The Charm School

go in peace.
    Wasim again addressed his group. “This temple is believed by some who practice the American Mormon faith to be the place to which the Mormon prophet called Lehi fled from Jerusalem in the sixth century before the Common Era. It was here, according to Mormon scholars, where Lehi buried the prophet Ishmael. And when this was done, Lehi built a great ship for himself and his family and sailed to America.”
    Annette translated, and one of the male tourists asked a question, which the young girl translated into English for Wasim, who smiled and answered, “Yes, as you can see, there is no ocean here. But in ancient times, it is believed there was much water here from the Great Flood of Noah.”
    The young woman translated, and the Belgians all nodded in understanding.
    Wasim said, “Follow me, please.” He ascended fourteen stone steps and stood before five square columns that rose twenty meters in height. He waited for his group to join him, then said, “If you look there to the west, you will see the mountains where the local tribes believe the Ark of Noah came to rest.”
    The tourists took pictures of the distant mountains and didn’t notice the bearded man climbing the steps toward them.
    Wasim, however, did notice, and he said to the Bedouin in Arabic, “Please, sir, this is a private tour group.”
    Al-Numair, The Panther, replied in Arabic, “But I wish to learn, also.”
    Wasim, keeping a respectful tone in his voice, replied to the Bedouin, “You speak no English or French, sir. What can you learn?”
    The Panther replied in English, “I am a poor man, sir, who comes to entertain the tourists in my finest tribal robes.”
    Wasim was taken aback by the man’s perfect English, then replied in Arabic, “Thank you, but Skeik Musa has assured me --”
    “Please, sir,” said the Bedouin loudly, “allow me to pose for photographs with your Belgian friends. One hundred rials for each photograph.”
    Annette heard this and translated into French for her compatriots, who had seemed anxious about the exchange between the two Arabs. Hearing now what this was about, they all smiled and agreed that this would be a very good thing–an excellent souvenir photograph to take home.
    Wasim acquiesced to his clients’ wishes and motioned to the Bedouin to proceed.
    The Belgians began posing alongside the tall, bearded Bedouin, individually at first, then in small groups. The Bedouin smiled for each photograph, and he was very accommodating to the tourists as they asked him to move around the temple to set up various shots with the ruins in the background.
    One of the older men asked him to draw his dagger, but the Bedouin explained almost apologetically that if the jambiyah is drawn, then it must be used. On hearing the translation of this from Annette, the older Belgian said to his compatriots, “Then we will not ask him to draw his dagger,” and they all laughed. But Wasim did not laugh.
    Wasim glanced at his watch. Though they had left Sana’a at eight in the morning, the bus had not arrived at the small nearby town of Marib until after noon. The tourists had lunched, too slowly he thought, at the Bilqis Hotel tourist restaurant, and there Wasim had to wait too long for Sheik Musa who demanded two hundred American dollars, saying to Wasim, “The other tribes are making problems, and so I must pay them to allow you safe passage on your return to Sana’a.”
    Wasim had heard this before, but he explained to the sheik, as he always did, “The tourists have already paid a fixed price to the travel company in Sana’a, and a price for the police escort. I can ask no more of them. And there is no profit for me if I give you more money.” But, as always, Wasim promised, “Next time.”
    The sheik and the tour guide from Sana’a had agreed on the one hundred dollars, but for Wasim there would be no next time. The road from Sana’a to Marib was becoming unsafe, and it was not only the tribes who were restless, it was also this new group, Al Qaeda, who had entered the area in the last year. They were mostly foreigners–Saudis, Kuwaitis, people from neighboring Oman, and also Iraqis who had fled the Americans in their homeland. These people, Wasim thought, would bring death and unhappiness to Yemen.
    In fact, Sheik Musa had said to Wasim, “These Al Qaeda people are becoming a problem. They are attracted by the American oil wells and the American refinery and pipelines, and they gather like