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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