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.