There's a lot we could say about the country which will remain unsaid and it's important to remember why we were there as we leave - to try and help with the education of Eritrean children from all the ethnic groups ...
Tigre children, She'eb
P
Wednesday 23 December 2009
Last Post (from Phil)
I don't have much more to say except to echo Caroline's wishes and to add that I will miss both playing and watching football with my Eritrean friends and colleagues (Saturday afternoon at the Cinema Roma!).
There's a lot we could say about the country which will remain unsaid and it's important to remember why we were there as we leave - to try and help with the education of Eritrean children from all the ethnic groups ...
P
There's a lot we could say about the country which will remain unsaid and it's important to remember why we were there as we leave - to try and help with the education of Eritrean children from all the ethnic groups ...
P
Wednesday 16 December 2009
The Last Post (from Caroline)
So we reach the time to write a last blog. It doesn’t seem that long since the setting up of the blog one afternoon in the UK two years ago. At that time it seemed like a good way to keep family and friends in touch with what we were doing without having to write countless cut and paste emails. It’s turned into less and more. Less because we probably haven’t put in enough day-to-day details to keep family and friends informed and entertained, more because I feel we ended up trying to express some of the feelings we have for this country, confused that they are, and then only half succeeding.
Some of the many things I shall remember about Eritrea:
The beauty, kindness, and generosity of spirit in the face of all adversity, of her people
The dedication of teachers, working against tremendous odds, to prepare children for the future.
The feeling of a very small hand shaking mine as a two year old that I’ve said hello to automatically completes the polite greeting she sees her elders do.
Being greeted as old friends with the requisite five-minute hello acknowledgment by all the regulars we see on our way to and from work.
Being able to sit outside under a blue sky at Modka for my coffee break of cappuccino and pizza for eleven and a half months of the year.
The ruins of the old city at Massawa
Bananas
Tomatoes
Mousebirds
Eagles
I’ve been told many times about the euphoria and optimism that gripped the country in the 1990s, after the successful end to the Struggles of the previous 30 years. Eritrea, I send you my love and hopes that these dreams become a reality.
C
Some of the many things I shall remember about Eritrea:
The beauty, kindness, and generosity of spirit in the face of all adversity, of her people
The dedication of teachers, working against tremendous odds, to prepare children for the future.
The feeling of a very small hand shaking mine as a two year old that I’ve said hello to automatically completes the polite greeting she sees her elders do.
Being greeted as old friends with the requisite five-minute hello acknowledgment by all the regulars we see on our way to and from work.
Being able to sit outside under a blue sky at Modka for my coffee break of cappuccino and pizza for eleven and a half months of the year.
The ruins of the old city at Massawa
Bananas
Tomatoes
Mousebirds
Eagles
I’ve been told many times about the euphoria and optimism that gripped the country in the 1990s, after the successful end to the Struggles of the previous 30 years. Eritrea, I send you my love and hopes that these dreams become a reality.
C
Thursday 10 December 2009
Schools' Solar Power – Last Update?
Firstly, our apologies for not posting very often lately, but our departure from Eritrea is coming up very fast now and we have a lot to do to finish up work and get round to seeing people before we leave.
The remote schools' solar power project is still running and, in the past few weeks, there has been a day-long workshop and a few days'-worth of teaching labs to get some of the participants from the the schools in phase 2 of the project together for a while.
From a personal point of view, a very interesting few days as school staff from some far-flung corners came to Asmara for the occasion and among them were representatives of Eritrea's other ethnic groups (Tigre, Saho and Afar for example). All were very enthusiastic about the project which introduces computer technology into some very remote spots for the first time and I got my usual kick out of teaching one or two people who had never used a computer before.
Due to VSO's departure from Eritrea next year, the project has had to be curtailed somewhat since the major donor was no longer prepared to commit funds for the third year without VSO's presence. However, other donors have held firm, with the result that 21 schools out of 25 originally projected to receive equipment will do so by the project's new end date of June / July 2010.
It may seem odd to use solar power in this way (as opposed to supplying basic needs) but solar power is often already present for pumping water and serving medical centres and local communities do see their children getting a helping-hand in the use of technology as being very important. The MoE for its part is viewing the whole project as a start-point for wider introduction of panels.
In this part of the world distributed power-generation by means of the sun makes perfect sense and should become the norm ... but it takes time and capital investment so there is a long way to go. When the generation technology eventually meets up with ultra-low power devices we'll see some real progress.
A couple of weekends ago there were a couple of holidays starting with the Muslim Eid Al-Adha and continuing on with saints' days for the Zoba Maekel region (nick named Nigdet Asmara). Unsurprisingly it's a matter of visiting the houses of friends and family and consuming various quantities of injera with meat (in our case we had zigni and dulot on Saturday). As usual it wasn't a good time to be a goat or sheep and the baa'ing which was coming from the next compound (there is a Muslim family living next door) soon stopped come Friday.
P
Solar panels at a school
The remote schools' solar power project is still running and, in the past few weeks, there has been a day-long workshop and a few days'-worth of teaching labs to get some of the participants from the the schools in phase 2 of the project together for a while.
From a personal point of view, a very interesting few days as school staff from some far-flung corners came to Asmara for the occasion and among them were representatives of Eritrea's other ethnic groups (Tigre, Saho and Afar for example). All were very enthusiastic about the project which introduces computer technology into some very remote spots for the first time and I got my usual kick out of teaching one or two people who had never used a computer before.
Due to VSO's departure from Eritrea next year, the project has had to be curtailed somewhat since the major donor was no longer prepared to commit funds for the third year without VSO's presence. However, other donors have held firm, with the result that 21 schools out of 25 originally projected to receive equipment will do so by the project's new end date of June / July 2010.
It may seem odd to use solar power in this way (as opposed to supplying basic needs) but solar power is often already present for pumping water and serving medical centres and local communities do see their children getting a helping-hand in the use of technology as being very important. The MoE for its part is viewing the whole project as a start-point for wider introduction of panels.
In this part of the world distributed power-generation by means of the sun makes perfect sense and should become the norm ... but it takes time and capital investment so there is a long way to go. When the generation technology eventually meets up with ultra-low power devices we'll see some real progress.
Eid Al-Adha and Nigdet Asmara
A couple of weekends ago there were a couple of holidays starting with the Muslim Eid Al-Adha and continuing on with saints' days for the Zoba Maekel region (nick named Nigdet Asmara). Unsurprisingly it's a matter of visiting the houses of friends and family and consuming various quantities of injera with meat (in our case we had zigni and dulot on Saturday). As usual it wasn't a good time to be a goat or sheep and the baa'ing which was coming from the next compound (there is a Muslim family living next door) soon stopped come Friday.
P
Tuesday 17 November 2009
Graduation Eritrea-Style
A scene from a party tent
Education is taken seriously in this country with the emphasis being on getting as many children into school as possible and onward into Technical and Vocational training later in the school career.
Graduation from higher education is also taken seriously and is a happy occasion with celebrations taking place in many households once the technical school ceremonies are over.
Last weekend we were invited to attend two such parties one in Asmara and one in Adi Guadad, which is a village not very far away. Since both required the consumption of food, cake and suwa we were both quite stuffed by the end of the day. For the graduates these are big occasions, as important as weddings in many respects, and they dress in academic attire complete with mortar board. Proud parents are in the forefront and other relatives attend with the ladies wearing traditional dress, for the most part, just like at a wedding
P
Friday 6 November 2009
Our 2008 Christmas Appeal – Thanks to all our contributors
Well it started off as an appeal to buy a (dangerous-looking) motorised tricycle for Dawit a friend of ours who is confined to a wheelchair due to severe childhood polio. Research, however, showed us that such vehicles were not easy to come by any more and that there were less and less of them on the streets of Asmara due to a shortage of spare parts and of fuel the cost of which can be a problem here in Eritrea. Following consultation with the head of the Eritrean Veterans’ Association (who is well used to assessing people with severe war-related disability) and who expressed doubts about Dawit’s ability to manage such a machine, it was decided to divert the funds into his street vending business with a view to his buying a kiosk eventually.
Dawit was also given assurances about free maintenance and replacement of his wheelchair by the Veterans’ Association as and when it becomes necessary.
For our part, we have now wrapped up the appeal and handed over the total which has, for the time being, been paid into Dawit’s savings account. His family and friends are going to keep us informed of his future progress by email.
So once again – thanks a lot to everyone who sent us money, let’s hope it makes a difference.
P
Saturday 17 October 2009
A Walk on the Wild Side
All cities have their murky, seamy side; their raw, dark underbelly and these need to be visited sometimes in order to get an idea of the way in which the ‘real’ people live. Well at least that’s the theory.
And so it was that I set out (with very little trepidation, really) earlier this week with a Habesha friend to visit the Abashawl area of Asmara and to sample some local Suwa in one of the many drinking dens to be found there.
Abashawl was known as “the Native Quarter” in Italian colonial times (Eritreans were not permitted to live in the main part of the Italian city at that time) and remains to this day a warren of unmade streets seemingly thrown down with little planning on a hillside on the edge of central Asmara. Its buildings are small and have painted plastered walls, with light-blue being the predominant colour, unlike the sherbet of the rest of Asmara, and with sometimes-rusting corrugated iron roofs.
It has also served as Asmara’s East End or Lower East Side with new arrivals from the country-side to the big city traditionally being able to take cheap accommodation here (often with many sharing a room) while they found their economic feet.
Suwa is a local alcoholic brew whose main ingredient is said to be sorghum. It’s really an unfiltered, cloudy beer and is typically not very strong although it’s highly variable in both strength and colour (from dark to a kind of muddy brown) since it’s home made.
Upon arrival it wasn’t long before my friend pointed out a few Suwa Houses. “How can you tell?” I asked. Well, it was explained that each has a sign consisting of an inverted metal drum with an inverted enamelled suwa cup on top of it just standing outside. So we stepped into the heart of darkness, where respectable Asmarinos fear to tread … actually it was more like stepping into somebody’s old and battered but very clean and well-kept front-room with the other (all male) participants in the drinking orgy sitting quietly on wooden benches sipping from suwa cups and being served by the very polite daughter of the household.
In general the occasion just seems to be a chance to catch up on gossip for a while – as far as I could gather subjects for conversation ranged from the current state of the harvests to the cold day that it had been, later the lady of the house came in with a charcoal stove, presumably to heat the room, and joined in the conversation. At one point the worry was expressed that prices would rise if too many “like me” came for suwa but it was agreed that I could come back provided I didn’t spread the word.
Later we went on a brief tour of Abashawl, before our return to downtown Asmara. The streets were alive with children playing and women with open fires preparing suwa and coffee and, in one street, there were girls standing provocatively in doorways; they were, perhaps, selling something a little different.
And so it was that I set out (with very little trepidation, really) earlier this week with a Habesha friend to visit the Abashawl area of Asmara and to sample some local Suwa in one of the many drinking dens to be found there.
Abashawl was known as “the Native Quarter” in Italian colonial times (Eritreans were not permitted to live in the main part of the Italian city at that time) and remains to this day a warren of unmade streets seemingly thrown down with little planning on a hillside on the edge of central Asmara. Its buildings are small and have painted plastered walls, with light-blue being the predominant colour, unlike the sherbet of the rest of Asmara, and with sometimes-rusting corrugated iron roofs.
It has also served as Asmara’s East End or Lower East Side with new arrivals from the country-side to the big city traditionally being able to take cheap accommodation here (often with many sharing a room) while they found their economic feet.
Suwa is a local alcoholic brew whose main ingredient is said to be sorghum. It’s really an unfiltered, cloudy beer and is typically not very strong although it’s highly variable in both strength and colour (from dark to a kind of muddy brown) since it’s home made.
Upon arrival it wasn’t long before my friend pointed out a few Suwa Houses. “How can you tell?” I asked. Well, it was explained that each has a sign consisting of an inverted metal drum with an inverted enamelled suwa cup on top of it just standing outside. So we stepped into the heart of darkness, where respectable Asmarinos fear to tread … actually it was more like stepping into somebody’s old and battered but very clean and well-kept front-room with the other (all male) participants in the drinking orgy sitting quietly on wooden benches sipping from suwa cups and being served by the very polite daughter of the household.
In general the occasion just seems to be a chance to catch up on gossip for a while – as far as I could gather subjects for conversation ranged from the current state of the harvests to the cold day that it had been, later the lady of the house came in with a charcoal stove, presumably to heat the room, and joined in the conversation. At one point the worry was expressed that prices would rise if too many “like me” came for suwa but it was agreed that I could come back provided I didn’t spread the word.
Later we went on a brief tour of Abashawl, before our return to downtown Asmara. The streets were alive with children playing and women with open fires preparing suwa and coffee and, in one street, there were girls standing provocatively in doorways; they were, perhaps, selling something a little different.
P
Friday 2 October 2009
An Intake of Breath
I’ve referred to the Tigrinya language and its strangulated, choking sounds before – essentially a lot of it comes about by closing the airways (including making those harsh pharyngeal stops) in different ways to those used in European languages. There are also the non-word sounds, which are also quite different, to consider.
When we lived in Japan it wasn’t just the language that we got used to hearing but also the other noises that people make. For example, “ee-ee-ee-eh?” - starting high and rising, usually uttered by women - is an expression of surprise, the more barked “arey?” being the male equivalent. Mm-mm-mm-mm-mm accompanying what the speaker is saying is agreement and an indication that the listener is in fact listening.
Here, we have Wa! (can almost sound like Mwa! or Bwa!) for surprise or for when something is going badly wrong. A click made with the tongue against the roof of the mouth (which certain volunteers, who shall remain nameless, developed to an over-use extreme) is agreement, sort of like “yes you’re right”. But the most subtle one is the Habesha-intake-of-breath which is a kind of agreement as well, but on the lines of “I understand”.
