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
Monday, 18 May 2009
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
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