My husband said the conversations are about life, politics, memories... like anyone else. I felt, geez, if they have so much time to kill, why not get a job or help your wife around the house?
Seriously, the women got up early every day to make breakfast. And this isn't cereal and toast breakfast. This is fuul, fettah, hubs (bread), sebaya (sweet, buttery, layered bread) and other goodies which I do not know the names of. In other words, breakfast there is like pure, down-to-earth, homestyle cooking. There are no boxes or cans; nothing is pre-packaged. Everything is made from scratch. So this breakfast is quite labor-intensive. The women slave over the stove (is it even a stove? ) while the men lie in bed, or lie on the Diwan cushions, drinking chai (tea) or ghahuwa (ginger-husk coffer, ick!) and wait for breakfast.
After breakfast, the women clean up (of course!) In the village, there isn't running water, so the pots are washed in a pan of water and aired out to dry. There are no toilets, so the chamberpots have to be emptied out regularly. Plus, once the water runs out, the women have walk to the water pump and retrieve more. She's not pushing a barrel of water on a shopping cart. Or pulling it in a red wagon. She's carrying a huge pail of water on her head!!! And she walks back to the house to replenish the supply.
All the while, they are also changing diapers, wiping runny noses, breastfeeding babies, feeding the goats, chickens, whatever, sewing, and other many, many other domestic duties.
In addition to eating, chewing qat and waiting for the next meal, Yemeni village men do little else.
I was there. I was in the village. I saw it all. Yes, they separate the men from women as much as possible! If men are gathered in a room to eat, the women are not allowed to enter the room to serve the food. The women pass the food to a child, who brings it to the guests. If a woman has to walk past a room to get to the other side of the hall, and there are men in that room, she has to get a child to respectfully close that door so that the men do not catch a glimpse of her. This is while she is fully covered, head-to-toe in loose, non-form-fitting attire. Often even her face is covered. Heaven forbid a woman accidentally make eye contact with a non-related man!
This picture is of some of my in-laws, but I am not sure exactly who. This is my husband's home in the village. You can see a woman in the middle of doing some chore, while a group of boys stand by and look down on her.
This picture below shows the large amount of land (and thus water) that is used for qat. Notice the AK-47 pointing at the camera, casually!
And next is an old picture of our Diwan. In this pic, it is relatively empty, except for the few kids who wandered in. The men are probably out shopping for qat and the women are cooking or cleaning.
