Happy New Year

The VSO party was held on Christmas eve and, despite minimal alcohol, went very well (secret santa, a Christmas quiz and carol singing being the highlights). On Christmas day itself about twenty of us went to the Albergo Italia, formerly the Keren Hotel, for a meal (not a traditional Christmas one but really good all the same).

On Boxing Day we headed out to spend a couple of nights in Massawa on Eritrea's Red Sea coast. We splashed out and hired a private minibus for our group of 10 (8 volunteers and two visitors) and we travelled via Filfil, Eritrea's cloud-forest area and most spectacular route.

Down at the coast it's much warmer than in Asmara just now, a very pleasant 30C, and we found the Red Sea easily warm enough to swim in and to snorkel around the small coral reefs adjacent to "Green Island" just off Massawa.

We also spent one evening eating fresh fish in the open air at the Salam Restaurant, Massawa. Selected individually, gutted, then cooked over an open fire before being served whole, the fish was absolutely delicious, although one of our number (who shall remain nameless) had to cover the eye of hers with a piece of bread before she could eat. For some reason the greater part of Massawa's cat population was in attendance at our table, all adding to the atmosphere.

We're getting close to the end of our first year in Asmara and, of course, it's nearly 2009 so all the best to everyone for the New Year and let's hope everyhing gets better in terms of the global economy.

For ourselves we don't really have much in the way of wishes for the New Year it's just that we hope to be able to continue here until the end of our respective placements (end of 2009 or early 2010) and after that who knows? It looks as if I may have to accept that there won't be another City of London job, so more volunteering / NGO work may be on the cards.

For Eritrea it's more difficult to express wishes for the New Year without overt criticism and that we're not going to do in accordance with our wish to remain here in 2009. So we'll just say that we hope for some reverse in the current downward trends, that we hope that Eritrea's youth will have more opportunity to use their education in their home country, that we hope that Eritrea's people will be allowed to follow their faith (no matter which one,) that we hope that there will be more freedom of expression allowed and we hope that everyone in the country will have enough to eat in 2009.

Rhus Hadish Amet!

P and C

24th December 2008

So it’s Christmas Eve in Asmara and much more Christmasy than you might think – there’s tinsel and decorated trees everywhere, and I’m wished a Happy Christmas by everyone I speak to, regardless of their faith. There’s a VSO Christmas party tonight and a big group of us are having lunch out tomorrow. We’ve taken Friday off and ten of us are heading down to Massawa for the weekend.

Almost half way through our posting here. Time flies etc. etc.

A very Happy Christmas to all our readers!

C

Sunday

Sunday morning in Asmara dawns very chilly as usual, but a completely blue sky and sun means the temperature rises pretty quickly. A bit of a lie-in this morning, seems to be the only day we get one. I spend half an hour preparing my writing lesson with Henok while Phil does some revision for his Tigrigna lesson. Both of the lessons are an hour and a half from 11 and then we’re free for the day.

We decided to go for a walk today and follow the old railway line through Asmara. The railway was built by the Italians and originally ran from Massawa on the coast up to Asmara, looped around the city and then went to Keren. The only remaining functioning track is between Asmara and Nefasit (about 10k down the escarpment). We did the steam train journey there and back six months ago and a memorable journey it was. Today’s outing was a bit more mundane as very little of the track remains, in fact we only saw a couple of feet of it where it broke the surface of the dirt track, or in one case the sealed road. The most common use of the old track bed seems to be as a thoroughfare or makeshift football pitch. We almost managed to follow the track to the station but then were stopped by a stone wall which the track had no problem disappearing under so decided to call it a day and go for a cappuccino. The steam train coming up from the coast and winding its way around the art deco buildings of Asmara must have been a wonderful sight although unfortunately probably only the Italians rode the train. I don’t know this for a fact but as only the Italians were allowed to use the main Asmara roads (the Eritreans had to use the back roads) it is probably true. Another method employed by the Italians to keep the locals in their place was that Eritreans were not allowed to study beyond Grade 4 in school. The only positive thing that the British ever did for Eritrea was to include Eritreans in the full educational system.

It’s Christmas in less than a fortnight, I keep forgetting and then get reminded by a decorated Christmas tree in a shop window. It’s a strange thing to see as the Coptic Christmas, which is celebrated here is not until January 7th. The 25th December is a holiday as well so we sort of get a double Christmas.

C

A Busy Weekend.

It was a three day weekend due to the Muslim holiday of Eid and a very sociable one for us what with an invitation to Dawit's place for coffee on Saturday, a final farewell to John the outgoing VSO Country Director, my Sunday Tigrinya lesson, Caroline's Sunday English lesson (in different directions, of course), the arrival of a 14-year old boy on our doorstep with a new-year present and the arrival of Cliona for her last few days in Eritrea with her Hagaz (Anseba) days now behind her and South America on the horizon.

Dawit is our polio-victim friend (on whose behalf we're collecting for a motorised tricycle - we still need more money by the way!) and we went to his house on Saturday afternoon. Really we knew that we wouldn't get away with just a coffee it's not the Eritrean way but, in denial, we ate a Massawa Fast Food lunch shortly before going. Of course it wasn't long before we realised lunch was a big mistake as fresh papaya juice, injera, two types of goat stew, fried potatoes were laid before us, followed by coffee and popcorn - all delicious and we couldn't really do it justice.

So this is one of the problems (this time it's a good problem) with Eritrea - house guests are treated like royalty no matter how poor the family (a goat was probably killed on Saturday in our honour) and so feelings of guilt creep in once more. However, I was told by another Eritrean friend not to feel guilty about taking food and that in fact one must accept what has been prepared and be enthusiastic about it (this latter is not difficult).

Due to friends and family being around as well we learned a little more about Dawit's history and the total lack of funding available for any kind of help. He was unable to attend school after the age of 14 due to lack of facilities. He is, indeed, not eligible for any support from the government or any other funding body.

From the rest of the discussions it is apparent that this is going to become a full-blown Dawit-mobility project and that we will be involved in the purchase of whichever vehicle is selected. I am starting to feel that we may get out of our depth insofar as Dawit should possibly be assessed for ability to be able to handle a motorised vehicle in the first place and should definitely receive training so the whole thing could take a lot of time. Still that means more possibility to gather more contributions ... you'll be hearing more about this we're not going to let it drop!

P

We had to leave in time to meet up John at Cinema Roma (lovely old Art Deo cinema built by the Italians) for the football and then he was caught up in meetings and couldn't make it so I ended up watching a very boring game of football (Fulham and someone else) with Phil. Slept a bit too. Saw John later and he gave us a lump of Waitrose strong Cheddar cheese. Delicious, salivating at the thought of it now. He's off to work in South Africa for a few months and we, in Eritrea await the arrival of a new Country Director.

Re my Sunday English lesson - its academic writing to a young colleague of Phil's who's just starting a distance uni. course. It gives me someting to do while Phil has his Tigrigna lesson.

C

Eritrea Frustrations (Part 1)

One of the problems with living in what amounts to a Military State is that foreigners have to obtain permission in the form of travel permits in order to go anywhere of any distance from Asmara. It's quite strange that volunteers living away from Asmara (who are only here to try and help, after all) have to apply to be able to travel between the capital and their placements.

For us it's not just a matter of "let's just pop down to Massawa this weekend" (lack of a bus notwithstanding) such excursions have to be planned at least 10 days in advance. Furthermore there are desinations in the country which are, arbitrarily it seems to us, out of bounds.

We thought it would be OK at first but it's starting to feel confining now and it's one of the things that we would change about Eritrea if we could.

The travel permit situation has got worse since we've been here I think. When we arrived it was "up to 10 days" to get one, now it's definitely "10 days". Volunteers working outside Asmara used to be allowed 6 months permits, this has now been reduced to 2 or 3 months which means they have to come back into Asmara to get new ones. Without a valid permit army checkpoints will make you get off the bus and not allow you to finish your journey. Thid could leave you stranded in the middle of the country, something which happened to Richard. He had a 3 month permit but unfortunately the stamp on the permit had changed over the three months. A lot of the checkpoint soldiers cannot read and so only have the stamp to go on and if that doesn't look right you're off the bus (no arguing with an AK47.) Luckily for him a VSO vehicle was coming along the road and was able to pick him up and take him back to Asmara. It is a reminder (if you needed one) of the amount of state control.

C and P

Mai, Mai everywhere

Eritrea is part of the Sahel, a zone of scrubby semi-desert which lies to the South of the Sahara and, despite heavy rains at certain times of year (the actual time varies depending on the zone within the country), water shortage is a constant fact of life.

Such shortage and a creaking water delivery system mean that water is never constantly available even in Asmara and, to act as a reservoir for the majority of the time when mains water is off, Asmara houses usually have large water tanks somewhere on their roofs.

Given that water is so precious you can imagine our consternation last Saturday when we came home to find it cascading onto the tiles at the side of our house. After clambering onto the roof in the dark I managed to ascertain that the ball-cock in our tank wasn't working properly and the tank was overflowing onto the roof. So, I thought, let's just shut off the supply at the stop-cock further upstream. That wasn't working at all so the flow couldn't be stopped now panic was setting in.

Back on the roof I managed to break the arm of the stop-cock completely in an effort to force it shut and in the meantime our reserve-reserve chemical-drum-tank was nearly full of overflow water collected in a bucket. Eventually I managed to stop up the leak with a rag.

What I couldn't believe was the feeling of guilt at letting so much water run away and this was compounded this weekend when the valve on the toilet cistern failed to close and we failed to notice it resulting in an empty roof tank this time. Then the tank filled to overflow again. I'm actually aching from carrying buckets and shinning up onto the roof repeatedly. Yet our water access is really easy compared to most of Eritrea where water comes from boreholes and often has to be carried home several kilometers.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is that leaks and spills can turn into major events here. Now if only that plumber would actually come and do the repairs as he said he would ...

