Thinking again about some of our postings we seem to have become a little complacent about what's around us. Please don't get the wrong impression, Asmara is an amazing place and Eritrea's semi-desert / rift valley scenery has an awe-inspring austere beauty.
This was reinforced by a conversation I had last week with a (slightly drunk and lost) English tourist who was quite knocked out by the cleanliness of Asmara to say nothing of the 1930's and 40's architectural gems. The other big selling point for him was not feeling threatened at all as a stranger walking the streets of a city he didn't know - this is, after all, Africa's safest capital city.
So we would say by all means visit Eritrea but be prepared to stay in accommodation which is clean and tidy but not right at the top of the range (Eritrea's only luxury hotel, the Asmara Intercontinental, is now closed and has an uncertain future. Even that was hardly 5-star). It ranges from the Albergo Italia a beautiful, recently renovated, old Italian hotel in the centre of town (prices in $) through basic clean hotels to pensions (clean, very cheap but very basic) and the Appleby Holden bed in a corner of the living room (clean and very welcoming.) Also be prepared to forego a few of what are life's luxuries here (good wine, good beer, top-quality food) but be prepared to spend some currency, Eritrea badly needs it.
In summary, the visitor finds a country which on the one hand is poor and whose population has to put up with many trials and tribulations (once again there are further observations which we could make but which, as volunteers working in education, we prefer to avoid) but on the other hand has friendly, honest people who get on with life under trying circumstances. Tourism is undeveloped here so no viable beach resorts yet. From an eco-tourism point of view perhaps there is an angle ... come and see how people whose carbon / consumer footprint is a fraction of your own lives.
Oh and one last word; Asmara's climate at this time of year is excellent, cool nights and bright, sunny, not-too-warm days so perhaps this should be the time to visit?
P (with contributions from C)
Monday, 27 October 2008
Monday, 20 October 2008
English as a Medium of Education
Off to a workshop this morning on the use of English as a content language (as opposed to a subject.) All classes here from grade 6 upwards are taught in English and it poses a lot of problems: the standard of English teaching in Grades 1 to 5 needs to be improved as the majority of students go into Grade 6 with only a smattering of English, certainly not enough to do all their schoolwork in. We’re currently rewriting the course books but there’s so much more involved – the standard of the teaching (not just down to the teachers as their working and living conditions leave a lot to be desired, those finishing off their national service get 140 Nakfa – 5 pounds a month, they’re doing the best they can.) Teacher training is far too short without enough resources, there’s not enough schools – in a lot of areas there are two school shifts a day, morning and afternoon and even with that only a small percentage of the children are getting regular schooling. And then on top of all that all classes suddenly get presented in English from Grade 6! It places a huge strain on students and teachers.
There needs to be much more involvement between English as a Subject and English for Content, the National Curriculum is committed to it but it’s a tough one. The workshop this morning is a starting point, trying to get a dialogue going between the different curriculum writers and educationalists. The tough bit, as always, is getting the changes at grass roots level.
Sorry if I‘m rambling on a bit. At the moment my life seems to be split between working and sleeping. I think I need another holiday, or at the very least an evening in the pub (dream on Caroline)
C
There needs to be much more involvement between English as a Subject and English for Content, the National Curriculum is committed to it but it’s a tough one. The workshop this morning is a starting point, trying to get a dialogue going between the different curriculum writers and educationalists. The tough bit, as always, is getting the changes at grass roots level.
Sorry if I‘m rambling on a bit. At the moment my life seems to be split between working and sleeping. I think I need another holiday, or at the very least an evening in the pub (dream on Caroline)
C
Saturday, 11 October 2008
ICT work update
Summer training is over and we're now engaged in activities to move a couple of the Ministry's projects along. About 100 donated laptops are being set up for moving out to those schools in the Rural Schools Solar Project phase 1 and the solar power kits are now in Asmara and ready for their arduous journeys to the far corners of Eritrea. So it looks as if I may be on the road again for a while quite soon.
Meanwhile the first attempt at the infrastructure for the MOE website is now done. We eventually went for a simple homegrown implementation with rudimentary content management for our initial Ministry-only offering as opposed to using a recognised heavier weight product such as Chisimba or Joomla. Now we need to both get agreement and gather page content from the Ministry's departments before we can open the site to the outside world, no small task - I can see it taking another few months and a lot of chasing people down!.
Asmara Observations
-------------------
Asmara is frequently described in terms of its Italian Art Deco architecture. We were sent a surprisingly positive article from the NY Times this week which contained all the usual cliches on the subject of sherbet-coloured buildings and the spaceship nature of the Fiat Tagliero together with a description of the train ride - all largely true. Yet, Eritrean village life is only just under the surface here and lack of money means that extended families often live together in spaces which were not exactly designed for the purpose.
