Donkey Hotel

And another odd posting about San'a.  Yemen has been on my mind a lot lately, partially because it is such an unforgettable place (even though I was only there a couple days), but also because I keep reading troubling stories about it in the paper every day.  After serving in various positions in the administrative world over the last fifteen years I'm really looking forward to getting back to full-time teaching and a couple long-delayed writing projects in the fall.  However, my close friends are already predicting that it will take me less than a year to get involved in, if not initiate, another crazy scheme - and I'm sure they're right.  I've been thinking about a project where people get to post one picture, accompanied by a simple descriptive text, that will explain to the rest of the world some aspect of their daily life.  It would not be an avenue for lengthy political rants (although the pictures might convey a real problem), but rather it would serve as a mechanism for learning more about each other.  Maybe I could focus on Yemen?  It would be great if people, especially Americans, could think of the people of Yemen, and not simply as the latest Al Qaeda hotspot.  Hmmm, let me brood over this one.

In the meantime, here's a picture of the so-called Donkey Hotel in San'a.  A very nice young man by the name of Abbas (more on him later) showed me the "hotel."  It is actually the remains of a very old (as is everything in San'a) caravanserai, and it was the second one he showed me (again, more on the other one later).  The caravanserai were locations where merchants could stay of a night where their goods and animals would be secure.  These were especially important in situations where a merchant might be laid up for weeks or months waiting for the monsoon trade winds to change.  Anyway, this one has been turned into essentially a hotel for donkeys.  They eat on the first floor and some of them have their own rooms on the upper floors.  I have no information in regards to room service or wifi.

The outside of the donkey hotel, featuring the classic San'a gingerbread architecture.

I've eaten at worse restaurants, with worse company.