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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.
Roland, Joan and Peter
Pickering in Dhala 1964
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Wadi in Dhala
Kite hawks at Dhala camp.
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.
Beverley landing at Dhala
airstrip 1963
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 Jebel Jihaf, which provided many
white-knuckle moments on take-offs and
landings. The extra runway length no doubt
served to reduce much anxiety.
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