Coincidentally, after reading about Kurt Vonnegut’s death earlier today, my friend Ginna Vogt sent word that her essay Dancing Lessons from God was just published in poemmemoirstory and is now available online. The essay is part of Ginna’s longer memoir about her 1977 stay in Yemen.
Here’s the coincidental part:
Once I had eaten, I went to sit in the mafraj, or sitting room, to read a battered copy of Cat’s Cradle which I’d borrowed from a cache of English language books left behind by visitors at the US embassy. I’d reluctantly settled for Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., then discovered an affinity when he’d pointed out that “Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God.” Here I sat on a pad on the floor in the room where we dipped our bread into a pot of chartreuse sauce called hulba for our supper. I was almost certainly the only western woman ever yet permitted to live in a Yemeni family without marrying into it. A peculiar travel suggestion indeed. Though I no longer believed in God, off balance as I felt in this most foreign of countries I sometimes suspected my feet were uncannily stumbling to another’s lead. The confidence and grace of the faithful Zabaras intrigued me.
Ginna’s essay touches on Ramadan, transitions, the power of nature, and lemon Tang. I look forward to the complete book about this visit that stays with her three decades later.