Hajjah, Sunday 1st October 1972
Part 1 - getting there: down to Hodeida
Well, I got here at last! Khalid, the Minister of Education's son came round at 1.30 on 27th and told me that the Minister wanted to see me now! so I went along to his house (near where I was staing with the Boyds, near Zubairi Street which turns into the Hodeida road. After a cup of coffee with the Minister Khalid hailed a taxi and we went by the Boyds' house to pick up my brightly painted metal trunk and took it round to the governor of Hajjah's house, also not far away. I'd got some blankets and other essentials, like a teapot, to equip myself for the western highlands. The governor is called Mujahid Abu Shawarib - the Abu Shawarib bit means "father of whiskers", but it is a family name.
The governor and I and a couple of soldiers and one or two others left Sanaa at about 3 pm in a Toyota equivalent of a Range Rover. The soldiers sat in the back with my trunk between them - it was rather larger and harder than they were expecting, and I think they found it pretty uncomfortable. We swept off on the road to Hodeida. The temperature rose and rose as we descended to Hodeida. I think I had already forgotten how hot it had been when I arrived earlier in the month.
We arrived in Hodeida after dark, about 7.30pm and went to a rather basic hotel, the Red Sea Hotel I think, which was apparently the best in town. Rather oddly we had a shared room - the governor, me and an official from Hajjah called Hamud Siraj, with lots of gold teeth.
On Thursday (28th) we had an early start and set off after breakfast in our convoy in the direction of the airport. I hadn't a clue what was going on at first - there were enormous crowds there, and wild confusion. A military officer was telling his men to stand on one side of the road to the runway and then on the other and pushing the crowds this way and that. Finally a plane landed and the crowd-pulling event turned out to be the arrival of the President of Yemen! He came out of the plane and shook hands with everybody in the first 30 yards of the crowd lining the road to the airport building, including me. The governor kindly took a moment to ask the airport customs about my missing luggage, but to no avail.
After that we raced out of Hodeida in the middle of a convoy headed by an armed truck with an anti-aircraft gun for about an hour, again with me having no idea what was in store until it turned out that we were going to a place called Bajil about 20 miles back along the road towards Sanaa, where the Prime Minister was going to open a cement factory built by the Russians. We sat in the guests stand and listened to a number of speeches before being given a short tour round the factory. After that, the governor and I went with our retinue to a rest house built by the Germans where we had lunch and a rest for a couple of hours.
Next we went to the Republican Palace in Hodeida, which is actually very nice. Then, later in the afternoon, the governor told me that he had to go back to Sanaa for two days, but that I would go on to Hajjah with the rest of the party. Somewhat surprisingly, since I had been told I might not be paid promptly (and possibly not at all) the governor gave me 100 riyals (about £8.50) for anything I might need - that's a third of a month's salary up front!
In the evening a person called Dirham who works at the hotel and had studied for the GCE in Aden invited me to go along to see an Indian film. The film was pretty tedious with Arabic and disastrous English subtitles but an interesting experience.
Once again we were a threesome in the room at the hotel, the governor's place being taken by a guard.
Part 1 - getting there: down to Hodeida
Well, I got here at last! Khalid, the Minister of Education's son came round at 1.30 on 27th and told me that the Minister wanted to see me now! so I went along to his house (near where I was staing with the Boyds, near Zubairi Street which turns into the Hodeida road. After a cup of coffee with the Minister Khalid hailed a taxi and we went by the Boyds' house to pick up my brightly painted metal trunk and took it round to the governor of Hajjah's house, also not far away. I'd got some blankets and other essentials, like a teapot, to equip myself for the western highlands. The governor is called Mujahid Abu Shawarib - the Abu Shawarib bit means "father of whiskers", but it is a family name.
The governor and I and a couple of soldiers and one or two others left Sanaa at about 3 pm in a Toyota equivalent of a Range Rover. The soldiers sat in the back with my trunk between them - it was rather larger and harder than they were expecting, and I think they found it pretty uncomfortable. We swept off on the road to Hodeida. The temperature rose and rose as we descended to Hodeida. I think I had already forgotten how hot it had been when I arrived earlier in the month.
We arrived in Hodeida after dark, about 7.30pm and went to a rather basic hotel, the Red Sea Hotel I think, which was apparently the best in town. Rather oddly we had a shared room - the governor, me and an official from Hajjah called Hamud Siraj, with lots of gold teeth.
On Thursday (28th) we had an early start and set off after breakfast in our convoy in the direction of the airport. I hadn't a clue what was going on at first - there were enormous crowds there, and wild confusion. A military officer was telling his men to stand on one side of the road to the runway and then on the other and pushing the crowds this way and that. Finally a plane landed and the crowd-pulling event turned out to be the arrival of the President of Yemen! He came out of the plane and shook hands with everybody in the first 30 yards of the crowd lining the road to the airport building, including me. The governor kindly took a moment to ask the airport customs about my missing luggage, but to no avail.
After that we raced out of Hodeida in the middle of a convoy headed by an armed truck with an anti-aircraft gun for about an hour, again with me having no idea what was in store until it turned out that we were going to a place called Bajil about 20 miles back along the road towards Sanaa, where the Prime Minister was going to open a cement factory built by the Russians. We sat in the guests stand and listened to a number of speeches before being given a short tour round the factory. After that, the governor and I went with our retinue to a rest house built by the Germans where we had lunch and a rest for a couple of hours.
Next we went to the Republican Palace in Hodeida, which is actually very nice. Then, later in the afternoon, the governor told me that he had to go back to Sanaa for two days, but that I would go on to Hajjah with the rest of the party. Somewhat surprisingly, since I had been told I might not be paid promptly (and possibly not at all) the governor gave me 100 riyals (about £8.50) for anything I might need - that's a third of a month's salary up front!
In the evening a person called Dirham who works at the hotel and had studied for the GCE in Aden invited me to go along to see an Indian film. The film was pretty tedious with Arabic and disastrous English subtitles but an interesting experience.
Once again we were a threesome in the room at the hotel, the governor's place being taken by a guard.