This last one takes a bit of getting used to – you start by asking yourself “well what have I just said that this person should be so shocked, I was only explaining a mundane point about MS Excel why is he / she so surprised?” but then you realise it’s just an occasional interjection to show understanding and the paying of attention.
Language evolves, of course, and things move on and perhaps the need to have an actual person to listen to is disappearing as demonstrated by one of Caroline’s colleagues who has been known to use the intake-of-breath to himself while sitting at his computer, probably in response to a point he’s just made in a document.
When we lived in Japan it wasn’t just the language that we got used to hearing but also the other noises that people make. For example, “ee-ee-ee-eh?” - starting high and rising, usually uttered by women - is an expression of surprise, the more barked “arey?” being the male equivalent. Mm-mm-mm-mm-mm accompanying what the speaker is saying is agreement and an indication that the listener is in fact listening.
Here, we have Wa! (can almost sound like Mwa! or Bwa!) for surprise or for when something is going badly wrong. A click made with the tongue against the roof of the mouth (which certain volunteers, who shall remain nameless, developed to an over-use extreme) is agreement, sort of like “yes you’re right”. But the most subtle one is the Habesha-intake-of-breath which is a kind of agreement as well, but on the lines of “I understand”.
This last one takes a bit of getting used to – you start by asking yourself “well what have I just said that this person should be so shocked, I was only explaining a mundane point about MS Excel why is he / she so surprised?” but then you realise it’s just an occasional interjection to show understanding and the paying of attention.
Language evolves, of course, and things move on and perhaps the need to have an actual person to listen to is disappearing as demonstrated by one of Caroline’s colleagues who has been known to use the intake-of-breath to himself while sitting at his computer, probably in response to a point he’s just made in a document.
Tuesday 22 September 2009
The End of Summer Training
Well it’s late September and everybody really should be back at school and so summer ICT training has come to an end for this year.
All-in-all reasonably successful, about 100 teachers (known as Master Trainers since they’re supposed to pass on their skills once back at their schools) and school directors passed through our hands and most seemed to appreciate the training, though I seem to have become particularly sensitive to the few critical feedback comments we always seem to get … too few computers, the trainers didn’t take notice of the differing skill levels of the students – we will try harder next time!
I was also partially successful in my mission to get the schools wikipedia collection of web pages delivered out on DVD to schools for use as an e-learning resource and for internet practice, particularly relevant in this country given the lack of internet access in most locations. It’s not currently possible to visit schools outside Asmara to check on progress, however, so I have to rely on the enthusiam of the teachers in getting the package installed, along with Encarta, when they get back to work. There were even a couple of students who expressed an interest in learning how to program - so they were duly dispatched with CD's containing copies of the Python and Visual Basic programming environments - I'm not normally one to evangelise but Python is so good for those seeking a first programming experience.
I realise that this may be the end of my teaching career (such as it was) and it’s certainly been an eye-opener. In order to be able to respond to student questions it’s been necessary to have an idea of a broader range of the features of all of the Microsoft Office software and, due to my previous experience I came to be regarded as an Excel and Access expert (frightening really). What you realise is that, when using software, you tend to use the same small set of features that you know without needing to have comprehensive knowledge.
And, now it's all over and I don’t have to be quite so bright-eyed everyday it may be time to finally make that evening visit to Abashawul (known in Italian times as “the native quarter”) in order to sample the local suwa and meet some Asmara "characters".
In other news:
We also reached a milestone in the past couple of days – we booked our “final” flight out of Eritrea to Cairo on the 20th of December. We hope to spend at least a month in Egypt mainly in pursuit of antiquities but with plenty of chilling time for whenever we become templed-out. Following that we’re aiming for Morocco for a couple of weeks and then a ferry back to Southern Spain where Caroline’s sister will perhaps be able to put us up for a while.
It’s a strange feeling now, though, two years have flown by and already I can feel how I will miss Eritrea and its friendly people particularly those whom, for various reasons, I will not be able to bid farewell before we leave.
P
All-in-all reasonably successful, about 100 teachers (known as Master Trainers since they’re supposed to pass on their skills once back at their schools) and school directors passed through our hands and most seemed to appreciate the training, though I seem to have become particularly sensitive to the few critical feedback comments we always seem to get … too few computers, the trainers didn’t take notice of the differing skill levels of the students – we will try harder next time!
I was also partially successful in my mission to get the schools wikipedia collection of web pages delivered out on DVD to schools for use as an e-learning resource and for internet practice, particularly relevant in this country given the lack of internet access in most locations. It’s not currently possible to visit schools outside Asmara to check on progress, however, so I have to rely on the enthusiam of the teachers in getting the package installed, along with Encarta, when they get back to work. There were even a couple of students who expressed an interest in learning how to program - so they were duly dispatched with CD's containing copies of the Python and Visual Basic programming environments - I'm not normally one to evangelise but Python is so good for those seeking a first programming experience.
I realise that this may be the end of my teaching career (such as it was) and it’s certainly been an eye-opener. In order to be able to respond to student questions it’s been necessary to have an idea of a broader range of the features of all of the Microsoft Office software and, due to my previous experience I came to be regarded as an Excel and Access expert (frightening really). What you realise is that, when using software, you tend to use the same small set of features that you know without needing to have comprehensive knowledge.
And, now it's all over and I don’t have to be quite so bright-eyed everyday it may be time to finally make that evening visit to Abashawul (known in Italian times as “the native quarter”) in order to sample the local suwa and meet some Asmara "characters".
In other news:
- The rainy season is just about finished, apart from an occasional downpour, and Asmara and its surrounding hills are really quite green. So hopefully there has been enough to ensure big harvests in the coming months – judging by the size of the corn in Asmara fields and gardens it’s looking good.
- Having previously said that Asmara is the world’s safest city I can now report that my bicycle was stolen a couple of weeks ago so it’s not perfect! No reason to change the safety rating, though.
- Asmara schools are back and the kids are practicing their English on us once again. At least the cries of “Tilian” or “China” (world geography is not a strong point) have reduced.
We also reached a milestone in the past couple of days – we booked our “final” flight out of Eritrea to Cairo on the 20th of December. We hope to spend at least a month in Egypt mainly in pursuit of antiquities but with plenty of chilling time for whenever we become templed-out. Following that we’re aiming for Morocco for a couple of weeks and then a ferry back to Southern Spain where Caroline’s sister will perhaps be able to put us up for a while.
It’s a strange feeling now, though, two years have flown by and already I can feel how I will miss Eritrea and its friendly people particularly those whom, for various reasons, I will not be able to bid farewell before we leave.
P
Thursday 10 September 2009
Happy New Year
I’ve worked this morning to the accompaniment of loud squawking complaints coming from a bag under my boss’s desk. The chicken was ignored for the morning and taken home at midday. I walked home for lunch surrounded by bleats and baa’s coming from compounds in all directions and had to sidestep countless goats and sheep, either being sold, or led home. In case you hadn’t guessed it’s a holiday tomorrow (Friday). A big one. The Ge’ez New Year or Ri'se Awde Amet. It occurs on September 11 in the Gregorian calendar, except for leap years, when it occurs on September 12. The Coptic calendar, has twelve months of 30 days each plus five or six extra days, which comprise a thirteenth month. The year 2002 will begin on September 11, 2009 in the Gregorian calendar. If you need any more clarification let me refer you to Wikipoedia, it gets pretty complicated.
Needless to say the celebrations comprise a lot of eating, drinking, coffee ceremonies and socialising. I’ve been told that as strict adhere rents to the Eritrean Orthodox church don’t eat meat on Fridays, a lot of the celebrations will take place on Saturday. That may account for why our invitation to a friends home is for Friday or Saturday, we have to wait for a phone call. Which ever day it is we’re looking forward to it.
C
Needless to say the celebrations comprise a lot of eating, drinking, coffee ceremonies and socialising. I’ve been told that as strict adhere rents to the Eritrean Orthodox church don’t eat meat on Fridays, a lot of the celebrations will take place on Saturday. That may account for why our invitation to a friends home is for Friday or Saturday, we have to wait for a phone call. Which ever day it is we’re looking forward to it.
C
Friday 4 September 2009
Bits
We were stopped on the way to work by a taxi frantically blowing it’s horn, turned out to be a friend who, in spite of passengers, parked up and got out to greet us effusively and make arrangements to meet up for coffee. I can just imagine the reaction if a taxi driver did that at home. There’s 2 types of taxi here, line and contract. The contract fare is usually 50 Nakfa around Asmara and not for the likes of us – 50 Nakfa is a lot. Line taxis follow a set route in and out of town, you just flag it down when you want it to stop and shout out “hansub” when you want to get out. Costs 5 or 10 nakfa and is a good compromise between the contract taxis and the buses which can be very very crowded. Having said all that we usually walk everywhere.
Work permits for the next year have been issued so it looks as if we’ll be able to stay until our contracts end in December. It’s hard to believe we’ll have been here for 2 years
The storks changed their minds and abandoned their nest. In fact they all seem to have left now and moved on to wherever it they winter.
C
Work permits for the next year have been issued so it looks as if we’ll be able to stay until our contracts end in December. It’s hard to believe we’ll have been here for 2 years
The storks changed their minds and abandoned their nest. In fact they all seem to have left now and moved on to wherever it they winter.
C
Tuesday 25 August 2009
Rain
It’s been raining almost constantly here for 48 hours, unusual compared to the rainy seasons of the last few years but I’m assured by Eritreans that it is normal. Everyone is still very happy about the abundance of water pouring from the sky, but it is getting cold. The altitude here means that the absence of sun for even a short time makes the temperatures plummet and that they are doing. I’m writing this wearing 4 layers, a fleece jacket and a woolly scarf. Feels like a British summer.
The Eritreans, while welcoming the rain, also see it as valid excuse for not going out. Work, school, stops until the rain does. None of this braving it out, just stay at home until it stops. Fine when it does its normal thing of a few hours (see, I am adapting) but it should be interesting to see what happens if our present deluge persists for a few more days.
There was yet another wedding of a VSO volunteer to an Eritrean at the weekend. That’s 4 in the (almost) two years we’ve been here.
C
The Eritreans, while welcoming the rain, also see it as valid excuse for not going out. Work, school, stops until the rain does. None of this braving it out, just stay at home until it stops. Fine when it does its normal thing of a few hours (see, I am adapting) but it should be interesting to see what happens if our present deluge persists for a few more days.
There was yet another wedding of a VSO volunteer to an Eritrean at the weekend. That’s 4 in the (almost) two years we’ve been here.
C
Tuesday 4 August 2009
The Eritrea Festival
This week is the week of the Eritrea Festival at the Asmara Expo ground. It's a week in which Eritrean companies and organisations put on displays of their work and in which there are various attractions such as small reconstructions of village life and dancing by the various ethnic groups which make up the people of this surprisingly diverse country.
To our shame we failed to go along in 2008 (although we almost felt as if we were there as the music from the festival can be heard very loudly in our house,) but this year we were determined and so we duly set out on the walk to expo which only takes about 20 minutes from where we live - yes we were lazy last year and it only costs 3 Nakfa to get in.
It turns out to be a great way to spend a few hours - we were particularly impressed with the Rashaida and Kunama (two of Eritrea's lowland ethnic groups) music and dancing and, in true Eritrean style, everyone we met was very friendly. We also ate at one of the food tents - whole fish cooked over an open fire with flat bread.
Storked
-----------
Last time we managed to write anything I went into a jumbled ramble about Eritrean birdlife and mentioned a slight altercation between a group of storks. Well there has now been a major development (our lives are so exciting just now). A pair of storks has selected one of our palm trees as a nesting site! So now there's lots of toing and froing and there's none of this pussy footing around with small twigs and feathers for lining - it's full steam ahead with whole branches and anything else they can find. Currently the nest is just taking shape - we'll keep you posted as to it's progress and if they are subsequently any young.
P
To our shame we failed to go along in 2008 (although we almost felt as if we were there as the music from the festival can be heard very loudly in our house,) but this year we were determined and so we duly set out on the walk to expo which only takes about 20 minutes from where we live - yes we were lazy last year and it only costs 3 Nakfa to get in.
It turns out to be a great way to spend a few hours - we were particularly impressed with the Rashaida and Kunama (two of Eritrea's lowland ethnic groups) music and dancing and, in true Eritrean style, everyone we met was very friendly. We also ate at one of the food tents - whole fish cooked over an open fire with flat bread.
Storked
-----------
Last time we managed to write anything I went into a jumbled ramble about Eritrean birdlife and mentioned a slight altercation between a group of storks. Well there has now been a major development (our lives are so exciting just now). A pair of storks has selected one of our palm trees as a nesting site! So now there's lots of toing and froing and there's none of this pussy footing around with small twigs and feathers for lining - it's full steam ahead with whole branches and anything else they can find. Currently the nest is just taking shape - we'll keep you posted as to it's progress and if they are subsequently any young.
P
Wednesday 22 July 2009
Who is the anonymous person?
I'm very grateful to the anonomous person who has just sent me a parcel of assorted chocolate, but I wish I knew who you were. Tell me. It was such a nice surprise. As I'm a bit of a chocolate monster these days (very different to how I was in the UK when I hardly touched the stuff!)it probably won't last too long.
C
C
Eritrea Wildlife
We find ourselves noticing quite a bit of wildlife, mainly birds, around just now – maybe it's the lack of other volunteers to talk to ...
We haven't turned into “birders”, though we enjoy watching the variety of birds which we can see from our garden, and this is hardly a definitive guide and is, more than likely, not accurate though I have tried to find the birds mentioned below in our copy of “Birds of Africa, South of the Sahara”.