P

Solar Power in Eritrea

I read a BBC article this week which was a report on an interview given by Philip Rosedale, founder of Second Life virtual world, in which he was asked what his technology dreams and predictions were. His response centred on electricity and the changes which will have to be made in moving to a more distributed model of power generation if the world is to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels. This in a week where we have seen more power cuts than usual even in Asmara (we don't know if this is policy to reduce oil consumption at Eritrea's only power station but it could be).

In a way it's good to be part of a shift to Solar Power in my (minor) participation in the Rural Schools' Solar Power Project but it represents a lot of work for quite a number of people just to get a few panels out to where they are needed. The BBC article indirectly raises a lot of questions for the poorer countries in Africa, particularly those who don't have a great relationship with the world's biggest technology country, the US.

So here's the fantasy. Here, in Eritrea, there are two observations that you can make - the sun shines a lot and the country cannot afford to buy much oil on the world markets no matter what the prevailing price is. It is also true that large numbers of Eritrea's people are off the grid in any case. So wouldn't it be great if a mega-rich (fortune from technology?) philanthropist were to step in and fund the Solar Power Revolution in Eritrea? While we're at it we could introduce other technologies in a big way - Geographical Information Systems to find the optimum sites for larger installations (the intersection of maximum hours of sunshine, land unused for anything else and proximity to population centres). Internet centres and libraries throughout the country.

The reality? This region is perceived as being too unstable for investment of such enormous magnitude. Eritrea also feels the need to control information and movement of people (just try using a GPS device as a foreigner here) so internet access and the gathering of data will remain difficult. Furthermore countries who owe Eritrea big-time in terms of assistance with previously-arbitrated border disputes and (in the case of UK) in terms of technology removal as unmerited war reparation will continue to fail to provide official support.

But we can all dream.

P

Monday morning

I’m sitting in the office by myself, working, after a weekend of sickness and feeling sorry for myself. Feeling better today but slightly resent the wasted weekend. Everyone else has gone to collect the Grade 4 cassettes which we’ve just been told are finally ready for collection from the studios. I’m not sure why all three had to go but I guess I might see them later.

Killed a cockroach in the bathroom, eight hours later the ants had dissected it and carried it away. Good creatures ants. Very organised. They seem to be everywhere at the moment. Any crumb of food that gets dropped soon develops several pairs of legs and starts moving across the floor.

Phil has a grazed nose from playing football, a wound he wears with pride.

C

Christmas Appeal

Please read further this is not one of our pathetic requests for chocolate, neither is it anything at all to do with VSO's programme in Eritrea we just thought we'd try and help someone whom we meet most days, who always greets us happily and who lets us practice our bad Tigrinya on him but who has never been able to walk in his life and, incidentally, whose father was an amputee, a victim of Eritrea's war of independence.

First a little background; Eritrea has conducted annual vaccination programs against preventable childhood diseases since 1980 gradually reaching more and more of the population and has all but succeeeded in eliminating the common ones - neonatal tetanus, diptheria, measles and so on - including polio which has not been seen in Eritrea since 1997 apart from isolated imported cases.

Unfortunately vaccination programs came too late for Dawit who is now in his late twenties and who now gets around his local neighborhood in a wheelchair due to childhood polio. Furthermore he does not qualify for any government assistance in the same way that war veterans do. He has, however, ambitions to be able to travel further afield and is hoping to be able to raise the money to buy a motorised tricycle (40,000 Nakfa - a small fortune in Eritrea) via donations.

However 40,000 Nfa is only around 1,500 GBP so we thought we'd try and raise it from people we know (we don't really expect strangers to put their trust in a web appeal but if you feel you can trust us ...). The main problem is collection of funds but, given we have time, this is what we've come up with as a plan of action:

• We will contribute the first 500 GBP from our savings to get the ball rolling.


• Please send your donations to us at the VSO address to the left.


• Please send cheques ONLY - please DO NOT send cash as it is illegal to import undeclared currency into Eritrea.


• Please make cheques out to either Phil Appleby or Caroline Holden or both.


• We will then send donated cheques to the UK for payment into our UK bank account (you'll have to trust us on this one).


• Then we will draw Nakfa in Eritrea by changing UK bank cheques at a foreign exchange bureau.


• If we have funds in excess of what we need it all goes to Dawit to cover running and maintenance costs.


• Once we have reached the stage where the tricycle has been purchased we will try to post photos to show the money has been well-spent.

We realise that times are harder for everyone just now and that the response to the discreet appeal for funds for VSO which has been on this page for a long time has been less than stellar (apart from two gentlemen who live in Singapore and Tokyo - THANKS GUYS!). But, we're not asking for all that much from each person and you'll feel better we promise.

One last thing - if you do feel that you can contribute then please let us know via email when sending a cheque so that we can follow-up and check our post.

Visting Asmara and Eritrea

Thinking again about some of our postings we seem to have become a little complacent about what's around us. Please don't get the wrong impression, Asmara is an amazing place and Eritrea's semi-desert / rift valley scenery has an awe-inspring austere beauty.

This was reinforced by a conversation I had last week with a (slightly drunk and lost) English tourist who was quite knocked out by the cleanliness of Asmara to say nothing of the 1930's and 40's architectural gems. The other big selling point for him was not feeling threatened at all as a stranger walking the streets of a city he didn't know - this is, after all, Africa's safest capital city.

So we would say by all means visit Eritrea but be prepared to stay in accommodation which is clean and tidy but not right at the top of the range (Eritrea's only luxury hotel, the Asmara Intercontinental, is now closed and has an uncertain future. Even that was hardly 5-star). It ranges from the Albergo Italia a beautiful, recently renovated, old Italian hotel in the centre of town (prices in $) through basic clean hotels to pensions (clean, very cheap but very basic) and the Appleby Holden bed in a corner of the living room (clean and very welcoming.) Also be prepared to forego a few of what are life's luxuries here (good wine, good beer, top-quality food) but be prepared to spend some currency, Eritrea badly needs it.

In summary, the visitor finds a country which on the one hand is poor and whose population has to put up with many trials and tribulations (once again there are further observations which we could make but which, as volunteers working in education, we prefer to avoid) but on the other hand has friendly, honest people who get on with life under trying circumstances. Tourism is undeveloped here so no viable beach resorts yet. From an eco-tourism point of view perhaps there is an angle ... come and see how people whose carbon / consumer footprint is a fraction of your own lives.

Oh and one last word; Asmara's climate at this time of year is excellent, cool nights and bright, sunny, not-too-warm days so perhaps this should be the time to visit?

P (with contributions from C)

English as a Medium of Education

Off to a workshop this morning on the use of English as a content language (as opposed to a subject.) All classes here from grade 6 upwards are taught in English and it poses a lot of problems: the standard of English teaching in Grades 1 to 5 needs to be improved as the majority of students go into Grade 6 with only a smattering of English, certainly not enough to do all their schoolwork in. We’re currently rewriting the course books but there’s so much more involved – the standard of the teaching (not just down to the teachers as their working and living conditions leave a lot to be desired, those finishing off their national service get 140 Nakfa – 5 pounds a month, they’re doing the best they can.) Teacher training is far too short without enough resources, there’s not enough schools – in a lot of areas there are two school shifts a day, morning and afternoon and even with that only a small percentage of the children are getting regular schooling. And then on top of all that all classes suddenly get presented in English from Grade 6! It places a huge strain on students and teachers.
There needs to be much more involvement between English as a Subject and English for Content, the National Curriculum is committed to it but it’s a tough one. The workshop this morning is a starting point, trying to get a dialogue going between the different curriculum writers and educationalists. The tough bit, as always, is getting the changes at grass roots level.

Sorry if I‘m rambling on a bit. At the moment my life seems to be split between working and sleeping. I think I need another holiday, or at the very least an evening in the pub (dream on Caroline)

C

ICT work update

Summer training is over and we're now engaged in activities to move a couple of the Ministry's projects along. About 100 donated laptops are being set up for moving out to those schools in the Rural Schools Solar Project phase 1 and the solar power kits are now in Asmara and ready for their arduous journeys to the far corners of Eritrea. So it looks as if I may be on the road again for a while quite soon.

Meanwhile the first attempt at the infrastructure for the MOE website is now done. We eventually went for a simple homegrown implementation with rudimentary content management for our initial Ministry-only offering as opposed to using a recognised heavier weight product such as Chisimba or Joomla. Now we need to both get agreement and gather page content from the Ministry's departments before we can open the site to the outside world, no small task - I can see it taking another few months and a lot of chasing people down!.

Asmara Observations
-------------------
Asmara is frequently described in terms of its Italian Art Deco architecture. We were sent a surprisingly positive article from the NY Times this week which contained all the usual cliches on the subject of sherbet-coloured buildings and the spaceship nature of the Fiat Tagliero together with a description of the train ride - all largely true. Yet, Eritrean village life is only just under the surface here and lack of money means that extended families often live together in spaces which were not exactly designed for the purpose.

Each working day we walk about 4 miles a day (2 round trips to and from work) on a back street route through some of what were Italian neighbourhoods - plenty of sherbet-coloured buildings. If you look behind the gates you see that the larger parcels of land, both residential and former industrial, house multiple families and chickens and goats are commonly kept (cockerels crowing in the morning are our frequent alarm clock). It's almost like there are numerous small villages in the city. Similarly the larger Italian-era buildings often house a number of families. Elsewhere empty land and gardens are used for growing vegetables - cabbages and corn amongst others.

