spring clean

The sun beats down on the cobbled path outside Enas’ house. With a hand on each front hoof, her brother escorts a reluctant white sheep towards her, two water basins, and the water hose for its weekly clean.

“Look, this one is beautiful,” says Enas, holding up its black nose as she scrubs it. “Her name is Fairouz ... no Haifa. Do you know Haifa Wehbe, the Lebanese singer?” She laughs.

One by one, each sheep is scrubbed down with laundry powder that her elder sister, in a black dress and brown cardigan, sprinkles from a small plastic bag. Enas combs each animal's fleece with a black hair brush.

Each sheep -Enas says there are 20- escapes as soon as it is rinced and, shaking itself down to the delight of the young children watching, slips back up the path to its clean friends.

yemen in our hearts

"Oh Lord, protect our Yemen," says this poster. The little boy is part of a government campaign to encourage Yemenis in Sana'a to be more patriotic. At the capital's main intersections, peddlers sell small Yemeni flags and flag-themed tissue boxes with the word "unity" printed all over them.

The tissue boxes, produced by "Shen Zhen for trading" and made in a "united Yemen," are inscribed with catchy phrases in love of the nation. "May every day come, and the nation be in a thousand well-beings," one says. "Complete trust," goes another. "In our unity is our pride," says a third. Only "Perfumed ... soft ... strong..." leaves the tissue user a little perplexed. The tissues definitely have no scent.