The list of bird species which can be spotted in Eritrea is long and includes (seen in and from our garden):
Weavers, Firefinches, Cordon Blues, Swainson's Sparrows (I think), Little Swifts, Sunbirds, Tawny Eagles, Storks (Abdim's), Crested Mousebirds and the odd Hoopoe and Canary. And that says nothing about the resident Speckled Pigeons.
There are currently about five ball-shaped woven nests hanging from our palm trees, I haven't managed to spot any young though and I also can't really identify the weaver species which made them - so much for the book!
Out and about in Eritrea we have been able to photograph an Abyssinian Roller, an Osprey, Steppe Eagles, numerous Crab Plovers, a few Sacred Ibises and a couple of Hornbills of some description. Publishing the better shots, amongst our existing online photos, is out of the question for now, but other web-sites will have images.
It's the end of the first Summer ICT course and there are three to go, two more months in all. Last Saturday night there was a celebration at Hdmona (an Eri-style restaurant and dancing place) and the presence of beer meant a late-ish start on Sunday. A commotion in the garden turned out to be five storks having a disagreement in the big palm tree. Lots of ungainly wing flapping and high pitched calls. It was all a bit handbags though since there didn't seem to be any injured parties when it was all over.
We have also seen great swarms of helicopter-winged insects rising up from the ground a couple of times - I think they're some phase in the ant life-cycle baling out of the ant's nests dotted around the garden and heading out on mating flights and it all seems to be timed for early evening when there are no birds around, but I'm not really sure about all that; they don't really look like ants.
P
We haven't turned into “birders”, though we enjoy watching the variety of birds which we can see from our garden, and this is hardly a definitive guide and is, more than likely, not accurate though I have tried to find the birds mentioned below in our copy of “Birds of Africa, South of the Sahara”.
The list of bird species which can be spotted in Eritrea is long and includes (seen in and from our garden):
Weavers, Firefinches, Cordon Blues, Swainson's Sparrows (I think), Little Swifts, Sunbirds, Tawny Eagles, Storks (Abdim's), Crested Mousebirds and the odd Hoopoe and Canary. And that says nothing about the resident Speckled Pigeons.
There are currently about five ball-shaped woven nests hanging from our palm trees, I haven't managed to spot any young though and I also can't really identify the weaver species which made them - so much for the book!
Out and about in Eritrea we have been able to photograph an Abyssinian Roller, an Osprey, Steppe Eagles, numerous Crab Plovers, a few Sacred Ibises and a couple of Hornbills of some description. Publishing the better shots, amongst our existing online photos, is out of the question for now, but other web-sites will have images.
It's the end of the first Summer ICT course and there are three to go, two more months in all. Last Saturday night there was a celebration at Hdmona (an Eri-style restaurant and dancing place) and the presence of beer meant a late-ish start on Sunday. A commotion in the garden turned out to be five storks having a disagreement in the big palm tree. Lots of ungainly wing flapping and high pitched calls. It was all a bit handbags though since there didn't seem to be any injured parties when it was all over.
We have also seen great swarms of helicopter-winged insects rising up from the ground a couple of times - I think they're some phase in the ant life-cycle baling out of the ant's nests dotted around the garden and heading out on mating flights and it all seems to be timed for early evening when there are no birds around, but I'm not really sure about all that; they don't really look like ants.
P
Monday 6 July 2009
it's wet
Well, the rain has finally come and spirits have definitely lifted. Not something you’d ever hear said in the UK but it really is a life and death matter here. Now it just needs to continue at least for the next month. I’ll put up with the cold, thinking of putting the duvet back on the bed.
C
C
Thursday 2 July 2009
It’s ICT teaching time
For about the next 10 weeks I’m going to be really busy as it’s time to get back in the MoE teaching lab and try to help 4 groups of school directors and school ICT teachers learn enough IT basics (both software and hardware) in order that they can take the skills back to the schools and organise IT labs and training.
This year it’s going to be a little harder for us (the trainers) since there are only three of us, whereas last year there were five. However it’s even tougher for the students some of whom come to us with next to no computer experience at all – I have certainly had to find new levels of patience in order to help people who, for example, have never used a mouse before – it’s great to see the rapid progress most of our students make, though.
The training is also linked with the Remote Schools Solar Power project insofar as teachers and directors from the schools involved have been selected to attend, this presents a particular challenge given that some of our phase 2 students may not have touched a computer since phase 1, last summer, due to the fact that not all schools in the project have had their installations yet.
The overall situation for ICT in Eritrea is that it’s picking up after a slow start. Internet access can still be very slow, though no slower than in certain other sub-saharan countries by all accounts, but more and more people are wanting to use technology and ICT training is very popular so to get it into schools cannot be a bad thing.
Miss Eritrea
----------------
A chance encounter in the garden of the Ambasoira (formerly Imperial) hotel allows me to make remarks about Eritrean women which I couldn't normally make (well this is a joint blog).
Ever since Asmara beer made its very welcome re-appearance we have, from time-to-time, visited what past volunteers knew as “the beer garden” but what we have only known as “that-nice-garden-where-you-can-have-tea-at-the-side-of-the-Ambasoira” until now.
Last week at a leaving do I couldn't help noticing, as we made our way to join the others, that one of the tables seemed to have more than it's fair share of supermodels sitting around it. Eritrea, in turn, has more that it's fair share of stunning looking women (don’t even get me started on a discussion of bone structure) just wandering around - very distracting. It turns out that they were actually prospective contestants for the Miss Eritrea competition and were being interviewed on camera in a nice peaceful garden setting, I'm not going to say much more but I have never seen such a concentration of long limbs in one place before.
P
This year it’s going to be a little harder for us (the trainers) since there are only three of us, whereas last year there were five. However it’s even tougher for the students some of whom come to us with next to no computer experience at all – I have certainly had to find new levels of patience in order to help people who, for example, have never used a mouse before – it’s great to see the rapid progress most of our students make, though.
The training is also linked with the Remote Schools Solar Power project insofar as teachers and directors from the schools involved have been selected to attend, this presents a particular challenge given that some of our phase 2 students may not have touched a computer since phase 1, last summer, due to the fact that not all schools in the project have had their installations yet.
The overall situation for ICT in Eritrea is that it’s picking up after a slow start. Internet access can still be very slow, though no slower than in certain other sub-saharan countries by all accounts, but more and more people are wanting to use technology and ICT training is very popular so to get it into schools cannot be a bad thing.
Miss Eritrea
----------------
A chance encounter in the garden of the Ambasoira (formerly Imperial) hotel allows me to make remarks about Eritrean women which I couldn't normally make (well this is a joint blog).
Ever since Asmara beer made its very welcome re-appearance we have, from time-to-time, visited what past volunteers knew as “the beer garden” but what we have only known as “that-nice-garden-where-you-can-have-tea-at-the-side-of-the-Ambasoira” until now.
Last week at a leaving do I couldn't help noticing, as we made our way to join the others, that one of the tables seemed to have more than it's fair share of supermodels sitting around it. Eritrea, in turn, has more that it's fair share of stunning looking women (don’t even get me started on a discussion of bone structure) just wandering around - very distracting. It turns out that they were actually prospective contestants for the Miss Eritrea competition and were being interviewed on camera in a nice peaceful garden setting, I'm not going to say much more but I have never seen such a concentration of long limbs in one place before.
P
Wednesday 24 June 2009
Becoming Eritrean
We’ve been here 17 months now. For me it’s the time when I realise that I’ve taken on, albeit very superficially, a veneer of Eritrean-ness. As in (in no particular order):
It feels wrong to not at least shake hands with someone when we meet, more often than not it’s three kisses and occasionally a shoulder bump (before coming I’d read that this is only for men on meeting, but that’s not true.) This is in addition to the verbal greetings and enquiries into the state of work, health and general condition.
I seem to consume vast amounts of sugar, at least in comparison to before I came here. Always in tea and coffee, on my porridge in the morning, and as for the daily cakes …
Coffee ceremony without popcorn? Unthinkable.
I will always take great pains not to walk through the middle of a conversation, even if the parties involved are taking up the width of the pavement, just step into the road.
With the coming of the high temperatures I’m eagerly awaiting the beles (prickly pear) sellers on every street corner.
I can accept sitting and having a conversation over a bottle of fizzy water.
It no longer seems so important if a meeting doesn’t happen at its planned time, maybe later.
Ful and fatta, two dishes that are always on the menu in cafes are also my favourites.
Getting up at 6.30 every day to blue skies and sun ……….. doesn’t everyone?
A lunch-time siesta is a necessity.
It’s raining? (actually it's not yet) We’d better wait at home and head off to work when it’s stopping.
C
It feels wrong to not at least shake hands with someone when we meet, more often than not it’s three kisses and occasionally a shoulder bump (before coming I’d read that this is only for men on meeting, but that’s not true.) This is in addition to the verbal greetings and enquiries into the state of work, health and general condition.
I seem to consume vast amounts of sugar, at least in comparison to before I came here. Always in tea and coffee, on my porridge in the morning, and as for the daily cakes …
Coffee ceremony without popcorn? Unthinkable.
I will always take great pains not to walk through the middle of a conversation, even if the parties involved are taking up the width of the pavement, just step into the road.
With the coming of the high temperatures I’m eagerly awaiting the beles (prickly pear) sellers on every street corner.
I can accept sitting and having a conversation over a bottle of fizzy water.
It no longer seems so important if a meeting doesn’t happen at its planned time, maybe later.
Ful and fatta, two dishes that are always on the menu in cafes are also my favourites.
Getting up at 6.30 every day to blue skies and sun ……….. doesn’t everyone?
A lunch-time siesta is a necessity.
It’s raining? (actually it's not yet) We’d better wait at home and head off to work when it’s stopping.
C
Thursday 18 June 2009
Waiting for Rain
The rains are coming any day now. The air is heavy and sticky (though not in a lowlands kind of a way) and we're getting a daily build-up of cloud which isn't yet becoming heavy enough to produce rain but everyone's hoping that it's going to happen soon.
We've said it before but the rains are very important in this part of the world both for agriculture and for domestic water use and it'll make all of highland Eritrea very happy when they finally arrive – well possibly all of Eritrea given that a lot of the water runs off down to the lowlands eventually.
In the meantime we're getting on with our placements and daily Asmara life in which we meet many people and exchange the mandatory Tigrinya greetings with them (Kemay we'lkhum? Dehan do? Kemay kherneknum?... Tsebuq, Eghziabia Yemesgen, Dehan ina ... and so on). Which brings me to one of my slight disappointments with my time here – not having learned more of the local language.
Tigrinya, the language of the Eritrean highlands, is a member of the Semitic language group (which includes Arabic and Hebrew amongst others) and, only being spoken by about 7 million people as a first language (I got that number, well 6.7 million, from Wikipedia so it may not be reliable), there is not really a fully developed learning system so there's my first excuse and people in Asmara are keen to practice English and that's my second.
Now, I'm not too bad at languages (something I discovered long after school, just in case anybody remembers my dismal performance at the time of 'O' levels) and can hold my own in French and Spanish but only after attending organised night-school classes and now I'm (mainly) admitting defeat in Tigrinya having already admitted partial defeat in efforts to learn Japanese a few years ago.
Tigrinya and Japanese have both made me realise that learning another European language is relatively easy (“swimming in the shallows of language learning” to borrow a quote from the blog of another VSO volunteer). If only there were adult education language classes to take advantage of in Asmara, though. I think that learning Arabic at a later date may be a good compromise and we'll just have to continue with the basics during our stay here.
Boruk Me'alti or Boruk Mishet (depends on time of day).
P
We've said it before but the rains are very important in this part of the world both for agriculture and for domestic water use and it'll make all of highland Eritrea very happy when they finally arrive – well possibly all of Eritrea given that a lot of the water runs off down to the lowlands eventually.
In the meantime we're getting on with our placements and daily Asmara life in which we meet many people and exchange the mandatory Tigrinya greetings with them (Kemay we'lkhum? Dehan do? Kemay kherneknum?... Tsebuq, Eghziabia Yemesgen, Dehan ina ... and so on). Which brings me to one of my slight disappointments with my time here – not having learned more of the local language.
Tigrinya, the language of the Eritrean highlands, is a member of the Semitic language group (which includes Arabic and Hebrew amongst others) and, only being spoken by about 7 million people as a first language (I got that number, well 6.7 million, from Wikipedia so it may not be reliable), there is not really a fully developed learning system so there's my first excuse and people in Asmara are keen to practice English and that's my second.
Now, I'm not too bad at languages (something I discovered long after school, just in case anybody remembers my dismal performance at the time of 'O' levels) and can hold my own in French and Spanish but only after attending organised night-school classes and now I'm (mainly) admitting defeat in Tigrinya having already admitted partial defeat in efforts to learn Japanese a few years ago.
Tigrinya and Japanese have both made me realise that learning another European language is relatively easy (“swimming in the shallows of language learning” to borrow a quote from the blog of another VSO volunteer). If only there were adult education language classes to take advantage of in Asmara, though. I think that learning Arabic at a later date may be a good compromise and we'll just have to continue with the basics during our stay here.
Boruk Me'alti or Boruk Mishet (depends on time of day).
P
Tuesday 9 June 2009
Our Situation
Well our regional director has now been, won (almost) all of us over with her direct, open, professional, knowledgeable and cheerful approach and gone back to the UK. From information obtained in meetings the latest best guess is that we will be able to complete our placements as planned and so we'll be here until the end of this year / early next. Good news, particularly for me, since we're coming up to the busy season for the ICT unit (summer teacher / school director training) and we can now go ahead with preparations. It looks, however, as if VSO's contribution as a whole will be diminished whatever the future holds as scaling back seems to be necessary - for me this is the real shame because living amongst, and working with the people has always been VSO's strength.
