Sunday 22 October

Tuesday 24 October, 1972

It's almost a week since the first of my cases turned up - just as well, as the weather is turning cold and windy.  If the other one doesn't turn up by next Wednesday I'll make a revised list for the insurance.  How the first one got here is a complete mystery - someone mentioned that after it had been found in London it had been sent London-Cairo-Taizz so how it was intercepted and retrieved by the Governor's man in Hodeidah, goodness knows.

Last Friday six Egyptian teachers arrived in Hajjah.  Apparently all the Yemeni teachers will be sent elsewhere, except for Munabbih, since there isn't a trained Arabic teacher among the Egyptians.  There is an English teacher in the Egyptian group, but the director of education said he wanted to keep his English English teacher.  The Egyptian English teacher wasn't complaining anyway, as he will go back to Sanaa.  It is quite amazing how alarmed the Egyptians get at the prospect of bilharzia and no electricity. 

What with the loss of my luggage, and the disappearance of most of the postcards I sent from Cairo, I'm not altogether impressed with Egypt and Egyptians at the moment. 

Last night the Yemeni teachers went to the education director with an ultimatum - either they stay in Hajjah or they return to Sanaa.  They refused to be sent out to some of the village schools in the governorate.  The director has therefore decided to let them stay to teach in the primary school, while the Egyptians, Munabbih and myself will teach in the prep school.

Thursday 26 October

Today I was supposed to be moving to the teachers' house.  However, no-one showed up to move my things.  Peter Dahlen of the Red Sea Mission arrived with the long-promised nurses.  He is going back to Sanaa on Monday, so if I can I shall go back with him and see if I can pop in to Aeroflot in Hodeidah and ask about the case.

Saturday 28 October

Yesterday I helped the nurses to move stuff into their new house, in the upper part of the town called Dhahrain.  There were one or two problems due to the fact that, although the Mission had been paying rent on the house for four months there are some women living in the house whose husbands are in different parts of the country and they have had to be "moved".

This afternoon it rained a lot in the afternoon.  I have taken a set of rainy and misty pictures .  I helped the nurses again with their move - I have been offered a free lift to Sanaa, so it is worth it!)

There was no electricity in the palace last night or tonight.  I went over to the post office radio office (where the generator is) to find out what has happened.  Apparently the post office has run out of petrol until the end of the month. One of the radio operators has offered to teach me the Morse code in Arabic.

Sunday 29 October

The nurses' housing sage continues - Peter Dahlen went to find the house owner to pay the rent, but he was nowhere to be found, so Peter decided to leave the money with the village governor.  But when he met him, it transpired that the governor had had the house owner thrown into prison for being obstructive about evicting the local women (though the medical team had not complained).  Eventually the owner was released and matters cooled down.  It seems that in this area anyone who won't co-operate in any way is thrown into priison.  I was told that when the men hired to carry the luggage from the Red Sea Mission's car to the house (about a quarter of a mile) refused to work on a Friday a warrant for their arrest was issued.  In no time at all they were friendly and co-operative.