Each working day we walk about 4 miles a day (2 round trips to and from work) on a back street route through some of what were Italian neighbourhoods - plenty of sherbet-coloured buildings. If you look behind the gates you see that the larger parcels of land, both residential and former industrial, house multiple families and chickens and goats are commonly kept (cockerels crowing in the morning are our frequent alarm clock). It's almost like there are numerous small villages in the city. Similarly the larger Italian-era buildings often house a number of families. Elsewhere empty land and gardens are used for growing vegetables - cabbages and corn amongst others.
P
Meanwhile the first attempt at the infrastructure for the MOE website is now done. We eventually went for a simple homegrown implementation with rudimentary content management for our initial Ministry-only offering as opposed to using a recognised heavier weight product such as Chisimba or Joomla. Now we need to both get agreement and gather page content from the Ministry's departments before we can open the site to the outside world, no small task - I can see it taking another few months and a lot of chasing people down!.
Asmara Observations
-------------------
Asmara is frequently described in terms of its Italian Art Deco architecture. We were sent a surprisingly positive article from the NY Times this week which contained all the usual cliches on the subject of sherbet-coloured buildings and the spaceship nature of the Fiat Tagliero together with a description of the train ride - all largely true. Yet, Eritrean village life is only just under the surface here and lack of money means that extended families often live together in spaces which were not exactly designed for the purpose.
Each working day we walk about 4 miles a day (2 round trips to and from work) on a back street route through some of what were Italian neighbourhoods - plenty of sherbet-coloured buildings. If you look behind the gates you see that the larger parcels of land, both residential and former industrial, house multiple families and chickens and goats are commonly kept (cockerels crowing in the morning are our frequent alarm clock). It's almost like there are numerous small villages in the city. Similarly the larger Italian-era buildings often house a number of families. Elsewhere empty land and gardens are used for growing vegetables - cabbages and corn amongst others.
P
Monday, 6 October 2008
Celebrity
I had some difficulty trying to explain to Serebe, a work colleague, the fascination of the West and in particular the UK and America, with the minutiae of the lives of the rich and famous. He watches a regular satellite TV program and often, on switching it on early catches the program before, which is devoted to a paparazzi-style following of some celebrity over a twenty-four hour period. He was completely at a loss as to why anyone should be remotely interested in someone’s daily routine, be they famous or not. I have to say that my attempts to explain, involving descriptions such as boredom, escapism, the wish to be horrified by the bad taste and habits of well-known figures sounded negative and unconvincing even to my ears (who has been known to pick up and pore over the odd copy of Hello.) Serebe felt it was a concept completely unknown here, maybe because people have more pressing needs to attend to.
We got on to talking about the of being famous for being famous, aka Big Brother, and finally got into the realms of the surreal. Try explaining the concept behind the Big Brother house to someone who has never seen it and lives within a culture where big family groups living in one room, and consideration and respect for everyone, is the norm. By the end of the conversation I think Serebe felt sympathy for people living in the celebrity hungry culture of the West and I have to say I agreed with him.
We’re told it’s been unseasonably cold the last few days. It’s very hot in the sun but shivery the moment you walk in the shade or the sun goes behind a cloud. We’ve put a quilt on the bed tonight.
C
We got on to talking about the of being famous for being famous, aka Big Brother, and finally got into the realms of the surreal. Try explaining the concept behind the Big Brother house to someone who has never seen it and lives within a culture where big family groups living in one room, and consideration and respect for everyone, is the norm. By the end of the conversation I think Serebe felt sympathy for people living in the celebrity hungry culture of the West and I have to say I agreed with him.
We’re told it’s been unseasonably cold the last few days. It’s very hot in the sun but shivery the moment you walk in the shade or the sun goes behind a cloud. We’ve put a quilt on the bed tonight.
C
Monday, 29 September 2008
one week of the two years
So, the end of another week, they’re passing so quickly. It’s been a very full week at work, full of meetings and trying to get a report of the pilot study on the new Grade 3 book in. The report is a joint effort by the whole team, due in last week but as usual, still a work in progress. No matter, it will be finished next week.
Cooked a veggie curry for friends last Sunday. In my usual manner I cooked enough to feed an army so it kept us going for food until Wednesday, I like it when that happens, so nice to get in from work and not have to think about preparing vegetables, especially on a Monday.
We took Tuesday morning off to get our spare gas bottle filled. We’ve got kerosene too, started using it for rice and pasta to save on gas. Also got a small pane of broken glass in our front door fixed, it’s coloured glass which I guess is why it cost so much – 585 Nakfa – half of my monthly salary – couldn’t really manage without the VSO top-up. The glass place is just down the road and run by an elderly Italian lady. Her father came here to Eritrea in 1934 and she was born here. Everyone we meet here has a story to tell.