Across Cultures
------------------
This was the posting I was going to make while we were waiting for potentially more momentous news but we got caught up with meetings last week: I thought I'd catalogue a few random cultural differences that we've seen or heard reported.
We mentioned before that this is a hand-shaking and hand-holding culture, this goes right down to very young children who will offer a small hand as part of a greeting in the street and sometimes a very shy 'hi' or a response to "men shimka / shimki" - the Tigrinya for "what is your name". Amongst adults handshaking just goes on all the time (between males, females and amongst the sexes) and there's even usually an offer of a wrist if the person you're greeting happens to have been working and hasn't yet washed their hands. I still haven't got used to having my hand held throughout a conversation ...
In order to attract somebody's attention say, a waitress's, you can just shout out "haftei!" (my sister) or, more politely, "men shimki!" (what's your name?) - I can just imagine the reaction to "oi what's your name!" in the UK but it really is the polite way to do it here.
Finally we heard a (possibly apocryphal) story about local embassy staff who were once given food left over from an embassy "do" - blue cheese and smoked salmon - both are items we would kill for particularly if we hadn't had them for a while. However, not knowing what to do with smelly, mouldy, cheese and raw fish (eating them certainly wasn't an option) it was decided that the best course of action was to bury it all in a corner of the embassy garden.
P
Across Cultures
------------------
This was the posting I was going to make while we were waiting for potentially more momentous news but we got caught up with meetings last week: I thought I'd catalogue a few random cultural differences that we've seen or heard reported.
We mentioned before that this is a hand-shaking and hand-holding culture, this goes right down to very young children who will offer a small hand as part of a greeting in the street and sometimes a very shy 'hi' or a response to "men shimka / shimki" - the Tigrinya for "what is your name". Amongst adults handshaking just goes on all the time (between males, females and amongst the sexes) and there's even usually an offer of a wrist if the person you're greeting happens to have been working and hasn't yet washed their hands. I still haven't got used to having my hand held throughout a conversation ...
In order to attract somebody's attention say, a waitress's, you can just shout out "haftei!" (my sister) or, more politely, "men shimki!" (what's your name?) - I can just imagine the reaction to "oi what's your name!" in the UK but it really is the polite way to do it here.
Finally we heard a (possibly apocryphal) story about local embassy staff who were once given food left over from an embassy "do" - blue cheese and smoked salmon - both are items we would kill for particularly if we hadn't had them for a while. However, not knowing what to do with smelly, mouldy, cheese and raw fish (eating them certainly wasn't an option) it was decided that the best course of action was to bury it all in a corner of the embassy garden.
P
Thursday 28 May 2009
Another day in Asmara
Asmara is in a hot sleepy mood at the moment. Everyone walks slowly and on the side of the road that’s in the shade. It seems to be affecting me mentally as well as physically although it could just be senility setting in. The big rains should start in a month or so if I remember correctly. It’s amazing to think we’ve been here over a year (16 months in fact). This second year is flying by.
Independence Day has been and gone and the soldiers have left the streets.
The regional director for East Africa arrives at the weekend so maybe there’ll be some movement in the stalemate we’re all living in. Tune in this time next week for the latest thrilling update.
C
Independence Day has been and gone and the soldiers have left the streets.
The regional director for East Africa arrives at the weekend so maybe there’ll be some movement in the stalemate we’re all living in. Tune in this time next week for the latest thrilling update.
C
Monday 18 May 2009
Asmara children
We meet a lot of children, not only in the classrooms, but on the streets, for the western concept of having to guard your children 24 hours a day does not exist here. Obviously in the villages where the likelihood is that everyone will know every one else and their families, this is to be expected but amazingly enough this is also true in the centre of Asmara. Our twice daily walks to and from work, involve as well as countless greetings to the many adults we know, many encounters with children. Most kids here will shout out “Hi” some of them following this with “How arrrrrre you” and “What is yourrrr name” Some get a bit silly but most are very friendly and we nearly always make a point of saying something back. At this point many of them dissolve into fits of giggles but quite a lot will attempt to hold a conversation in their newly acquired school English. Anyway the point of this was to say that these kids range in age from about 18 months to 15 and we meet them while they’re out playing on the street. The only “toys” you’ll ever see are footballs and even these are often improvised. The little ones traipse around behind and are looked after by the bigger ones. The bigger ones in their turn are looked after by any passing adults. Adults will stop and intervene if they see a group of boys arguing or fighting (rare as it is), if they feel a child needs help in crossing a busy (by Asmara standards) street and even if they feel the children might be making a nuisance of themselves with the strange white foreigners. Adults look after all children and I have to say the children are very respectful and obedient back. I shudder to think what might happen if a passing adult in the UK tried to act in the same way.
There’s two little ones (2-3 years old) who I’ve been saying “hello” to every day. (I’m on a one woman crusade to get kids saying hello instead of hi.) These two have never been exposed to “hi” and now say “hello” back to me in what sounds like a reflection of my voice complete with London diphthongs.
Asmara beer is back, albeit rationed and only available after 7 o’clock. Word is that it’s not for ever, just for Independence (May 24th) but it’s a very welcome novelty.
There’s been a canary singing in the garden.
C
There’s two little ones (2-3 years old) who I’ve been saying “hello” to every day. (I’m on a one woman crusade to get kids saying hello instead of hi.) These two have never been exposed to “hi” and now say “hello” back to me in what sounds like a reflection of my voice complete with London diphthongs.
Asmara beer is back, albeit rationed and only available after 7 o’clock. Word is that it’s not for ever, just for Independence (May 24th) but it’s a very welcome novelty.
There’s been a canary singing in the garden.
C
Tuesday 12 May 2009
Out of Africa - Maybe
In this kind of are-we-or-aren’t-we leaving limbo in which we find ourselves I’ve had a little time to think about things I've read recently – always guaranteed to result in a load of spurious nonsense being posted to this blog!
To start off though, the current VSO situation is that at least one management-type person is coming to Eritrea towards the end of May to have discussions with senior figures at the MoE but we still have no idea what the outcome will be and we may indeed face the reality of having to look for jobs quite soon – something we were hoping to avoid for some time.
When browsing the internet at work (well I am actually supposed to be scouring educational sites for suitable content though I have only been successful in a very general sense with the excellent schools wikipedia ) I have found I can still read articles on UK news sites such as those of The Guardian or The Independent if I use a content stripper designed for use with low bandwidth such as finch.ploogy.net or loband.org.
A couple of articles in The Independent stood out last week – both of them concerning the fact … I’m going to pause at the word “fact” and say instead: each of them dealing with an aspect of the considerable and growing body of evidence which points to Africa being the place of origin of the human species - one on a recently completed Africa-wide DNA study and one on a skull reconstruction from 35,000 year-old jawbone fragments found in Romania (the article also mentioned a BBC series “The Human Journey” which will discuss the latest theories on past “Out of Africa” migrations, and where the trail led from there, and which I'll miss! I can see a future Amazon DVD purchase here).
For myself it sets the imagination going to be living in a part of the world where DNA and other studies point to the peopling of the globe having started here or hereabouts but there was a bit of a surprise to be found in the comments following the piece on the Romanian skull fragments. The article also contained an image of a facial reconstruction. In the opinion of some of those who left comments the face was too African, too black. It was when the posts turned to making it out to be a BBC plot to soften the impact of all these asylum-seekers that I was quite shocked - I really didn't imagine that such opinions were so strongly-held and amongst readers of the Independent! What is happening in the UK? Anyway, sorry folks, we're all originally African and, on a geological or even anthropological time-scale, it wasn't so long ago at all.
Monday 11th, Asmara
----------------------
Today it rained quite a lot and the mood in Asmara was noticeably happier. Contrast that with weather-related mood in the UK, but that's the way it is in a country where rain at the right time of year can make a huge difference to crops and therefore the people. And ... it certainly made for a nice, cool, evening!
The Rural Schools' Solar Power Project
-----------------------------------------
Some time ago I reported that the original pilot project at Gogne School in Gash Barka had not been a success due to equipment failure. Well, that's all changed. I've had a report back from a visitor to the school who says that, following replacement of the solar power pack inverter and of the old computers with laptops (which don't consume so much power so more of them can be used), the installation is now up and running well. I'm starting to wonder if I'll ever be able to go on the planned follow-up visits, though. There are photos of a selection of the schools which featured in phase one of the project which you can see by following the link at left.
P
To start off though, the current VSO situation is that at least one management-type person is coming to Eritrea towards the end of May to have discussions with senior figures at the MoE but we still have no idea what the outcome will be and we may indeed face the reality of having to look for jobs quite soon – something we were hoping to avoid for some time.
When browsing the internet at work (well I am actually supposed to be scouring educational sites for suitable content though I have only been successful in a very general sense with the excellent schools wikipedia ) I have found I can still read articles on UK news sites such as those of The Guardian or The Independent if I use a content stripper designed for use with low bandwidth such as finch.ploogy.net or loband.org.
A couple of articles in The Independent stood out last week – both of them concerning the fact … I’m going to pause at the word “fact” and say instead: each of them dealing with an aspect of the considerable and growing body of evidence which points to Africa being the place of origin of the human species - one on a recently completed Africa-wide DNA study and one on a skull reconstruction from 35,000 year-old jawbone fragments found in Romania (the article also mentioned a BBC series “The Human Journey” which will discuss the latest theories on past “Out of Africa” migrations, and where the trail led from there, and which I'll miss! I can see a future Amazon DVD purchase here).
For myself it sets the imagination going to be living in a part of the world where DNA and other studies point to the peopling of the globe having started here or hereabouts but there was a bit of a surprise to be found in the comments following the piece on the Romanian skull fragments. The article also contained an image of a facial reconstruction. In the opinion of some of those who left comments the face was too African, too black. It was when the posts turned to making it out to be a BBC plot to soften the impact of all these asylum-seekers that I was quite shocked - I really didn't imagine that such opinions were so strongly-held and amongst readers of the Independent! What is happening in the UK? Anyway, sorry folks, we're all originally African and, on a geological or even anthropological time-scale, it wasn't so long ago at all.
Monday 11th, Asmara
----------------------
Today it rained quite a lot and the mood in Asmara was noticeably happier. Contrast that with weather-related mood in the UK, but that's the way it is in a country where rain at the right time of year can make a huge difference to crops and therefore the people. And ... it certainly made for a nice, cool, evening!
The Rural Schools' Solar Power Project
-----------------------------------------
Some time ago I reported that the original pilot project at Gogne School in Gash Barka had not been a success due to equipment failure. Well, that's all changed. I've had a report back from a visitor to the school who says that, following replacement of the solar power pack inverter and of the old computers with laptops (which don't consume so much power so more of them can be used), the installation is now up and running well. I'm starting to wonder if I'll ever be able to go on the planned follow-up visits, though. There are photos of a selection of the schools which featured in phase one of the project which you can see by following the link at left.
P
Wednesday 6 May 2009
School Visits
School Visits
It was a week of school visits last week and all of them turned out to be very positive. It was C’s task to go to a couple of Asmara schools in order to assess how the piloting of new grades 4 and 7 English books was going and, it seems, that most of the teachers she observed and talked to are doing a very good job.
Just as a reminder; students in Eritrea are taught in their Mother Tongue until the end of Elementary school and then English becomes the teaching language for all subjects. Just imagine being taught in English until the age of around 11 and then having to continue in French for maths, history, everything (French at least uses the same script as, and is related to, English) – it must be really difficult.
For my part, instead of playing my usual football game on Saturday, I went to Fthi Junior School (this is the best rendition I can manage to get close to the pronunciation, sometimes it’s written as “Fitihi” which doesn’t really express the very short vowel sounds and also fails to capture the ‘h’ which comes from the chest and is accompanied by a kind of gasp) in the Accria area of North-East Asmara.
The occasion was the inauguration of both the school’s sports field and the ICT lab which finally seems to be open for business. The sports field has been painstakingly fashioned from a rocky strip of open ground and has taken a number of months to prepare. The students and staff first cleared the excess stones from it and then one of Eritrea’s construction companies was persuaded to donate the services of a heavy roller to flatten it out. The result is an area big enough to mark out a football pitch and an athletics track around it.
Presentations by eager students, cheerleaders and races run by local (Zoba Maekel team) athletes - it was all quite spectacular.
And what stood out? The level of English shown by the 13 year-olds presenting subjects as diverse as the periodic table of the elements, an explanation of different aspects of communication and an analysis of a relief model of Eritrea complete with seeds to illustrate which crops are grown where. If all this can happen at one school, then why not eventually across the country? It seems to me that the staff here really deserve credit for turning things around.
I will try to go back from time to time to get some more teaching material installed in the computer lab. ICT teaching is in its infancy here (this being a Junior school and therefore in the second wave of installations) but with the students being this keen it looks as if it will be rapidly taken up.
It was a week of school visits last week and all of them turned out to be very positive. It was C’s task to go to a couple of Asmara schools in order to assess how the piloting of new grades 4 and 7 English books was going and, it seems, that most of the teachers she observed and talked to are doing a very good job.
Just as a reminder; students in Eritrea are taught in their Mother Tongue until the end of Elementary school and then English becomes the teaching language for all subjects. Just imagine being taught in English until the age of around 11 and then having to continue in French for maths, history, everything (French at least uses the same script as, and is related to, English) – it must be really difficult.
For my part, instead of playing my usual football game on Saturday, I went to Fthi Junior School (this is the best rendition I can manage to get close to the pronunciation, sometimes it’s written as “Fitihi” which doesn’t really express the very short vowel sounds and also fails to capture the ‘h’ which comes from the chest and is accompanied by a kind of gasp) in the Accria area of North-East Asmara.
