Today we only had to wait for half an hour at the checkpoint for our miltary escort to arrive. That is much better than most of our recent trips. Sometimes, we wait for an hour and a half, then give up and go home because there would be no time to do anything worthwhile, before everyone went home for lunch. The soldiers are sometimes delayed because of dealing with rebels elsewhere and perhaps they are sometimes just lazy. We also wonder if they would be more helpful if we gave in to their demands for bribes, but that would be a slippery slope.
Change of plans
It was also a good day because these soldiers were happy to escort us into the centre of town. Recently they have only allowed us to the new offices in the old clinic building on the edge of town. We call them the new offices, but it seems that the immunisation office has changed their minds about moving, since they got a new manager. We may end up using the new offices as a training centre instead. The new manager is an answer to one of our prayers though, because the old one was very difficult to work with.
"Where's our gift?"
I had a good morning with the two ladies who I have been training to use the database. "Where's our gift from England?", they keep on asking, since we got back from the UK. They are keen to do a more general computer course than I have taught them so far, which has been very specific training in connection with the immunisation database I have made. Perhaps I will do this in the new offices soon, but it depends on whether or not the project continues. We will assess the situation in the new year to see if the project is viable or if the difficulties continue.
Circumcision party
As soon as we got back from Zingibar, we found out that we had to go down the road for the circumcision party of the new twin boys, down the road. The men ate meat and rice very quickly, without any talking, then most of them left very quickly, while some remained and had some interesting political discussions, which we did not fully understand, mainly concerning the Houthi rebellion in the north of Yemen. The women ate separately after the men had eaten. They all sat on the floor around a big dish of meat and rice and Kate finally realised that the reason the food infront of her seemed to not be disappearing even with eating lots, was because the other women were flicking rice and meat to infront of her - a way to ensure that guests are well fed!
Our neighbour's houseHole in the road
After we got back from the circumcision lunch, one of our neighbours turned up at our house with his car, to take me to the people who can fix the big hole in the road in front of our house. This was caused by a big truck, which came down our road due to the main road being closed with roadworks, and it broke the manhole cover over the drains. I was glad for our neighbour's help, since he knew someone there and negotiated a fair price for us to pay them. If he hadn't taken me to fetch them it might never have been fixed and it would certainly not get done if I did not pay them. They cleared all the dirt out the drain and put a temporary cover on top so that local children don't fall down it and promised someone would return after one or two days, once they had made a new cover, meaning after one or two weeks, in reality.
The hole in front of our gate- temporarily fixedKate contacted a respected Obstetric and Gynaecology doctor in the afternoon to try to arrange meeting to talk about teaching and training possibilities with the University. She was told to come to his clinic in an hour! So off she went and had a productive meeting, where he agreed to contact one of the heads of medical education on her behalf. It's important here to have someone who is respected to "introduce" you, since it is a very relationship orientated culture. Often this is more important than any qualifications or experience that you have (although she did give them her medical certificates to show that she is a doctor!).
