Tuesday 3rd October, 1972
Ismail came round at quarter to nine yesterday and asked why I wasn't at the school, but it turned out that school is definitely starting on Saturday. I spent the morning at the education office sorting out paperwork. Most of the other teachers who are here so far were there too - mostly about my age, and very friendly and helpful.
I was told that a truck loaded with arms to take to Qa'tabah on the border with the south fell off the road from Hajjah yesterday, and the driver was badly injured.
After the Education Office I went over to the hospital to get the water treatment pills that the German-trained doctor had offered. His name is Ahmed Abbas. On the way back towards the palace he pointed out the main water reservoir of the town, which apparently is the principal source of bilharzia in the town. There was a project to pump the water out of it into some sort of filter plant, but nothing has come of that yet.
Hajjah seems ready for modern development. When the new road to Hodeidah is finished, and electricity and water plants have been built, it will be quite an important community. In Sanaa - and as far as I know, in Hodeidah - there is no municipal piped water system, and people pump up water from wells.
This afternoon the man who looks after the palace, Ahmed Shawsh, suggested that I go down to the palace's large majlis downstairs. When I got there, he said that someone wanted me to visit them in their house, but I wasn't very clear who. He took me to a very rough house on the edge of the suq, where I was left in a small room with an ancient woman who was smoking a hubbly-bubbly and whom I could only half understand (well, perhaps less than that). It turned out that she was the mother of the palace Ahmed, and he shortly came back with some children who belonged to the baker who owns the house. We stayed there for about 20 minutes and then went back to the palace majlis.
When we sitting there an old man about 70 came in - I think his name is Hajj Hamud. He turned out to have a surprisingly detailed knowledge of the countries of Europe - including knowing that Scotland was part of Britain - though the countries he described were the ones on old maps. He had been a bandsman in the Ottoman Turkish army and could hum - in an oriental sort of way - some Scottish tunes, and the British and German national anthems. He came out with a continuous stream of jokes, using enormous hand and face gestures, leaving everyone in stitches.
Later on I went with one of the teachers to see the place where the lorry had fallen off the road - at the first bend in the road as it left Hajjah, it turned out. It had rolled over and landed upside down a couple of terraces below the road. Someone told me that was lucky - another vehicle had gone off the road at the same point some time before and rolled several hundred feet to the bottom of the valley and all the people in it were killed.
And now I have sorted it out - Hajjah was a Republican stronghold in the middle of a Royalist area.
Ismail came round at quarter to nine yesterday and asked why I wasn't at the school, but it turned out that school is definitely starting on Saturday. I spent the morning at the education office sorting out paperwork. Most of the other teachers who are here so far were there too - mostly about my age, and very friendly and helpful.
I was told that a truck loaded with arms to take to Qa'tabah on the border with the south fell off the road from Hajjah yesterday, and the driver was badly injured.
After the Education Office I went over to the hospital to get the water treatment pills that the German-trained doctor had offered. His name is Ahmed Abbas. On the way back towards the palace he pointed out the main water reservoir of the town, which apparently is the principal source of bilharzia in the town. There was a project to pump the water out of it into some sort of filter plant, but nothing has come of that yet.
Hajjah seems ready for modern development. When the new road to Hodeidah is finished, and electricity and water plants have been built, it will be quite an important community. In Sanaa - and as far as I know, in Hodeidah - there is no municipal piped water system, and people pump up water from wells.
This afternoon the man who looks after the palace, Ahmed Shawsh, suggested that I go down to the palace's large majlis downstairs. When I got there, he said that someone wanted me to visit them in their house, but I wasn't very clear who. He took me to a very rough house on the edge of the suq, where I was left in a small room with an ancient woman who was smoking a hubbly-bubbly and whom I could only half understand (well, perhaps less than that). It turned out that she was the mother of the palace Ahmed, and he shortly came back with some children who belonged to the baker who owns the house. We stayed there for about 20 minutes and then went back to the palace majlis.
When we sitting there an old man about 70 came in - I think his name is Hajj Hamud. He turned out to have a surprisingly detailed knowledge of the countries of Europe - including knowing that Scotland was part of Britain - though the countries he described were the ones on old maps. He had been a bandsman in the Ottoman Turkish army and could hum - in an oriental sort of way - some Scottish tunes, and the British and German national anthems. He came out with a continuous stream of jokes, using enormous hand and face gestures, leaving everyone in stitches.
Hajj Hamud, who was in the Ottoman army, is on the left
Later on I went with one of the teachers to see the place where the lorry had fallen off the road - at the first bend in the road as it left Hajjah, it turned out. It had rolled over and landed upside down a couple of terraces below the road. Someone told me that was lucky - another vehicle had gone off the road at the same point some time before and rolled several hundred feet to the bottom of the valley and all the people in it were killed.
And now I have sorted it out - Hajjah was a Republican stronghold in the middle of a Royalist area.
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