Dhala Hospitality

 

We had been invited by a village leader to his village near Dhala. After being ushered through dark, narrow corridors of our host's house to the inner sanctums I felt a little non-plussed at being segregated with my mother whilst my father was led off by the men, perhaps to talk about men's things, maybe sitting around a hubbly-bubbly pipe or chewing qat. For goodness sake, I was twelve, surely man enough by now?

 

So I was with the womenfolk. We squeezed into 'our' room which was packed with black-clad women chattering unintelligibly. Whether these were the harem of our host I was unsure - it looked like the entire village were gathered there for this apparently rare occasion - it seems some of the women had never before seen a 'white' woman. 

 

Many of the women removed their black veils and completely surrounded us. Weathered, hennaed hands extended from the black folds of cloth, poking and stroking mum's skin, followed by embarrassed smiles and giggling, as if to assure themselves she was real. There was no verbal communication but we later found out from our interpreter in the 'mens room' that they were curious as to how many camels and goats mum had cost.

 

We were served a mint-flavoured tea, and as a special treat a tin of Bartlett pears were opened - half a pear each; which did little to satisfy my runbling stomach as I was hungry as hell. Before leaving, as seemed customary with these generous people, my father and I were each presented with a jambiyah and my mother was given locally made cloth.

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During our few days at Dhala we were offered the hospitality of Godfrey Meynell at his fortified house in Dhala. Godfrey was a political advisor who was well-known, and liked, by the local people. 

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My father, Sgt. Roland Pickering was serving in Aden with 5004 Airfield Construction Squadron who were camped near the town of Dhala whilst extending the  runway. No pilot would forget this airstrip overlooked by the towering Jebel Jihaf, which provided many white-knuckle moments on take-offs and landings. The extra runway length no doubt served to reduce much anxiety.