My story with Qat- Part two

Anis Albasha

When I was a little boy, my father took me and my siblings to one of the fruit markets on a Friday morning. We bought different kinds of delicious fruits. On our way home, my father told us that, sadly, most people would rather pay the same amount of money we paid for these fruits to get a bundle of Qat. He told us that there was no comparison between the benefits we get when we eat fruits and the bad effects people get by chewing Qat. His words have lingered in my head for a long time and they made me look negatively at this plant.

As time went on, the more I got in touch with Qat, the more I hated that ugly plant along with all the distasteful and repulsive rituals that accompany it such as chewing, spitting and smoking. It was fortunate that I grew up in a house where Qat had no daily presence like most of the Yemeni houses. My father was not a regular chewer, and the few times I saw him chew Qat I noticed that his cheeks were not as puffed as other chewers. I could hardly know that he was chewing Qat since it seemed as he was chewing gum. My mother also was not a Qat addict and she only chewed Qat in some social occasions. This semi Qat-free environment helped me and also my two other brothers to stay away from Qat.   
    

Chewing Qat in Yemen is considered a sign of ‘manhood’. Therefore, after finishing the primary education, almost all of my peers wanted to show their manhood by starting chewing Qat and also by trying smoking. That was the first crossroads Qat put me at and I chose not to go with the tide. Besides my early hostile attitude towards Qat, there was another reason behind my reluctance to join my friends and chew Qat as a sign of manhood. At a very early age of my life, my mother made a smart attempt that most Yemeni mothers at that time wouldn’t usually care to do. She had bought me a number of kids’ books and comics in order to make me interested in reading. She did that even before I joined the primary school where I am supposed to learn how to read.  


Those illustrated books were so interesting and I was fascinated by them! I loved reading since then and when I was 8 years old, I started reading adventure books. One of my most favorite action series back then was called ‘Ragol Al Mostaheel’, which can be literally translated into ‘the man of the impossible’. That book series is about a fictional Egyptian intelligence officer who has incredible physical abilities and he can also speaks many languages. His name is Adham Sabri and he doesn’t smoke, drink alcohol, and of course doesn’t chew Qat. The author of that action series is Egyptian and his name is Nabil Farouk. In fact, Mr. Farouk's books were very popular among the youth in different Arab countries in the nineties. I was so lucky to have the opportunity to meet that author in person when I visited Egypt in 2002. I told him how his writings have influenced me and how much Adham Sabri was inspiring to me. In fact, when my wife and I had our first child in 2010, we named him after that character, Adham!

Me (left) with Dr. Nabil Farouk (right) 

Imaginary drawing of Adham Sabri

During my childhood and teenage years, Adham Sabri was my role model and I dreamed to be like him one day. Undoubtedly, chewing Qat did not look as a helpful factor that could help to fulfill my fanciful dream. So, instead of engaging in Qat sessions like many of my peers, I joined Karate, Taekwondo classes for some time. I also played football and tried to learn swimming. In my simple perception back then, I thought that by doing so, I was paving the road to be like Adham Sabri one day. That's why I felt isolated from kids my age since all of them not only showed no interest in reading or in sports, but also they didn't dream to be heroes one day!

As a kid and as a teenager, I didn’t have to attend Qat sessions which are usually for adults or for those who pretend to be adults. Though we didn’t host daily chewing sessions in our house, I wasn’t totally excluded from Qat's atmosphere because many persons from my parents’ families chew this plant madly. Therefore, I found myself being in touch with Qat chewers from time to another. But I couldn’t stand the smell of Qat or endure the repulsive sight of the bulging cheeks of chewers which are stuffed with Qat leaves, let alone the smokes rising from cigarettes and shishas which are always associated with Qat chewing sessions. But I had no choice because in certain family gatherings I was forced to be there or at least to be around.

My family and I  used to visit the city of my birth place which is called Hodaidah, a beautiful coastal city on the Red Sea. I was so in love with that city and I have a lot of beautiful memories in that city. But I also had my share there of bad memories with Qat! In our neighborhood of that city, I saw people chew Qat in small rooms which have open doors onto the narrow alleys. Whenever I passed by one of those rooms, I couldn't help glancing at chewers who looked to me like lifeless statues which stare into the void. Given that Hodaidah has a very hot and humid weather, I was always wondering how these chewers could bear the wet and stifling atmosphere of those cramped rooms. “Are they really enjoying their time or they are just indulging in the illusion of having a pleasure because they had nothing else to do?” And when the smell of the tobacco sneaked into my nose, I stopped wondering and quickly moved away trying to avoid such unpleasant odorous views. I noticed that while I spent hours playing with other kids or just roaming in the neighborhood, those chewers were glued to their spots while their cheeks were getting beefier. The whole view seemed to me as a stagnant bleak scene that needed a miracle to bring it to life.

I have also observed that when chewers finished their 4-8 hour session of Qat chewing, they had to deal with some post-chewing symptoms. I personally saw some people who suffer from severe depression, restlessness or sleepless nights. One of the most horrible post Qat symptoms I saw myself was when one of my relatives intentionally made slight cuts on his arm with a small blade while uttering some poetic lines!
I've noticed that, chewers were in a talkative mood as long as they chew Qat; but once they spit it out they immediately switched into a silent and sulky mood. 'I am after Qat' is a common phrase in the Yemeni daily language which describes and summarizes those changeable conditions people go through when they finish chewing Qat. If someone says that phrase to you, it means that you should excuse them no matter what they do! It means also that you probably should leave them alone until they feel much better. It is really weird how Qat keeps people in a vicious circle which fluctuates between a fake climax and an expected collapse.  

All in all, the more I grew up, the more I had to face the social isolation which was imposed on me due to my anti Qat attitude.  Not only my firm position against Qat has made it so complicated for me to enjoy a healthy social life as a child and as a teenager ,but it also kept causing further complications to my life as an adult.  In my story with Qat-part three, I will talk about that and also about a compromise I tried to do in order to cope with those uncomfortable situations.