Jizan Heritage Village, Jizan City. December 2017
A taste of Africa, literally
One of my favorite students in my Saudi days was YAS. The guy came from an escarpment village called Tamniyah and was extremely proud of his heritage. He also entered our program as a zero in English and by the time he left he was nearly fluent. YAS was just one of those lucky souls who had an innate knack for language - most certainly it was NOT the language program at King Khalid University. As my ex-colleague, EB from South Africa once said, "if anyone ever learns English in this department, it will purely be by accident". A truer word was never spoken. Speaking of South Africa....
YAS told me that a "fabulous" new restaurant had opened in Jizan for seafood and we simply had to go one weekend. A plan was set for the coming Friday and a few days later we were zooming down the mountains on that scary zigzag road to the "Tihama", the Red Sea coastal plains. I remember on my first trip to the Tihama that I was struck not only by the climate change (going from Abha down the mountain was like driving from New York to Florida in March in only 30 minutes), but also the terrain. The Tihama literally looked like parts of Africa I had seen. I expected to see "the big five" come lumbering out across the road at any moment. Well, the Tihama IS right across the Red Sea from Africa, so no surprise, really. As we sped along, passing dusty towns with me wondering how people actually lived down there, YAS ensured me that the long drive (about 3 hours) to Jizan was going to be worth it. He was right!
We got there just as the restaurant opened and before the big "post-Friday prayer" rush had started. We were at Ocean Basket, a South African seafood chain that had opened a lonely outpost in Jizan, right down by the Yemeni border. Although not cheap, the fish was fresh and excellently prepared. YAS dubiously tried his first mussel and determined it was delicious and promptly ordered six more! YAS and I visited Ocean Basket a few more times before I left KSA. The three hour journey was tiring, but then again if one has heaps of free time, why not?? YAS's joy in life was infectious and the guy was always fun to be around. I didn't mind three hours in the car with him at all. We stuffed ourselves that first visit and then pressed on to the "cultural" portion of the trip. Jizan apparently had a "heritage village" filled with traditional houses! I was always up for any Saudi "museum" [see: calendars and museums] and YAS knew I liked that sort of thing on a day trip (Saudis can be so amazingly accommodating!)
We drove south of town, not far from the sea and finally came upon the place. Still early enough on Friday, we didn't fall afoul of the "Single Men Unwanted" sign that often dogged my weekend travels in KSA [see: Ragadan Forest Park]. In fact, the whole place was deserted. I wondered if it ever got ANY visitors. Most interesting to me was not the faux-Asiri "castle rock house" typical of the mountains that I had seen frequently. Instead I saw the supposed "traditional Tihama home" pictured above. Again, this screamed "Africa" to me. YAS assured me that "somewhere in Jizan" there still existed a few of these homes, but this trip came near the end of my five-year stay in the Kingdom with no evidence of such. I had crisscrossed the Tihama and never caught a glimpse of anything like that. I needed a Saudi from Tihama to verify it for me. After all, YAS was from up in the misty mountains - culturally a million miles away. He told stories of the great Qahtani-Shahrani War. He knew as much about the Tihama as I did!
So there I was, down by the war zone with Yemen again [see: Mt Faifa], on the Red Sea, visiting a cultural museum, just having eaten fresh seafood from a South African chain. I was thinking my life could not get any more convoluted!