulty getting her headscarf to sit right, it kept sliding off to reveal the funky bleached hair of the girl who only an hour before looked like she was ready for clubbing. What a change.

That was the last time I saw a woman. I have seen a lot of eyes, but not much else.

Just because the women are covered, doesn't mean that fashion is cast aside, oh no. It's just very subtle.

This season for the urban Yemeni woman, black is the new black. the look is all about flowing layers of chiffon. The silhouette is soft and triangular with emphasis on the eyes. We are seeing a plunge of several millimetres on the bridge of the nose, but eyebrows are definitely hidden. The modern women shows her feminine side with a sexy array of fringing options: sequins, crystals, and glittering embroidery are all making an appearance on hems and cuffs, in black of course.

Looking in some of the shops, I get the feeling what the women are wearing under their robes would make Britteny Spears blush.

For men the fashion world is yours: shops of men's fashions line the main streets, the possibilities of style, cut and colour are endless, the only problem is deciding what to wear. This season's look is one of muted neutral tones. The robe in traditional pale whites and creams, dressed up with a smart jacket in tweed and of course an embroidered belt with a huge knife is a must for all Yemeni men (and boys). The perfect accessory is a cotton scarf worn around the head or shoulders for those chilly 35 degree days.

Fashion doesn't stop with people. The look for land cruisers is hand spray-painted camoflage. (camoflage for men is sooo Osama Bin 2002) and for motorbikes a thick sheepskin is a must and remember it's all about the size of the radio that you tape to the handle bars, not about the quality of music.

I have just got an email from the embassy in Australia, my visa has been process, and they have posted it back to me. I should have it in a few of days. Then I'll return to Ethiopia.

My skin has aged about 100 years since I left the UK. and over the past couple of months it's been subjected to myriad infestations of fleas, lice, mites, bedbugs and mosquitoes. In the week that I have been off the continent I have been treating myself to hot showers, clean sheets and insect/mite free accommodation. Now finally I have no more bites. I bet they'll all be back with avengence when I return.

I love Yemen. The people are wonderful, the atmosphere is fantastic, even in the fasting month. It is one of those countries I can see myself coming back to again and again.

I have bought myself a pink plastic mosque alarm clock, that sounds out the call to prayer. I also hope to buy a shisha pipe too.

It's 2000! ...again

Last time I wrote I was just about to leave the continent for Yemen... well, things don't happen very fast in Ethiopia, and sometimes when they say, they have a ticket, it doesn't actually mean that they have a ticket. So I spent a further week in Ethiopia.

The post works! I have received a notebook from my mother and a huge and wonderful package from Mistress Lenore full of sweet, sweet chocolate and other wonderful things. (Thank you so much sweetheart, I'm still gathering a bag of goodies to post to you.)

I got to see the much anticipated Ethiopian Millennium. I went to the biggest square in the capital and painted faces. It was cool, but after all the build up I thought it would be bigger, with more music and dancing. It turns out that most people celebrate the new century at home with their families burning stuff, drinking coffee and eating popcorn. It was still cool though.

They must also celebrate with a feast of sheep meat. On new years eve each block had a small flock of sheep. Live sheep were seen strapped to peoples cars, being ungraciously dragged down streets and wheeled home in wheelbarrows. The day after new years day where the flocks had been were now salesmen selling piles of fresh sheep skins. Some of them still had heads and legs attached.

My flatmates are settling in well. Sarah brought with her a jigsaw puzzle of a satellite image of the world. It's kept the two of us entertained for ages. We haven't finished it yet I lost heart after seeing that New Zealand was cut off half way up the South island. It's all too common. I have asked my mother to post me a map from NZ which has the pacific in the middle... and just to get my students thinking, South at the top of the map.

So after a bit of waiting around I got my tickets to Yemen. Yesterday was an 8 hour delay in Addis Ababa Airport and last night I arrived. I LOVE IT HERE! I was a little bit apprehensive as I don't have a guide book or map or any idea of Yemen, Hell, I didn't know the capital was Sana'a until last week. But in the airport I wrote down all the Arabic words I could remember which came to about 50. So I'm getting by well and this place is so beautiful, the people are friendly and the Internet is fast. I'll be able to upload photos while I'm here. The only inconvenience seems to be Ramadan, it's fasting month. I'm hungry and it's going to be difficult to find food before sunset. I'll stock up tonight.

Popping out to the Middle East

I was a bit pre-mature with that last blog. I thought it was already September when I wrote it.

I entered Ethiopia with a tourist visa (on the advice of the Ethiopian Embassy in Nairobi). I can not get that converted to a work permit. I need a business visa. I can get the business visa from the Ethiopian Embassy in Melbourne (there isn't one in NZ so Melbourne deals with Kiwis and other Pacific islanders). They can issue the visa by post, but not if I am in Ethiopia at the time. So I need to leave the country, get an exit stamp in my passport, post it to Aus, wait a couple of weeks for them to process the visa send it back and return to Ethiopia with the correct visa.

I'm going to Yemen tomorrow to do that. It was the cheapest flight out of Ethiopia. I miss the huge millennium celebrations here but I get a paid trip to the Middle East. So I'm ok with that.

Last week Liam and I went up north. Great trip, long bus rides were made shorter by name-the-capital and call-my-bluff quiz games with two brit lads we met along the way. We are such geeks. We checked out monasteries, saw the source of the Blue Nile which would have been unremarkable if a hippo and her calf hadn’t popped their head out of the water near our boat... ok, about 100 metres away from out boat. I saw several huge lizards while waiting for the boys who were checking out a no-females-allowed monastery. We ate fresh fish, chewed chat, smoked shisha. We played a lot of cards and I cheated. I have had the same deck of plastic playing cards for a couple of months now so have started to recognise which ones are bent, scratched and damaged.

In one town a homeless guy approached Liam for money, Liam politely declined (in Arabic) the guy got more aggressive, spat on Liam then tried again for money. Liam this time responded with his version of the evil eye which kind of like he was trying to choose between rice of pasta for dinner. This time the homeless guy looked like he was going to pounce, spit and scratch Liam’s eyes out all at once. I pushed the guy back by his shoulders and he scampered away. So did we. He got ahead of us and grabbed Liam by his arm as we passed, he spat again while holding out his hand for money... I wonder if this technique of begging has worked for him in the past. He was last seen outside our hotel room with a brick in his hand. The hotel staff said that is was 'mad crazy man' and offered to kick him for us, we declined their offer.

On the 3rd day we headed to a place called Gondor (the landscape was more like the Shire. There we checked out huge castles build with the help of the Spanish and Portuguese. We fraternised with local hustlers, ate fancy Ethiopian food, and got bitten to pieces by bedbugs. Liam headed back to Sudan where he found many of his meager possessions had been stolen and his toilet broken. I returned to Addis.

So back in Addis my new flatmates have arrived, they are very cool. And the house was ready: well not totally ready. We didn't have a kitchen till yesterday and they are still sorting out things like hot water, curtains and keys. It kind of looks like we are squatting there. Another flatmate arrived yesterday. She's from India, grew up in Malaysia, educated in USA and worked in the Netherlands. I can't quite remember of pronounce her name just yet. We are a happy flat of 4.

Last week was school orientation. Very boring. School officially starts on the 17th of September. I will probably still be in Sana'a, Yemen then waiting for my passport. Next blog from my very first trip to the Middle East. Yay!