Who did I meet at St. Mary's this evening but Kuya Roy. I hadn't seen him since I left this place in 1994. He left in 2003, the year before my return. Kuya Roy was wearing a bright red basketball jersey with a long sleeved shirt under it for church. He was more tanned and his face more weather-beaten than last but he had an air of confidence that he'd accrued from being in Yemen. He said he knew how to use an RPG, which my wife had to get a translation of. He was proud. He's working for an Emiratee Sheikh's (Al Ameri) water drilling company and consulting for the World Bank in the badlands of Southern Yemen. He said he went to Osama Ben Laden's place, by which he meant his people, who live in a wadi and are goat herds. You have to tote a Kalishnikov in the market he said. (His eyes were agog with happiness. Alas! where are the days of the Wild West in the U.S.?) They may have no water for six months and you may drop a well 1000 meters down and hit no water! They in fact are running out of water in Yemen.

People in Southern Yemen are more cooperative than those in the north, whose government is corrupt, according to Roy.

He's in Al Ain to make sure his salary is in the bank. He said that he was only in Al Ain for a week to get supplies, also. He said that, since he left, those who work under him had to take a vacation, too. I told him he must be indispensable. He couldn't remember me at first since I've gotten thinner and I have no moustache and I'm 'calvo'. I couldn't forget Kuya Roy though, one of the most intelligent guys I've ever met. Who wouldn't be intelligent if he were living in Yemen and happy to be toting a Kalishnikov!

Kuya Roy heard the word 'sistema' and had to laugh, "the Arabic way, no system. Imshee, mafee mushkalah, kalee-wuhlee." I had to laugh, too. You gotta have a sense of humor to survive "these places".

And so I praise Kuya Roy.