An old house

One day Fouad, the institute's manager invited me and Arnout to chew qat with him and his friends in the old town. He had bought the qat and guaranteed that it was first class. It had a lovely sweet taste to it, not so sour as it sometimes tastes.
His friend's house fascinated me. It was a traditional old Sana'anian house.
There was not one square meter of wall that was entirely even, not one step of piece of floor that was level, not one angle that was completely 90 degrees, not one corner that was sharp and ended in a single point.
The architectural features were bold and big, the mud-brick walls overpainted with a white, somewhat shiny varnish. The house had at least 6 storeys and only the rooms in the lower 2 levels seemed to be used, the upper 4 were empty, almost ruinous, a thick layer of dust covering the ground, bits of stones, papers, rubbish, etc. lying around everywhere – but that somehow made it all so magical.
Stained-glass windows were leaning against the wall rather than being where they should be and thus the sounds of the lively streets and the neighbouring houses flowed through the rooms. Although I was inside a house that someone lived in, I felt like I was a 15-year old boy in an Enid Blyton book, exploring a hitherto undiscovered castle.
















But then you climb up the stairs and there's another storey and another and yet another and finally (the white ceiling above the stairs is getting very low by this point) one looks at the last 4 steps around the corner and there is a little carpet on the last step, with a good 6 pairs of shoes scattered over it. They were taken off in order to enter the room, which is called the Manzar (Arabic for view) – the highest room in a Yemeni house, reserved for the men of the house and their friends to sit, chew qat, talk and drink shaii.

Later on I spent a while on top of the roof, enjoying the amazing view and watching the sun go down, the light fade, the streets light up below and the never-ending stream of activity wriggle its way through the miraculous mess which makes up the streets of this town.