P

Celebrity

I had some difficulty trying to explain to Serebe, a work colleague, the fascination of the West and in particular the UK and America, with the minutiae of the lives of the rich and famous. He watches a regular satellite TV program and often, on switching it on early catches the program before, which is devoted to a paparazzi-style following of some celebrity over a twenty-four hour period. He was completely at a loss as to why anyone should be remotely interested in someone’s daily routine, be they famous or not. I have to say that my attempts to explain, involving descriptions such as boredom, escapism, the wish to be horrified by the bad taste and habits of well-known figures sounded negative and unconvincing even to my ears (who has been known to pick up and pore over the odd copy of Hello.) Serebe felt it was a concept completely unknown here, maybe because people have more pressing needs to attend to.
We got on to talking about the of being famous for being famous, aka Big Brother, and finally got into the realms of the surreal. Try explaining the concept behind the Big Brother house to someone who has never seen it and lives within a culture where big family groups living in one room, and consideration and respect for everyone, is the norm. By the end of the conversation I think Serebe felt sympathy for people living in the celebrity hungry culture of the West and I have to say I agreed with him.

We’re told it’s been unseasonably cold the last few days. It’s very hot in the sun but shivery the moment you walk in the shade or the sun goes behind a cloud. We’ve put a quilt on the bed tonight.

C

one week of the two years

So, the end of another week, they’re passing so quickly. It’s been a very full week at work, full of meetings and trying to get a report of the pilot study on the new Grade 3 book in. The report is a joint effort by the whole team, due in last week but as usual, still a work in progress. No matter, it will be finished next week.

Cooked a veggie curry for friends last Sunday. In my usual manner I cooked enough to feed an army so it kept us going for food until Wednesday, I like it when that happens, so nice to get in from work and not have to think about preparing vegetables, especially on a Monday.

We took Tuesday morning off to get our spare gas bottle filled. We’ve got kerosene too, started using it for rice and pasta to save on gas. Also got a small pane of broken glass in our front door fixed, it’s coloured glass which I guess is why it cost so much – 585 Nakfa – half of my monthly salary – couldn’t really manage without the VSO top-up. The glass place is just down the road and run by an elderly Italian lady. Her father came here to Eritrea in 1934 and she was born here. Everyone we meet here has a story to tell.

Wednesday, the usual walk to work at 7.30, sun, lots of greetings from school children and our regulars, overcrowded busses, big 4-wheel drives, sheep, bicycles, and the last of the beles sellers (season is almost over.) The farmer came to cut our grass at lunch-time. The amount he cuts is limited by what he can carry on the back of his bike to take for his animals. He’s done something nasty to his legs – 2 abscesses - and needed some help. We weren’t sure what he was asking for, Phil’s Italian wasn’t up to it so we gave him 100 Nakafa which we hoped would cover medical expenses. After work went out to the Roof Garden with other volunteers for a meal. It’s not somewhere we go very often, Cliona came out with “I’d forgotten how swanky it is here, there’s no flies” as we sat down. She’s classy.

Thursday, just another day at work. Got very upset about some family news. It’s at times like this I feel a long way away.

Friday, the usual breakfast of porridge, bananas and sweet tea and off to work. Lunch break is at 11.30 on Friday so we get an extra 30 minute’s sleep after eating. Walking home we discussed whether to go via one of our local shops for weekend shopping, “no” I heard myself saying, “we’ve got three carrots, two courgettes and tomatoes, if we have eggs tonight that should do us for Sunday.” How things have changed. I seem to remember at some time in another lifetime we used to do a big supermarket shop on a Saturday morning …
And before anyone starts feeling sorry for us I should add that we’ve been invited to a dinner at the Ambassador’s residence on Saturday evening. Not quite sue why we’ve been invited, possibly as a VSO presence as there is no Country Director in the country at the moment, and I think invites have gone out to other aid agencies and NGOs, but at the very least it’s a good opportunity to stock up on protein (Andrea and Chris – that’s supposed to be a joke.)

Always up early on Saturday, the dustcart comes at any time from 7 onwards and you have to be ready to take your rubbish out to them – the concept of dustbins doesn’t really exist. Spent three hours cleaning, having got rid of the cockroaches once we're not giving them any excuse to come back, then hot shower and hair wash (our once a week luxury – great), lunch (fata - bread with silsi - tomato, chilli and onion)with a friend at Massawa Fast Food - our local cafe and slobbing for the rest of the afternoon.

C

Football and Eagles

I'm still going to Saturday football practice where I get the chance to run around in the sun for a couple of hours before it gets too hot. It's great fun and I'm currently convincing myself that, having lost a little weight due to the famous Eri-diet, I'm getting fitter. We play on a pitch, at the back of Den Den Secondary school, which used to have grass and which still has a few patches but which is mainly stony grit. Normally we start by running round the field a few times, then we do a few exercises in the dust and rising heat followed by playing a game for an hour or so.

To return to the eagle theme (we think they're tawny eagles); there were five of them wheeling and swooping over the pitch just before we started this morning (had they been vultures I have been worried and might have suspected they'd identified me as the best bet). It turned out that one of them had caught something and the others were harassing it. Eventually a lifeless grey object (a rat we thought) was dropped in the centre circle as if in preparation for some kind of game (the Asmara raptor challenge?) but it wasn't long before it was picked up again at speed - a really magnificent sight.

P

Back in Asmara

Our South African sojourn is over and we are back at work. We spent about a week in total in Cape Town and travelled around the Western Cape for the remainder with a 3-night stay at a game reserve being the highlight, animals in the wild are pretty amazing really. South Africa as a country has a lot going for it in terms of natural resources and infrastructure but a long way to go to fully remove all the legacies of apartheid. In essence two societies run in parallel with non-whites still largely living in townships. Furthermore the same labels (Black, Coloured, White) are still used by people to refer to themselves let alone others. It seems to us that integration will take a few generations to achieve but efforts are being made. On the other hand Cape Town is a place where we could live and SA really is a fascinating country.

Here in Asmara, 15 new VSO volunteers have arrived and are just finishing their "In-Country Training" so a big welcome to them and best wishes for a productive placement. It seems our doom and gloom posting about the lack of Lamba (Kerosene) for cooking was a little premature since it is available again now - probably due to falling oil prices on the global markets. We have also been assured that VSO is working to secure a supply in case of future scarcity. There is also a strong rumour that Asmara Beer is about to re-appear, we've heard that one before, though.

After you're in a place for a while you get a bit blase about what's under your nose. We've been raving about the wildlife we saw in South Africa but I was hanging out the washing the other morning and idly watching a large bird circling an adjacent garden menacingly ... it was a tawny eagle and they seem to be very common over Asmara just now, it's just brilliant the way they can hang in the air. When I asked one of my colleagues if he knew why there seem to be a lot of them low in the skies at this time of year he said "Young Asmarinos don't notice that kind of thing, we're too busy watching girls." - I'm not sure if that was a gentle reprimand, an insult or just an observation.

P

Bye for Now

Kerosene is back and seems to be in plentiful supply. Panic over for now.

Unfortunately, without a television, the Olympics have passed us by. It does sound, from the BBC, as if we’ve missed a good one. Next time …

We’re going on holiday. We’ll be back online in three weeks.

I was supposed to go to Keren for another week of workshops. This time, to 400 teachers in groups of 40 over six days (with no resources available, a book familiarisation workshop with no books, but that’s par for the course). The trouble was, we weren’t to get the back until next Saturday afternoon and buses from Keren to Asmara are notoriously unreliable at the moment. Usually this wouldn’t matter, it’s normal to wait 2 or three hours for a bus and if after all that you don’t get on one, you come back the next day. However , in this case we’ve got to be at the airport very early on the Sunday morning, we’ve got a three-week holiday in South Africa. I really wasn’t prepared to take the chance of not being able to get on a bus on Saturday and so said I could do the workshop until Friday. For some reason this wasn’t acceptable, and so now I’m not going to Keren at all. I feel really bad about it, as if I’m letting my colleagues down . Not sure what else I could have done. The atmosphere at work was very frosty for the rest of the day. I bought cakes for everyone yesterday and they’ve started talking to me again but still feel bad.

Having a games evening at Anne’s house tonight. My first game of Scrabble for months, I’m very excited.

Got chatting to a family last night, the mother and children had come for a holiday to visit her brother who lives here and has just been demobbed from the army. We asked where she lived and she replied Cambridge. Yet another surreal moment, talking about Cherry Hinton Road, just round the corner from where we lived.

C

A teacher's life here is not an easy one.

The last six days have been spent helping my colleagues in the curriculum department run a workshop for teachers from all over Eritrea. Ostensibly the workshop was to introduce teachers to the new Grades 4 (for students aged 10) and 7 (students aged 13) textbook and teacher’s guide.

This was planned to be done through training them in the teaching methodologies with the new books as the classroom resources. It was complicated by the Grade 7 books not being ready at the printers (not entirely their fault, they had been very late in being submitted) so we had to print out a copy of the books and get photocopies. As the cost of photocopying is high we were restricted to 5 copies. There were 25 teachers in the class so large groups were the order of the day.

As I said, these 25 teachers came from all over Eritrea, chosen from the five different areas (zobas). They were expected to go back to their respective zobas and cascade their knowledge down to chosen teachers from schools who in turn would give workshops within the schools. It all sounds great in theory and cascading is a sound recognised way of disseminating knowledge .However there is one big stumbling block – those five photocopied copies of the textbook and teacher’s guides will be the only versions of the book available for the next few months. This means that these teachers will be working to introduce others to a book of which there is only one copy per zoba (encompassing many many schools!). There is no way the zobas will be able to afford photocopying costs. A bit of a nightmare situation.

The teachers in our workshop were, rightly, very upset and vehement in their protests but what could we do but apologise and try to find ways to enable them to give their workshops? (e.g. working from the contents page, book map and one lesson from the book – hardly ideal!). The teachers are wonderful, dedicated people but they really are batting against the odds here.

C

Fuel and Food Again

We try to be positive about life in Eritrea and, indeed, there are many positives. The ICT training which I am in the middle of (this time it's for school directors) throws up positives all the time and is much appreciated by our students. For myself, I am finding I am having to go back to school myself in order to have the information at my finger tips so that I can field the barrage of questions. For example I have spent today (Sunday) trying to become much more familiar with the Microsoft Access database in order to be able to take a group through a simple design for a school database next week - it's one thing to be able to use software but quite another to be able to TEACH how to use it.