The occasion was the inauguration of both the school’s sports field and the ICT lab which finally seems to be open for business. The sports field has been painstakingly fashioned from a rocky strip of open ground and has taken a number of months to prepare. The students and staff first cleared the excess stones from it and then one of Eritrea’s construction companies was persuaded to donate the services of a heavy roller to flatten it out. The result is an area big enough to mark out a football pitch and an athletics track around it.
Presentations by eager students, cheerleaders and races run by local (Zoba Maekel team) athletes - it was all quite spectacular.
And what stood out? The level of English shown by the 13 year-olds presenting subjects as diverse as the periodic table of the elements, an explanation of different aspects of communication and an analysis of a relief model of Eritrea complete with seeds to illustrate which crops are grown where. If all this can happen at one school, then why not eventually across the country? It seems to me that the staff here really deserve credit for turning things around.
I will try to go back from time to time to get some more teaching material installed in the computer lab. ICT teaching is in its infancy here (this being a Junior school and therefore in the second wave of installations) but with the students being this keen it looks as if it will be rapidly taken up.
Saturday 25 April 2009
Another week passes ...
The Hoopoes and the storks are back, a sign that a year has passed, and so quickly. A pair of storks even considered nesting in one of our palm trees but decided, probably rightly, that the palm leaves gave too much under their weight, and moved on.
Water pressure is also back and the tank on our roof has filled up for the first time in months. I can’t get out of the habit of filling buckets up. Sometimes we’d go for a couple of days without water in the standpipe. It’s been a salutary reminder of how precious water is.
Took part in a quiz night last Thursday. On my table were two Eritreans - Aster and Yemane from the programme office, a retired Scottish nun - Sister Pat who has been in Eritrea for 40 years and Samuel – Italian speaking but of Armenian origin who was born in Asmara and has lived here all his life. He holds a British passport, reflecting the ruling powers here at the time of his birth. He has a fascinating history, according to Wikipedia he is the last remaining Jew in Eritrea and has many many old photos which he has invited us to come round and see.
The other tables at the quiz night had an equally cosmopolitan mix. We had a thoroughly enjoyable evening. Phil’s table won the quiz but I’ve taken over part of his prize.
C
Water pressure is also back and the tank on our roof has filled up for the first time in months. I can’t get out of the habit of filling buckets up. Sometimes we’d go for a couple of days without water in the standpipe. It’s been a salutary reminder of how precious water is.
Took part in a quiz night last Thursday. On my table were two Eritreans - Aster and Yemane from the programme office, a retired Scottish nun - Sister Pat who has been in Eritrea for 40 years and Samuel – Italian speaking but of Armenian origin who was born in Asmara and has lived here all his life. He holds a British passport, reflecting the ruling powers here at the time of his birth. He has a fascinating history, according to Wikipedia he is the last remaining Jew in Eritrea and has many many old photos which he has invited us to come round and see.
The other tables at the quiz night had an equally cosmopolitan mix. We had a thoroughly enjoyable evening. Phil’s table won the quiz but I’ve taken over part of his prize.
C
Thursday 16 April 2009
The Motorised Wheelchair Campaign
We’re still looking for a little more cash in order to reach our quite modest target of about 1500 GBP but there has been a change of plan.
THERE IS STILL TIME! Please send cheques made payable to us (Phil Appleby and Caroline Holden) at: VSO Eritrea, PO Box 5565, Asmara, Eritrea.
Things have changed, however …
Behind the scenes we have been working on getting information on how to source one of the machines in question and that line of inquiry led us to have a talk with the head of the Eritrean Veteran’s Association – a very reasonable and affable man by the name of Abraham.
He instantly voiced some concerns about the petrol-engined tricycles which Dawit had heard about and seen on the streets, some of which echoed our own:
To add a couple of points of my own, they look dangerous and they seem to be intended for travel over quite long distances.
Eventually we managed to arrange a meeting involving Abraham, Dawit and friends and family and the conclusion which was reached remarkably quickly is that we should change the purpose of our collection and divert the funds into Dawit’s business.
What he wants to do is to license and establish a kiosk to replace his current street pitch and to expand into selling more goods. We felt that this approach would be more sustainable than just a large outlay on a motor-vehicle which would then incur running costs.
If anybody who has already donated has any objections to our cavalier behaviour with their money please just let us know – we haven’t cashed any cheques yet.
If anybody has not already donated please do so!
P
THERE IS STILL TIME! Please send cheques made payable to us (Phil Appleby and Caroline Holden) at: VSO Eritrea, PO Box 5565, Asmara, Eritrea.
Things have changed, however …
Behind the scenes we have been working on getting information on how to source one of the machines in question and that line of inquiry led us to have a talk with the head of the Eritrean Veteran’s Association – a very reasonable and affable man by the name of Abraham.
He instantly voiced some concerns about the petrol-engined tricycles which Dawit had heard about and seen on the streets, some of which echoed our own:
- Spare parts are not easy to come by now.
- Ordering and importing a new one of these machines would be very expensive.
- There would be the recurring cost of buying fuel which is also in short supply.
- He wanted to know if Dawit and his family had considered alternative uses for the money collected.
To add a couple of points of my own, they look dangerous and they seem to be intended for travel over quite long distances.
Eventually we managed to arrange a meeting involving Abraham, Dawit and friends and family and the conclusion which was reached remarkably quickly is that we should change the purpose of our collection and divert the funds into Dawit’s business.
What he wants to do is to license and establish a kiosk to replace his current street pitch and to expand into selling more goods. We felt that this approach would be more sustainable than just a large outlay on a motor-vehicle which would then incur running costs.
If anybody who has already donated has any objections to our cavalier behaviour with their money please just let us know – we haven’t cashed any cheques yet.
If anybody has not already donated please do so!
P
Monday 13 April 2009
out of town for the weekend
Back in work this Monday morning after a weekend in Segenetti visiting Sami and Helen. Set off earlyish on Saturday although as we’d been told that the Segenetti busses ran quite well it wasn’t a 5 am start as it can be for other destinations. As foreigners and teachers we were queue jumped onto a bus. In their early days volunteers tens to resist this and do the “ no, no, just treat me like everyone else” thing. That soon passes. Bus stations here are hot crowded dusty places, the least time spent there the better. Busses don’t leave until they are full and full means full – huge bags, chickens, goats as well as people. We were lucky, we got 2 seats together next to a window that opened and the journey was only 2 hours.
It was lovely to see where Sami and Helen lived – Sami was one of the vols who came over in our group in Jan 2008 and has since married Helen. They are hoping, bureaucracy and visas permitting, to go to the UK this summer. We did the obligatory walk to the big (gigantic actually) tree that figures on the 5 Nakfa note, our entourage growing as we walked. By the time we arrived at the tree it consisted of 5 school kids, assorted adults and a cow. It was good to see the tree but as usual on these occasions it’s the getting there rather the arrival that’s most memorable.
Thank you Sami and Helen for a good weekend (great food and coffee Helen.)
As usual we’re in time warp here. Easter is next weekend. Not an Easter egg in sight though. In fact not many eggs about. A lot of people fast during Lent – nothing at all in daylight hours and then only a vegetarian diet so no eggs.
C
It was lovely to see where Sami and Helen lived – Sami was one of the vols who came over in our group in Jan 2008 and has since married Helen. They are hoping, bureaucracy and visas permitting, to go to the UK this summer. We did the obligatory walk to the big (gigantic actually) tree that figures on the 5 Nakfa note, our entourage growing as we walked. By the time we arrived at the tree it consisted of 5 school kids, assorted adults and a cow. It was good to see the tree but as usual on these occasions it’s the getting there rather the arrival that’s most memorable.
Thank you Sami and Helen for a good weekend (great food and coffee Helen.)
As usual we’re in time warp here. Easter is next weekend. Not an Easter egg in sight though. In fact not many eggs about. A lot of people fast during Lent – nothing at all in daylight hours and then only a vegetarian diet so no eggs.
C
Friday 3 April 2009
Walking In Eritrea
Eritrea would be perfect walking country if travel permits were more freely available and if you could always carry enough water to keep you going on long hikes. That said the now-departed John (more about that later, not as morbid as it sounds!) organised a walk starting on the edge of Asmara as part of a weekend of St Patrick’s day celebrations a couple of weeks ago.
Setting off from the end of the line for the no. 1 bus which is near the city dump (the walk gets better!) you first pass a very well maintained cemetery and onward to the edge of “the escarpment” ready for the descent.
One you start going down this is really quite rough walking, lots of loose stuff, very steep in places and definitely no waymarkers! Our objective for the morning was just to walk for a few hours and take in the scenery and wildlife but you need to be equipped even for this; so showing up in flip-flops and with less that half a litre of water doesn’t really cut it as one of our number found … he finished up sitting and waiting at the top for 3+ hours.
One of the main attractions of a walk in this particular area is the chance of reasonably close encounters with troupes of baboons and it wasn’t long before we started to spot them sitting on the tops of ridges and moving away from breakfast at the city dump in quite large numbers. They make a lot of noise and get out of the way if humans get to close, though. The dump also attracts large numbers of steppe eagles and other birds of prey and carrion-eaters plus, of course, Jason our resident VSO bird-watcher.
The ascent back to the top of the escarpment was tougher than expected and we were all glad of the occasional rest and of the water we'd taken care to bring along. Eritrea can be a demanding place to go walking.
A few baboon photos came out really well along with a few of the eagles – someday we’ll get some more out there on the web-album ...
The End For Some
-----------------------
The New Volunteers as they were collectively known have now all left Eritrea so what are they now? (Old-? Ex-? Never were-?). Whatever the label it’s all just very sad and frustrating … in John (one of the six) I have lost an IT colleague to with whom exchange ideas and we’ve all lost a natural social organiser (who knows where the EMIS - Education Management Information System - project will go now).
The mood amongst the volunteers who remain and the programme office staff is understandably subdued just now. No-one really knows what will happen next.
Computers in Education
-----------------------------
Work is a little slow but, of the solar-power schools in phase one, all but two have now received computers so I’ll be gathering feedback on their ICT teaching programs when I can. Let’s hope it goes as well as Foro school.
Following a suggestion by Tariq of Aptivate, an ICT-in-Development NGO (Google “Aptivate NGO”), and with the help of Stephane in London I have now obtained a copy of the Schools Wikipedia collection (all 4Gb of it in uncompressed form) from SOS Children’s Village a very worthwhile orphan’s charity … a pause to imagine what it’s like to be an orphan in a very poor African country during a global recession.
It’s part of my minor push to get some educational content onto the computers we deliver and it will have the added benefit of giving students a bit of an internet experience (albeit simulated) – we’re going to try it out at Fthi school next week.
P
Setting off from the end of the line for the no. 1 bus which is near the city dump (the walk gets better!) you first pass a very well maintained cemetery and onward to the edge of “the escarpment” ready for the descent.
One you start going down this is really quite rough walking, lots of loose stuff, very steep in places and definitely no waymarkers! Our objective for the morning was just to walk for a few hours and take in the scenery and wildlife but you need to be equipped even for this; so showing up in flip-flops and with less that half a litre of water doesn’t really cut it as one of our number found … he finished up sitting and waiting at the top for 3+ hours.
One of the main attractions of a walk in this particular area is the chance of reasonably close encounters with troupes of baboons and it wasn’t long before we started to spot them sitting on the tops of ridges and moving away from breakfast at the city dump in quite large numbers. They make a lot of noise and get out of the way if humans get to close, though. The dump also attracts large numbers of steppe eagles and other birds of prey and carrion-eaters plus, of course, Jason our resident VSO bird-watcher.
The ascent back to the top of the escarpment was tougher than expected and we were all glad of the occasional rest and of the water we'd taken care to bring along. Eritrea can be a demanding place to go walking.
A few baboon photos came out really well along with a few of the eagles – someday we’ll get some more out there on the web-album ...
The End For Some
-----------------------
The New Volunteers as they were collectively known have now all left Eritrea so what are they now? (Old-? Ex-? Never were-?). Whatever the label it’s all just very sad and frustrating … in John (one of the six) I have lost an IT colleague to with whom exchange ideas and we’ve all lost a natural social organiser (who knows where the EMIS - Education Management Information System - project will go now).
The mood amongst the volunteers who remain and the programme office staff is understandably subdued just now. No-one really knows what will happen next.
Computers in Education
-----------------------------
Work is a little slow but, of the solar-power schools in phase one, all but two have now received computers so I’ll be gathering feedback on their ICT teaching programs when I can. Let’s hope it goes as well as Foro school.
Following a suggestion by Tariq of Aptivate, an ICT-in-Development NGO (Google “Aptivate NGO”), and with the help of Stephane in London I have now obtained a copy of the Schools Wikipedia collection (all 4Gb of it in uncompressed form) from SOS Children’s Village a very worthwhile orphan’s charity … a pause to imagine what it’s like to be an orphan in a very poor African country during a global recession.
It’s part of my minor push to get some educational content onto the computers we deliver and it will have the added benefit of giving students a bit of an internet experience (albeit simulated) – we’re going to try it out at Fthi school next week.
P
Monday 23 March 2009
Water Rationing
Just a quick one - Google Alerts told us that my previous article had been picked up by someone from 'capitaleritrea.com' and cited as reporting water shortages in Asmara.
Well that's kind of what it did, but I think I should point out that we're probably just seeing the results of a sensible water-rationing program, just now, given that we are in that time before the rains.
And yes, so far it's only really caused me more effort fetching and carrying buckets from our garden stand-pipe and it's really not much worse than the water efforts which have to be made here year-round.
