Blending right in

This weekend I got invited to a big Friday afternoon(sabath day) lunch with my family. We went to a beach side restaurant and had huge fish cooked in front of us over coals. It was hysterical- Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, babies, toddlers, teenagers, moms and dads and grandparents- all in traditional Yemeni garb and sitting right in the middle of the whole family- digging into the platter of food with my bare hands and bouncing babies on my lap- ‘ol Taryn (desperately feigning like I had any desire for, or knowledge of babies). Grandma kept laughing and handing me choice morsels of fish that she expertly ripped from the carcass. Grandma! You need to save some for yourself! People were staring with open-mouthed consternation, I'm sure it was quite a sight. I love it.

We decided to go on a boat ride at Steamers Point on the Gulf( after having this unusual and delicious ice-cream made from stale bread, burned milk and salt.. I wonder which part was the ice cream? And also,yeah good idea! Lets tempt our fate of raging seasickness after a large and unusual meal!). So at the port the Fam rented a boat- 3,000 Riyals for the whole family + and additional 30,000 just for me! They were trying to scam the hell out of me. Once it was sufficiently explained that I was in fact not a tourist but rather a member of their family, all was fine. I whispered to the girls “I’ll be sure to talk only in Arabic so they won’t know I’m American” “NOOOO!” they both yelled, “that ridiculous accent of yours will surely give you away!” as though the sight of me with crazy, windblown hair, a pink, sunburned nose, and a giant camera dangling around my neck standing next to a flock of women in abaya didn’t already scream out AMERICAN! WE’VE GOT AN AMERICAN HERE! SHE IS A TOURIST!
The boat trip was lovely, unlike my previous boat excursion this was a simple, relaxing joyride. We chugged lazily along the coast, snapping pictures and enjoying the brisk salty breeze. As we got back to the port I saw some other tourists(the first tourists I’ve seen since moving here) They were being wildly overpriced and were staring me down utterly baffled like, “what is that girl doing with all those locals?” I immediately felt wildly superior to them- oh you don’t have a Yemeni family yet? Such greenhorns.
Afterwards without a question we headed back to the house- I just flopped down on the couch like I owned the place and watched Arabic tv picking up approx 1 out of every 5,0000 words I heard.