However there are negatives, and they are related to our recurrent themes of recent weeks. The few volunteers left in the country just now have increasing concerns about what the new volunteers due in September will find. Will they be able to cook for example? Rural volunteers all use kerosene stoves and there is very little kerosene around just now, it's rationed and you have to have a ration card and be prepared to queue for a long time once you know that there has been a delivery - not ideal for someone who is new in the country to face in their first days here.

Food items seem to dwindle constantly, bani (staple brown bread rolls) are in shorter supply than anyone can remember and, in rural areas, the variety of available food is really small. It is noticeable that rural volunteers lose weight in Eritrea and the teachers and school directors who come in for ICT training from the lowlands are almost all very thin - I'm not sure if it's malnutrition just yet but it hasn't been one of the great rainy seasons and Eritrea lives on the edge in terms of food production, if the crops fail ...

P

Due to worries about the incoming volunteers, existing volunteers have been asking the local VSO staff about the shortages, particularly the lack of cooking fuel, and their effect on the programme in Eritrea and we've not really received any reassurances (although to be fair there is very little that they can say). We're seriously starting to wonder if VSO will be able to continue here if at least the fuel shortages cannot be alleviated.

P and C

Massawa

Last weekend, as Caroline has already described, we headed down to the coast to the port of Massawa on the Red Sea and then to Gergusum, a beach hotel nearby to try and relax in the infernal heat.

It’s difficult to know how to describe the Old Town which occupies a small island. It looks like what I might imagine an old Arabian port to be but a lot of its buildings were rebuilt by the Italians after a devastating earthquake in 1921. Wile Asmara, with its Italian art-deco glories which are now decaying slowly for lack of investment, avoided war damage Massawa took it in the neck in 1990, during the struggle, and is now almost a ghost city.

I have previously referred to the over-use of the phrase "war-torn" when the media mentions Eritrea, well for Massawa it is appropriate though the use of photos of the city (a barefoot child alongside a devastated building is the usual one) to illustrate current articles is perhaps out of place since Massawa's wounds are old ones.

Incredibly, amongst the ruins, people live a precarious existence with structural collapse never far away. The guidebook we have refers to a couple of wooden structures, a famous balcony and the remains of the canopy from a covered walkway in the bazaar section both of which now seem to have gone. We hope temporarily but, in the case of the former, there seemed to be a lot of old wood piled up behind the building. Given that Eritrea is one of the world's poorest countries it seems that Massawa will never be rebuilt and, like Asmara, its destiny will be to rot away though from a very different starting place.

P

A Weekend Away

Just back from a long weekend in Massawa, one of Eritrea’s 2 main ports and beach resorts. Spent a day in the war-ravaged old town, beautiful and tragic at the same time. More of this from Phil later. And a hedonistic day at the beach. Water was an incredible temperature, not just warm, it was hot. Unlike an English beach where the sea is usually an occasion for a quick swim to keep warm and then out, the Red Sea provided the backdrop for social gatherings, Everywhere you looked around you in the water, people were meeting up, shaking hands, and conversing. The hum of conversation was everywhere. The beach was pretty empty, much too hot to stay there (apart from for the camels, which replaced donkeys as the seaside ride of choice) and we spent our day eating drinking, frolicking in the waves and reading.
Talked to lots of Eritrean families from overseas, we were surrounded by American, Swedish and North London accents which we still haven’t got used to and made several new friends. Up early yesterday (Sunday) and were on the 6.20 bus back to Asmara and rain.

C

Feeling better

Feeling a lot better today. The black bird has moved away. All part of the the culture adjustment process I'm sure. Thank you for your support.

C

ICT Training

I have just come to the end of my first two weeks of ICT training; we taught level 3 of a training program largely initiated by one of my predecessors (Tim Wehrle) and it seemed to be a mainly positive time.

Mostly the training was well received (we will need to make some changes where the course content seemed too diffcult) and my Eritrean teaching colleagues presented most of the course, which seems quite sustainable to me. The format included a lot of hands-on lab work which allowed me to remain fully involved despite my lack of local language and, as I knew, I need to work on my computer hardware knowledge!

The problem for some of the teachers is that they go back to schools which have no computers (and no electricity in some cases - the Solar Power packs are eagerly awaited!) - but the commitment seems to be there to keep investing time and effort in learning computer skills.

P

Rainy Season Blues

I’m feeling a bit down at the moment, maybe it’s the grey skies and rain although I do try to join in the general happiness at the sight of rain. I’m also starting to question just how much difference we (volunteers) can make. All the Eritreans I speak to seem very pessimistic about the future and the longer I’m here the more I agree with them. And we’ve got it easy in comparison.

Having spent four weeks in almost daily trips to the M of Ed., our employers, we’ve been allocated a bottle of gas. Bureaucracy rules here. Suffice it to say that even the Indian teachers here (of whom there are many) complain of it. It’s been a hard slog but worth it to be able to cook again. Stupidly we hadn’t got our ration cards sorted so weren’t able to get any kerosene when it made a brief appearance at the gas stations last week.

Four more vols leaving in the next week, two for ever, two going home for the hols. We’re looking forward to meeting the new volunteers coming in September, there’s fourteen on the list of being offered placements but so far only four have accepted. Don’t let me put you off with my moaning, I’m a slightly depressive sort of person, we’d love to have you here and I promise to be more up-beat when I meet you.

C

Another Saturday in Asmara

The big rainy season is here and it’s wet. There’s a huge difference in temperature as soon as the sun goes, due to the altitude I guess. I’m wearing fleeces and a jacket and it’s supposed to be the middle of summer in Africa.

Beles everywhere.

Not many other vols around, most of them were working in or with schools and have come to the end of their postings. They’ve either gone back to the UK for good or for a two month break. Phil and I continue to work!

C

More about global economics

An article from this week's Guardian prompts more naive analysis of what's going on. According to a leaked World Bank report it appears that I was wrong to give the turning over of agricultural land to the production of biofuels such a minor role in the current world food crisis it seems that it's responsible for a 75% increase in food staple prices since 2002. Remember this has a real and immediate impact on African countries which have no economic safety buffer - should biofuels lose their "sustainable source" label?

So what to do about it? At a simplistic level it seems to me that the economic model espoused by the US and it's economic followers is premised on growth ... forever. But agricultural land, fossil fuels and potable water are finite and, as more countries develop, there is more pressure on them and we seem to have reached some sort of turning point.

Eritrea, along with other African nations, is feeling the effects right now with shortages in fuel, bread, milk and (perhaps less importantly) beer ingredients already evident. The developed countries will hardly suffer in comparison.

But really is it not time for developed countries to feel a prolonged and deep recession? Is it not logical that development on the one hand must be matched by shrinkage on the other (given limited resources) if we are to achieve a more equitable balance?

To change the subject we now have more photos on the albums site – please take a look!

P

The beles are in town, in more ways than one.

Beles is the Eritrean (Tygrinya I think but I’m not sure) word for prickly pears. They come into season for a short time in the summer and have suddenly appeared in piles on every street corner. Often on all 4 corners of an intersection. You can’t move for beles. For 50 santeems your beles will have the top chopped off and be peeled and held out to you, often by a small child, and it’s absolutely delicious. Sweet, juicy and just what you need on a hot walk back to work.

However beles is also the word Eritreans use for members of the diaspora, returning for a visit to friends and family for a short time in the summer. I can’t vouch for them being sweet and juicy but there does seem to be a lot of them and I guess they will only be around for a short time. Judging by their accents a lot have come from North America. They bring a much-needed source of revenue into the country.

Although as one of my Eritrean colleagues remarked yesterday, the money is no good if there’s no availability and there certainly isn’t much availability here. She’s recently returned from her first visit to England (working) and was recounting her amazement at the abundance of foodstuffs available. And we’re not talking luxury items here, she has two very young children and talked about wishing she could have set up a pipe line to send milk and bread back to them. Apart from the milk and bread shortage, there now seems to be an acute shortage of cooking fuel, there’s no gas, kerosene or charcoal to be had. Our gas cylinder will run out this weekend and that will mean no more cooking until supplies become available. Rumour has it that supplies are being stockpiled but who knows.

C

Food and Fuel

Not much to say this week so I might just have a rant about the general world fuel and food situations; situations which mean that Eritrea feels the pinch more than most countries (though nobody really complains and life goes on).

Taking rubbish out to the dust-cart on a Saturday morning in Asmara you see how little people throw out and almost none of it is food waste – 30% of food is thrown out in “developed” countries?

We find ourselves being much more frugal; not least because gas and paraffin to cook on are both in short supply, but we don’t throw any food away at all now.

People walk and cycle in this city out of necessity and the too-few buses are always very crowded. Just before I left the UK an ex-colleague bought a 4WD car which, at a push, will do 18mpg. I can breathe in Asmara, I sometimes feel choked in London - due to Asthma.

Development, modernisation and wealth mean much more consumption (it should be called over-consumption) and now not enough oil can be pumped for world needs. I also read that the commoditisation of food is partly causing global prices to rise and that turning over land to the production of bio-fuels is making the situation worse.

So what am I talking about? Well I know that the above is seriously unstructured and not even an argument … but I suppose I’m trying to say that living here I’m starting to see things differently (though I would have always called 18mpg irresponsible).

P

Grass and the VSO Country Director

A farmer, having cut next door’s grass, asked to do ours, an offer we readily accepted. It’s been growing rapidly in the last month, almost cutting off the path to the front door and, I suspect, being resposible for my of sneezing fits. We’d intended going to the market to try and find shears. There’s a big metal working market where you can usually find some version of what you need and if you can’t they will offer to improvise. So the coming of the farmer was fortuitous. Our neighbour told us we shouldn’t pay the farmer as he needed the grass for animal feed, we felt 20 Nakfa and a cup of tea was in order and our farmer was very grateful, expressing his thanks in fluent Italian. He has agreed to return in a couple of months, a mutually helpful arrangement.

