The Sun Sets on Sana'a

One of the merchants in the "souk" in the marketplace in Sana'a with his many bags of grains and spices on display.

I've gotten kind of fond of this place. While there is plenty of poverty and perhaps there are even some violent people, it seems on the whole friendly. The men at least smile at you, even if they are not trying to sell something. Last night a man, his grandfather and his small son all stopped quite generously in the middle of the souk to let me take their picture.

There are beggars, especially at the intersections, but they don't persist and you do not get the feeling you are about to be overwhelmed by a crowd of them. (Although I've been told that if you give to one, you may suddenly find yourself surrounded by a crowd.) The women glide by in their burkas, making no sounds and only sometimes making eye contact. There are even women beggars (all in black) at some of the intersections -- they come up to the window of the car and ask for money, knocking gently with their knuckles on the glass.

The sun rises promptly at six o'clock in the morning and sets promptly at six o'clock in the evening, and the weather seems to be sunny and pleasant every day. People do stare at you if you are a Westerner, but for all I know they stare at each other, and maybe it's simple curiosity. The government seems to be paranoid about foreigners wandering around the country, and that makes it very hard to develop a tourism industry. There certainly is some spectacular countryside around Sana'a.

So, I will leave Sana'a with a sympathetic feeling. Sure, Al Qaeda is here and they are dangerous to us all. But I think I agree with those observers who find that lots of Yemeni people don't like the extremists and don't want anything to do with them. Tom Friedman was here last week, and he seems also to have come away with a certain sympathy for the place. There is no shortage of problems in Yemen, but there is a an air of mystery and excitement about it that is alluring.