On New Year's Eve of 1999, I was about to embark on a huge adventure. Three months earlier, I had met the love of my life and we were about to move in together in a city over 500 miles away from all of my friends and family. I was happy and excited, but also nervous.
Ten years later I find myself in a surprisingly similar situation. This time, I'm about to leave behind friends, family and that love of my life to go thousands of miles away. Once again, I am happy and excited, but also nervous.
In just over 48 hours, I will be getting on a flight bound for Dubai, and shortly after that I will arrive in Sana'a, Yemen. When I accepted the offer to go to Yemen to do humanitarian work with UNICEF, it was just another fragile country in the Middle East that few people knew anything about. Just two short weeks later, it is front-page news around the world.
Terrorist threats notwithstanding, nothing has changed for the people of Yemen during the past two weeks. Unemployment in the country remains at 35 percent. Nearly half of the population still lives on less than $2 a day. The adult literacy rate is just over 50 percent. Theirs remains one of the least developed countries not only in the region, but in the world, ranking just above Pakistan, Swaziland and Angola in terms of human development.
These are the reasons for my trip there. Working with UNICEF I hope to be able to call attention to the situation of women and children in the country and perhaps, in some small way, shed some light on what is really happening there. I hope to use this blog as a way of communicating and sharing my experiences there.
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