John, the VSO Country Director has just left, having finished his allotted time here. He’ll be very missed, both professionally and personally. He’s really got the programme up and running healthily and he's been a good friend to all of us. I’ve learnt a lot from him in my six months here. Thanks John, come back and see us some time.

C

Solar Power part 2

Just back from the second Schools' Solar Power project trip in which we visited three schools, two in Zoba Anseba and one in Zoba Gash Barka plus an additional one in Zoba Gash Barka which already has a solar panel installation (it was the original pilot) but which has not been able to run its computers for any length of time so far.

The first school we visited (Hawush in the Asmat sub-zoba) felt really remote. We took four hours to travel 108 km each way along a rough road which at times went up and over mountains with a steep drop at the side and at times bumped across rocky river beds. In addition we were out of mobile phone range for the whole journey.

Each of the schools was a deserving case and the school directors each pointed out that students and parents are well aware of the disadvantage of having no opportunity to pick up even the most basic computer skills so much so that leakage of students to other schools in the region was attributed to the lack of ICT training on offer.

The low point of the trip for me was the visit to Gogne school which was the original pilot. What had happened was that a vital component (the inverter - the part which converts the DC output from the power pack to AC) had failed last September and and only just been reinstalled. Now none of the computers worked and were clogged up with dust due to not having been looked at for months - the room was also in a sorry state with thick dust everywhere.

However, while this sounds like a disaster it was only the pilot project and was intended to be a learning exercise. It seems there are some very clear lessons to be learned. We need to:
- Ensure school staff are properly trained in maintaining the solar power equipment, including what to do when it has been switched off for several months.
- Ensure school staff are properly trained in maintaining the computer equipment, with special emphasis on protection from killer dust and on maintenance during the long school break.
- Ensure we make the point strongly about keeping the general environment clean.

We have discussed Gogne since our return from the trip and have decided that the school will get new computers (the first batch were old and only suitable for a pilot project) and that the school's ICT staff will come to Asmara for a course of training in a few weeks' time.

To end on a high note the memory I will take from the trip is of two old Nara (I was told) ladies we met in a shop in Haykota. They were looking at me almost fearfully from behind their colourful headdresses until I said 'Selam' to them at which point I was greeted by broad gap-toothed grins and leathery handshakes, they seemed really pleased to be acknowledged.

P

Solar Power Project Update

As I mentioned previously, one of my ICT tasks is to participate in the Schools' Solar Power Project aimed at schools which have little immediate prospect of having enough electricity supplied to be able to run meaningful ICT training for school and community.

In the past few days we have travelled to four remote schools to make preliminary assessments and to get project documents signed. There is a second trip planned for this week towards the West of the country.

As a reminder the project was kicked-off by a former VSO volunteer from Ireland, John Brogan, and is funded in the main by the Irish Government charity Irish Aid (www.irishaid.gov.ie). VSO has now taken responsibility for running the project and is working with the Eritrean Ministry of Education as well as with the donors.

The following is a log of the first trip - it may be of interest to some but, since it's possible I may have rambled on a bit about aspects which interest me, perhaps it should be skipped by most. Suffice it to say that we were five (John - VSO Country Director, Yakiem - VSO Proramme Manager, Abdou Saleh - MOE Representative and Language expert, Zerit - MOE Driver and me) and that we travelled into some quite remote areas of the eastern lowlands.

Day 0 pm, Wednesday 4th June 2008 - Massawa
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The start of the first of two trips, this one will take in schools in She'eb, Foro, Tio and Afambo. The first two mentioned are in the Northern Red Sea (Semienawi Qeyh Bahri) zoba and the second two are in the Southern Red Sea (Debubawi Qeyh Bahri) zoba. Pronunciation of these place names in Tigrinya is not always as straightforward as the roman alphabet rendition suggests - for example the 'Ti' in Tio is a popped sound and the 'o' is a pharyngeal stop ... best not to think about it and just try and imitate someone!

Today the intention is to set off in the evening and take the steep and winding road down to Massawa in order to get a start on the journey South along the Red Sea shore tomorrow.

To get kind of tectonic for a moment - geologically Eritrea is all about the Great Rift Valley and its two northern relations (the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden - all three together form a 'Y', more about this later) whose pushing apart will eventually result in Somalia wandering off into the Indian Ocean somewhere as the African plate splits into two.

In our current timescale, though, all we need to be concerned about is the long descent of one of the valley sides to the Red Sea coastal plain and Eritrea's principal port of Massawa, much damaged in the long struggle against the neighbouring country, followed by the journey into Danakalia.

Having dropped to the lowlands it feels much warmer and it's dark by the time we get there which probably means lots of mosquitoes. Overnight it's feverishly sweaty and the air conditioner is way too noisy to leave on - the bed-net works well though.

Day 1, Thursday 5th June 2008 - Foro and Tio
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Up at six to take a few photos of the sunrise over a glassily calm Massawa port, and for scrambled eggs Eri-style (with green chilis). Leaving Massawa we head South-East along a well paved road (apart form the odd excursion across dry river-beds), the scenery is similar to the other parts of the Eritrean lowlands I have seen - semi desert dotted with hardy acacia bushes but I expect that to change as we progress.

We arrive in Foro before lunch and immediately search for Foro school. We find it by driving in amongst the stick houses (I think they're called ari's by the Afar, they're made with sticks and matting - I'll send some pictures of some to our photo publisher soon) which are common to some of the semi-nomadic peoples of Eritrea.

Foro school seems to the untrained eye (me!) to be bleak and inhospitable and an unlikely place to install technology but when you speak to the school director you realise that efforts have already been made to get computer training up and running by renting a room in the town (which can only be used for an hour or two a day) and the designated room for the new computers is quite secure and suitable - we still need to think about heat and dust, though.

After our first document signing we’re heading South along the (now unsurfaced, bumpy in places and very dusty) coast road towards Tio. The heat is still rising. We're now moving into Danakalia (also known as the Afar triangle) which has the reputation of being one of the hottest places on Earth and which is getting close to the junction of the 'Y' in the Great Rift Valley system. Further inland part of it is below sea level (the Danakil depression) but we won't be going there this time.

This is where a lot of the Rift Valley system action is currently taking place - it is said to be one of the only two places on the planet where the mechanisms of ocean-floor spreading can be observed on dry land (the other is Iceland).

The view from the car is of a desert landscape seared by a very hot sun sometimes with the blue ribbon of the Red Sea in the distance. On the occasions we get out of the car it's like stepping into an oven. We're driving along on the flat for the most part but always there are volcanic bulges and craters and, in the distance, the mountain wall which represents the Red Sea Valley side.

The Tio school visit is a little less successful than Foro - the school director is not available to sign the VSO project documents and there are doubts about whether the school is about to get some form of generated power or not. We left it to be decided later.

Continuing on the road South-East, from time to time we see people living by the sea and also evidence of the (we think Japanese-sponsored) mangrove project. Also there are tantalising views of wildlife as well as free-range camels everywhere - antelope, desert fox, ostriches and an osprey. Controversially I'm also claiming a sighting of a lone spotted hyena in the half-light (no photo) at the end of the day just before we stop for the night.

We spend the night at Idi on the Red Sea coast, arriving there we are treated to the unusual sight of rows of beds in the main street (the only street) - after a fish dinner we settle down to a night under the stars lulled to sleep by the insistent drum beat of not so distant Eritrean music (b-dum, b-dum, b-dum ...). The beds? Apparently Idi is an overnight stop for buses on the Asmara-Assab route.

Day 2, Friday 6th June 2008 - Afambo
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Up at 5:00 and on the road by 5:30 without breakfast we turn inland towards Afambo school - now we're really getting more into Danakalia and the landscape under the pre-dawn light starts to look Martian - shades of brown and red streaked with the black of recent lava flows together with threatening-looking volcanic craters and domes. As the sun comes up we also cross the beds of rivers which look like run-off channels from the heavy highland rains and which make for detours to find suitable crossing places. The journey from Idi to Afambo takes 3 hours.

Afambo school is in a spectacularly austere location. On arrival we take breakfast of tea and bread which tastes delicious. The school compound consists of loose grey stones surrounded by a wire fence with a mountain backdrop. Like Tio it's a boarding school providing education for Afar children and appears to be very well run. Once again I'm impressed by the school director who has already instigated ICT education in Afambo village with limited resources, who already has a good idea of what he wants from the installation of a solar power pack and who has run the school in this remote spot for the past 4 years.

A note about the Afar: A wild desert people who take tourists hostage and who will kill for a rifle, a vehicle or maybe money. At least that's what you may think if you read the few press articles available about them (mind you, the western press seldom fails to include the words "war-torn" when describing Eritrea as a whole) ... the problem with that view is that most Afar lead a pastoral life herding goats, sheep and cattle and generally struggling hard to survive.

We also learn that Afar culture specifically excludes beating children and includes them in discussion at an early age. So teachers at Afambo have to learn to negotiate around difficult behaviour in marked contrast to some highland examples we've heard about. Afar people seem to me to be quite shy at first and, especially here, I don't feel able to photograph people close-up. With the exception of a boy who specifically asked to have his picture taken.

Afar culture also includes sharpening of the four upper front teeth (not all Afar, but common to both male and female) - possibly very painful, though not as painful as FGM which still commonly practised.

We make it back to Idi for lunch and then it's on to the strangely modern hotel at Ghela Alo (built in preparation for a big push into tourism which hasn't come so far?) in the middle of extensive lava fields on a headland where we have dinner and pass another very warm night.

