Phil and Caroline with VSO in Eritrea

Last Post (from Phil)

2009-12-23T16:36:00.005Z

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 ...

Tigre children, She'eb

The Last Post (from Caroline)

2009-12-16T12:47:00.000Z

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

Schools' Solar Power – Last Update?

2009-12-10T06:43:00.004Z

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.

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

Graduation Eritrea-Style

2009-11-17T12:06:00.005Z

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

Our 2008 Christmas Appeal – Thanks to all our contributors

2009-11-06T07:06:00.004Z

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

A Walk on the Wild Side

2009-10-17T12:44:00.004+01:00

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.

An Intake of Breath

2009-10-02T13:12:00.004+01:00

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.

The End of Summer Training

2009-09-22T13:10:00.008+01:00

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:

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

Happy New Year

2009-09-10T13:45:00.000+01:00

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

Bits

2009-09-04T06:33:00.000+01:00

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

Rain

2009-08-25T07:58:00.000+01:00

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 Eritrea Festival

2009-08-04T06:25:00.000+01:00

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

Who is the anonymous person?

2009-07-22T12:30:00.002+01:00

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

Eritrea Wildlife

2009-07-22T12:14:00.000+01:00

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

it's wet

2009-07-06T12:52:00.000+01:00

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

It’s ICT teaching time

2009-07-02T15:41:00.002+01:00

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

Becoming Eritrean

2009-06-24T13:38:00.001+01:00

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

Waiting for Rain

2009-06-18T06:29:00.001+01:00

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

Our Situation

2009-06-09T14:49:00.002+01:00

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

Another day in Asmara

2009-05-28T09:15:00.000+01:00

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

Asmara children

2009-05-18T12:58:00.000+01:00

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

Out of Africa - Maybe

2009-05-12T07:51:00.001+01:00

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

School Visits

2009-05-06T12:49:00.002+01:00

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.

Another week passes ...

2009-04-25T12:57:00.002+01:00

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

The Motorised Wheelchair Campaign

2009-04-16T06:12:00.000+01:00

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:

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

out of town for the weekend

2009-04-13T09:20:00.000+01:00

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

Walking In Eritrea

2009-04-03T06:19:00.000+01:00

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

Water Rationing

2009-03-23T12:13:00.006Z

Just a quick one - Google Alerts told us that my previous article had been picked up by someone from 'capitaleritrea.com' and cited as reporting water shortages in Asmara.

Well that's kind of what it did, but I think I should point out that we're probably just seeing the results of a sensible water-rationing program, just now, given that we are in that time before the rains.

And yes, so far it's only really caused me more effort fetching and carrying buckets from our garden stand-pipe and it's really not much worse than the water efforts which have to be made here year-round.

The main point of the previous post was our consternation over work-permits, of course.

P

Getting near to The End?

2009-03-21T12:50:00.008Z

Before getting to the point, just a note to say that Caroline realises that, following a particularly plaintive Facebook status update, she now owes a lot of people replies to emails. However the MoE’s internet connections disappeared a couple of days ago and she can’t get to the British Council due to the flu this weekend. So she asks for patience.

To get closer to the subject above our worries about both Eritrea and VSO’s programme here were magnified by our water tank choosing to remind us this week that it’s not bottomless after all. So we’re using the now-trickling garden tap when we can and we’re in the world of bucket flushes and solar showers (actually those are spectacularly good, bordering on the too hot if you use them immediately).

Before I say any more let’s just calm the cries of “you Asmarinos always have it so easy and now you’re complaining about lack of running water” or similar, from other Eritrea volunteers. Yes, it was just a crude device to introduce a theme - OK?

Of course it just symbolises the way we're feeling and, in fact, Eritrea battles constantly with water shortages as volunteers in remoter parts will tell you. Now the shortages have reached Asmara, in large part due to it being the time of year just before the rainy seasons have really got going.

The big news concerns the new volunteers who arrived in January and who have now been told they are not going to be given work permits. Meaning they are not going to be given residence permits, meaning they are going home. Quite apart from the impact on somebody’s life who has given up a job, maybe a home and said goodbye to friends expecting to be away for a prolonged period this must also have implications across the board for VSO here … we just don’t know exactly what yet.

Ironically, I received an email from VSO London asking if I would be prepared to be interviewed by an online IT magazine (it was sent to all current IT volunteers, I think). The resulting article would probably be along the lines of “How some IT people side-stepped the recession and saved the world at the same time while simultaneously avoiding being mired in self-pity following redundancy” (I may have over-extrapolated there). For me it wasn't like that, though. We have been saying we would "do VSO" someday for years and finally got around to initiating the process in early 2006 - quite a long time before the financial industry noticed that it had accidentally underpinned it's entire being with trillions of dollars-worth of unrecoverable debt.

So I would feel a bit of a fraud responding. Perhaps I should just reply asking for ideas on where my next volunteer / NGO IT job could be.

Interesting times, watch this space!

Climate change and East Africa
------------------------------
I had intended that the above be the post but ... I had a lot of rubbish going around in my head this week – best to let it out!

Having read George Monbiot's latest post on climate change and thinking about Eritrea's constant battle with water shortages I was just wondering how raised global temperatures and accompanying shifts in climate patterns might affect this region given that it is already on the edge (in more ways than one) climatically.

I know that it's not that simple given the interwoven complexities of this planet's dynamic systems and that the region could become wetter but what if a small shift sent things the wrong way? A few years of missed rain and it's Sahara-time for at least the Eritrean lowlands.

Historically migration due to shifts in climate patterns must have been the norm and, in fact, a lot of the lowland peoples here are semi-nomadic. But there's a problem: in recent times arbitrary borders have become more important and greatly increased human populations mean much more contention for resources. So what was once a normal migration pattern now becomes a border violation and a fight with a sitting population.

Forced migration due to climate change must be coming to this region sooner or later; let's face it we need more conflict here!

On the other hand, if you take the really pessimistic view that it's already too late, that the Earth's systems are so large and have such inertia that winding them back with the quite pathetic measures that are being mooted is impossible, that the planet's human population is already way too large then maybe it will only be small, remote, groups of people who use resources efficiently who will survive the mass starvation to come and this region will have to populate the world again in a few hundred thousand millenia ... after the Earth has cooled again.

Ok, Ok I'll try and stick more to what I know next time.

P

Of rain and books

2009-03-17T14:15:00.001Z

The small rainy season has arrived and the ground smells wonderful. Let’s hope the rains are good this year. Last year they weren’t and the food situation in the countryside is very bad now.

In the UK I take a constant supply of reading material for granted. Libraries and bookshops have always been a constant in my life. There is a huge supply of books in the VSO office passed on by volunteers over the years and I am possibly reading more now than ever. And I take it as normal. Yet to Eritreans a book is a luxury. An English novel given to a student was accepted as if it was golddust, and read by the time of the next lesson, a week later. I am constantly asked by colleagues for novels. The male friend who asked yesterday told me that he particularly liked to read detective stories. However most men, when asked what they like to read will say “love stories” (honestly!) and give Danielle Steele as their favourite author. I’ve no idea how this came about but as far as I’m concerned any reading is better than no reading so I’m happy to feed their habit.

C

Crisis what crisis?

2009-03-12T08:21:00.002Z

It's time for another bit of a rant I'm afraid.

Reading the online versions of newspapers it really does seem as if the developed world is falling apart. Things will get worse before they get better, economic suicides are on the rise, job losses are on the increase. Crime, especially cybercrime, is predicted to rise as legitimate means to make a living become scarcer and now (and this is the really horrific part) the world's richest people are getting poorer.

Here, in a country with no major means of earning foreign currency and with limited reliance on aid, the effects of a global downturn are more difficult to see. The variety of foodstuffs on offer is already small, the streets are already largely traffic-free and people already wear shoes and clothing until they fall apart.

And yet why is it that in a country which, on the world scene, also gets nothing but(probably deserved) bad press, the people are friendly, help each other when they can and live their lives to a high moral standard? Life grinds on at the same low level, prices go up and nobody ever gets pay rises (not since 1991 in the case of public employees) but nobody steals and most people just get on with life with a cheery disposition. Some things just defy explanation.

When we eventually leave Eritrea I, for one, will look at life in the developed world through different eyes. I'm sure that the whole thing will appear as one vast orgy of consumption even in the depressed state it will still be in in 2010. For example, I will look at the city streets packed with traffic and wonder why billions of dollars were set aside to rescue a motor industry which needs to shrink and change drastically before resources to run its products run out and before it chokes the atmosphere (yes, I'm still on the I can breathe a lot better in Asmara soapbox).

On the other hand I'll probably buy a new computer (well I still think we can solve all problems with technology) and add to the mountains of discarded electronic equipment and I'll probably put back the 7 kilos or so lost here, in one massive beer and bacon ingestion.

And then there's the question: in the unlikely event that one is available, do I really WANT another job in the banking industry? Perhaps we'll become serial volunteers (what I'd really LIKE to do is to help with a database / GIS project in a development - as in developing world - situation), hopefully it's still too early to have to make decisions / approaches but things can change.

Sorry for the unstructured ramble.

P

International Women's Day

2009-03-05T14:35:00.002Z

A coffee ceremony was announced at work this morning for 10 o’clock to celebrate International Women’s Day on Sunday. By 11 o’clock we got started. Most people from the curriculum panels were there, it was basically just an opportunity to sit around, talk and eat cake. And talk in Tigrinya. There were about 80 men there, 8 Eritrean women, and me. Apparently they really wanted me to be there as the sole international woman, however no concessions were made. All the speeches were in Tigrinya. When I could eat no more cake I slipped out.

Women’s Day is a big event here. It’s a public holiday unless it happens to fall at the weekend, which is the case this year (no days in lieu either) and it is given a lot of publicity. But a woman’s lot is a mixed one here. Women fought alongside men in the Struggles and do hold some important jobs but this is generally only apparent in Asmara. In the textbook writing there is a gender fair policy which is scrupulously adhered to, yet there is a huge drop-out rate among girls in junior school due to early marriages and being needed to help at home. In spite of being outlawed a couple of years ago FGM is still practised. It is true that these sorts of change, which are rooted in the culture, take time and education to bring about. Unfortunately there are many people who will pay lip service to this spirit of emancipation but who, when pinned down, will defend the old ways as being “the way we have always done things.” As if that has ever been a defence.

We celebrate International Women’s Day here. That’s a good start.

C

Rays of Hope?