The main point of the previous post was our consternation over work-permits, of course.
P
Well that's kind of what it did, but I think I should point out that we're probably just seeing the results of a sensible water-rationing program, just now, given that we are in that time before the rains.
And yes, so far it's only really caused me more effort fetching and carrying buckets from our garden stand-pipe and it's really not much worse than the water efforts which have to be made here year-round.
The main point of the previous post was our consternation over work-permits, of course.
P
Saturday 21 March 2009
Getting near to The End?
Before getting to the point, just a note to say that Caroline realises that, following a particularly plaintive Facebook status update, she now owes a lot of people replies to emails. However the MoE’s internet connections disappeared a couple of days ago and she can’t get to the British Council due to the flu this weekend. So she asks for patience.
To get closer to the subject above our worries about both Eritrea and VSO’s programme here were magnified by our water tank choosing to remind us this week that it’s not bottomless after all. So we’re using the now-trickling garden tap when we can and we’re in the world of bucket flushes and solar showers (actually those are spectacularly good, bordering on the too hot if you use them immediately).
Before I say any more let’s just calm the cries of “you Asmarinos always have it so easy and now you’re complaining about lack of running water” or similar, from other Eritrea volunteers. Yes, it was just a crude device to introduce a theme - OK?
Of course it just symbolises the way we're feeling and, in fact, Eritrea battles constantly with water shortages as volunteers in remoter parts will tell you. Now the shortages have reached Asmara, in large part due to it being the time of year just before the rainy seasons have really got going.
The big news concerns the new volunteers who arrived in January and who have now been told they are not going to be given work permits. Meaning they are not going to be given residence permits, meaning they are going home. Quite apart from the impact on somebody’s life who has given up a job, maybe a home and said goodbye to friends expecting to be away for a prolonged period this must also have implications across the board for VSO here … we just don’t know exactly what yet.
Ironically, I received an email from VSO London asking if I would be prepared to be interviewed by an online IT magazine (it was sent to all current IT volunteers, I think). The resulting article would probably be along the lines of “How some IT people side-stepped the recession and saved the world at the same time while simultaneously avoiding being mired in self-pity following redundancy” (I may have over-extrapolated there). For me it wasn't like that, though. We have been saying we would "do VSO" someday for years and finally got around to initiating the process in early 2006 - quite a long time before the financial industry noticed that it had accidentally underpinned it's entire being with trillions of dollars-worth of unrecoverable debt.
So I would feel a bit of a fraud responding. Perhaps I should just reply asking for ideas on where my next volunteer / NGO IT job could be.
Interesting times, watch this space!
Climate change and East Africa
------------------------------
I had intended that the above be the post but ... I had a lot of rubbish going around in my head this week – best to let it out!
Having read George Monbiot's latest post on climate change and thinking about Eritrea's constant battle with water shortages I was just wondering how raised global temperatures and accompanying shifts in climate patterns might affect this region given that it is already on the edge (in more ways than one) climatically.
I know that it's not that simple given the interwoven complexities of this planet's dynamic systems and that the region could become wetter but what if a small shift sent things the wrong way? A few years of missed rain and it's Sahara-time for at least the Eritrean lowlands.
Historically migration due to shifts in climate patterns must have been the norm and, in fact, a lot of the lowland peoples here are semi-nomadic. But there's a problem: in recent times arbitrary borders have become more important and greatly increased human populations mean much more contention for resources. So what was once a normal migration pattern now becomes a border violation and a fight with a sitting population.
Forced migration due to climate change must be coming to this region sooner or later; let's face it we need more conflict here!
On the other hand, if you take the really pessimistic view that it's already too late, that the Earth's systems are so large and have such inertia that winding them back with the quite pathetic measures that are being mooted is impossible, that the planet's human population is already way too large then maybe it will only be small, remote, groups of people who use resources efficiently who will survive the mass starvation to come and this region will have to populate the world again in a few hundred thousand millenia ... after the Earth has cooled again.
Ok, Ok I'll try and stick more to what I know next time.
P
To get closer to the subject above our worries about both Eritrea and VSO’s programme here were magnified by our water tank choosing to remind us this week that it’s not bottomless after all. So we’re using the now-trickling garden tap when we can and we’re in the world of bucket flushes and solar showers (actually those are spectacularly good, bordering on the too hot if you use them immediately).
Before I say any more let’s just calm the cries of “you Asmarinos always have it so easy and now you’re complaining about lack of running water” or similar, from other Eritrea volunteers. Yes, it was just a crude device to introduce a theme - OK?
Of course it just symbolises the way we're feeling and, in fact, Eritrea battles constantly with water shortages as volunteers in remoter parts will tell you. Now the shortages have reached Asmara, in large part due to it being the time of year just before the rainy seasons have really got going.
The big news concerns the new volunteers who arrived in January and who have now been told they are not going to be given work permits. Meaning they are not going to be given residence permits, meaning they are going home. Quite apart from the impact on somebody’s life who has given up a job, maybe a home and said goodbye to friends expecting to be away for a prolonged period this must also have implications across the board for VSO here … we just don’t know exactly what yet.
Ironically, I received an email from VSO London asking if I would be prepared to be interviewed by an online IT magazine (it was sent to all current IT volunteers, I think). The resulting article would probably be along the lines of “How some IT people side-stepped the recession and saved the world at the same time while simultaneously avoiding being mired in self-pity following redundancy” (I may have over-extrapolated there). For me it wasn't like that, though. We have been saying we would "do VSO" someday for years and finally got around to initiating the process in early 2006 - quite a long time before the financial industry noticed that it had accidentally underpinned it's entire being with trillions of dollars-worth of unrecoverable debt.
So I would feel a bit of a fraud responding. Perhaps I should just reply asking for ideas on where my next volunteer / NGO IT job could be.
Interesting times, watch this space!
Climate change and East Africa
------------------------------
I had intended that the above be the post but ... I had a lot of rubbish going around in my head this week – best to let it out!
Having read George Monbiot's latest post on climate change and thinking about Eritrea's constant battle with water shortages I was just wondering how raised global temperatures and accompanying shifts in climate patterns might affect this region given that it is already on the edge (in more ways than one) climatically.
I know that it's not that simple given the interwoven complexities of this planet's dynamic systems and that the region could become wetter but what if a small shift sent things the wrong way? A few years of missed rain and it's Sahara-time for at least the Eritrean lowlands.
Historically migration due to shifts in climate patterns must have been the norm and, in fact, a lot of the lowland peoples here are semi-nomadic. But there's a problem: in recent times arbitrary borders have become more important and greatly increased human populations mean much more contention for resources. So what was once a normal migration pattern now becomes a border violation and a fight with a sitting population.
Forced migration due to climate change must be coming to this region sooner or later; let's face it we need more conflict here!
On the other hand, if you take the really pessimistic view that it's already too late, that the Earth's systems are so large and have such inertia that winding them back with the quite pathetic measures that are being mooted is impossible, that the planet's human population is already way too large then maybe it will only be small, remote, groups of people who use resources efficiently who will survive the mass starvation to come and this region will have to populate the world again in a few hundred thousand millenia ... after the Earth has cooled again.
Ok, Ok I'll try and stick more to what I know next time.
P
Tuesday 17 March 2009
Of rain and books
The small rainy season has arrived and the ground smells wonderful. Let’s hope the rains are good this year. Last year they weren’t and the food situation in the countryside is very bad now.
In the UK I take a constant supply of reading material for granted. Libraries and bookshops have always been a constant in my life. There is a huge supply of books in the VSO office passed on by volunteers over the years and I am possibly reading more now than ever. And I take it as normal. Yet to Eritreans a book is a luxury. An English novel given to a student was accepted as if it was golddust, and read by the time of the next lesson, a week later. I am constantly asked by colleagues for novels. The male friend who asked yesterday told me that he particularly liked to read detective stories. However most men, when asked what they like to read will say “love stories” (honestly!) and give Danielle Steele as their favourite author. I’ve no idea how this came about but as far as I’m concerned any reading is better than no reading so I’m happy to feed their habit.
C
In the UK I take a constant supply of reading material for granted. Libraries and bookshops have always been a constant in my life. There is a huge supply of books in the VSO office passed on by volunteers over the years and I am possibly reading more now than ever. And I take it as normal. Yet to Eritreans a book is a luxury. An English novel given to a student was accepted as if it was golddust, and read by the time of the next lesson, a week later. I am constantly asked by colleagues for novels. The male friend who asked yesterday told me that he particularly liked to read detective stories. However most men, when asked what they like to read will say “love stories” (honestly!) and give Danielle Steele as their favourite author. I’ve no idea how this came about but as far as I’m concerned any reading is better than no reading so I’m happy to feed their habit.
C
Thursday 12 March 2009
Crisis what crisis?
It's time for another bit of a rant I'm afraid.
Reading the online versions of newspapers it really does seem as if the developed world is falling apart. Things will get worse before they get better, economic suicides are on the rise, job losses are on the increase. Crime, especially cybercrime, is predicted to rise as legitimate means to make a living become scarcer and now (and this is the really horrific part) the world's richest people are getting poorer.
Here, in a country with no major means of earning foreign currency and with limited reliance on aid, the effects of a global downturn are more difficult to see. The variety of foodstuffs on offer is already small, the streets are already largely traffic-free and people already wear shoes and clothing until they fall apart.
And yet why is it that in a country which, on the world scene, also gets nothing but(probably deserved) bad press, the people are friendly, help each other when they can and live their lives to a high moral standard? Life grinds on at the same low level, prices go up and nobody ever gets pay rises (not since 1991 in the case of public employees) but nobody steals and most people just get on with life with a cheery disposition. Some things just defy explanation.
When we eventually leave Eritrea I, for one, will look at life in the developed world through different eyes. I'm sure that the whole thing will appear as one vast orgy of consumption even in the depressed state it will still be in in 2010. For example, I will look at the city streets packed with traffic and wonder why billions of dollars were set aside to rescue a motor industry which needs to shrink and change drastically before resources to run its products run out and before it chokes the atmosphere (yes, I'm still on the I can breathe a lot better in Asmara soapbox).
On the other hand I'll probably buy a new computer (well I still think we can solve all problems with technology) and add to the mountains of discarded electronic equipment and I'll probably put back the 7 kilos or so lost here, in one massive beer and bacon ingestion.
And then there's the question: in the unlikely event that one is available, do I really WANT another job in the banking industry? Perhaps we'll become serial volunteers (what I'd really LIKE to do is to help with a database / GIS project in a development - as in developing world - situation), hopefully it's still too early to have to make decisions / approaches but things can change.
Sorry for the unstructured ramble.
P
Reading the online versions of newspapers it really does seem as if the developed world is falling apart. Things will get worse before they get better, economic suicides are on the rise, job losses are on the increase. Crime, especially cybercrime, is predicted to rise as legitimate means to make a living become scarcer and now (and this is the really horrific part) the world's richest people are getting poorer.
Here, in a country with no major means of earning foreign currency and with limited reliance on aid, the effects of a global downturn are more difficult to see. The variety of foodstuffs on offer is already small, the streets are already largely traffic-free and people already wear shoes and clothing until they fall apart.
And yet why is it that in a country which, on the world scene, also gets nothing but(probably deserved) bad press, the people are friendly, help each other when they can and live their lives to a high moral standard? Life grinds on at the same low level, prices go up and nobody ever gets pay rises (not since 1991 in the case of public employees) but nobody steals and most people just get on with life with a cheery disposition. Some things just defy explanation.
When we eventually leave Eritrea I, for one, will look at life in the developed world through different eyes. I'm sure that the whole thing will appear as one vast orgy of consumption even in the depressed state it will still be in in 2010. For example, I will look at the city streets packed with traffic and wonder why billions of dollars were set aside to rescue a motor industry which needs to shrink and change drastically before resources to run its products run out and before it chokes the atmosphere (yes, I'm still on the I can breathe a lot better in Asmara soapbox).
On the other hand I'll probably buy a new computer (well I still think we can solve all problems with technology) and add to the mountains of discarded electronic equipment and I'll probably put back the 7 kilos or so lost here, in one massive beer and bacon ingestion.
And then there's the question: in the unlikely event that one is available, do I really WANT another job in the banking industry? Perhaps we'll become serial volunteers (what I'd really LIKE to do is to help with a database / GIS project in a development - as in developing world - situation), hopefully it's still too early to have to make decisions / approaches but things can change.
Sorry for the unstructured ramble.
P
Thursday 5 March 2009
International Women's Day
A coffee ceremony was announced at work this morning for 10 o’clock to celebrate International Women’s Day on Sunday. By 11 o’clock we got started. Most people from the curriculum panels were there, it was basically just an opportunity to sit around, talk and eat cake. And talk in Tigrinya. There were about 80 men there, 8 Eritrean women, and me. Apparently they really wanted me to be there as the sole international woman, however no concessions were made. All the speeches were in Tigrinya. When I could eat no more cake I slipped out.
Women’s Day is a big event here. It’s a public holiday unless it happens to fall at the weekend, which is the case this year (no days in lieu either) and it is given a lot of publicity. But a woman’s lot is a mixed one here. Women fought alongside men in the Struggles and do hold some important jobs but this is generally only apparent in Asmara. In the textbook writing there is a gender fair policy which is scrupulously adhered to, yet there is a huge drop-out rate among girls in junior school due to early marriages and being needed to help at home. In spite of being outlawed a couple of years ago FGM is still practised. It is true that these sorts of change, which are rooted in the culture, take time and education to bring about. Unfortunately there are many people who will pay lip service to this spirit of emancipation but who, when pinned down, will defend the old ways as being “the way we have always done things.” As if that has ever been a defence.
We celebrate International Women’s Day here. That’s a good start.