Day 3, Saturday 7th June 2008 - She'eb
--------------------------------------
Up at 6:00 this time and on the road by 6:30. A short while later we stop for a swim in the Red Sea. We pick the wrong spot, however, and have to wade out a long way to get any depth at all. At one point Abdou asks me "Have you ever been to Morecambe?" which is not so absurd a question as it first sounds if you think about it but makes me laugh anyway.

We arrive back in Massawa for lunch and here I'm going to pause to go into competition with "The Lonely Planet" - Luna Hotel, Massawa - "Best chips in Eritrea" (Rated thermally, dimensionally and texturally).

She'eb is part-way back to Asmara then turn right and head out for about 60km - it's home to members of the Tigre people who, like the Afar, are semi-nomadic and mainly Muslim and who also live in stick houses. She'eb school is again in a hot, bleak location but again the enthusiasm of the school director for providing the means to properly timetable ICT classes is undeniable. He also enthuses about an outgoing VSO volunteer, Sharon, who has just finished there.

As we leave She'eb we visit Sharon's house (one built room and one stick-house room) to pick up the heavier part of her and VSO's belongings.

The children here are shyly (at first) friendly, all want their photos taking and are happy to take our empty plastic water bottles as presents. Some of them seem a little confused by the mention of Teacher Sharon's name and I'm even called "Mister Sharon" on a couple of occasions.


In Conclusion
-------------
I may well be back at all the schools mentioned when Phaesun (the German company selling the equipment to the project) installs the solar power packs since we will do the computer installation and preliminary training at the same time. On balance it looks as though the project could be of great benefit - there seems to be a real desire to at least make a start on computer teaching even in these really remote and underprivileged locations and, we are told, that there is always a percentage of students who are really keen to get just any computer experience at all. The challenge is how to sustain the project - I'm already having nightmares about equipment failure (this happened in the pilot project) and, as others have pointed out, one of the main ICT troubles in Africa is lots of installed equipment and very little teaching material beyond learning the standard "office" packages - which is why I'm trying to gather information on computer-based teaching content as a side-project.

P

A friend who works in a village in the lowlands is coming to stay for a week on Saturday.
The corn is growing.
There’s a rat in the garden. It seems to be coming from the unused outside toilet. Should I buy poison, a trap, or ignore it?
Phil is out on his travels with the solar power project. He spent the night sleeping outside beside the Red Sea.
Life continues.

C

I’m in the last stages of an eight day gender workshop, attending rather than giving. It’s been given by a British Council consultant for all the curriculum panels (covering all the school subjects from kindergarten to secondary) plus teacher training, special needs, technical, and adult education. I started off thinking that maybe I’d covered all the material before in VSO briefings but it’s been really good in terms of considering and analysing how the curriculum material is presented. On the English panel we do give a lot of attention to how gender issues are portrayed, probably a lot more than is shown in some of the other subjects and it is a topic that really does need to be mainstreamed. A lot of girls drop out of education at an early age in Eritrea for a number of reasons - including early marriage, cultural pressure to work at home, and a lack of belief in the importance of education – and it is up to educationalists of all types, teachers, trainers, curriculum writers, to redress this balance. Students of both sexes need to be educated to believe in the right and worth of education for all. I’ve been really impressed by the involvement, contributions and work of everyone at the workshop. It will be a slow process (countries in the west still have a way to go) but I believe Eritrea will get there.

There is corn growing in the garden, well no cobs yet but the plants are coming on, the tallest is about a metre high. Cucumbers and melons aren’t doing so well but they need too much water. Looks like rain so that may help. Looking out at the clouds, I just saw two eagles swooping over, a wonderful sight.

C

Beer and Football

Football
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It's possible to watch live English football in Asmara even if, like us, you don't own a television. It's shown at bars and cinemas - the problem comes when you're looking for coverage of a game which doesn't involve the "big four" (Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool in descending order of popularity).

For example the Champion's League final was available but not the FA cup final and (most definitely) not the most important game of the season - the league one playoff final between The Mighty Leeds and Doncaster Rovers (maybe missing that was a blessing, though).

Last Wednesday, for Man U vs Chelsea, the Cinema Roma was packed to the rafters and rocking even though the game didn't finish until gone half-past midnight Eri-time. Whooping, cheering, shirts coming off and people leaping in front of the screen when the goals went in. But ... no animosity between rival groups and no drunken behaviour. Of course the majority (just) of the people were pleased with the result ... for me, the final was my worst case scenario. Very difficult to pick whom I wanted to lose the most!

The combination of Saudi pictures and English commentary (resulting in a good 10 seconds out of synch action versus voice "Lampard turns, hits the crossbar" - when the ball's already up-field) didn't help much - but great fun all the same.

Beer
----
From talking to a guy who works for an Italian NGO with Eritrean Trade Unionists we now know exactly why there's no beer (it didn't make the hoped-for return over independence weekend) and, as we suspected, it's all due to record grain prices meaning that Eritrea can't afford to buy barley on world markets.

One thing this does show is that, whatever you want to say about the way Eritrea is run in its drive for self-reliance, it seems to have its priorities right, if beer and other grain-based alcohol are the first to go when prices rise, however much we volunteers may complain. The problem is that wheat and rice have to be purchased as well and bread and pasta have already partially disappeared though they can still be obtained at higher prices. So far, rice still seems to be readily available but how long will that situation last?

A note of disagreement with one former VSO volunteer, though - Justin Hill author of Ciao Asmara! who was here in the 90's and who (harshly in our opinion) described Asmara (formerly Melotti) beer as "the worst beer in the world" - well not when it's not there any more it's not!

P

Independence

It’s Friday of Independence week and holiday euphoria is definitely in the air. If anyone is thinking of coming to visit next year, this is one of the (many) good times to come (although I guess the downside is that it would be difficult to travel outside of Asmara). We were invited to a Ministry party last night as part of the Independence celebrations and afterwards we walked along Harnet Avenue and watched the parade, crowds of people (I’ve never seen so may people in Asmara), floats, dancers, lights and everyone so happy. Phil thinks he saw the President wandering in the crowds, I feel it may have been a look-a-like but Phil is good at spotting people so who knows. There’s more of the same tonight, this time with the addition of fireworks.

This has been Bethan’s (my VSO colleague in the office) last week at work (boo-hoo, I’m sorry to see her go, I’ll miss her, hooray,I can move onto her computer which has Internet access.) We all went out for a traditional goodbye meal with injeera and zigni and lots of good things on Tuesday. Drank mess, a traditional drink made with honey, similar to the Cornish mead. It’s a very good drink which unfortunately slips down a bit too easily.

C

It’s Independence Day on May 24th, a week today, Saturday. This year it’s the 17th anniversary of the end of the thirty-year struggle against the neighbours. This weekend marks the start of a week of celebrations – floats and parades building up to a firework display next weekend. It also means a big security presence, the number of police with sticks, and soldiers with AK47 submachine guns, walking the streets has increased dramatically in the last couple of weeks. Phil came out of our front gate as we left for work last week and found himself looking down the barrel of a machine gun casually slung over the shoulder of a soldier chatting to his mate. Lot of the soldiers are only just out of boyhood, when you say good morning you get a cheery greeting and a big smile back, however I’m under no illusions, they mean business. Young Eritreans are constantly being stopped on the streets and their papers checked, and no travel permits (needed by foreigners to travel outside Asmara) are being issued until after Independence Day.

However there is talk of beer being stockpiled for next weekend. Could be a great party.

The wife of Serebe (one of my work colleagues) has just had her first baby (a boy). Serebe is euphoric about it. In keeping with tradition his wife has gone with the baby to live with her mother for a month where she will be fed porridge (an Eritrean variety, not quite as we know it) for 40 days. For a girl, it’s 80 days. It’s supposed to buils up your strength.

C

Una giornata italiana

The other day was an Italian day - a reminder of Eritrea's colonial past. On my way for the afternoon cappuccino e dolce I passed four really quite old men working on digging up the pavement, so preparing a "kemay we'elkum" (well you have to say hello to people in this town) I was a bit taken aback by the barrage of Italian "Buongiorno, parla italiano? Come si chiama?" this is from guys with hugely infectious smiles but hardly a tooth between them - "Mi chiamo Phil e non parlo bene italiano, sono inglese" my usual response to all that ... but it didn't deter them.

As I think we've said before children always want to practice a little bit of English with us even if it's only "Hi, how are you?". That same evening we were walking our usual route home across Avenue BDHO, weave a bit, turn right at the donkey track, pass near Alfa Romeo and the San Francesco church and on a bit - when there was a 'hi' from a small girl in a gateway just at the side of Den Den school. An old lady who was with her explained that the girl "parla un poquino inglese ma e alluna alla scuola italiana di Asmara". It really was an Italian day it seemed.

She then went on to tell us something of her own story delivered, a little surreally given she was in traditional dress, in fluent Italian. She explained that Asmara in the past was much more beautiful, that the schoolchildren were more polite (not sure how that could be, they seem so polite now) and that there was no crime (there's very little now compared to almost anywhere in the world). Also how she had lived in Rome for 30 years and now comes and goes from time to time, how she has had the same house in Asmara for 50 years and how Den Den school was once covered in marble (as Il Collegio La Salle) - it does have a rather unfinished air about now, so now I'm keen to know it's history.

And then ... the sad part - how one of her sons was killed in the war, how two (I think) were wounded, how one of then now lives in "Germania" as a member of Eritrea's diaspora. For all that history she still seemed very cheerful, and her story is common amongst older eritreans I'm told, furthermore we are invited for a coffee at her house "un giorno" - this will happen since we walk past her door four times a day and such invitations are meant.

P

bits

We’re still in the small rainy season, so named because the rain only happens every two to five days as opposed to the big rainy season in June and July when it’s daily. We’re told it’s been a good season this year, the rain has been heavy and has been around for the last month or so which is good news for the crops. My own crops consist of some popping corn kernels, and some cucumber and melon seeds donated by a friend, all planted in a corner of the garden. There’re lots of little green leaves sprouting but whether they’re corn, melons, cucumbers or weeds is anyone’s guess.

