15 Yemen Road, Yemen

I am preparing to move into my new apartment at the end of the month, and with the preparations comes attempts at organization that reveal the differences in cultural logics between a New Yorker and a person from Sana’a.

The first issue to navigate is the timing of the deliveries for the various pieces of furniture that I have purchased. I was initially told to expect the delivery at 11:00, and so arranged for a series of other people to also be at the apartment at 11:00 (including my colleague who will give me the keys, the landlord’s son who will supervise the movers to ensure they don’t break things, my driver, etc). It’s a little worrying that when I asked for confirmation from the store about the delivery time – given the likely domino effect of tardiness – the most concrete reply I was able to get was “Inshallah” (God willing).

The most befuddling thing about trying to arrange for the delivery, however, is the complete inability to give a street address and have it mean anything. And this isn’t a case of “Tammy, there’s a local system that makes sense that you’re not tuned into yet.” I drove around in circles for 30 minutes yesterday with my program assistant, as she tried to drop her daughter off at a friend’s house. And I watched in amazement at the furniture store as three Sana’a natives discussed for about 20 minutes the directions that would enable them to deliver the furniture to my new place, located less than 10 minutes by car from the store. Eventually, maps were drawn.

Part of the problem is that most streets don’t have names. So instead of giving a house number and then a street name, you need to give directions according to landmarks. “Turn left at the Iranian carpet place,” or “We’re nearby the Sheba Hotel.” Once at these main landmarks, whomever is driving will generally call someone at the destination and get step-by-step instructions for how to reach the precise location. Makes you wonder what a GPS system for your car would sound like in Sana’a. In other instances where more prominent streets do have names, some of these have been changed in the past 5 years and nobody knows the new name. And finally, among the few streets that everyone knows, names are either location-based, like Haddah Road (the main road in the neighborhood of Haddah), or unimaginatively descriptive (like “70 Meter Road,” and “45 Meter Road”, streets named for their widths). Or, my personal favorite, Zero Street.

Since the current system doesn't seem functional for anybody, I keep asking myself why the post office or some other governmental authority hasn't named the streets. I can only hope that they will eventually, as more people get further and deeper confused.

Inshallah.