Sanaa Airport: “love it or leave it” [Archives:1999/03/Culture]

I was filled with excitement as our plane landed at Sanaa airport in time. I was finally going to see Yemen, a country I have heard and read a lot about and dreamt of for a long time. As we left the plane and approached the airport building I received my first disappointment. The building from the outside was not at all what I expected of an International airport, but I consoled myself by saying that things must be different from inside but it was not to be.
Usually a country like Yemen crying for tourism, should do their best to maintain their airports for a simple reason, visitors’ get their first impression about the country at the airport. When I went to use the toilet it was extremely dirty and it was easy to see that it has not been cleaned for many days, I decided not to use the toilet but I wanted to wash my face and bingo! there was no water coming from the tap!
The least I could say is that I was so shocked by this situation. Then we went in line to have the entry seal on our passports. The queue was moving with snail speed. At long last, we were there and we made it. It was our turn to stamp our passports. For a minute, I thought that the officer is examining the documents and registering them manually, you would think you were in some remote country where facilities were not available because of the long wait. When we reached the immigration desk I thought my problems were over, my husband gave our passports to the officer and he started checking them. I assumed that the officer was there to check if we had a valid visa or not. I was wrong! He was not satisfied with just checking my visa, he also asked for our marriage certificate. My husband and I were surprised to hear the unusual demand “marriage certificate!” My husband exclaimed and tried to explain to the officer that it was none of his business and that I was given the visa on the basis of the marriage certificate, but it was all in vain. My husband’s sensible lecture fell on deaf ears. Realizing that the man in front of us did not know his job limits and he appears to be an illiterate, we gave up and revealed our marriage certificate. The officer then held the paper and scrutinized it for a while and then asked his second stupid question “where is the date of your marriage?” My husband burst with laughter and looked at me and whispered, “excuse him. I guess he is not the good in English” and with a smile he told him “It’s written on the first line”. Even after we have shown all documents needed, the officer still was not satisfied. It was only after a lot of explanation, argument and threats from my husband that he let us in.
You must be thinking that our problems were over by then. Well, you thought wrong! When we wanted to get a trolley for our luggage, there was a young boy guarding them. When my husband tried to pull a trolley out, the boy came to him and said “you have to pay YR. 20” and pointed at a board hanging there. “But I don’t have YR. 20. In fact, I possess no Yemeni currency with me at the moment” explained my husband. “No problem, you can pay me in dollars” said the boy. However, the smallest currency note we had at that moment was a USD $20 note. When we asked him if he had change, he said “sorry”. Then we requested him to let us use the trolley and he refused, so we had to drag our heavy bags all the way to the customs table, which was not far. “Oh my God! Now what will be the demands of these guys?” I thought. But to be honest, we had no problems there.
So we came out of the airport, very few Taxis were waiting. There were lots of extremely young kids who tried to convince us to let them carry our luggage to wherever we wanted, of course, all with its cost. You should have also seen how taxi drivers were pulling our bags. Every driver wanted us to ride in his cab. We finally surrendered to the taxi driver who had already taken half of our luggage to his car in front of our very eyes. Then we were on our way to the city.
Immediately after we have escaped the impolite reception of the airport, we were received by something else: the stinking smell coming out of a swamp, known to be the biggest open sewer in Sanaa. As if that was not enough, I was shocked to see loads of rubbish thrown here and there, and tens of multi color plastic bags flying in the air. For me, it was a new experience. I have never seen so much rubbish and flying plastic bags in a public area. In the beginning, I thought it was Kite Flying Season, but later I was told that these were flying plastic bags!
Yemen is a very beautiful country with lots of historical and touristic locations and many other attractions. People from all parts of the world come every year to visit this legendary country. It is time we realize that we, the people living in this beautiful land, are responsible for keeping it clean. Visitors judge us by how well we treat them and how clean we keep our beloved country. Just like we clean our houses we should clean our cities. Just as we would like to be treated abroad, we should treat our visitors.
This reflects what we really are.
By: Mrs. Lily Chongthu.
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