2009-02-27T12:43:00.001Z

Time for an upbeat post, though you can be sure that it won't be all positive! I've been talking to a teacher, also a VSO volunteer, from one of our Rural Schools Solar Power (RSSP) project schools and it's worth summarising what she said since the effect of getting one of the installations has been galvanising.

Foro, the school and village in question, is in the Northern Red Sea Zoba fairly close to the coast. In fact it's not far from the ancient Auxumite Red Sea port of Adulis. Here, the climate can be infernally hot and food and water have been in short supply of late all of which conspired to lower morale amongst teaching staff.

Add to that the effect of not having an electricity supply (at the school, the nearby town manages 3 hours from it's generator per day) and fighting boredom becomes another factor. However, since the installation of a solar power pack as part of the RSSP things have changed both for students and teachers of the school.

It has been found that, not only can the panels run 5 full-size computers for most of the day, they can also run lighting for all of the evening, allowing teachers to follow the MoE's Distance Learning classes and also allowing the occasional spot of recreation in the form of playing music.

It should be emphasised that these are quite small (1.5Kw) as solar installations go and yet, the effect has been striking and my colleague even talks of it being such a morale booster that it has made all the difference this term.

A while ago I was going on about Eritrea’s advantages for Solar Power, and now we have concrete evidence that it can make a huge difference. Personally, I would like to see a concerted effort to deliver thin-client technology (many more workstations run from the same power supply; units sealed against dust and heat; much better control over computer viruses) in conjunction with medium-size solar power packs to all remote schools in this country.

It won’t happen for a while. Europe will have to exhaust its supply of high-power-consumption CRT’s and PC’s before Eritrea gets significant donations of LCD’s. But, it appears, we have finally made a good start.

2009-02-21T12:15:00.002Z

I've been playing around with the blog settings (time to kill in the British Council - the only place with fast enough internet access) and I've now opened up comments and added followers - just in case anyone out there is even vaguely interested.

C

Food Security?

2009-02-16T06:10:00.002Z

Saturday morning and there's an insistent tapping at the gate. Upon opening it, it's no surprise to find "The Farmer" standing there in his suit which has seen better days. We've mentioned him before, he comes to work in our garden from time to time and is especially useful in the rainy seasons when things go wild. Outside the rainy seasons there's not much to be done, but he seems to have become one of our charity cases (yes, yes we know this does not represent the sustainable part of what we're doing here) and so we give him money, bread and bananas from time to time. Today he shows up with a broad nearly-toothless grin as usual and explains in a mixture of Italian and Tigrinya that there's just no work around in Asmara at the moment. Is it my imagination or does he look even more hollow cheeked than usual? Is his dark leathery skin stretched even tighter over his facial bones? Perhaps it's that we had been talking about hunger in the countryside just the previous evening. He apologetically takes the money on offer and leaves.

Food is never far away from the top of the list as a topic of conversation in Eritrea, even amongst the small group of diplomats we now seem to know, it's just that it's difficult to take complaints about having to use powdered milk seriously from them when the food situation is worsening for the country as a whole and powdered milk is way too expensive for the vast majority of the people.

Increasingly we seem to be seeing more people begging on the streets and there are some examples of very thin older women amongst them. They really don't look all that much more healthy than some of those featured in images from past famine campaigns. As for the rest there are very few overweight Eritreans and those that are we always suspect of being here on a visit from a developed country.

Volunteers as well almost all lose weight during their time here (once again I'm not suggesting that we have a hard life in comparison to the locals, it has to do with a switch to a mainly vegetarian diet and the odd bout of sickness) and I've started to see this in myself, though Caroline and I are virtually the only volunteers who haven't really been ill yet. I even have ribs emerging once again after years buried under layers of blubber; I should be used to it really as I was really very thin at school ... Biafran, match-stick man and carcass were just some of the (kinder) names I was called.

Back to the point, though, the food situation never seems to get better so we really don't know where this one is heading particularly combined with the ongoing lack of fuel and, in the meantime, we'll just have to keep our charity cases going as long as we can.

P

Nothing much

2009-02-10T08:48:00.001Z

Asmara is looking good, well it always looks good but especially now, as the weather is perfect – completely blue skies – and there’s flowers everywhere. That, combined with the gently decaying art deco architecture makes for a very relaxing walk to work.

Arriving at work however is something else. We are revising Grade 3, writing Grade 5 and planning Grade 8, sometimes all at the same time it feels. It’s definitely one of our busy periods. We could do with several more pairs of hands.

A few days ago I had lots of ideas for including in this blog entry, suddenly my mind has gone blank. If any of my brain cells decide to return I’ll write more later in the week.

C

2009-02-03T12:18:00.000Z

Old and New Volunteers.
-----------------------
It's almost exactly one year since we arrived in Asmara and, while work sometimes seems to progress very slowly, it's been very eventful in other ways.

We talked about the wedding of one of our original group (there were seven of us arriving together this time last year and one left in October having completed her planned short placement) last weekend - very fast work really! Well, this weekend two more of the seven left early for various reasons ... and then there were four. So we have to say "all the best" Tom in your bicycle travels in West Africa and Jennie in your new volunteer post in Uganda and that we're going to miss you.

Coincidentally, there were a couple of parties to attend on Friday evening thrown by the expat community meaning Tom was able to go out with a pretty good hangover early Sunday. With a lot of volunteers being in town and, due to the kindness of Sean and Julie, we descended en masse to take advantage of a different world complete with barbequeued sausages and shrimps; and alcohol. There was not much food left at the end (VSO's have been likened to locusts before).

In the summer our original group of seven will become only two - we still intend to stay for our two years though, I must admit, we're already planning a very long wander through North Africa and Spain on our way back to the UK delaying our return until the spring of 2010.

The cycle continues though. The six new January volunteers have finally arrived, visa problems have been sorted out, they've been welcomed by us and, after two weeks of In-Country Training, they'll be on their way to placements as far away as Barentu and Agordat in the West of Eritrea.

The Motorised Wheelchair Appeal.
--------------------------------
We haven't had quite the response we wanted and the slide of the pound versus the dollar has moved the goalposts a little but, on the other hand, our house in Cambridge has just been rented for the next two years so we feel we can make up the shortfall. Please, if you do feel like contributing, send your cheques (any currency) to the VSO address on the left - it's never too late.

For us the next step is to move on and try and find one of the machines in question even if it means having to import one ourselves ... at least we still have time.

As for Dawit - he's on the same street corner every day, still selling his small items on the street, still ready with a cheery "Kemay hadirkum?", "Dehan do?", "Serah kemay?", "Kulu tsebuq?" and so on ...

Early Morning in Asmara
-----------------------
This morning (Tuesday 3rd) up at 5:30 am and out by 6:20 due to Caroline taking a bus to the Mai Nehfi technical school on a teaching assignment. At 6:30 the streets are really empty and we almost have the sunrise to ourselves apart from a few scurrying ghostly figures (women in traditional white shawls). Such is the lack of traffic that we can clearly hear early morning birdsong and I have two thoughts - "life is not so bad" and "I really need a coffee".

P

The Wedding

2009-01-26T11:26:00.000Z

The wedding celebrations started last Thursday with the stag and hen nights. These were the British contribution to the festivities. I don’t think they are part of the Eritrean culture but were due to the groom being a Brit. In fact Sami was one of our group of volunteers who came out last January. (A year ago the day in fact) He is the youngest of the seven of us and had we been asked at the time would have been chosen as the least likely to be married within the year. His bride, Helen, is a lovely Eritrean who worked in the same school as Sami in Segeneyti. The stag night was organised by Tom and consisted of a football match (with all the players wearing Spurs shirts, and one black glove in honour of Michael Jackson, Sami’s hero,), bowling, a meal, a bar and a nightclub, everything accompanied by bottles of spirits brought in duty free by Sami’s brother. The hen night was a much more civilized affair, we had a meal and drank a toast in fizzy water.

The wedding ceremony was in an Orthodox church in Asmara on Saturday and Sami and Helen were among four couples who were being married that morning at seven o’clock , at the same time rather than one after the other. The church ceremony was a very beautiful, moving experience. There was much ululating from the women as the couples arrived, all wearing traditional cloaks over the wedding dresses and suits. Ulualating is a way of giving vent to happy joyous feelings verbally, it’s a sound only made by women, and it’s very difficult to describe. (sort of a very high pitched lalalalalalala.) I joined my women friends and covered my head and removed my shoes to enter the church on the right hand side, although once the service started men and women moved around a bit. The church was a mass of white. The traditional clothes for the women is a long white dress (nuria) and a white headscarf (netsela). You see it all the time on the streets but for special occasions women wear very beautiful versions with coloured embroidery. A lot of chanting, drums, incense and very bright colours everywhere. The walls were covered in paintings and just before the actual marriage vows the brides and grooms were dressed in yet another cloak, this one of every imaginable sparkling colour. There was much chanting by the priests (there seemed to be one main man in charge and a lot of more minor ones.)After the vows there was a huge procession round the church led by the newly married couples and rhythmic drumming. Everyone followed slowly behind with loud ululation again.

Then photos, photos and more photos. Sami and Helen drove off with the immediate family for the traditional slow drive round the main streets of Asmara behind a truck carrying the man filming them. This is a very common sight around the streets of the city every weekend. I’m told they then went off for more photos in a picturesque setting. We however headed for breakfast and coffee.

There was a big party in the evening, much ululation (again) as the couple arrived at the hotel, and then traditional food (injera) and drink (miess and sewer) and dancing (this involves a lot of shoulder movement while keeping the rest of the body still, and slowly moving round in a circle. It’s good fun once you get into it.) It was all still happening at midnight.

It was a very good day. Traditionally there is visiting of the bride and groom and more ceremony on the Sunday. We’re having a day at home doing not very much at all.

We have weaver nests in the palm trees in the garden.

C

Water again

2009-01-26T11:17:00.000Z

We've written about water before. Living in Asmara we have a much easier life than people living in the villages. For that reason I'm going to quote here from the writings of another volunteer, Joe, who has lived in a small village for the last 18 months and will come to the end of his 2 year posting in the summer. He writes much more eloquently than I could.

The village pump has been broken for six months and I have, reluctantly, been left with no choice but to tell VSO not to replace me in my village when I leave. I know I did a big note about water before and I’m sorry to bang on, but the truth is I can’t help it. It dominates my life and my impression of Eritrea in a way that only the health issue comes even close to. Water access and the massive inconvenience of trekking to wells with my jerrycan at 6 a.m isn’t why I am leaving but it is a big mark in the ‘NO’ column and something I am greatly looking forward to having easy access to again.