C
Women’s Day is a big event here. It’s a public holiday unless it happens to fall at the weekend, which is the case this year (no days in lieu either) and it is given a lot of publicity. But a woman’s lot is a mixed one here. Women fought alongside men in the Struggles and do hold some important jobs but this is generally only apparent in Asmara. In the textbook writing there is a gender fair policy which is scrupulously adhered to, yet there is a huge drop-out rate among girls in junior school due to early marriages and being needed to help at home. In spite of being outlawed a couple of years ago FGM is still practised. It is true that these sorts of change, which are rooted in the culture, take time and education to bring about. Unfortunately there are many people who will pay lip service to this spirit of emancipation but who, when pinned down, will defend the old ways as being “the way we have always done things.” As if that has ever been a defence.
We celebrate International Women’s Day here. That’s a good start.
C
Friday 27 February 2009
Rays of Hope?
Time for an upbeat post, though you can be sure that it won't be all positive! I've been talking to a teacher, also a VSO volunteer, from one of our Rural Schools Solar Power (RSSP) project schools and it's worth summarising what she said since the effect of getting one of the installations has been galvanising.
Foro, the school and village in question, is in the Northern Red Sea Zoba fairly close to the coast. In fact it's not far from the ancient Auxumite Red Sea port of Adulis. Here, the climate can be infernally hot and food and water have been in short supply of late all of which conspired to lower morale amongst teaching staff.
Add to that the effect of not having an electricity supply (at the school, the nearby town manages 3 hours from it's generator per day) and fighting boredom becomes another factor. However, since the installation of a solar power pack as part of the RSSP things have changed both for students and teachers of the school.
It has been found that, not only can the panels run 5 full-size computers for most of the day, they can also run lighting for all of the evening, allowing teachers to follow the MoE's Distance Learning classes and also allowing the occasional spot of recreation in the form of playing music.
It should be emphasised that these are quite small (1.5Kw) as solar installations go and yet, the effect has been striking and my colleague even talks of it being such a morale booster that it has made all the difference this term.
A while ago I was going on about Eritrea’s advantages for Solar Power, and now we have concrete evidence that it can make a huge difference. Personally, I would like to see a concerted effort to deliver thin-client technology (many more workstations run from the same power supply; units sealed against dust and heat; much better control over computer viruses) in conjunction with medium-size solar power packs to all remote schools in this country.
It won’t happen for a while. Europe will have to exhaust its supply of high-power-consumption CRT’s and PC’s before Eritrea gets significant donations of LCD’s. But, it appears, we have finally made a good start.
Foro, the school and village in question, is in the Northern Red Sea Zoba fairly close to the coast. In fact it's not far from the ancient Auxumite Red Sea port of Adulis. Here, the climate can be infernally hot and food and water have been in short supply of late all of which conspired to lower morale amongst teaching staff.
Add to that the effect of not having an electricity supply (at the school, the nearby town manages 3 hours from it's generator per day) and fighting boredom becomes another factor. However, since the installation of a solar power pack as part of the RSSP things have changed both for students and teachers of the school.
It has been found that, not only can the panels run 5 full-size computers for most of the day, they can also run lighting for all of the evening, allowing teachers to follow the MoE's Distance Learning classes and also allowing the occasional spot of recreation in the form of playing music.
It should be emphasised that these are quite small (1.5Kw) as solar installations go and yet, the effect has been striking and my colleague even talks of it being such a morale booster that it has made all the difference this term.
A while ago I was going on about Eritrea’s advantages for Solar Power, and now we have concrete evidence that it can make a huge difference. Personally, I would like to see a concerted effort to deliver thin-client technology (many more workstations run from the same power supply; units sealed against dust and heat; much better control over computer viruses) in conjunction with medium-size solar power packs to all remote schools in this country.
It won’t happen for a while. Europe will have to exhaust its supply of high-power-consumption CRT’s and PC’s before Eritrea gets significant donations of LCD’s. But, it appears, we have finally made a good start.
Saturday 21 February 2009
Monday 16 February 2009
Food Security?
Saturday morning and there's an insistent tapping at the gate. Upon opening it, it's no surprise to find "The Farmer" standing there in his suit which has seen better days. We've mentioned him before, he comes to work in our garden from time to time and is especially useful in the rainy seasons when things go wild. Outside the rainy seasons there's not much to be done, but he seems to have become one of our charity cases (yes, yes we know this does not represent the sustainable part of what we're doing here) and so we give him money, bread and bananas from time to time. Today he shows up with a broad nearly-toothless grin as usual and explains in a mixture of Italian and Tigrinya that there's just no work around in Asmara at the moment. Is it my imagination or does he look even more hollow cheeked than usual? Is his dark leathery skin stretched even tighter over his facial bones? Perhaps it's that we had been talking about hunger in the countryside just the previous evening. He apologetically takes the money on offer and leaves.
Food is never far away from the top of the list as a topic of conversation in Eritrea, even amongst the small group of diplomats we now seem to know, it's just that it's difficult to take complaints about having to use powdered milk seriously from them when the food situation is worsening for the country as a whole and powdered milk is way too expensive for the vast majority of the people.
Increasingly we seem to be seeing more people begging on the streets and there are some examples of very thin older women amongst them. They really don't look all that much more healthy than some of those featured in images from past famine campaigns. As for the rest there are very few overweight Eritreans and those that are we always suspect of being here on a visit from a developed country.
Volunteers as well almost all lose weight during their time here (once again I'm not suggesting that we have a hard life in comparison to the locals, it has to do with a switch to a mainly vegetarian diet and the odd bout of sickness) and I've started to see this in myself, though Caroline and I are virtually the only volunteers who haven't really been ill yet. I even have ribs emerging once again after years buried under layers of blubber; I should be used to it really as I was really very thin at school ... Biafran, match-stick man and carcass were just some of the (kinder) names I was called.
Back to the point, though, the food situation never seems to get better so we really don't know where this one is heading particularly combined with the ongoing lack of fuel and, in the meantime, we'll just have to keep our charity cases going as long as we can.
P
Food is never far away from the top of the list as a topic of conversation in Eritrea, even amongst the small group of diplomats we now seem to know, it's just that it's difficult to take complaints about having to use powdered milk seriously from them when the food situation is worsening for the country as a whole and powdered milk is way too expensive for the vast majority of the people.
Increasingly we seem to be seeing more people begging on the streets and there are some examples of very thin older women amongst them. They really don't look all that much more healthy than some of those featured in images from past famine campaigns. As for the rest there are very few overweight Eritreans and those that are we always suspect of being here on a visit from a developed country.
Volunteers as well almost all lose weight during their time here (once again I'm not suggesting that we have a hard life in comparison to the locals, it has to do with a switch to a mainly vegetarian diet and the odd bout of sickness) and I've started to see this in myself, though Caroline and I are virtually the only volunteers who haven't really been ill yet. I even have ribs emerging once again after years buried under layers of blubber; I should be used to it really as I was really very thin at school ... Biafran, match-stick man and carcass were just some of the (kinder) names I was called.
Back to the point, though, the food situation never seems to get better so we really don't know where this one is heading particularly combined with the ongoing lack of fuel and, in the meantime, we'll just have to keep our charity cases going as long as we can.
P
Tuesday 10 February 2009
Nothing much
Asmara is looking good, well it always looks good but especially now, as the weather is perfect – completely blue skies – and there’s flowers everywhere. That, combined with the gently decaying art deco architecture makes for a very relaxing walk to work.
Arriving at work however is something else. We are revising Grade 3, writing Grade 5 and planning Grade 8, sometimes all at the same time it feels. It’s definitely one of our busy periods. We could do with several more pairs of hands.
A few days ago I had lots of ideas for including in this blog entry, suddenly my mind has gone blank. If any of my brain cells decide to return I’ll write more later in the week.
C
Arriving at work however is something else. We are revising Grade 3, writing Grade 5 and planning Grade 8, sometimes all at the same time it feels. It’s definitely one of our busy periods. We could do with several more pairs of hands.
A few days ago I had lots of ideas for including in this blog entry, suddenly my mind has gone blank. If any of my brain cells decide to return I’ll write more later in the week.
C
Tuesday 3 February 2009
Old and New Volunteers.
-----------------------
It's almost exactly one year since we arrived in Asmara and, while work sometimes seems to progress very slowly, it's been very eventful in other ways.
We talked about the wedding of one of our original group (there were seven of us arriving together this time last year and one left in October having completed her planned short placement) last weekend - very fast work really! Well, this weekend two more of the seven left early for various reasons ... and then there were four. So we have to say "all the best" Tom in your bicycle travels in West Africa and Jennie in your new volunteer post in Uganda and that we're going to miss you.
Coincidentally, there were a couple of parties to attend on Friday evening thrown by the expat community meaning Tom was able to go out with a pretty good hangover early Sunday. With a lot of volunteers being in town and, due to the kindness of Sean and Julie, we descended en masse to take advantage of a different world complete with barbequeued sausages and shrimps; and alcohol. There was not much food left at the end (VSO's have been likened to locusts before).
In the summer our original group of seven will become only two - we still intend to stay for our two years though, I must admit, we're already planning a very long wander through North Africa and Spain on our way back to the UK delaying our return until the spring of 2010.
The cycle continues though. The six new January volunteers have finally arrived, visa problems have been sorted out, they've been welcomed by us and, after two weeks of In-Country Training, they'll be on their way to placements as far away as Barentu and Agordat in the West of Eritrea.
The Motorised Wheelchair Appeal.
--------------------------------
We haven't had quite the response we wanted and the slide of the pound versus the dollar has moved the goalposts a little but, on the other hand, our house in Cambridge has just been rented for the next two years so we feel we can make up the shortfall. Please, if you do feel like contributing, send your cheques (any currency) to the VSO address on the left - it's never too late.
For us the next step is to move on and try and find one of the machines in question even if it means having to import one ourselves ... at least we still have time.
As for Dawit - he's on the same street corner every day, still selling his small items on the street, still ready with a cheery "Kemay hadirkum?", "Dehan do?", "Serah kemay?", "Kulu tsebuq?" and so on ...
Early Morning in Asmara
-----------------------
This morning (Tuesday 3rd) up at 5:30 am and out by 6:20 due to Caroline taking a bus to the Mai Nehfi technical school on a teaching assignment. At 6:30 the streets are really empty and we almost have the sunrise to ourselves apart from a few scurrying ghostly figures (women in traditional white shawls). Such is the lack of traffic that we can clearly hear early morning birdsong and I have two thoughts - "life is not so bad" and "I really need a coffee".
P
-----------------------
It's almost exactly one year since we arrived in Asmara and, while work sometimes seems to progress very slowly, it's been very eventful in other ways.
We talked about the wedding of one of our original group (there were seven of us arriving together this time last year and one left in October having completed her planned short placement) last weekend - very fast work really! Well, this weekend two more of the seven left early for various reasons ... and then there were four. So we have to say "all the best" Tom in your bicycle travels in West Africa and Jennie in your new volunteer post in Uganda and that we're going to miss you.
Coincidentally, there were a couple of parties to attend on Friday evening thrown by the expat community meaning Tom was able to go out with a pretty good hangover early Sunday. With a lot of volunteers being in town and, due to the kindness of Sean and Julie, we descended en masse to take advantage of a different world complete with barbequeued sausages and shrimps; and alcohol. There was not much food left at the end (VSO's have been likened to locusts before).
In the summer our original group of seven will become only two - we still intend to stay for our two years though, I must admit, we're already planning a very long wander through North Africa and Spain on our way back to the UK delaying our return until the spring of 2010.
The cycle continues though. The six new January volunteers have finally arrived, visa problems have been sorted out, they've been welcomed by us and, after two weeks of In-Country Training, they'll be on their way to placements as far away as Barentu and Agordat in the West of Eritrea.
The Motorised Wheelchair Appeal.
--------------------------------
We haven't had quite the response we wanted and the slide of the pound versus the dollar has moved the goalposts a little but, on the other hand, our house in Cambridge has just been rented for the next two years so we feel we can make up the shortfall. Please, if you do feel like contributing, send your cheques (any currency) to the VSO address on the left - it's never too late.
For us the next step is to move on and try and find one of the machines in question even if it means having to import one ourselves ... at least we still have time.
As for Dawit - he's on the same street corner every day, still selling his small items on the street, still ready with a cheery "Kemay hadirkum?", "Dehan do?", "Serah kemay?", "Kulu tsebuq?" and so on ...
Early Morning in Asmara
-----------------------
This morning (Tuesday 3rd) up at 5:30 am and out by 6:20 due to Caroline taking a bus to the Mai Nehfi technical school on a teaching assignment. At 6:30 the streets are really empty and we almost have the sunrise to ourselves apart from a few scurrying ghostly figures (women in traditional white shawls). Such is the lack of traffic that we can clearly hear early morning birdsong and I have two thoughts - "life is not so bad" and "I really need a coffee".
P
Monday 26 January 2009
The Wedding
The wedding celebrations started last Thursday with the stag and hen nights. These were the British contribution to the festivities. I don’t think they are part of the Eritrean culture but were due to the groom being a Brit. In fact Sami was one of our group of volunteers who came out last January. (A year ago the day in fact) He is the youngest of the seven of us and had we been asked at the time would have been chosen as the least likely to be married within the year. His bride, Helen, is a lovely Eritrean who worked in the same school as Sami in Segeneyti. The stag night was organised by Tom and consisted of a football match (with all the players wearing Spurs shirts, and one black glove in honour of Michael Jackson, Sami’s hero,), bowling, a meal, a bar and a nightclub, everything accompanied by bottles of spirits brought in duty free by Sami’s brother. The hen night was a much more civilized affair, we had a meal and drank a toast in fizzy water.
