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
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