About a month ago I was precariously balanced above a muddy, sludgy pool of water trying to fill up my jerrycan when I slipped and fell into the water. After a flash of panic (I can’t swim) I laughed aloud when I realised that the water only came up to my waist. This story is now a source of great hilarity amongst my VSO comrades and Eritrean colleagues alike, and I chuckle too; and how many people can say they’ve fallen into a well in Africa?

But it could have been much worse. Only two weeks ago a grade 3 student of my school fell into just such a well and drowned.
That boy was the sixth child under 16 years old that I know of who has died in the time that I’ve lived in my village. There may be more; double the number would not surprise me.
It is common amongst people writing about Africa to say “Life is cheaper there”. It isn’t. Eritrean mothers who lose their children grieve just as heavily as any woman but they do not abandon themselves to it in the way that we do in our culture because they do not have the luxuries of time that we have. You cry inside and out and then you pick yourself up and carry on because you have to. There are other children to feed, elderly mothers to care for, water to fetch. Animals on whom your agricultural income might depend to feed and water. Of course you will be surrounded by friends and relatives for support, at least some of whom may have been through the same trauma.
But you don’t stop. Stop your life and someone else suffers. Someone else can die.

A Weekend Away

2009-01-16T11:41:00.000Z

Just back from a long weekend away from Asmara when, with a one hour hop across the Red Sea, we were transported from Africa to the Middle Eastern country of Yemen.

Yemen has the title of the poorest Arab country and, to some extent, a reputation of not being the safest place to visit but knowledge of this sometimes obscures the fact that it also has a rich history, both pre-Islamic and Islamic. We were aware that that Sana'a is steeped in that history from our research beforehand but we were still not prepared for the amazing reality of the city's tall stone houses, narrow streets and busy souks.

We spent 4 nights at the Sana'a Nights Hotel (heartily recommended as a budget option) and took a one day trip out of the city in order to see a few surrounding villages and the high mountains beyond Sana'a.

Comparisons with life in Asmara were inevitable so I'll list a few differences and save you some (boring) details:
. Bread was in abundance, was being cooked in small bakeries all the time and was on sale everywhere.
. Yemen is a strict Muslim country and one of the consequences is that Yemeni women are always veiled in public - this doesn't, apparently, stop them from getting on their mobiles and pursuing the man of their dreams when necessary (as witnessed by the several phonecalls to our young driver during our day trip).
. Sana'a is a very busy place with a lot of traffic; particularly noticable are its motorcyclists for whom slowing down seems to be regarded as a sign of weakness, it makes Asmara seem very quiet.
. A large amount of the time and energy of the average Yemeni male is spent growing, trading and chewing qat.

What we also found was that, in common with Eritrea, the people were very friendly and quite anxious that foreigners take away a good impression of their country, I lost count of the number of times "Welcome in Yemen" was shouted at us.

All in all a wonderful four days and that despite Yemenia (easily) taking first prize in the worst airline food competition.

P

Death in Eritrea

2009-01-02T11:30:00.000Z

I’ve just read an article by Jenni Russell in the Guardian about dealing with the death of a loved one and how modern day society does not include the coping mechanisms that previous generations had. In particular it’s talking about a lack of ability to communicate emotions between the bereaved, and their friends and associates. This was something I felt very strongly when my mother died 18 months ago and something which I often think about when I observe the rituals surrounding death in Eritrea.

The concept of newspaper obituaries does not exist here (they’re a bit short on newspapers too but that’s another story). A death is written about with a photo on a sheet of paper which is photocopied and put up on walls, shop windows etc. so that all passers-by can stop and read. At the home of the deceased a large tent is erected, in the compound if there is room but more often then not the tent covers most of the street outside. Any traffic simply has to take a different route. The tent, and often the road is filled with chairs. This remains for ten days. During that time people pay their respects by coming and sitting for any time. I’ve known people sit for only 5 minutes in the middle of a working day and return to sit for hours when they were able to. At the beginning of the mourning period the immediate family will sit for most of the day, giving way to tears and wailing when they needed to. People often do not feel the need to say anything to the family, sitting with them is felt to be enough.

A member of the Curriculum Department where I work died a few months ago and I accompanied my colleagues to the family house in the afternoon after the morning when she had died. I did not know her but it was felt that it was right, as I worked in the same place that I should go. We sat for thirty minutes in silence (in fact the tent was being erected around us as we sat – everyone gave a hand) and then went back to work. My colleagues returned several times over the next few days.

The situation provides a great atmosphere of empathy and support, spoken or unspoken , as the individual feels appropriate. To me it seems to bridge the gap, which I felt very acutely with my mother’s death, between a loved one being there and then suddenly not being there.

C

Happy New Year

2008-12-30T14:23:00.000Z

The VSO party was held on Christmas eve and, despite minimal alcohol, went very well (secret santa, a Christmas quiz and carol singing being the highlights). On Christmas day itself about twenty of us went to the Albergo Italia, formerly the Keren Hotel, for a meal (not a traditional Christmas one but really good all the same).

On Boxing Day we headed out to spend a couple of nights in Massawa on Eritrea's Red Sea coast. We splashed out and hired a private minibus for our group of 10 (8 volunteers and two visitors) and we travelled via Filfil, Eritrea's cloud-forest area and most spectacular route.

Down at the coast it's much warmer than in Asmara just now, a very pleasant 30C, and we found the Red Sea easily warm enough to swim in and to snorkel around the small coral reefs adjacent to "Green Island" just off Massawa.

We also spent one evening eating fresh fish in the open air at the Salam Restaurant, Massawa. Selected individually, gutted, then cooked over an open fire before being served whole, the fish was absolutely delicious, although one of our number (who shall remain nameless) had to cover the eye of hers with a piece of bread before she could eat. For some reason the greater part of Massawa's cat population was in attendance at our table, all adding to the atmosphere.

We're getting close to the end of our first year in Asmara and, of course, it's nearly 2009 so all the best to everyone for the New Year and let's hope everyhing gets better in terms of the global economy.

For ourselves we don't really have much in the way of wishes for the New Year it's just that we hope to be able to continue here until the end of our respective placements (end of 2009 or early 2010) and after that who knows? It looks as if I may have to accept that there won't be another City of London job, so more volunteering / NGO work may be on the cards.

For Eritrea it's more difficult to express wishes for the New Year without overt criticism and that we're not going to do in accordance with our wish to remain here in 2009. So we'll just say that we hope for some reverse in the current downward trends, that we hope that Eritrea's youth will have more opportunity to use their education in their home country, that we hope that Eritrea's people will be allowed to follow their faith (no matter which one,) that we hope that there will be more freedom of expression allowed and we hope that everyone in the country will have enough to eat in 2009.

Rhus Hadish Amet!

P and C

24th December 2008

2008-12-24T08:36:00.000Z

So it’s Christmas Eve in Asmara and much more Christmasy than you might think – there’s tinsel and decorated trees everywhere, and I’m wished a Happy Christmas by everyone I speak to, regardless of their faith. There’s a VSO Christmas party tonight and a big group of us are having lunch out tomorrow. We’ve taken Friday off and ten of us are heading down to Massawa for the weekend.

Almost half way through our posting here. Time flies etc. etc.

A very Happy Christmas to all our readers!

C

Sunday

2008-12-15T06:18:00.000Z

Sunday morning in Asmara dawns very chilly as usual, but a completely blue sky and sun means the temperature rises pretty quickly. A bit of a lie-in this morning, seems to be the only day we get one. I spend half an hour preparing my writing lesson with Henok while Phil does some revision for his Tigrigna lesson. Both of the lessons are an hour and a half from 11 and then we’re free for the day.

We decided to go for a walk today and follow the old railway line through Asmara. The railway was built by the Italians and originally ran from Massawa on the coast up to Asmara, looped around the city and then went to Keren. The only remaining functioning track is between Asmara and Nefasit (about 10k down the escarpment). We did the steam train journey there and back six months ago and a memorable journey it was. Today’s outing was a bit more mundane as very little of the track remains, in fact we only saw a couple of feet of it where it broke the surface of the dirt track, or in one case the sealed road. The most common use of the old track bed seems to be as a thoroughfare or makeshift football pitch. We almost managed to follow the track to the station but then were stopped by a stone wall which the track had no problem disappearing under so decided to call it a day and go for a cappuccino. The steam train coming up from the coast and winding its way around the art deco buildings of Asmara must have been a wonderful sight although unfortunately probably only the Italians rode the train. I don’t know this for a fact but as only the Italians were allowed to use the main Asmara roads (the Eritreans had to use the back roads) it is probably true. Another method employed by the Italians to keep the locals in their place was that Eritreans were not allowed to study beyond Grade 4 in school. The only positive thing that the British ever did for Eritrea was to include Eritreans in the full educational system.

It’s Christmas in less than a fortnight, I keep forgetting and then get reminded by a decorated Christmas tree in a shop window. It’s a strange thing to see as the Coptic Christmas, which is celebrated here is not until January 7th. The 25th December is a holiday as well so we sort of get a double Christmas.

C

A Busy Weekend.

2008-12-09T11:29:00.004Z

It was a three day weekend due to the Muslim holiday of Eid and a very sociable one for us what with an invitation to Dawit's place for coffee on Saturday, a final farewell to John the outgoing VSO Country Director, my Sunday Tigrinya lesson, Caroline's Sunday English lesson (in different directions, of course), the arrival of a 14-year old boy on our doorstep with a new-year present and the arrival of Cliona for her last few days in Eritrea with her Hagaz (Anseba) days now behind her and South America on the horizon.

Dawit is our polio-victim friend (on whose behalf we're collecting for a motorised tricycle - we still need more money by the way!) and we went to his house on Saturday afternoon. Really we knew that we wouldn't get away with just a coffee it's not the Eritrean way but, in denial, we ate a Massawa Fast Food lunch shortly before going. Of course it wasn't long before we realised lunch was a big mistake as fresh papaya juice, injera, two types of goat stew, fried potatoes were laid before us, followed by coffee and popcorn - all delicious and we couldn't really do it justice.

So this is one of the problems (this time it's a good problem) with Eritrea - house guests are treated like royalty no matter how poor the family (a goat was probably killed on Saturday in our honour) and so feelings of guilt creep in once more. However, I was told by another Eritrean friend not to feel guilty about taking food and that in fact one must accept what has been prepared and be enthusiastic about it (this latter is not difficult).