Food prices on the world markets seem to be reaching record levels. Pasta is the latest casualty here, doubtless due to rising wheat prices. I’ve been putting off getting a ration card (which allows you to buy staple foods like oil, rice, pasta … from government centres at reduced prices) on the basis that the majority of Eritreans have a much greater need of this then we do but it may come to it yet.

I’ve been editing some units from the Grade Four textbook before they go to be printed. One story in the unit entitled Safety tells of two children walking home from school who decide to take a different path to usual through the countryside. They come to a sign saying “Danger!” and warning of land mines. Sensibly they decide to retrace their steps and take their usual path. When children of eight or nine need to have warnings like this it’s a salutary lesson as to how good most children in the west have got it.

C

Easter and Forthcoming Travels

Due to the different (older-based-on-Coptic) Ge'ez calendar followed by the Orthodox and Catholic Churches, Easter is this weekend in Eritrea and (to return briefly to a previous theme) it's the time when whole families of goats tremble following 40 days of self-denial for Lent plus, just to ensure a good appetite, a day's worth of total fasting on Good Friday. In Asmara this morning it was noticeable that there was livestock being transported everywhere both dead and alive (goats, cows, chickens but no pigs – orthodox Christians do not eat pork).

Three weeks from now I may get the chance to travel to some quite remote areas of Eritrea as part of the schools' solar power project - travel permits have still to be granted, though, so this may change. What is happening is that, thanks to the efforts of a former VSO volunteer from Ireland, the Irish Government's Irish Aid charity is providing the bulk of the funds to allow solar power kits to be installed in selected remote schools.

In order to qualify schools have to be not connected to the electricity grid and also to have no prospect of being so in the foreseeable future.

The aim is to allow the running of small computer labs in order to alleviate the situation where such schools slip further and further behind in terms of the teaching of computer skills.

My role in the project will be to ensure the computers are installed and running and to provide basic computer training for selected school staff members in order that teaching of the schools' students can start once all the equipment is installed - it will mean travelling to the extreme heat of the lowlands of Eritrea but I'm really looking forward to seeing other ways of life and other peoples including the quaint way in which nomadic tribes are swapping their camels for 4x4 pick-up trucks.

My job in Asmara is ostensibly trainer for teachers at the Ministry's training centre but it has also turned out to be more since that is largely a school summer-break occupation. So, alongside my Eritrean colleagues, I am also working on the Ministry's new web-site (for the technically minded we have decided to use the well-tried triumvirate of Apache, PHP and MySQL as our core technologies). In addition we are also working on getting internal email running and working out the technical issues involved in hosting an Education Management Information database.

The good thing for me is I get to program which I still really like after all these years though I need to guard against being the only programmer working on our projects – there are, however, signs of others wishing to learn so hopefully we will be able to have our own version of "sustainable [web-site] development".

I also have stacks of research to do on education web-sites, securing internet sites properly, e-learning (which is in it's infancy in Eritrea) and education data management in general so if anybody has ideas on online resources for any of the aforementioned please drop me an email.

P

Pictures

Not much from me this week - but please try the link to our photos on the left under the VSO address and let us have any comments on album layout and we'll pass them on to our publisher.

P

on the subject of work ...

I work in the English Curriculum department. There are three Eitreans there, Solomon who’s in charge, Serebe and Mengesha. At the moment there’s Bethan, another vol who’s worked there for a year and leaves in six weeks. The Eritrean education curriculum is in the process of being completely overhauled, for all subjects, not just English, it’s a massive undertaking and part of the government’s commitment to making education a priority. English grades one to four, six and seven have been written although still in the process of passing through quality control and piloting. We’re working on grade five (age 9/10) at the moment, quite a slow process as other jobs (giving feedback on exams, course books) keep coming along to interrupt the process. In one sense I’m not sure about the sustainability of the job (sustainability is one of the VSO keystones, volunteers are not in a placement just to do a job, they are there to involve and help/teach Eritrean colleagues to such an extent that eventually they can move aside and are not needed any more.) But then I am helping to produce teaching resources which hopefully will benefit thousands of children over the next ten years, and these children will be the next generation of adults working for their country so …
Anyway my job mainly involves working with Word (in an often very frustrating and therefore vocal way), writing stories and trying to make the teaching exercise enjoyable and communicative. We write the Teachers Guides as well. These are very important here. We try to include as much help as we can for the teachers in terms of communicative methodology. At the moment elementary and junior school teachers may only have had less than a year of teacher training (if that) and often quite a low level of English. There are moves to improve this, the teacher training course at the training college has been rewritten, there are two volunteers working with the trainers at the teacher training college, and there are attempts to bring in a higher qualification with a longer training. The problem is that there is a huge shortage of teachers (there are two shifts at a lot of schools – morning and afternoon to accommodate all the children) and the temptation is to churn out the teachers as quickly as possible. It’s therefore important to include as much good teaching practice as possible in the teachers guides, even if only one in a hundred take it on board.

VSO is only allowed to work in the education sector in Eritrea. Phil is working with IT training within the Ministry of Education, there’s another Dutch volunteer, Saskia who’s working on setting up an educational database covering all the schools and there are two volunteers, Donnard and Fiona who work on the English language radio station. All the other vols here are working more directly with teachers and students. Some are teachers and the rest are Methodology Trainers working across a group of schools. These intrepid people are all working and living in villages and small towns across Eritrea, doing a great job, leading quite hard lives under very basic conditions. We Asmarinos are actually living a very comfortable life in comparison. We see other vols regularly as they come into Asmara either on work or relaxation at the weekend. There’s actually a café (Modka) close to the VSO office and the Ministry of Education where volunteers tend to meet up (over a capuccino and chocolate doughnut!) so it’s certainly not all work and no play I can assure you.

C

A magnifying mirror is now whizzing its way to Eritrea - thanks a lot Andy and Sally xxx

I'm just shameless ...

Didn’t think I’d be doing this after such a relatively short time in the country, I used to see other vols getting parcels from home with a motley content of basic and treat items and think that we’d be able to manage on what we could afford to buy locally and what was available, and if we had to do without we’d do without. However after nearly three months here I’ve given in. We are trying to live on wages + top up which is doable at a very basic level but if anyone can get round to sending one or two of the items in the list at some time in the next two years we’d be very grateful. (Roger and Fred, this doesn’t apply to you, you’ve already done more than enough – xx).

Chocolate (in any form)
Roll-on or solid deodorant
Dried yeast
Shampoo
Conditioner
Big tub of E45 cream
Chocolate
Stock cubes
Sodium Bicarbonate
Baking powder
Baked beans
Small magnifying mirror( eyebrows, yes I’m still vain)
Herbs/Curry spices
Pot noodles (or similar)
A decent corkscrew (we’re assuming wine will come back, at the moment it’s gone the way of the beer!)
Tea towel
Chocolate

On the other hand you could just donate to VSO (see sidebar). They are doing a wonderful job and are much more deserving.

C

Rain, Keren and Steam Trains

Rain
----
It's currently the small rainy season in the Asmara region and it's been a good one so far - quite a few thunderstorms (along with the occasional consequent power-cut) and lots of much-needed rain - the associated temperature drop provides some Asmarinos with the excuse to dress like they're on a polar expedition although temperatures are still in the 20's.

I have also been forced to switch to a different wash-cycle - well, OK washing stays on the line for longer, as opposed to the usual put it out in a large bowl early in the morning to soak and warm up in the sun (this country could thrive on efficient solar-power), rinse and hang-out to dry at lunchtime and gather in early evening.

Trip to Keren
-------------
Last weekend we took a bus trip to Keren, Eritrea's second city in terms of size and the main town of the Anseba Zoba (region), to see another VSO volunteer, Catherine, who is nearly at the end of her two year stay in Eritrea and preparing to leave.

One of the restrictions placed on foreigners is that travel permits have to be obtained for travel to other cities in order to get through army check-points so we duly applied for those a few days before.

Keren is about 100km North West of Asmara and about 1,000 metres lower. Due to the nature of the terrain, the bus journey usually takes over 3 hours - we had also been warned that we could have quite a long wait to even get on a bus providing us the perfect excuse to leave work early on the Friday and join the queue ... except we got straight on a bus - it seems that the diesel shortage which forced the UN peacekeeping force to withdraw may be easing.

Saturday morning, following a few drinks and overnight thunderstorms, first impressions are of a town set in the middle of mountainous semi-desert, lots of white, flat-roofed, buildings and definitely a more Muslim feel to it than Asmara - the Eritrean way is for the different ethnic and religious groups to just get on with it, by the way, though there are reports that "unofficial" religions are not tolerated too well by the govenment.

We just wandered around for the day. The town has a biblical, middle-eastern air - camels and donkeys are still in use as beasts of burden (alongside large lorries and buses) and traditional clothing is seen much more than in Asmara. As is always the case we were greeted by cries of "you! what is your name?" from children and, occasionally, "Ts'ada n'a!" which roughly translates as "here whitey!".

Train Trip
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The train trip was actually a while ago (March 23rd) but since, it seems, we may be about to get some photos posted online (Un grand merci a un certain M. Fiquet de Guildford pour son aide) just a few words.

The trip was a fairly short one as far as the station at Nefercit and back and it took a morning and most of an afternoon.

It was a great day, some of the engineers on the train had worked on the railway 60 years ago and spoke some Italian (andiamo! was a frequent cry), there was also an Italian engineer working in order to pick up experience to allow him to teach others. The line is so steep in places that the small tank locomotive couldn't make it back up the section without stopping to build a head of steam.

Merciless sun, glorious views across the valleys and the drop-off to the coast, desert plants and dry (seasonal) river valleys, children at the stations armed with big smiles - get the picture? No? Well we'll add the link soon!