Wednesday, the usual walk to work at 7.30, sun, lots of greetings from school children and our regulars, overcrowded busses, big 4-wheel drives, sheep, bicycles, and the last of the beles sellers (season is almost over.) The farmer came to cut our grass at lunch-time. The amount he cuts is limited by what he can carry on the back of his bike to take for his animals. He’s done something nasty to his legs – 2 abscesses - and needed some help. We weren’t sure what he was asking for, Phil’s Italian wasn’t up to it so we gave him 100 Nakafa which we hoped would cover medical expenses. After work went out to the Roof Garden with other volunteers for a meal. It’s not somewhere we go very often, Cliona came out with “I’d forgotten how swanky it is here, there’s no flies” as we sat down. She’s classy.
Thursday, just another day at work. Got very upset about some family news. It’s at times like this I feel a long way away.
Friday, the usual breakfast of porridge, bananas and sweet tea and off to work. Lunch break is at 11.30 on Friday so we get an extra 30 minute’s sleep after eating. Walking home we discussed whether to go via one of our local shops for weekend shopping, “no” I heard myself saying, “we’ve got three carrots, two courgettes and tomatoes, if we have eggs tonight that should do us for Sunday.” How things have changed. I seem to remember at some time in another lifetime we used to do a big supermarket shop on a Saturday morning …
And before anyone starts feeling sorry for us I should add that we’ve been invited to a dinner at the Ambassador’s residence on Saturday evening. Not quite sue why we’ve been invited, possibly as a VSO presence as there is no Country Director in the country at the moment, and I think invites have gone out to other aid agencies and NGOs, but at the very least it’s a good opportunity to stock up on protein (Andrea and Chris – that’s supposed to be a joke.)
Always up early on Saturday, the dustcart comes at any time from 7 onwards and you have to be ready to take your rubbish out to them – the concept of dustbins doesn’t really exist. Spent three hours cleaning, having got rid of the cockroaches once we're not giving them any excuse to come back, then hot shower and hair wash (our once a week luxury – great), lunch (fata - bread with silsi - tomato, chilli and onion)with a friend at Massawa Fast Food - our local cafe and slobbing for the rest of the afternoon.
C
Cooked a veggie curry for friends last Sunday. In my usual manner I cooked enough to feed an army so it kept us going for food until Wednesday, I like it when that happens, so nice to get in from work and not have to think about preparing vegetables, especially on a Monday.
We took Tuesday morning off to get our spare gas bottle filled. We’ve got kerosene too, started using it for rice and pasta to save on gas. Also got a small pane of broken glass in our front door fixed, it’s coloured glass which I guess is why it cost so much – 585 Nakfa – half of my monthly salary – couldn’t really manage without the VSO top-up. The glass place is just down the road and run by an elderly Italian lady. Her father came here to Eritrea in 1934 and she was born here. Everyone we meet here has a story to tell.
Wednesday, the usual walk to work at 7.30, sun, lots of greetings from school children and our regulars, overcrowded busses, big 4-wheel drives, sheep, bicycles, and the last of the beles sellers (season is almost over.) The farmer came to cut our grass at lunch-time. The amount he cuts is limited by what he can carry on the back of his bike to take for his animals. He’s done something nasty to his legs – 2 abscesses - and needed some help. We weren’t sure what he was asking for, Phil’s Italian wasn’t up to it so we gave him 100 Nakafa which we hoped would cover medical expenses. After work went out to the Roof Garden with other volunteers for a meal. It’s not somewhere we go very often, Cliona came out with “I’d forgotten how swanky it is here, there’s no flies” as we sat down. She’s classy.
Thursday, just another day at work. Got very upset about some family news. It’s at times like this I feel a long way away.
Friday, the usual breakfast of porridge, bananas and sweet tea and off to work. Lunch break is at 11.30 on Friday so we get an extra 30 minute’s sleep after eating. Walking home we discussed whether to go via one of our local shops for weekend shopping, “no” I heard myself saying, “we’ve got three carrots, two courgettes and tomatoes, if we have eggs tonight that should do us for Sunday.” How things have changed. I seem to remember at some time in another lifetime we used to do a big supermarket shop on a Saturday morning …
And before anyone starts feeling sorry for us I should add that we’ve been invited to a dinner at the Ambassador’s residence on Saturday evening. Not quite sue why we’ve been invited, possibly as a VSO presence as there is no Country Director in the country at the moment, and I think invites have gone out to other aid agencies and NGOs, but at the very least it’s a good opportunity to stock up on protein (Andrea and Chris – that’s supposed to be a joke.)