Due to friends and family being around as well we learned a little more about Dawit's history and the total lack of funding available for any kind of help. He was unable to attend school after the age of 14 due to lack of facilities. He is, indeed, not eligible for any support from the government or any other funding body.

From the rest of the discussions it is apparent that this is going to become a full-blown Dawit-mobility project and that we will be involved in the purchase of whichever vehicle is selected. I am starting to feel that we may get out of our depth insofar as Dawit should possibly be assessed for ability to be able to handle a motorised vehicle in the first place and should definitely receive training so the whole thing could take a lot of time. Still that means more possibility to gather more contributions ... you'll be hearing more about this we're not going to let it drop!

P

We had to leave in time to meet up John at Cinema Roma (lovely old Art Deo cinema built by the Italians) for the football and then he was caught up in meetings and couldn't make it so I ended up watching a very boring game of football (Fulham and someone else) with Phil. Slept a bit too. Saw John later and he gave us a lump of Waitrose strong Cheddar cheese. Delicious, salivating at the thought of it now. He's off to work in South Africa for a few months and we, in Eritrea await the arrival of a new Country Director.

Re my Sunday English lesson - its academic writing to a young colleague of Phil's who's just starting a distance uni. course. It gives me someting to do while Phil has his Tigrigna lesson.

C

Eritrea Frustrations (Part 1)

2008-12-02T04:56:00.000Z

One of the problems with living in what amounts to a Military State is that foreigners have to obtain permission in the form of travel permits in order to go anywhere of any distance from Asmara. It's quite strange that volunteers living away from Asmara (who are only here to try and help, after all) have to apply to be able to travel between the capital and their placements.

For us it's not just a matter of "let's just pop down to Massawa this weekend" (lack of a bus notwithstanding) such excursions have to be planned at least 10 days in advance. Furthermore there are desinations in the country which are, arbitrarily it seems to us, out of bounds.

We thought it would be OK at first but it's starting to feel confining now and it's one of the things that we would change about Eritrea if we could.

The travel permit situation has got worse since we've been here I think. When we arrived it was "up to 10 days" to get one, now it's definitely "10 days". Volunteers working outside Asmara used to be allowed 6 months permits, this has now been reduced to 2 or 3 months which means they have to come back into Asmara to get new ones. Without a valid permit army checkpoints will make you get off the bus and not allow you to finish your journey. Thid could leave you stranded in the middle of the country, something which happened to Richard. He had a 3 month permit but unfortunately the stamp on the permit had changed over the three months. A lot of the checkpoint soldiers cannot read and so only have the stamp to go on and if that doesn't look right you're off the bus (no arguing with an AK47.) Luckily for him a VSO vehicle was coming along the road and was able to pick him up and take him back to Asmara. It is a reminder (if you needed one) of the amount of state control.

C and P

Mai, Mai everywhere

2008-11-24T06:09:00.000Z

Eritrea is part of the Sahel, a zone of scrubby semi-desert which lies to the South of the Sahara and, despite heavy rains at certain times of year (the actual time varies depending on the zone within the country), water shortage is a constant fact of life.

Such shortage and a creaking water delivery system mean that water is never constantly available even in Asmara and, to act as a reservoir for the majority of the time when mains water is off, Asmara houses usually have large water tanks somewhere on their roofs.

Given that water is so precious you can imagine our consternation last Saturday when we came home to find it cascading onto the tiles at the side of our house. After clambering onto the roof in the dark I managed to ascertain that the ball-cock in our tank wasn't working properly and the tank was overflowing onto the roof. So, I thought, let's just shut off the supply at the stop-cock further upstream. That wasn't working at all so the flow couldn't be stopped now panic was setting in.

Back on the roof I managed to break the arm of the stop-cock completely in an effort to force it shut and in the meantime our reserve-reserve chemical-drum-tank was nearly full of overflow water collected in a bucket. Eventually I managed to stop up the leak with a rag.

What I couldn't believe was the feeling of guilt at letting so much water run away and this was compounded this weekend when the valve on the toilet cistern failed to close and we failed to notice it resulting in an empty roof tank this time. Then the tank filled to overflow again. I'm actually aching from carrying buckets and shinning up onto the roof repeatedly. Yet our water access is really easy compared to most of Eritrea where water comes from boreholes and often has to be carried home several kilometers.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is that leaks and spills can turn into major events here. Now if only that plumber would actually come and do the repairs as he said he would ...

P

Solar Power in Eritrea

2008-11-15T11:46:00.000Z

I read a BBC article this week which was a report on an interview given by Philip Rosedale, founder of Second Life virtual world, in which he was asked what his technology dreams and predictions were. His response centred on electricity and the changes which will have to be made in moving to a more distributed model of power generation if the world is to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels. This in a week where we have seen more power cuts than usual even in Asmara (we don't know if this is policy to reduce oil consumption at Eritrea's only power station but it could be).

In a way it's good to be part of a shift to Solar Power in my (minor) participation in the Rural Schools' Solar Power Project but it represents a lot of work for quite a number of people just to get a few panels out to where they are needed. The BBC article indirectly raises a lot of questions for the poorer countries in Africa, particularly those who don't have a great relationship with the world's biggest technology country, the US.

So here's the fantasy. Here, in Eritrea, there are two observations that you can make - the sun shines a lot and the country cannot afford to buy much oil on the world markets no matter what the prevailing price is. It is also true that large numbers of Eritrea's people are off the grid in any case. So wouldn't it be great if a mega-rich (fortune from technology?) philanthropist were to step in and fund the Solar Power Revolution in Eritrea? While we're at it we could introduce other technologies in a big way - Geographical Information Systems to find the optimum sites for larger installations (the intersection of maximum hours of sunshine, land unused for anything else and proximity to population centres). Internet centres and libraries throughout the country.

The reality? This region is perceived as being too unstable for investment of such enormous magnitude. Eritrea also feels the need to control information and movement of people (just try using a GPS device as a foreigner here) so internet access and the gathering of data will remain difficult. Furthermore countries who owe Eritrea big-time in terms of assistance with previously-arbitrated border disputes and (in the case of UK) in terms of technology removal as unmerited war reparation will continue to fail to provide official support.

But we can all dream.

P

Monday morning

2008-11-10T06:45:00.000Z

I’m sitting in the office by myself, working, after a weekend of sickness and feeling sorry for myself. Feeling better today but slightly resent the wasted weekend. Everyone else has gone to collect the Grade 4 cassettes which we’ve just been told are finally ready for collection from the studios. I’m not sure why all three had to go but I guess I might see them later.

Killed a cockroach in the bathroom, eight hours later the ants had dissected it and carried it away. Good creatures ants. Very organised. They seem to be everywhere at the moment. Any crumb of food that gets dropped soon develops several pairs of legs and starts moving across the floor.

Phil has a grazed nose from playing football, a wound he wears with pride.

C

Christmas Appeal

2008-11-01T11:45:00.004Z

Please read further this is not one of our pathetic requests for chocolate, neither is it anything at all to do with VSO's programme in Eritrea we just thought we'd try and help someone whom we meet most days, who always greets us happily and who lets us practice our bad Tigrinya on him but who has never been able to walk in his life and, incidentally, whose father was an amputee, a victim of Eritrea's war of independence.

First a little background; Eritrea has conducted annual vaccination programs against preventable childhood diseases since 1980 gradually reaching more and more of the population and has all but succeeeded in eliminating the common ones - neonatal tetanus, diptheria, measles and so on - including polio which has not been seen in Eritrea since 1997 apart from isolated imported cases.

Unfortunately vaccination programs came too late for Dawit who is now in his late twenties and who now gets around his local neighborhood in a wheelchair due to childhood polio. Furthermore he does not qualify for any government assistance in the same way that war veterans do. He has, however, ambitions to be able to travel further afield and is hoping to be able to raise the money to buy a motorised tricycle (40,000 Nakfa - a small fortune in Eritrea) via donations.

However 40,000 Nfa is only around 1,500 GBP so we thought we'd try and raise it from people we know (we don't really expect strangers to put their trust in a web appeal but if you feel you can trust us ...). The main problem is collection of funds but, given we have time, this is what we've come up with as a plan of action:

We will contribute the first 500 GBP from our savings to get the ball rolling.

Please send your donations to us at the VSO address to the left.

Please send cheques ONLY - please DO NOT send cash as it is illegal to import undeclared currency into Eritrea.

Please make cheques out to either Phil Appleby or Caroline Holden or both.

We will then send donated cheques to the UK for payment into our UK bank account (you'll have to trust us on this one).

Then we will draw Nakfa in Eritrea by changing UK bank cheques at a foreign exchange bureau.

If we have funds in excess of what we need it all goes to Dawit to cover running and maintenance costs.

Once we have reached the stage where the tricycle has been purchased we will try to post photos to show the money has been well-spent.

We realise that times are harder for everyone just now and that the response to the discreet appeal for funds for VSO which has been on this page for a long time has been less than stellar (apart from two gentlemen who live in Singapore and Tokyo - THANKS GUYS!). But, we're not asking for all that much from each person and you'll feel better we promise.

One last thing - if you do feel that you can contribute then please let us know via email when sending a cheque so that we can follow-up and check our post.

Visting Asmara and Eritrea

2008-10-27T05:17:00.000Z

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)

English as a Medium of Education

2008-10-20T06:33:00.000+01:00

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

ICT work update

2008-10-11T13:50:00.000+01:00

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

Celebrity

2008-10-06T06:45:00.000+01:00

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

one week of the two years

2008-09-29T06:43:00.004+01:00

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

Football and Eagles

2008-09-29T06:15:00.000+01:00

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

Back in Asmara

2008-09-19T14:22:00.001+01:00

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

Bye for Now

2008-08-21T15:41:00.000+01:00

Kerosene is back and seems to be in plentiful supply. Panic over for now.

Unfortunately, without a television, the Olympics have passed us by. It does sound, from the BBC, as if we’ve missed a good one. Next time …

We’re going on holiday. We’ll be back online in three weeks.

