SANA, Yemen — Twelve-year-old Nefisa Nasser lined up four jerrycans by a faucet on the side of a busy street, patiently waiting her turn to fill them with water. She completed the daily routine, capping each container and sliding it into a wheelbarrow that she pushed back home through the clamor of morning traffic.
“Sometimes she comes back crying,” said her father, Muhammed Nasser, as Nefisa sat nearby on a folded bedspread. “Of course it pains me,” he said, “but our circumstances are difficult.”
Difficult is just how life is in Yemen, yesterday, today and every day. It does not matter that the president and his cabinet have resigned, that the government has not functioned for weeks, or that the gunmen in control of the streets say they plan to set up a new regime to their own liking.
Families have always had to struggle to get through their days in a country where the government has long been incapable of delivering essential services. There is hardly any running water now — and there was hardly any before the political crisis.
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Yemenis refer offhandedly to the revolution set off in 2011, when the Arab Spring began, and its aftershocks as “the crisis.” The instability it brought allowed the Houthis to sweep into the capital, driving out the old leadership and promising reform. But many Yemenis have reason to be skeptical.
Back in Al Belaily, Mr. Nasser waited for lunch to be served.
“So far, the Houthis haven’t done much for us,” he said as his children gathered for the meal. He looked at the basic food spread on the floor. “On Fridays,” he said, a little embarrassed, “we also eat chicken.”
Shuaib Almosawa contributed reporting.