Always up early on Saturday, the dustcart comes at any time from 7 onwards and you have to be ready to take your rubbish out to them – the concept of dustbins doesn’t really exist. Spent three hours cleaning, having got rid of the cockroaches once we're not giving them any excuse to come back, then hot shower and hair wash (our once a week luxury – great), lunch (fata - bread with silsi - tomato, chilli and onion)with a friend at Massawa Fast Food - our local cafe and slobbing for the rest of the afternoon.
C
Football and Eagles
I'm still going to Saturday football practice where I get the chance to run around in the sun for a couple of hours before it gets too hot. It's great fun and I'm currently convincing myself that, having lost a little weight due to the famous Eri-diet, I'm getting fitter. We play on a pitch, at the back of Den Den Secondary school, which used to have grass and which still has a few patches but which is mainly stony grit. Normally we start by running round the field a few times, then we do a few exercises in the dust and rising heat followed by playing a game for an hour or so.
To return to the eagle theme (we think they're tawny eagles); there were five of them wheeling and swooping over the pitch just before we started this morning (had they been vultures I have been worried and might have suspected they'd identified me as the best bet). It turned out that one of them had caught something and the others were harassing it. Eventually a lifeless grey object (a rat we thought) was dropped in the centre circle as if in preparation for some kind of game (the Asmara raptor challenge?) but it wasn't long before it was picked up again at speed - a really magnificent sight.
P
To return to the eagle theme (we think they're tawny eagles); there were five of them wheeling and swooping over the pitch just before we started this morning (had they been vultures I have been worried and might have suspected they'd identified me as the best bet). It turned out that one of them had caught something and the others were harassing it. Eventually a lifeless grey object (a rat we thought) was dropped in the centre circle as if in preparation for some kind of game (the Asmara raptor challenge?) but it wasn't long before it was picked up again at speed - a really magnificent sight.
P
Friday, 19 September 2008
Back in Asmara
Our South African sojourn is over and we are back at work. We spent about a week in total in Cape Town and travelled around the Western Cape for the remainder with a 3-night stay at a game reserve being the highlight, animals in the wild are pretty amazing really. South Africa as a country has a lot going for it in terms of natural resources and infrastructure but a long way to go to fully remove all the legacies of apartheid. In essence two societies run in parallel with non-whites still largely living in townships. Furthermore the same labels (Black, Coloured, White) are still used by people to refer to themselves let alone others. It seems to us that integration will take a few generations to achieve but efforts are being made. On the other hand Cape Town is a place where we could live and SA really is a fascinating country.
Here in Asmara, 15 new VSO volunteers have arrived and are just finishing their "In-Country Training" so a big welcome to them and best wishes for a productive placement. It seems our doom and gloom posting about the lack of Lamba (Kerosene) for cooking was a little premature since it is available again now - probably due to falling oil prices on the global markets. We have also been assured that VSO is working to secure a supply in case of future scarcity. There is also a strong rumour that Asmara Beer is about to re-appear, we've heard that one before, though.
After you're in a place for a while you get a bit blase about what's under your nose. We've been raving about the wildlife we saw in South Africa but I was hanging out the washing the other morning and idly watching a large bird circling an adjacent garden menacingly ... it was a tawny eagle and they seem to be very common over Asmara just now, it's just brilliant the way they can hang in the air. When I asked one of my colleagues if he knew why there seem to be a lot of them low in the skies at this time of year he said "Young Asmarinos don't notice that kind of thing, we're too busy watching girls." - I'm not sure if that was a gentle reprimand, an insult or just an observation.
P
Here in Asmara, 15 new VSO volunteers have arrived and are just finishing their "In-Country Training" so a big welcome to them and best wishes for a productive placement. It seems our doom and gloom posting about the lack of Lamba (Kerosene) for cooking was a little premature since it is available again now - probably due to falling oil prices on the global markets. We have also been assured that VSO is working to secure a supply in case of future scarcity. There is also a strong rumour that Asmara Beer is about to re-appear, we've heard that one before, though.
After you're in a place for a while you get a bit blase about what's under your nose. We've been raving about the wildlife we saw in South Africa but I was hanging out the washing the other morning and idly watching a large bird circling an adjacent garden menacingly ... it was a tawny eagle and they seem to be very common over Asmara just now, it's just brilliant the way they can hang in the air. When I asked one of my colleagues if he knew why there seem to be a lot of them low in the skies at this time of year he said "Young Asmarinos don't notice that kind of thing, we're too busy watching girls." - I'm not sure if that was a gentle reprimand, an insult or just an observation.
P
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