2008-08-16T14:07:00.001+01:00

I was supposed to go to Keren for another week of workshops. This time, to 400 teachers in groups of 40 over six days (with no resources available, a book familiarisation workshop with no books, but that’s par for the course). The trouble was, we weren’t to get the back until next Saturday afternoon and buses from Keren to Asmara are notoriously unreliable at the moment. Usually this wouldn’t matter, it’s normal to wait 2 or three hours for a bus and if after all that you don’t get on one, you come back the next day. However , in this case we’ve got to be at the airport very early on the Sunday morning, we’ve got a three-week holiday in South Africa. I really wasn’t prepared to take the chance of not being able to get on a bus on Saturday and so said I could do the workshop until Friday. For some reason this wasn’t acceptable, and so now I’m not going to Keren at all. I feel really bad about it, as if I’m letting my colleagues down . Not sure what else I could have done. The atmosphere at work was very frosty for the rest of the day. I bought cakes for everyone yesterday and they’ve started talking to me again but still feel bad.

Having a games evening at Anne’s house tonight. My first game of Scrabble for months, I’m very excited.

Got chatting to a family last night, the mother and children had come for a holiday to visit her brother who lives here and has just been demobbed from the army. We asked where she lived and she replied Cambridge. Yet another surreal moment, talking about Cherry Hinton Road, just round the corner from where we lived.

C

A teacher's life here is not an easy one.

2008-08-11T12:05:00.001+01:00

The last six days have been spent helping my colleagues in the curriculum department run a workshop for teachers from all over Eritrea. Ostensibly the workshop was to introduce teachers to the new Grades 4 (for students aged 10) and 7 (students aged 13) textbook and teacher’s guide.

This was planned to be done through training them in the teaching methodologies with the new books as the classroom resources. It was complicated by the Grade 7 books not being ready at the printers (not entirely their fault, they had been very late in being submitted) so we had to print out a copy of the books and get photocopies. As the cost of photocopying is high we were restricted to 5 copies. There were 25 teachers in the class so large groups were the order of the day.

As I said, these 25 teachers came from all over Eritrea, chosen from the five different areas (zobas). They were expected to go back to their respective zobas and cascade their knowledge down to chosen teachers from schools who in turn would give workshops within the schools. It all sounds great in theory and cascading is a sound recognised way of disseminating knowledge .However there is one big stumbling block – those five photocopied copies of the textbook and teacher’s guides will be the only versions of the book available for the next few months. This means that these teachers will be working to introduce others to a book of which there is only one copy per zoba (encompassing many many schools!). There is no way the zobas will be able to afford photocopying costs. A bit of a nightmare situation.

The teachers in our workshop were, rightly, very upset and vehement in their protests but what could we do but apologise and try to find ways to enable them to give their workshops? (e.g. working from the contents page, book map and one lesson from the book – hardly ideal!). The teachers are wonderful, dedicated people but they really are batting against the odds here.

C

Fuel and Food Again

2008-08-11T07:51:00.000+01:00

We try to be positive about life in Eritrea and, indeed, there are many positives. The ICT training which I am in the middle of (this time it's for school directors) throws up positives all the time and is much appreciated by our students. For myself, I am finding I am having to go back to school myself in order to have the information at my finger tips so that I can field the barrage of questions. For example I have spent today (Sunday) trying to become much more familiar with the Microsoft Access database in order to be able to take a group through a simple design for a school database next week - it's one thing to be able to use software but quite another to be able to TEACH how to use it.

However there are negatives, and they are related to our recurrent themes of recent weeks. The few volunteers left in the country just now have increasing concerns about what the new volunteers due in September will find. Will they be able to cook for example? Rural volunteers all use kerosene stoves and there is very little kerosene around just now, it's rationed and you have to have a ration card and be prepared to queue for a long time once you know that there has been a delivery - not ideal for someone who is new in the country to face in their first days here.

Food items seem to dwindle constantly, bani (staple brown bread rolls) are in shorter supply than anyone can remember and, in rural areas, the variety of available food is really small. It is noticeable that rural volunteers lose weight in Eritrea and the teachers and school directors who come in for ICT training from the lowlands are almost all very thin - I'm not sure if it's malnutrition just yet but it hasn't been one of the great rainy seasons and Eritrea lives on the edge in terms of food production, if the crops fail ...

P

Due to worries about the incoming volunteers, existing volunteers have been asking the local VSO staff about the shortages, particularly the lack of cooking fuel, and their effect on the programme in Eritrea and we've not really received any reassurances (although to be fair there is very little that they can say). We're seriously starting to wonder if VSO will be able to continue here if at least the fuel shortages cannot be alleviated.

P and C

Massawa

2008-07-31T08:07:00.000+01:00

Last weekend, as Caroline has already described, we headed down to the coast to the port of Massawa on the Red Sea and then to Gergusum, a beach hotel nearby to try and relax in the infernal heat.

It’s difficult to know how to describe the Old Town which occupies a small island. It looks like what I might imagine an old Arabian port to be but a lot of its buildings were rebuilt by the Italians after a devastating earthquake in 1921. Wile Asmara, with its Italian art-deco glories which are now decaying slowly for lack of investment, avoided war damage Massawa took it in the neck in 1990, during the struggle, and is now almost a ghost city.

I have previously referred to the over-use of the phrase "war-torn" when the media mentions Eritrea, well for Massawa it is appropriate though the use of photos of the city (a barefoot child alongside a devastated building is the usual one) to illustrate current articles is perhaps out of place since Massawa's wounds are old ones.

Incredibly, amongst the ruins, people live a precarious existence with structural collapse never far away. The guidebook we have refers to a couple of wooden structures, a famous balcony and the remains of the canopy from a covered walkway in the bazaar section both of which now seem to have gone. We hope temporarily but, in the case of the former, there seemed to be a lot of old wood piled up behind the building. Given that Eritrea is one of the world's poorest countries it seems that Massawa will never be rebuilt and, like Asmara, its destiny will be to rot away though from a very different starting place.

P

A Weekend Away

2008-07-28T09:21:00.000+01:00

Just back from a long weekend in Massawa, one of Eritrea’s 2 main ports and beach resorts. Spent a day in the war-ravaged old town, beautiful and tragic at the same time. More of this from Phil later. And a hedonistic day at the beach. Water was an incredible temperature, not just warm, it was hot. Unlike an English beach where the sea is usually an occasion for a quick swim to keep warm and then out, the Red Sea provided the backdrop for social gatherings, Everywhere you looked around you in the water, people were meeting up, shaking hands, and conversing. The hum of conversation was everywhere. The beach was pretty empty, much too hot to stay there (apart from for the camels, which replaced donkeys as the seaside ride of choice) and we spent our day eating drinking, frolicking in the waves and reading.
Talked to lots of Eritrean families from overseas, we were surrounded by American, Swedish and North London accents which we still haven’t got used to and made several new friends. Up early yesterday (Sunday) and were on the 6.20 bus back to Asmara and rain.

C

Feeling better

2008-07-21T06:48:00.002+01:00

Feeling a lot better today. The black bird has moved away. All part of the the culture adjustment process I'm sure. Thank you for your support.

C

ICT Training

2008-07-19T09:15:00.000+01:00

I have just come to the end of my first two weeks of ICT training; we taught level 3 of a training program largely initiated by one of my predecessors (Tim Wehrle) and it seemed to be a mainly positive time.

Mostly the training was well received (we will need to make some changes where the course content seemed too diffcult) and my Eritrean teaching colleagues presented most of the course, which seems quite sustainable to me. The format included a lot of hands-on lab work which allowed me to remain fully involved despite my lack of local language and, as I knew, I need to work on my computer hardware knowledge!

The problem for some of the teachers is that they go back to schools which have no computers (and no electricity in some cases - the Solar Power packs are eagerly awaited!) - but the commitment seems to be there to keep investing time and effort in learning computer skills.

P

Rainy Season Blues

2008-07-18T15:42:00.001+01:00

I’m feeling a bit down at the moment, maybe it’s the grey skies and rain although I do try to join in the general happiness at the sight of rain. I’m also starting to question just how much difference we (volunteers) can make. All the Eritreans I speak to seem very pessimistic about the future and the longer I’m here the more I agree with them. And we’ve got it easy in comparison.

Having spent four weeks in almost daily trips to the M of Ed., our employers, we’ve been allocated a bottle of gas. Bureaucracy rules here. Suffice it to say that even the Indian teachers here (of whom there are many) complain of it. It’s been a hard slog but worth it to be able to cook again. Stupidly we hadn’t got our ration cards sorted so weren’t able to get any kerosene when it made a brief appearance at the gas stations last week.

Four more vols leaving in the next week, two for ever, two going home for the hols. We’re looking forward to meeting the new volunteers coming in September, there’s fourteen on the list of being offered placements but so far only four have accepted. Don’t let me put you off with my moaning, I’m a slightly depressive sort of person, we’d love to have you here and I promise to be more up-beat when I meet you.

C

Another Saturday in Asmara

2008-07-12T10:19:00.001+01:00

The big rainy season is here and it’s wet. There’s a huge difference in temperature as soon as the sun goes, due to the altitude I guess. I’m wearing fleeces and a jacket and it’s supposed to be the middle of summer in Africa.

Beles everywhere.

Not many other vols around, most of them were working in or with schools and have come to the end of their postings. They’ve either gone back to the UK for good or for a two month break. Phil and I continue to work!

C

More about global economics

2008-07-05T12:43:00.000+01:00

An article from this week's Guardian prompts more naive analysis of what's going on. According to a leaked World Bank report it appears that I was wrong to give the turning over of agricultural land to the production of biofuels such a minor role in the current world food crisis it seems that it's responsible for a 75% increase in food staple prices since 2002. Remember this has a real and immediate impact on African countries which have no economic safety buffer - should biofuels lose their "sustainable source" label?

So what to do about it? At a simplistic level it seems to me that the economic model espoused by the US and it's economic followers is premised on growth ... forever. But agricultural land, fossil fuels and potable water are finite and, as more countries develop, there is more pressure on them and we seem to have reached some sort of turning point.

Eritrea, along with other African nations, is feeling the effects right now with shortages in fuel, bread, milk and (perhaps less importantly) beer ingredients already evident. The developed countries will hardly suffer in comparison.

But really is it not time for developed countries to feel a prolonged and deep recession? Is it not logical that development on the one hand must be matched by shrinkage on the other (given limited resources) if we are to achieve a more equitable balance?

To change the subject we now have more photos on the albums site – please take a look!

P

2008-07-05T12:42:00.002+01:00

The beles are in town, in more ways than one.

Beles is the Eritrean (Tygrinya I think but I’m not sure) word for prickly pears. They come into season for a short time in the summer and have suddenly appeared in piles on every street corner. Often on all 4 corners of an intersection. You can’t move for beles. For 50 santeems your beles will have the top chopped off and be peeled and held out to you, often by a small child, and it’s absolutely delicious. Sweet, juicy and just what you need on a hot walk back to work.

