Damaaj | Living In Yemen (Sana'a)

Timeline of Recent Events in Dammaaj

Posted on January 10, 2010 by talibiddeenjr

I’m no longer in Yemen, but came across this today about the most recent events in Dammaaj, Yemen.

Timeline of Events in Dammaaj from Madeenah.com.

Filed under: Damaaj | Tagged: Damaaj, dammaaj, dammaj | Comments Off on Timeline of Recent Events in Dammaaj

Want to Know More About Damaaj?

Posted on March 30, 2009 by talibiddeenjr

I just stumbled across this blog about Damaaj, you may want to check out if you are looking for more information about Damaaj……….

Darul Hadith Yemen…..All Things Damaaj

From the blog, here’s a post about the housing situation, it discusses the price of buying houses there as well as a few other pieces of information.

The blog hits upon various issues, so do check it out if you are “thirsty” for information on Damaaj, insha Allah.

Filed under: Damaaj | Tagged: Damaaj, yemen | Comments Off on Want to Know More About Damaaj?

Damaaj description

Posted on January 8, 2009 by talibiddeenjr

We homeschool here and one of my daughter’s recent writing assignments was to write a description of a place we had lived in. She chose to write about Damaaj, so I thought I would share it here…………..

Damajj

Damajj is a small village in Sa’dah, Yemen. Damajj, which is surrounded by mountains, is very pretty. The village of Damajj is not fully developed. Most streets are not paved. While you may be used to houses made of brick, in Damajj, houses are built out of mud and straw, as are the gates, which surround the houses.

Throughout the day, it is very quiet. Children playing during the day, and at night the sound of crickets, were really the only sounds.

Many scorpions live there. The sting of scorpion can be dangerous, especially black ones. In order to heal these stings you can cut the back off (the stinger) and put it on the cut.

For most of the time, we did not have electricity, which meant we had to go to bed early. After a few months, we bought a generator and shared it with our friendly owners.

To have clean drinking, my brothers went to a water pump and filled dibuhs (jugs). They took many trips in one day.

Fasting during Ramadhan in Damajj was fun; from waking up before dawn to breaking my fast at Maghrib with crunchy samosas (deep fried pastries filled with vegetables and/or meat).

During our stay, we heard fighting from a local war that raged on behind the mountains in another part of Sa’dah. We lived very close to the mountains. One night we counted forty bombs that went off. Allhamdulilah nothing ever happened to us.

Although Damajj was really far out, I really liked it there.

December 29, 2008

Filed under: Damaaj | Comments Off on Damaaj description

Scorpions in Yemen

Posted on October 13, 2008 by talibiddeenjr

In my Living in Damaaj post, I had talked a little about scorpions.

I was asked a question about what to do regarding scorpions getting in the ears while sleeping.

Alhamdulillah, we didn’t have this problem (though trust me, we spend many nights wondering whether we would be attacked in our sleep).

I didn’t really speak to anyone there about scorpions other than our landlords. One thing they said was that scorpions love fig trees, so when they had cut them down, that is when we saw more of them around the house. I think I mentioned in all, we saw about 11, (yes, I counted them).

I am not sure if I mentioned in the Damaaj post, but the bites of the black ones can be dangerous/fatal. Of course you wouldn’t want to be bit by either (the brown or the black), but again, its the black ones you have to worry about as I have heard.

A sister was bitten by a black one in Damaaj while we were there and garlic was applied to the bite by a Yemeni sister and alhamdulillah, the sister was ok. I did this for the brown scorpion bite my stepson had, but if you don’t know what you are doing and get stung by a black one, I recommend getting help as again, their bites can be fatal.

But alhamdulillah, we just had the one case of a bite and it was from a baby one.

I have seen only one scorpion in Sana’a, and that one was dead in a drain when we moved to a new house in an area that didn’t have paved roads.

Filed under: Damaaj, Living in Yemen | Tagged: scorpions in yemen | Comments Off on Scorpions in Yemen

Diseases in Yemen

Posted on October 12, 2008 by talibiddeenjr

I was asked on a Damaaj post which was still posted on my homeschooling site, whether or not we had experienced any cases personally with malaria or tuberculosis while in Damaaj.

No, alhamdulillah, no problems with those two diseases for us while we were there. I did here of someone with Yellow Fever, and a few I think with Hepatitis B.

Our only medical problem that we had there was (and I am not sure of the name for it, though I have come across it, it may be “Myiasis”) was that “bugs” (I thought it was flies, but am not sure) may land on open cuts and lay their eggs in there. My stepson, at age four months, had this happen to him and I had heard of another case of this while we were there. He had a hard, red bump on his chest. My husband knew what it was right away as I think he had heard of someone with this problem and he took him to the clinic there.

He said that the doctor extracted a white wormlike “creature” that was the width of his pinky finger!
My oldest two children both had a round, crusty bump both on their knees. But we just kind of poked around and put peroxide on it and it seemed to be the end of them (I am not advocating this though, it is best to go to the doctor, Allahu ilm).

Related………………

Malaria

I did come across this article in the Yemen Times which stated that 60% of the Yemeni population is at risk for Malaria:

“Recently, Yemen is subjected to many diseases and epidemics attack such as dengue fever, polio, and hepatitis. However, Malaria was and is still the biggest health challenge in Yemen. Dr. Mohammed Alnumi, Yemeni health minister, has revealed that 60 percent of Yemeni population at risk of Malaria, according to the last population statistics in last December, which estimated the population of Yemen to be around 19.7 million. ”

Malaria is a chronic disease caused by parasites and spread through the bite of the female Anopheles Mosquito. This disease characterized by chills, shaking, and periodic bouts of intense fever. In recent years, malaria has become more difficult to control and treat because malaria parasites have become resistant to drugs, and mosquitoes that transmit the disease have become resistant to insecticides.

You can read the rest of the article here: http://www.yementimes.com/article.shtml?i=901&p=health&a=1

Myiasis

Again, not sure if this is the same thing as what I explained in the beginning of the post, but it sounds similar: http://www.yementimes.com/article.shtml?i=1135&p=front&a=1

Filed under: Damaaj, Medical Care/Related | Tagged: diseases in Yemen, malaria in yemen, myiasis in yemen | Comments Off on Diseases in Yemen