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