In the Mountains of Yemen

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I was long overdue for a visit to the Birnam Arts Centre, I had seen Roddy Woomble there back in October and was looking forward to going back again.  Looking through the What's On section on our website I was intrigued by a beautiful photograph that looked like it was taken from the top of the World.  The accompanying text promised a slideshow and talk by inveterate explorer, hydrologist and photographer John Anderson's about the time he spent living in Yemen in the 1970's.  I was totally sold, the description made John sound like a milder mannered Indiana Jones.

Coincidentally, the Small City Team was having a team building trip at the lodges at Dunkeld House Hotel that concluded a couple of hours before John's talk.  I took the opportunity to visit The Birnam Reader an independent bookshop and coffee shop to get out of the snow, knock back a cup of tea and a slice of cake and do a little bit of shopping.  When I crossed the road to Birnam Arts I still had plenty of time for a chat with John, who gave me a little bit of a background on his talk and posed for a picture.   He was keen to stress that the photographs that would feature in his talk were a snapshot of the region at that time and things would be considerably different now as "40 years is a really long time in a Third World Country".  I asked him if he would like to go back to see for himself how much it had changed but he said that due to the ongoing civil war there he would not have anywhere like the freedom to explore that he had enjoyed in the 1970's.

As the talk began I looked around and was struck by how many people were in attendance.  Perthshire had seen a lot of snowfall over the last couple of days and it was heartening to see that people had made it out.  The alk started with a very interesting, understandable potted history of Yemen.  Geography is not my strong point, so this brief background was completely invaluable.  Plus I managed to pick up a couple of interesting facts, for example, that the Queen of Sheba was purportedly from Yemen and the Mocha coffee originates from the Yemeni port of the same name.

John then went on to tell the story of his arrival in the city of Sana'a in 1974 *In the Mountains of Yemen- Zabid Skylineaccompanied by the pictures he took at the time.  Men are much more prevalent in these images and the woman that are featured are ornately decorated in Henna tattoos.  He tells us that children were fascinated by him and his colleagues -many had never seen a European before- and usually followed them wherever they went.  It also quickly became apparent that children fulfilled an important economic function at a very early age.  Later in the talk, John tells of how he saw a boy of around 10 years old leading a huge train of camels into the centre of town and tie them up.

We also get a great sense of contrast from the life John had been living in the U.K. and life in a Yemeni City.  There was only electricity for a couple of hours every day and generally, you went to bed not long after sunset.  John became quite a proficient baker although he said you had to take particular care with your ingredients: the flour from the market had to be sieved thoroughly and the eggs were often well on their way to becoming chickens.  John even found himself partial to a local delicacy: boiled sheep brains.

However, John's time in the city was just to get acclimatised and learn some John even found himself partial to a local delicacy: boiled sheep brains.Arabic before undertaking his project of delivering rain gauges to different regions of Yemen. This was sometimes accomplished using a Landrover (not many petrol stations so they had to carry extra fuel in jerry cans) often driving up valley river beds or "Wadi's". There were times when the terrain was too much, even for a Landrover, so they had to use donkeys instead.  John tells an anecdote about how they set out from Mishrafta with their donkeys loaded with gear, walked for a full day set up camp, went to bed, then woke up to find the donkeys had walked all the way back home again carrying their stuff!

The photo's that featured throughout the talk are so stunning, and they are *In The Mountains of Yemen- Yemeni Family in Silverparticularly important as they depict a way of life that doesn't exist in the same way anymore.  After his talk concluded John fielded questions from the enthusiastic audience before we all gradually drifted out into the snow a little bit more entertained and knowledgeable than when we arrived.

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