In shah allah

I met an unfriendly man today -- a real rarity in these parts. I almost wanted to take a picture of his grim face, as he was stuffing it with qat leaves. It was the first face I've seen since I got here, that didn't welcome me, that didn't open up, didn't smile or say "Ahlan wa sahlan", that wasn't curious to look at me or to ask me where I'm from. He pretended I wasn't there and talked to his little boy, who he forced to sit on the floor, although there was plenty of space to sit in the bus.
Meeting him made me realise all of a sudden and with such intensity, how friendly everyone is to me and to each other here.
Shortly before I got on the bus that Mr. GrimFace was in, I think I met God, or one of his angels. The small Suzuki mini-buses that make up about 80% of the public transport system in Sana'a, have two benches in the back, facing each other and a constantly open sliding door - it was on one of these buses, that he sat opposite me. As I was getting in, with my head bowed, muffling the obligatory "Salaamu aleikum", I could already feel his smile. I sat down on the dirty and ripped terrycloth-covered bench and immediately looked up. He must be blessed with eternal peace, so joyful and light was his smile. All around his kindly wrinkled, smiling face was hair, dyed orange (a custom among some elderly men here, mainly with the beard), which made him appear even more like a sun, radiating light and joy. His face was round and his eyes shone bright in the dim light. A short and only half-understood conversation with him and the other men in the bus followed, before I had to get out, but I won't forget meeting him in a hurry.
Whether he was an angel or not is probably irrelevant, he was for me in that moment and somehow reminded me of the image we have in Europe, of the perfect, smiling, enlightened Guru. He was just missing all the beads in his hair and beard.

I've had many conversations about Islam with various people since I got here and am glad to finally get a deeper insight into every-day Islamic life. The significance of religion and its prominence in every-day life is so much higher and stronger here than from what I'm used to. Even now, as I sit in the internet cafe, I can hear Hassan, the owner and his brother having lunch upstairs and Allah's name is ever-present, in every conversation, greeting and good-bye.
Yesterday for the first time in my life, I went to pray in a Mosque [for those of you with prejudices against Islam or who fear that I might turn Muslim, you can relax. I'm merely trying to explore the culture and way of life of the (Yemeni) people as good as I can, and if someone prays at least five times a day, then I consider that an important part of their life and culture and to understand those two, I feel I have to experience that, too]. It pains me to realise the growing division between what is commonly called the 'Islamic' and the 'Western' world and the increasing presence of prejudices and misunderstanding on both sides, caused by lack of inter-individual aswell as inter-cultural communication and a big deficit in knowledge of and education about the respective 'other side'.
I have developed a theory that the root of this problem lies in primary education, or education in general. We need to establish mixed schools on both sides, where, Palstinians share a bench with Israelis, Turks with Germans, English Muslims with English others, Yemeni Jews with Yemeni Muslims etc. Such communication on a inter-personal level will have the strongest impact and if we want these issues to change at any point in the future, then it is now that we need to be brave enough to face the prejudices, the fears and reservations, to send our kids to a school with what might be regarded the enemy and to say hi to our neighbour who wears strange clothes and prays five times a day and invite him over for a cup of tea. Britain especially is facing a huge problem now with a big part of the population suddenly being alienated because of the deeds of a few lost souls that were of the same religion and ethnicity as them and the rest of the population being scared of that other part and what THEY might do next.
In-shah-allah, these things will change.