However beles is also the word Eritreans use for members of the diaspora, returning for a visit to friends and family for a short time in the summer. I can’t vouch for them being sweet and juicy but there does seem to be a lot of them and I guess they will only be around for a short time. Judging by their accents a lot have come from North America. They bring a much-needed source of revenue into the country.

Although as one of my Eritrean colleagues remarked yesterday, the money is no good if there’s no availability and there certainly isn’t much availability here. She’s recently returned from her first visit to England (working) and was recounting her amazement at the abundance of foodstuffs available. And we’re not talking luxury items here, she has two very young children and talked about wishing she could have set up a pipe line to send milk and bread back to them. Apart from the milk and bread shortage, there now seems to be an acute shortage of cooking fuel, there’s no gas, kerosene or charcoal to be had. Our gas cylinder will run out this weekend and that will mean no more cooking until supplies become available. Rumour has it that supplies are being stockpiled but who knows.

C

Food and Fuel

2008-06-28T13:21:00.001+01:00

Not much to say this week so I might just have a rant about the general world fuel and food situations; situations which mean that Eritrea feels the pinch more than most countries (though nobody really complains and life goes on).

Taking rubbish out to the dust-cart on a Saturday morning in Asmara you see how little people throw out and almost none of it is food waste – 30% of food is thrown out in “developed” countries?

We find ourselves being much more frugal; not least because gas and paraffin to cook on are both in short supply, but we don’t throw any food away at all now.

People walk and cycle in this city out of necessity and the too-few buses are always very crowded. Just before I left the UK an ex-colleague bought a 4WD car which, at a push, will do 18mpg. I can breathe in Asmara, I sometimes feel choked in London - due to Asthma.

Development, modernisation and wealth mean much more consumption (it should be called over-consumption) and now not enough oil can be pumped for world needs. I also read that the commoditisation of food is partly causing global prices to rise and that turning over land to the production of bio-fuels is making the situation worse.

So what am I talking about? Well I know that the above is seriously unstructured and not even an argument … but I suppose I’m trying to say that living here I’m starting to see things differently (though I would have always called 18mpg irresponsible).

P

Grass and the VSO Country Director

2008-06-19T07:58:00.003+01:00

A farmer, having cut next door’s grass, asked to do ours, an offer we readily accepted. It’s been growing rapidly in the last month, almost cutting off the path to the front door and, I suspect, being resposible for my of sneezing fits. We’d intended going to the market to try and find shears. There’s a big metal working market where you can usually find some version of what you need and if you can’t they will offer to improvise. So the coming of the farmer was fortuitous. Our neighbour told us we shouldn’t pay the farmer as he needed the grass for animal feed, we felt 20 Nakfa and a cup of tea was in order and our farmer was very grateful, expressing his thanks in fluent Italian. He has agreed to return in a couple of months, a mutually helpful arrangement.

John, the VSO Country Director has just left, having finished his allotted time here. He’ll be very missed, both professionally and personally. He’s really got the programme up and running healthily and he's been a good friend to all of us. I’ve learnt a lot from him in my six months here. Thanks John, come back and see us some time.

C

Solar Power part 2

2008-06-16T09:23:00.002+01:00

Just back from the second Schools' Solar Power project trip in which we visited three schools, two in Zoba Anseba and one in Zoba Gash Barka plus an additional one in Zoba Gash Barka which already has a solar panel installation (it was the original pilot) but which has not been able to run its computers for any length of time so far.

The first school we visited (Hawush in the Asmat sub-zoba) felt really remote. We took four hours to travel 108 km each way along a rough road which at times went up and over mountains with a steep drop at the side and at times bumped across rocky river beds. In addition we were out of mobile phone range for the whole journey.

Each of the schools was a deserving case and the school directors each pointed out that students and parents are well aware of the disadvantage of having no opportunity to pick up even the most basic computer skills so much so that leakage of students to other schools in the region was attributed to the lack of ICT training on offer.

The low point of the trip for me was the visit to Gogne school which was the original pilot. What had happened was that a vital component (the inverter - the part which converts the DC output from the power pack to AC) had failed last September and and only just been reinstalled. Now none of the computers worked and were clogged up with dust due to not having been looked at for months - the room was also in a sorry state with thick dust everywhere.

However, while this sounds like a disaster it was only the pilot project and was intended to be a learning exercise. It seems there are some very clear lessons to be learned. We need to:
- Ensure school staff are properly trained in maintaining the solar power equipment, including what to do when it has been switched off for several months.
- Ensure school staff are properly trained in maintaining the computer equipment, with special emphasis on protection from killer dust and on maintenance during the long school break.
- Ensure we make the point strongly about keeping the general environment clean.

We have discussed Gogne since our return from the trip and have decided that the school will get new computers (the first batch were old and only suitable for a pilot project) and that the school's ICT staff will come to Asmara for a course of training in a few weeks' time.

To end on a high note the memory I will take from the trip is of two old Nara (I was told) ladies we met in a shop in Haykota. They were looking at me almost fearfully from behind their colourful headdresses until I said 'Selam' to them at which point I was greeted by broad gap-toothed grins and leathery handshakes, they seemed really pleased to be acknowledged.

P

Solar Power Project Update

2008-06-10T08:42:00.006+01:00

As I mentioned previously, one of my ICT tasks is to participate in the Schools' Solar Power Project aimed at schools which have little immediate prospect of having enough electricity supplied to be able to run meaningful ICT training for school and community.

In the past few days we have travelled to four remote schools to make preliminary assessments and to get project documents signed. There is a second trip planned for this week towards the West of the country.

As a reminder the project was kicked-off by a former VSO volunteer from Ireland, John Brogan, and is funded in the main by the Irish Government charity Irish Aid (www.irishaid.gov.ie). VSO has now taken responsibility for running the project and is working with the Eritrean Ministry of Education as well as with the donors.

The following is a log of the first trip - it may be of interest to some but, since it's possible I may have rambled on a bit about aspects which interest me, perhaps it should be skipped by most. Suffice it to say that we were five (John - VSO Country Director, Yakiem - VSO Proramme Manager, Abdou Saleh - MOE Representative and Language expert, Zerit - MOE Driver and me) and that we travelled into some quite remote areas of the eastern lowlands.

Day 0 pm, Wednesday 4th June 2008 - Massawa
-------------------------------------------
The start of the first of two trips, this one will take in schools in She'eb, Foro, Tio and Afambo. The first two mentioned are in the Northern Red Sea (Semienawi Qeyh Bahri) zoba and the second two are in the Southern Red Sea (Debubawi Qeyh Bahri) zoba. Pronunciation of these place names in Tigrinya is not always as straightforward as the roman alphabet rendition suggests - for example the 'Ti' in Tio is a popped sound and the 'o' is a pharyngeal stop ... best not to think about it and just try and imitate someone!

Today the intention is to set off in the evening and take the steep and winding road down to Massawa in order to get a start on the journey South along the Red Sea shore tomorrow.

To get kind of tectonic for a moment - geologically Eritrea is all about the Great Rift Valley and its two northern relations (the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden - all three together form a 'Y', more about this later) whose pushing apart will eventually result in Somalia wandering off into the Indian Ocean somewhere as the African plate splits into two.

In our current timescale, though, all we need to be concerned about is the long descent of one of the valley sides to the Red Sea coastal plain and Eritrea's principal port of Massawa, much damaged in the long struggle against the neighbouring country, followed by the journey into Danakalia.

Having dropped to the lowlands it feels much warmer and it's dark by the time we get there which probably means lots of mosquitoes. Overnight it's feverishly sweaty and the air conditioner is way too noisy to leave on - the bed-net works well though.

Day 1, Thursday 5th June 2008 - Foro and Tio
--------------------------------------------
Up at six to take a few photos of the sunrise over a glassily calm Massawa port, and for scrambled eggs Eri-style (with green chilis). Leaving Massawa we head South-East along a well paved road (apart form the odd excursion across dry river-beds), the scenery is similar to the other parts of the Eritrean lowlands I have seen - semi desert dotted with hardy acacia bushes but I expect that to change as we progress.

We arrive in Foro before lunch and immediately search for Foro school. We find it by driving in amongst the stick houses (I think they're called ari's by the Afar, they're made with sticks and matting - I'll send some pictures of some to our photo publisher soon) which are common to some of the semi-nomadic peoples of Eritrea.

Foro school seems to the untrained eye (me!) to be bleak and inhospitable and an unlikely place to install technology but when you speak to the school director you realise that efforts have already been made to get computer training up and running by renting a room in the town (which can only be used for an hour or two a day) and the designated room for the new computers is quite secure and suitable - we still need to think about heat and dust, though.

After our first document signing we’re heading South along the (now unsurfaced, bumpy in places and very dusty) coast road towards Tio. The heat is still rising. We're now moving into Danakalia (also known as the Afar triangle) which has the reputation of being one of the hottest places on Earth and which is getting close to the junction of the 'Y' in the Great Rift Valley system. Further inland part of it is below sea level (the Danakil depression) but we won't be going there this time.

This is where a lot of the Rift Valley system action is currently taking place - it is said to be one of the only two places on the planet where the mechanisms of ocean-floor spreading can be observed on dry land (the other is Iceland).

The view from the car is of a desert landscape seared by a very hot sun sometimes with the blue ribbon of the Red Sea in the distance. On the occasions we get out of the car it's like stepping into an oven. We're driving along on the flat for the most part but always there are volcanic bulges and craters and, in the distance, the mountain wall which represents the Red Sea Valley side.

The Tio school visit is a little less successful than Foro - the school director is not available to sign the VSO project documents and there are doubts about whether the school is about to get some form of generated power or not. We left it to be decided later.

Continuing on the road South-East, from time to time we see people living by the sea and also evidence of the (we think Japanese-sponsored) mangrove project. Also there are tantalising views of wildlife as well as free-range camels everywhere - antelope, desert fox, ostriches and an osprey. Controversially I'm also claiming a sighting of a lone spotted hyena in the half-light (no photo) at the end of the day just before we stop for the night.

We spend the night at Idi on the Red Sea coast, arriving there we are treated to the unusual sight of rows of beds in the main street (the only street) - after a fish dinner we settle down to a night under the stars lulled to sleep by the insistent drum beat of not so distant Eritrean music (b-dum, b-dum, b-dum ...). The beds? Apparently Idi is an overnight stop for buses on the Asmara-Assab route.

