Shortly after arriving in Yemen, I attended my first qaat party. Locally, it is pronounced with a hard G = gat. It is leaves and stems resembling parsley or mistletoe, or perhaps the tender shoots of a young fruit tree. The gat can be any shade of green and might even be purple. Nearly every man in Yemen chews gat at least once a week. Many chew it every afternoon. The natives stuff a tennis-ball-sized wad of the plant inside one cheek and let the juice do its work. My experience equalled the enhanced mental concentration of two cups of coffee, followed by a line of cocaine. I must emphasize that I left the gathering early, just as another large bag of qaat was being carried in by my Yemeni friend, Ahmed. The sun was setting and the men were just getting underway with some serious chewing.