The wedding ceremony was in an Orthodox church in Asmara on Saturday and Sami and Helen were among four couples who were being married that morning at seven o’clock , at the same time rather than one after the other. The church ceremony was a very beautiful, moving experience. There was much ululating from the women as the couples arrived, all wearing traditional cloaks over the wedding dresses and suits. Ulualating is a way of giving vent to happy joyous feelings verbally, it’s a sound only made by women, and it’s very difficult to describe. (sort of a very high pitched lalalalalalala.) I joined my women friends and covered my head and removed my shoes to enter the church on the right hand side, although once the service started men and women moved around a bit. The church was a mass of white. The traditional clothes for the women is a long white dress (nuria) and a white headscarf (netsela). You see it all the time on the streets but for special occasions women wear very beautiful versions with coloured embroidery. A lot of chanting, drums, incense and very bright colours everywhere. The walls were covered in paintings and just before the actual marriage vows the brides and grooms were dressed in yet another cloak, this one of every imaginable sparkling colour. There was much chanting by the priests (there seemed to be one main man in charge and a lot of more minor ones.)After the vows there was a huge procession round the church led by the newly married couples and rhythmic drumming. Everyone followed slowly behind with loud ululation again.
Then photos, photos and more photos. Sami and Helen drove off with the immediate family for the traditional slow drive round the main streets of Asmara behind a truck carrying the man filming them. This is a very common sight around the streets of the city every weekend. I’m told they then went off for more photos in a picturesque setting. We however headed for breakfast and coffee.
There was a big party in the evening, much ululation (again) as the couple arrived at the hotel, and then traditional food (injera) and drink (miess and sewer) and dancing (this involves a lot of shoulder movement while keeping the rest of the body still, and slowly moving round in a circle. It’s good fun once you get into it.) It was all still happening at midnight.
It was a very good day. Traditionally there is visiting of the bride and groom and more ceremony on the Sunday. We’re having a day at home doing not very much at all.
We have weaver nests in the palm trees in the garden.
C
The wedding ceremony was in an Orthodox church in Asmara on Saturday and Sami and Helen were among four couples who were being married that morning at seven o’clock , at the same time rather than one after the other. The church ceremony was a very beautiful, moving experience. There was much ululating from the women as the couples arrived, all wearing traditional cloaks over the wedding dresses and suits. Ulualating is a way of giving vent to happy joyous feelings verbally, it’s a sound only made by women, and it’s very difficult to describe. (sort of a very high pitched lalalalalalala.) I joined my women friends and covered my head and removed my shoes to enter the church on the right hand side, although once the service started men and women moved around a bit. The church was a mass of white. The traditional clothes for the women is a long white dress (nuria) and a white headscarf (netsela). You see it all the time on the streets but for special occasions women wear very beautiful versions with coloured embroidery. A lot of chanting, drums, incense and very bright colours everywhere. The walls were covered in paintings and just before the actual marriage vows the brides and grooms were dressed in yet another cloak, this one of every imaginable sparkling colour. There was much chanting by the priests (there seemed to be one main man in charge and a lot of more minor ones.)After the vows there was a huge procession round the church led by the newly married couples and rhythmic drumming. Everyone followed slowly behind with loud ululation again.
Then photos, photos and more photos. Sami and Helen drove off with the immediate family for the traditional slow drive round the main streets of Asmara behind a truck carrying the man filming them. This is a very common sight around the streets of the city every weekend. I’m told they then went off for more photos in a picturesque setting. We however headed for breakfast and coffee.
There was a big party in the evening, much ululation (again) as the couple arrived at the hotel, and then traditional food (injera) and drink (miess and sewer) and dancing (this involves a lot of shoulder movement while keeping the rest of the body still, and slowly moving round in a circle. It’s good fun once you get into it.) It was all still happening at midnight.
It was a very good day. Traditionally there is visiting of the bride and groom and more ceremony on the Sunday. We’re having a day at home doing not very much at all.
We have weaver nests in the palm trees in the garden.
C
Water again
We've written about water before. Living in Asmara we have a much easier life than people living in the villages. For that reason I'm going to quote here from the writings of another volunteer, Joe, who has lived in a small village for the last 18 months and will come to the end of his 2 year posting in the summer. He writes much more eloquently than I could.
The village pump has been broken for six months and I have, reluctantly, been left with no choice but to tell VSO not to replace me in my village when I leave. I know I did a big note about water before and I’m sorry to bang on, but the truth is I can’t help it. It dominates my life and my impression of Eritrea in a way that only the health issue comes even close to. Water access and the massive inconvenience of trekking to wells with my jerrycan at 6 a.m isn’t why I am leaving but it is a big mark in the ‘NO’ column and something I am greatly looking forward to having easy access to again.
About a month ago I was precariously balanced above a muddy, sludgy pool of water trying to fill up my jerrycan when I slipped and fell into the water. After a flash of panic (I can’t swim) I laughed aloud when I realised that the water only came up to my waist. This story is now a source of great hilarity amongst my VSO comrades and Eritrean colleagues alike, and I chuckle too; and how many people can say they’ve fallen into a well in Africa?
But it could have been much worse. Only two weeks ago a grade 3 student of my school fell into just such a well and drowned.
That boy was the sixth child under 16 years old that I know of who has died in the time that I’ve lived in my village. There may be more; double the number would not surprise me.
It is common amongst people writing about Africa to say “Life is cheaper there”. It isn’t. Eritrean mothers who lose their children grieve just as heavily as any woman but they do not abandon themselves to it in the way that we do in our culture because they do not have the luxuries of time that we have. You cry inside and out and then you pick yourself up and carry on because you have to. There are other children to feed, elderly mothers to care for, water to fetch. Animals on whom your agricultural income might depend to feed and water. Of course you will be surrounded by friends and relatives for support, at least some of whom may have been through the same trauma.
But you don’t stop. Stop your life and someone else suffers. Someone else can die.
The village pump has been broken for six months and I have, reluctantly, been left with no choice but to tell VSO not to replace me in my village when I leave. I know I did a big note about water before and I’m sorry to bang on, but the truth is I can’t help it. It dominates my life and my impression of Eritrea in a way that only the health issue comes even close to. Water access and the massive inconvenience of trekking to wells with my jerrycan at 6 a.m isn’t why I am leaving but it is a big mark in the ‘NO’ column and something I am greatly looking forward to having easy access to again.
About a month ago I was precariously balanced above a muddy, sludgy pool of water trying to fill up my jerrycan when I slipped and fell into the water. After a flash of panic (I can’t swim) I laughed aloud when I realised that the water only came up to my waist. This story is now a source of great hilarity amongst my VSO comrades and Eritrean colleagues alike, and I chuckle too; and how many people can say they’ve fallen into a well in Africa?
But it could have been much worse. Only two weeks ago a grade 3 student of my school fell into just such a well and drowned.
That boy was the sixth child under 16 years old that I know of who has died in the time that I’ve lived in my village. There may be more; double the number would not surprise me.
It is common amongst people writing about Africa to say “Life is cheaper there”. It isn’t. Eritrean mothers who lose their children grieve just as heavily as any woman but they do not abandon themselves to it in the way that we do in our culture because they do not have the luxuries of time that we have. You cry inside and out and then you pick yourself up and carry on because you have to. There are other children to feed, elderly mothers to care for, water to fetch. Animals on whom your agricultural income might depend to feed and water. Of course you will be surrounded by friends and relatives for support, at least some of whom may have been through the same trauma.
But you don’t stop. Stop your life and someone else suffers. Someone else can die.
Friday 16 January 2009
A Weekend Away
Just back from a long weekend away from Asmara when, with a one hour hop across the Red Sea, we were transported from Africa to the Middle Eastern country of Yemen.
Yemen has the title of the poorest Arab country and, to some extent, a reputation of not being the safest place to visit but knowledge of this sometimes obscures the fact that it also has a rich history, both pre-Islamic and Islamic. We were aware that that Sana'a is steeped in that history from our research beforehand but we were still not prepared for the amazing reality of the city's tall stone houses, narrow streets and busy souks.
We spent 4 nights at the Sana'a Nights Hotel (heartily recommended as a budget option) and took a one day trip out of the city in order to see a few surrounding villages and the high mountains beyond Sana'a.
Comparisons with life in Asmara were inevitable so I'll list a few differences and save you some (boring) details:
. Bread was in abundance, was being cooked in small bakeries all the time and was on sale everywhere.
. Yemen is a strict Muslim country and one of the consequences is that Yemeni women are always veiled in public - this doesn't, apparently, stop them from getting on their mobiles and pursuing the man of their dreams when necessary (as witnessed by the several phonecalls to our young driver during our day trip).
. Sana'a is a very busy place with a lot of traffic; particularly noticable are its motorcyclists for whom slowing down seems to be regarded as a sign of weakness, it makes Asmara seem very quiet.
. A large amount of the time and energy of the average Yemeni male is spent growing, trading and chewing qat.
What we also found was that, in common with Eritrea, the people were very friendly and quite anxious that foreigners take away a good impression of their country, I lost count of the number of times "Welcome in Yemen" was shouted at us.
All in all a wonderful four days and that despite Yemenia (easily) taking first prize in the worst airline food competition.
P
Yemen has the title of the poorest Arab country and, to some extent, a reputation of not being the safest place to visit but knowledge of this sometimes obscures the fact that it also has a rich history, both pre-Islamic and Islamic. We were aware that that Sana'a is steeped in that history from our research beforehand but we were still not prepared for the amazing reality of the city's tall stone houses, narrow streets and busy souks.
We spent 4 nights at the Sana'a Nights Hotel (heartily recommended as a budget option) and took a one day trip out of the city in order to see a few surrounding villages and the high mountains beyond Sana'a.
Comparisons with life in Asmara were inevitable so I'll list a few differences and save you some (boring) details:
. Bread was in abundance, was being cooked in small bakeries all the time and was on sale everywhere.
. Yemen is a strict Muslim country and one of the consequences is that Yemeni women are always veiled in public - this doesn't, apparently, stop them from getting on their mobiles and pursuing the man of their dreams when necessary (as witnessed by the several phonecalls to our young driver during our day trip).
. Sana'a is a very busy place with a lot of traffic; particularly noticable are its motorcyclists for whom slowing down seems to be regarded as a sign of weakness, it makes Asmara seem very quiet.
. A large amount of the time and energy of the average Yemeni male is spent growing, trading and chewing qat.
What we also found was that, in common with Eritrea, the people were very friendly and quite anxious that foreigners take away a good impression of their country, I lost count of the number of times "Welcome in Yemen" was shouted at us.
All in all a wonderful four days and that despite Yemenia (easily) taking first prize in the worst airline food competition.
P
Friday 2 January 2009
Death in Eritrea
I’ve just read an article by Jenni Russell in the Guardian about dealing with the death of a loved one and how modern day society does not include the coping mechanisms that previous generations had. In particular it’s talking about a lack of ability to communicate emotions between the bereaved, and their friends and associates. This was something I felt very strongly when my mother died 18 months ago and something which I often think about when I observe the rituals surrounding death in Eritrea.
The concept of newspaper obituaries does not exist here (they’re a bit short on newspapers too but that’s another story). A death is written about with a photo on a sheet of paper which is photocopied and put up on walls, shop windows etc. so that all passers-by can stop and read. At the home of the deceased a large tent is erected, in the compound if there is room but more often then not the tent covers most of the street outside. Any traffic simply has to take a different route. The tent, and often the road is filled with chairs. This remains for ten days. During that time people pay their respects by coming and sitting for any time. I’ve known people sit for only 5 minutes in the middle of a working day and return to sit for hours when they were able to. At the beginning of the mourning period the immediate family will sit for most of the day, giving way to tears and wailing when they needed to. People often do not feel the need to say anything to the family, sitting with them is felt to be enough.
A member of the Curriculum Department where I work died a few months ago and I accompanied my colleagues to the family house in the afternoon after the morning when she had died. I did not know her but it was felt that it was right, as I worked in the same place that I should go. We sat for thirty minutes in silence (in fact the tent was being erected around us as we sat – everyone gave a hand) and then went back to work. My colleagues returned several times over the next few days.
The situation provides a great atmosphere of empathy and support, spoken or unspoken , as the individual feels appropriate. To me it seems to bridge the gap, which I felt very acutely with my mother’s death, between a loved one being there and then suddenly not being there.
C
The concept of newspaper obituaries does not exist here (they’re a bit short on newspapers too but that’s another story). A death is written about with a photo on a sheet of paper which is photocopied and put up on walls, shop windows etc. so that all passers-by can stop and read. At the home of the deceased a large tent is erected, in the compound if there is room but more often then not the tent covers most of the street outside. Any traffic simply has to take a different route. The tent, and often the road is filled with chairs. This remains for ten days. During that time people pay their respects by coming and sitting for any time. I’ve known people sit for only 5 minutes in the middle of a working day and return to sit for hours when they were able to. At the beginning of the mourning period the immediate family will sit for most of the day, giving way to tears and wailing when they needed to. People often do not feel the need to say anything to the family, sitting with them is felt to be enough.
A member of the Curriculum Department where I work died a few months ago and I accompanied my colleagues to the family house in the afternoon after the morning when she had died. I did not know her but it was felt that it was right, as I worked in the same place that I should go. We sat for thirty minutes in silence (in fact the tent was being erected around us as we sat – everyone gave a hand) and then went back to work. My colleagues returned several times over the next few days.
The situation provides a great atmosphere of empathy and support, spoken or unspoken , as the individual feels appropriate. To me it seems to bridge the gap, which I felt very acutely with my mother’s death, between a loved one being there and then suddenly not being there.
C
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