Day 2, Friday 6th June 2008 - Afambo
------------------------------------
Up at 5:00 and on the road by 5:30 without breakfast we turn inland towards Afambo school - now we're really getting more into Danakalia and the landscape under the pre-dawn light starts to look Martian - shades of brown and red streaked with the black of recent lava flows together with threatening-looking volcanic craters and domes. As the sun comes up we also cross the beds of rivers which look like run-off channels from the heavy highland rains and which make for detours to find suitable crossing places. The journey from Idi to Afambo takes 3 hours.

Afambo school is in a spectacularly austere location. On arrival we take breakfast of tea and bread which tastes delicious. The school compound consists of loose grey stones surrounded by a wire fence with a mountain backdrop. Like Tio it's a boarding school providing education for Afar children and appears to be very well run. Once again I'm impressed by the school director who has already instigated ICT education in Afambo village with limited resources, who already has a good idea of what he wants from the installation of a solar power pack and who has run the school in this remote spot for the past 4 years.

A note about the Afar: A wild desert people who take tourists hostage and who will kill for a rifle, a vehicle or maybe money. At least that's what you may think if you read the few press articles available about them (mind you, the western press seldom fails to include the words "war-torn" when describing Eritrea as a whole) ... the problem with that view is that most Afar lead a pastoral life herding goats, sheep and cattle and generally struggling hard to survive.

We also learn that Afar culture specifically excludes beating children and includes them in discussion at an early age. So teachers at Afambo have to learn to negotiate around difficult behaviour in marked contrast to some highland examples we've heard about. Afar people seem to me to be quite shy at first and, especially here, I don't feel able to photograph people close-up. With the exception of a boy who specifically asked to have his picture taken.

Afar culture also includes sharpening of the four upper front teeth (not all Afar, but common to both male and female) - possibly very painful, though not as painful as FGM which still commonly practised.

We make it back to Idi for lunch and then it's on to the strangely modern hotel at Ghela Alo (built in preparation for a big push into tourism which hasn't come so far?) in the middle of extensive lava fields on a headland where we have dinner and pass another very warm night.

Day 3, Saturday 7th June 2008 - She'eb
--------------------------------------
Up at 6:00 this time and on the road by 6:30. A short while later we stop for a swim in the Red Sea. We pick the wrong spot, however, and have to wade out a long way to get any depth at all. At one point Abdou asks me "Have you ever been to Morecambe?" which is not so absurd a question as it first sounds if you think about it but makes me laugh anyway.

We arrive back in Massawa for lunch and here I'm going to pause to go into competition with "The Lonely Planet" - Luna Hotel, Massawa - "Best chips in Eritrea" (Rated thermally, dimensionally and texturally).

She'eb is part-way back to Asmara then turn right and head out for about 60km - it's home to members of the Tigre people who, like the Afar, are semi-nomadic and mainly Muslim and who also live in stick houses. She'eb school is again in a hot, bleak location but again the enthusiasm of the school director for providing the means to properly timetable ICT classes is undeniable. He also enthuses about an outgoing VSO volunteer, Sharon, who has just finished there.

As we leave She'eb we visit Sharon's house (one built room and one stick-house room) to pick up the heavier part of her and VSO's belongings.

The children here are shyly (at first) friendly, all want their photos taking and are happy to take our empty plastic water bottles as presents. Some of them seem a little confused by the mention of Teacher Sharon's name and I'm even called "Mister Sharon" on a couple of occasions.

In Conclusion
-------------
I may well be back at all the schools mentioned when Phaesun (the German company selling the equipment to the project) installs the solar power packs since we will do the computer installation and preliminary training at the same time. On balance it looks as though the project could be of great benefit - there seems to be a real desire to at least make a start on computer teaching even in these really remote and underprivileged locations and, we are told, that there is always a percentage of students who are really keen to get just any computer experience at all. The challenge is how to sustain the project - I'm already having nightmares about equipment failure (this happened in the pilot project) and, as others have pointed out, one of the main ICT troubles in Africa is lots of installed equipment and very little teaching material beyond learning the standard "office" packages - which is why I'm trying to gather information on computer-based teaching content as a side-project.

P

2008-06-06T07:29:00.000+01:00

A friend who works in a village in the lowlands is coming to stay for a week on Saturday.
The corn is growing.
There’s a rat in the garden. It seems to be coming from the unused outside toilet. Should I buy poison, a trap, or ignore it?
Phil is out on his travels with the solar power project. He spent the night sleeping outside beside the Red Sea.
Life continues.

C

2008-05-31T12:52:00.000+01:00

I’m in the last stages of an eight day gender workshop, attending rather than giving. It’s been given by a British Council consultant for all the curriculum panels (covering all the school subjects from kindergarten to secondary) plus teacher training, special needs, technical, and adult education. I started off thinking that maybe I’d covered all the material before in VSO briefings but it’s been really good in terms of considering and analysing how the curriculum material is presented. On the English panel we do give a lot of attention to how gender issues are portrayed, probably a lot more than is shown in some of the other subjects and it is a topic that really does need to be mainstreamed. A lot of girls drop out of education at an early age in Eritrea for a number of reasons - including early marriage, cultural pressure to work at home, and a lack of belief in the importance of education – and it is up to educationalists of all types, teachers, trainers, curriculum writers, to redress this balance. Students of both sexes need to be educated to believe in the right and worth of education for all. I’ve been really impressed by the involvement, contributions and work of everyone at the workshop. It will be a slow process (countries in the west still have a way to go) but I believe Eritrea will get there.

There is corn growing in the garden, well no cobs yet but the plants are coming on, the tallest is about a metre high. Cucumbers and melons aren’t doing so well but they need too much water. Looks like rain so that may help. Looking out at the clouds, I just saw two eagles swooping over, a wonderful sight.

C

Beer and Football

2008-05-27T08:37:00.004+01:00

Football
--------
It's possible to watch live English football in Asmara even if, like us, you don't own a television. It's shown at bars and cinemas - the problem comes when you're looking for coverage of a game which doesn't involve the "big four" (Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool in descending order of popularity).

For example the Champion's League final was available but not the FA cup final and (most definitely) not the most important game of the season - the league one playoff final between The Mighty Leeds and Doncaster Rovers (maybe missing that was a blessing, though).

Last Wednesday, for Man U vs Chelsea, the Cinema Roma was packed to the rafters and rocking even though the game didn't finish until gone half-past midnight Eri-time. Whooping, cheering, shirts coming off and people leaping in front of the screen when the goals went in. But ... no animosity between rival groups and no drunken behaviour. Of course the majority (just) of the people were pleased with the result ... for me, the final was my worst case scenario. Very difficult to pick whom I wanted to lose the most!

The combination of Saudi pictures and English commentary (resulting in a good 10 seconds out of synch action versus voice "Lampard turns, hits the crossbar" - when the ball's already up-field) didn't help much - but great fun all the same.

Beer
----
From talking to a guy who works for an Italian NGO with Eritrean Trade Unionists we now know exactly why there's no beer (it didn't make the hoped-for return over independence weekend) and, as we suspected, it's all due to record grain prices meaning that Eritrea can't afford to buy barley on world markets.

One thing this does show is that, whatever you want to say about the way Eritrea is run in its drive for self-reliance, it seems to have its priorities right, if beer and other grain-based alcohol are the first to go when prices rise, however much we volunteers may complain. The problem is that wheat and rice have to be purchased as well and bread and pasta have already partially disappeared though they can still be obtained at higher prices. So far, rice still seems to be readily available but how long will that situation last?

A note of disagreement with one former VSO volunteer, though - Justin Hill author of Ciao Asmara! who was here in the 90's and who (harshly in our opinion) described Asmara (formerly Melotti) beer as "the worst beer in the world" - well not when it's not there any more it's not!

P

Independence

2008-05-23T07:24:00.001+01:00

It’s Friday of Independence week and holiday euphoria is definitely in the air. If anyone is thinking of coming to visit next year, this is one of the (many) good times to come (although I guess the downside is that it would be difficult to travel outside of Asmara). We were invited to a Ministry party last night as part of the Independence celebrations and afterwards we walked along Harnet Avenue and watched the parade, crowds of people (I’ve never seen so may people in Asmara), floats, dancers, lights and everyone so happy. Phil thinks he saw the President wandering in the crowds, I feel it may have been a look-a-like but Phil is good at spotting people so who knows. There’s more of the same tonight, this time with the addition of fireworks.

This has been Bethan’s (my VSO colleague in the office) last week at work (boo-hoo, I’m sorry to see her go, I’ll miss her, hooray,I can move onto her computer which has Internet access.) We all went out for a traditional goodbye meal with injeera and zigni and lots of good things on Tuesday. Drank mess, a traditional drink made with honey, similar to the Cornish mead. It’s a very good drink which unfortunately slips down a bit too easily.

C

2008-05-17T12:40:00.000+01:00

It’s Independence Day on May 24th, a week today, Saturday. This year it’s the 17th anniversary of the end of the thirty-year struggle against the neighbours. This weekend marks the start of a week of celebrations – floats and parades building up to a firework display next weekend. It also means a big security presence, the number of police with sticks, and soldiers with AK47 submachine guns, walking the streets has increased dramatically in the last couple of weeks. Phil came out of our front gate as we left for work last week and found himself looking down the barrel of a machine gun casually slung over the shoulder of a soldier chatting to his mate. Lot of the soldiers are only just out of boyhood, when you say good morning you get a cheery greeting and a big smile back, however I’m under no illusions, they mean business. Young Eritreans are constantly being stopped on the streets and their papers checked, and no travel permits (needed by foreigners to travel outside Asmara) are being issued until after Independence Day.

However there is talk of beer being stockpiled for next weekend. Could be a great party.

The wife of Serebe (one of my work colleagues) has just had her first baby (a boy). Serebe is euphoric about it. In keeping with tradition his wife has gone with the baby to live with her mother for a month where she will be fed porridge (an Eritrean variety, not quite as we know it) for 40 days. For a girl, it’s 80 days. It’s supposed to buils up your strength.

C

Una giornata italiana

2008-05-10T09:44:00.003+01:00

The other day was an Italian day - a reminder of Eritrea's colonial past. On my way for the afternoon cappuccino e dolce I passed four really quite old men working on digging up the pavement, so preparing a "kemay we'elkum" (well you have to say hello to people in this town) I was a bit taken aback by the barrage of Italian "Buongiorno, parla italiano? Come si chiama?" this is from guys with hugely infectious smiles but hardly a tooth between them - "Mi chiamo Phil e non parlo bene italiano, sono inglese" my usual response to all that ... but it didn't deter them.

