Yemen - Chaotic Sana'a

Sana'a is probably no more or less difficult to navigate than any other Arabian or African capital. But the weaving and turbulent chaos of the streets here might leave your head spinning for a few days. Thankfully we didn't have to drive, we were driven by our hosts, the coffee exporters Sowaid. Senior Sowaid was calm and plodding by Yemeni standards (which would translate to completely insane on a US roadway). Ali, his son, was a menace to all, sheer terror when he found any open road. Then there was George M. George, transplant from India, driving the micro-micro-van plastered with ads for Karcher Power Washers (Sowaids other business). And each night we retreated to the exclusive Sheraton hotel, which was awfully nice but the rooms rank between Motel 6 and Best Western. They had a swell pingpong table though.

Cherry quality Here you can see the quality of the cherry, including a few obvious un-ripe green cherries....	The husk, Keshir, Quesher, Qishr Yemen is unique because the dry processed skins, the coffee husk, is nearly as valuable as the...	Mr Sowaid The longer I spent with Mr. Sowaid, the more I appreciated his great experience in export, and...
Pulling a sample with a trier. We pulled a bunch of samples from the already-milled bags of coffee. Once Sowaid chooses to buy...	Door to the "Mill" A surprise in Yemen is that all the coffee is milled from the husk in the basements of these...	OSHA, I don't think so.... And down the uneven cement stairs we went to the cavern below.... Yemen
The "Mill" ...To what probably amounts to the simplest coffee mill I have ever seen. A mill is just one...	Coming off the machine... ... is a jumble of coffee seed, husk, and parchment. It's quite a task to sort this out, and...	Winnowing coffee And I though my workstation was bad ... here you sit among the proverbial "hill o' beans" and...
The resulting coffee A representative sample of the coffee resulting from this process. Yemen	Screening coffee... I was a little disappointed to see how young this one guy was. There is definitely strong public...	Negotiating the Samples Outside Sowaid, Muhakri and his guys sat down outside to separate some samples from the warehouse and...
Ali joins in... As I mentioned, coffee is evaluated in green form. They are experts at looking at green to...	Making a deal, morning shadows. Coffee is bought and sold the old fashioned way, by looking at it. Yemen	Random Sana'a Street Scene S we prepared to head to the next warehouse. I noticed lots of small music shops in Sana'a. I...