Hasty Departure - 3/10

My last day in Yemen was packed, moved from one meeting to the next, and tried to make sure as many loose ends as possible were tied up. It ended up being to no avail as a lot of tinkering still needed to be done with the programming of the 1207 funds in order to bring them up to an acceptable approach. Nevertheless, our meeting at the end of the day with the Ambassador ran far beyond the anticipated 30 minutes. My flight which was to depart at 7 had me slightly concerned as I was told sometimes Yemeni Airways opts to depart early for reasons still unclear to the Americans that worked at the Embassy. The 4:00 meeting ran on and on, at 5:30, we finally wrapped up. There was a great deal of support for the work we had done, and signs looked positive for my office’s ability to support Yemen in the future if so desired. However, signs weren’t looking positive for my departure from the airport. I ran out of the office and said some quick goodbyes to team-mates and jumped in the suburban. My driver was probably even more concerned than I was. Off we went. I think being a driver must get boring at times, and this perhaps was just the necessary excuse to “knock some carbon out” as my grandmother used to say (and I’m still not quite sure what that stemmed from). The horn was liberally applied, lights flashed, sirens wailed…and people were pushed to the edge of the road as we came barreling through. To make matters more interesting, the driver thought we could shave off a few minutes if we went a residential route, so we tore past kids heading home from school, and even the break-up of a wedding party. I was relieved to see the airport-and arrived, only to find that tonight, my flight wasn’t taking off early, but was delayed two hours! Nice…