P

Friday

We have a cold shower every morning. Never thought I’d say this but I’m almost used to it. It’s just that nanosecond when the water first hits you that I have a few problems with. Once a week we treat ourselves to a few hours of electricity for a warm shower and a hair wash.

Going to Keren for the weekend.

C

What are we doing here?

Time for a serious post (the first in an occasional series).

Up until now we’ve been reporting like tourists, but we’re starting to see beneath the surface a bit so the tone of this one is a little different.

Well, this is Africa after all and Eritrea is a poor country which accepts a lot less in the way of help from the outside world perhaps because the institutions of the outside world have never been of much help (betrayal is the word used in a book on Eritrea by Michela Wrong - PLEASE READ IT - when talking about Italy, Britain, the UN, especially the UN, and the USA). VSO is permitted to be here in education only and is perceived as a good thing because its volunteers get stuck in and work alongside Eritreans at less-than-the-usual-NGO wages. I'm not looking for a slap on the back for this fact though. Please read on ...

Last week there was a girl - 11, 12 years old, not much younger than one of my nieces. She was pretty with a shy smile. She was poor. Her school uniform sweater was in holes. She wasn't very clean. She gave Caroline bougainvilla flowers. She followed us home. I hated myself for thinking "she wants money in return for the flowers". She waited for a while at our gate, then she left empty-handed.

We're asked for money a lot and the standard thought is "we're volunteers, we don't have unlimited money to give away" but it's not really like that because, at the end of our time here, we'll be going home ... it's like the line from that Pulp song "if you called your dad he could stop it all" so what to do? - probably give money to the occasional thin, sad, old lady and feel guilty the rest of the time.

So why come here? Well (and of course I didn't know this beforehand) Eritrea's education policy is, in general, a good one under difficult circumstances - get Education out to everyone, modernise as much as possible - hence ICT training for all is a goal, not there yet though!. Eritrea has a number of mother-tongues (7?) so a system has been devised whereby children are taught in their own language until Secondary school age and then taught in English - can you imagine how hard that must be? Add in the different customs of the different ethnic groups (there is one volunteer whose school terms often start late because the children are from a nomadic tribe and aren't there yet - so you go to the top of the nearest hill and shout "WHERE ARE YOU?" - probably not ...). There is also (reportedly) far too much use of corporal punishment in schools - it's still the norm.

But, to end on a positive note, progress HAS been made - I read a report which gave 20% literacy rate for the country in 1995 - even the UN says the figure will approach 80% by the 2015 millenium-target year. So, if we can contribute to the education effort over the next two years it WILL be a good thing and hopefully we will have made a difference however small.

P

Shops are becoming barer and prices are going up. There have always been a small range of goods in the shops with the same things in all the shops and arranged strategically on the shelves so they don’t look too empty but it’s becoming more marked. It must have been happening for a while but it was suddenly brought home to me yesterday. I bought a tin of oats (breakfast) and the price had gone from 40 nakfa to 50. There are 30 nakfa to the pound. It may not sound a lot but consider that our local wages are 1,230 a month (41 sterling). We also get a top-up every three months from VSO who feel our local wages are not enough to live on and they pay our rent. Even with this safety net we’re finding it difficult to live within our nakfa allowance and have had to change some of the money we brought with us. How much more difficult must it be for the Eritreans supporting a family, and rent to find. Some are lucky and have relatives in the diaspora who send money. The majority are only just managing. And I’m seeing only Asmara. The rest of the country have it worse. These wonderful people are having a bad time. You get the feeling that something’s got to give.

I’ve just read P’s draft blog. It seems our minds are both working in the same direction today. I can’t say much about the little girl. Just the thought of her makes me want to cry. Even VSO tell us it’s best not to let children in but I just want her to come back so I can feed and clothe her and make her happy.

C

Almost all volunteers are in Asmara this weekend, there’s a ride halfway down the escarpment in a steam train tomorrow. The track was originally built by the Italians and then fell into a state of disrepair during the struggles. It was renovated a few years ago, reportedly with the help of some of the elderly Eritrean engineers who worked on the original line. It usually runs a diesel engine down to Massawa on the coast but a tour group has chartered the steam engine and as there’s only ten of them there’s room for thirty of us so they’re going to be outnumbered, I don’t know if they’ve been told that they’ll be sharing the train with a load of scruffy (slightly) loud VSO vols but they’re soon going to find out. There’s a picnic and a coffee ceremony as well so should be a good day.

The cake culture here is not good for me, my daily chocolate doughnut and cappuchino seems to hampering the weight loss we were told that volunteers experienced in Eritrea. I think it must only apply to the ones in the villages, not the Asmarinos.

Fat C

Sunday Indulgence

Sunday 16th March

The small sum of five British Pounds ... is a lot of money for a VSO volunteer in Eritrea being paid at local rates but that's what gets spent on occasion at Asmara's Intercontinental Hotel on a buffet (all you can eat) breakfast. This time the occasion was nominally the Sunday before St Patrick's Day (there are quite a few Irish volunteers in the current batch) and a mixture of Asmarinos and volunteers from the villages - they have a harder time than we do in terms of having a limited diet and are usually keen on maximising the breakfast experience - showed up for the feast.

It was all quite civilised really - a lot of coffee and food was consumed and there were a few accidents (breadrolls and pastries falling into open bags and the like) and a couple of hours later another Asmara experience had been chalked up and we were all stuffed!

P

Four of us are having Tigrinya language lessons for an hour and a half every Sunday morning - this involves learning a completely new script, the Ge'ez syllabary (we thought we'd left all that behind after our time in Japan). VSO cover the cost for the first 6 months. It's a jolly occasion with a lovely teacher, Amanuel, who was also our teacher on the in-country traing when we first arrived. Because of our slight over indulgence at the Intercontinental yesterday we were all feeling less than ready for the lesson (which was straight after the breakfast at our house) and we spent a lot of the time trying to deflect the teaching process by asking questions about the culture, the number of times I've been on the other end of this scenario ........ It's interesting to learn the language and use it but it possibly has limited use in the future.

C

more

The garden is being smartened up. The walls have been painted and all the wild profusion of purple flowers covering the outer walls and shielding us from the main road have been cut down. It probably hadn’t been done for years and needed to be done but still seems a shame. I like wild gardens. It looks as if the landlord is going to do up the house and put the rent up next year, he’s hinted as much to us before so we may only have one year in here.
It’s National Woman’s Day today (Saturday) so flags up everywhere and most shops are closed. Had it been a weekday we’d have had the day off work, unfortunately you lose out when a national holiday falls at the weekend. Walked into the centre, had lunch out with Tom, tried to buy fish at the fish market but got there too late, sat outside at a pavement café on Harnet Avenue and watched the world go by. The world today consisted of quite a few Indian UNMEE soldiers who are all pulling back from the border to Asmara before being moved out. For those of you who are wondering where this leaves VSO volunteers the official VSO position is that that is no immediate reason for action on the part of VSO to enact their emergency evacuation plan although they are being vigilant and in constant contact with the British Embassy. I have to say that it’s hard to reconcile this with the sleepy weekend atmosphere that pervades. The border stand-off seems a million miles away instead of less than 100 …

C

Today’s MoE football turned out to be a practice match against the Asmara police – who proved to be considerably fitter than our brave lads and we ended up well beaten . It was encouraging to see that the best player on the pitch was quite old but extremely fit. For my own part I only played for 30 minutes and I even felt the pace during that time – still it’s all part of the altitude training. It’s definitely time to try and get some football shoes though, running shoes are just too collapsible.

Shaking hands is big in this country but it’s not like the brief ‘hi, how are you’ with a strong grip then let go like the other person’s hand suddenly became very hot, it’s more you say hello then you continue to hold on during an ensuing conversation – which may last several minutes – so you get the sight of pairs of men holding hands on the football field while they discuss the week’s events and now the guys are starting to know me I’m by no means exempt.

Walking the streets of Asmara it’s noticeable how many very young children are just out playing or even wandering on their own – I guess it’s like the ‘developed’ world used to be before cities became to crowded and choked with traffic and before fear about what happens to children let loose set in – and even 3 and 4 year-olds will offer a hand and say ‘hi’, so hand-shaking starts from an early age.

P

Football

Saturday 1st March

Ministry of Education Football

Saturday was the day for me to try and continue with my playing-football-everywhere ambition and, let's face it, I've played in some pretty out-of-the-way places – even once in New Jersey.

Football practice for the Ministry of Education is on Saturday morning, so I'm lying on my back in a pile of dust at around 7:30am (yes that's AM on a Saturday) looking up at an early-morning crescent moon listening to the coach exhorting the guys to greater sit-up efforts and thinking 'this is quite strange, really' and 'good job there's a beer shortage, my head feels fine' ... Earlier, I'd already started to blame the altitude for my inability to keep up in the running part of training – it WILL get better!

Later in the practice match, from my position on the left wing, I didn't do too badly – breathing became easier – and I was on the winning side! The reason for the 7:00am start became obvious, the sun was quite fierce by 9:15 which was when the final whistle was blown – next time I hope not to fade so much in the second half.

Plus, I learned a few Eritrean football shouts ('Bella' and 'Bravo Abdou!' mixed in with Tigrinya – 'kid' – for example 'Kid Daoud!' means 'Go Daoud!').

Sunday 2nd – just strolled outside our front gate to be greeted by an amused good morning nod from a guy riding a bicycle one-handed ... mind you, he was leading a horse with his other one – this is just a scene from daily life where walking and cycling are the main means of transport. The other cycling style in Asmara – the elite- is colourfully lycra-clad and riding expensive racing bikes (Colnago, Bianchi, Trek, etc) – a legacy from Italian times but with moden bikes.

One final note if anyone needs to contact us the 'old' way it's either of us, c/o VSO Eritrea, PO Box 5565, Asmara, Eritrea.

P