So this is our very own Ella (bil arabi: "Elli") attended a leadership workshop for Yemeni women. It was our first day in Yemen, we having arrived the previous night and flopped into our respective beds , finally allowing the 26 hours of constant travel (including time spent vegetating at airports) to catch up with us. We were excited that morning, jumped up under the combined influence of being in a foreign country for the first time and imbibing the additively delicious yemeni red tea (bil arabi: "chai ahmar") which is pretty much sugar and caffeine in liquid form, and which can be purchased pretty much anywhere in Yemen, piping hot in little glasses.
Our first stop was the Democracy school, a Yemenese NGO that works with a plethora of grassroots social welfare organizations, particularly for women and children. We guys (Andrew, Me, Tyler (bil arabi: "Tahir"), Professor Lo, and our guide (or arguably handler) Matthew) hung out with Dr. Jamal, the deceptively quiet and surprisingly dynamic manager of the Madrasa Democritia (Democracy School), and Abdullah, a great guy who works at the Democracy school and who speaks English, I was a bit embarrased to notice, much better than we speak Arabic. We drank Coke (bil Arabi: "Coca-Cola") and chatted.
Ella and Isabel, on the other hand, attended what certainly looks like an intensive leadership workshop for women. Want to know what they talked about? Me too. Stay tuned as I try to get one of them to write about their experience.
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