As I think we've said before children always want to practice a little bit of English with us even if it's only "Hi, how are you?". That same evening we were walking our usual route home across Avenue BDHO, weave a bit, turn right at the donkey track, pass near Alfa Romeo and the San Francesco church and on a bit - when there was a 'hi' from a small girl in a gateway just at the side of Den Den school. An old lady who was with her explained that the girl "parla un poquino inglese ma e alluna alla scuola italiana di Asmara". It really was an Italian day it seemed.

She then went on to tell us something of her own story delivered, a little surreally given she was in traditional dress, in fluent Italian. She explained that Asmara in the past was much more beautiful, that the schoolchildren were more polite (not sure how that could be, they seem so polite now) and that there was no crime (there's very little now compared to almost anywhere in the world). Also how she had lived in Rome for 30 years and now comes and goes from time to time, how she has had the same house in Asmara for 50 years and how Den Den school was once covered in marble (as Il Collegio La Salle) - it does have a rather unfinished air about now, so now I'm keen to know it's history.

And then ... the sad part - how one of her sons was killed in the war, how two (I think) were wounded, how one of then now lives in "Germania" as a member of Eritrea's diaspora. For all that history she still seemed very cheerful, and her story is common amongst older eritreans I'm told, furthermore we are invited for a coffee at her house "un giorno" - this will happen since we walk past her door four times a day and such invitations are meant.

P

bits

2008-05-02T06:19:00.000+01:00

We’re still in the small rainy season, so named because the rain only happens every two to five days as opposed to the big rainy season in June and July when it’s daily. We’re told it’s been a good season this year, the rain has been heavy and has been around for the last month or so which is good news for the crops. My own crops consist of some popping corn kernels, and some cucumber and melon seeds donated by a friend, all planted in a corner of the garden. There’re lots of little green leaves sprouting but whether they’re corn, melons, cucumbers or weeds is anyone’s guess.

Food prices on the world markets seem to be reaching record levels. Pasta is the latest casualty here, doubtless due to rising wheat prices. I’ve been putting off getting a ration card (which allows you to buy staple foods like oil, rice, pasta … from government centres at reduced prices) on the basis that the majority of Eritreans have a much greater need of this then we do but it may come to it yet.

I’ve been editing some units from the Grade Four textbook before they go to be printed. One story in the unit entitled Safety tells of two children walking home from school who decide to take a different path to usual through the countryside. They come to a sign saying “Danger!” and warning of land mines. Sensibly they decide to retrace their steps and take their usual path. When children of eight or nine need to have warnings like this it’s a salutary lesson as to how good most children in the west have got it.

C

Easter and Forthcoming Travels

2008-04-26T12:46:00.001+01:00

Due to the different (older-based-on-Coptic) Ge'ez calendar followed by the Orthodox and Catholic Churches, Easter is this weekend in Eritrea and (to return briefly to a previous theme) it's the time when whole families of goats tremble following 40 days of self-denial for Lent plus, just to ensure a good appetite, a day's worth of total fasting on Good Friday. In Asmara this morning it was noticeable that there was livestock being transported everywhere both dead and alive (goats, cows, chickens but no pigs – orthodox Christians do not eat pork).

Three weeks from now I may get the chance to travel to some quite remote areas of Eritrea as part of the schools' solar power project - travel permits have still to be granted, though, so this may change. What is happening is that, thanks to the efforts of a former VSO volunteer from Ireland, the Irish Government's Irish Aid charity is providing the bulk of the funds to allow solar power kits to be installed in selected remote schools.

In order to qualify schools have to be not connected to the electricity grid and also to have no prospect of being so in the foreseeable future.

The aim is to allow the running of small computer labs in order to alleviate the situation where such schools slip further and further behind in terms of the teaching of computer skills.

My role in the project will be to ensure the computers are installed and running and to provide basic computer training for selected school staff members in order that teaching of the schools' students can start once all the equipment is installed - it will mean travelling to the extreme heat of the lowlands of Eritrea but I'm really looking forward to seeing other ways of life and other peoples including the quaint way in which nomadic tribes are swapping their camels for 4x4 pick-up trucks.

My job in Asmara is ostensibly trainer for teachers at the Ministry's training centre but it has also turned out to be more since that is largely a school summer-break occupation. So, alongside my Eritrean colleagues, I am also working on the Ministry's new web-site (for the technically minded we have decided to use the well-tried triumvirate of Apache, PHP and MySQL as our core technologies). In addition we are also working on getting internal email running and working out the technical issues involved in hosting an Education Management Information database.

The good thing for me is I get to program which I still really like after all these years though I need to guard against being the only programmer working on our projects – there are, however, signs of others wishing to learn so hopefully we will be able to have our own version of "sustainable [web-site] development".

I also have stacks of research to do on education web-sites, securing internet sites properly, e-learning (which is in it's infancy in Eritrea) and education data management in general so if anybody has ideas on online resources for any of the aforementioned please drop me an email.

P

Pictures

2008-04-19T13:03:00.003+01:00

Not much from me this week - but please try the link to our photos on the left under the VSO address and let us have any comments on album layout and we'll pass them on to our publisher.

P

on the subject of work ...

2008-04-19T12:40:00.000+01:00

I work in the English Curriculum department. There are three Eitreans there, Solomon who’s in charge, Serebe and Mengesha. At the moment there’s Bethan, another vol who’s worked there for a year and leaves in six weeks. The Eritrean education curriculum is in the process of being completely overhauled, for all subjects, not just English, it’s a massive undertaking and part of the government’s commitment to making education a priority. English grades one to four, six and seven have been written although still in the process of passing through quality control and piloting. We’re working on grade five (age 9/10) at the moment, quite a slow process as other jobs (giving feedback on exams, course books) keep coming along to interrupt the process. In one sense I’m not sure about the sustainability of the job (sustainability is one of the VSO keystones, volunteers are not in a placement just to do a job, they are there to involve and help/teach Eritrean colleagues to such an extent that eventually they can move aside and are not needed any more.) But then I am helping to produce teaching resources which hopefully will benefit thousands of children over the next ten years, and these children will be the next generation of adults working for their country so …
Anyway my job mainly involves working with Word (in an often very frustrating and therefore vocal way), writing stories and trying to make the teaching exercise enjoyable and communicative. We write the Teachers Guides as well. These are very important here. We try to include as much help as we can for the teachers in terms of communicative methodology. At the moment elementary and junior school teachers may only have had less than a year of teacher training (if that) and often quite a low level of English. There are moves to improve this, the teacher training course at the training college has been rewritten, there are two volunteers working with the trainers at the teacher training college, and there are attempts to bring in a higher qualification with a longer training. The problem is that there is a huge shortage of teachers (there are two shifts at a lot of schools – morning and afternoon to accommodate all the children) and the temptation is to churn out the teachers as quickly as possible. It’s therefore important to include as much good teaching practice as possible in the teachers guides, even if only one in a hundred take it on board.

VSO is only allowed to work in the education sector in Eritrea. Phil is working with IT training within the Ministry of Education, there’s another Dutch volunteer, Saskia who’s working on setting up an educational database covering all the schools and there are two volunteers, Donnard and Fiona who work on the English language radio station. All the other vols here are working more directly with teachers and students. Some are teachers and the rest are Methodology Trainers working across a group of schools. These intrepid people are all working and living in villages and small towns across Eritrea, doing a great job, leading quite hard lives under very basic conditions. We Asmarinos are actually living a very comfortable life in comparison. We see other vols regularly as they come into Asmara either on work or relaxation at the weekend. There’s actually a café (Modka) close to the VSO office and the Ministry of Education where volunteers tend to meet up (over a capuccino and chocolate doughnut!) so it’s certainly not all work and no play I can assure you.

C

2008-04-16T12:11:00.000+01:00

A magnifying mirror is now whizzing its way to Eritrea - thanks a lot Andy and Sally xxx

I'm just shameless ...

2008-04-12T13:14:00.001+01:00

Didn’t think I’d be doing this after such a relatively short time in the country, I used to see other vols getting parcels from home with a motley content of basic and treat items and think that we’d be able to manage on what we could afford to buy locally and what was available, and if we had to do without we’d do without. However after nearly three months here I’ve given in. We are trying to live on wages + top up which is doable at a very basic level but if anyone can get round to sending one or two of the items in the list at some time in the next two years we’d be very grateful. (Roger and Fred, this doesn’t apply to you, you’ve already done more than enough – xx).

Chocolate (in any form)
Roll-on or solid deodorant
Dried yeast
Shampoo
Conditioner
Big tub of E45 cream
Chocolate
Stock cubes
Sodium Bicarbonate
Baking powder
Baked beans
Small magnifying mirror( eyebrows, yes I’m still vain)
Herbs/Curry spices
Pot noodles (or similar)
A decent corkscrew (we’re assuming wine will come back, at the moment it’s gone the way of the beer!)
Tea towel
Chocolate

On the other hand you could just donate to VSO (see sidebar). They are doing a wonderful job and are much more deserving.

C

Rain, Keren and Steam Trains

2008-04-12T13:02:00.001+01:00

Rain
----
It's currently the small rainy season in the Asmara region and it's been a good one so far - quite a few thunderstorms (along with the occasional consequent power-cut) and lots of much-needed rain - the associated temperature drop provides some Asmarinos with the excuse to dress like they're on a polar expedition although temperatures are still in the 20's.

I have also been forced to switch to a different wash-cycle - well, OK washing stays on the line for longer, as opposed to the usual put it out in a large bowl early in the morning to soak and warm up in the sun (this country could thrive on efficient solar-power), rinse and hang-out to dry at lunchtime and gather in early evening.

Trip to Keren
-------------
Last weekend we took a bus trip to Keren, Eritrea's second city in terms of size and the main town of the Anseba Zoba (region), to see another VSO volunteer, Catherine, who is nearly at the end of her two year stay in Eritrea and preparing to leave.

One of the restrictions placed on foreigners is that travel permits have to be obtained for travel to other cities in order to get through army check-points so we duly applied for those a few days before.

Keren is about 100km North West of Asmara and about 1,000 metres lower. Due to the nature of the terrain, the bus journey usually takes over 3 hours - we had also been warned that we could have quite a long wait to even get on a bus providing us the perfect excuse to leave work early on the Friday and join the queue ... except we got straight on a bus - it seems that the diesel shortage which forced the UN peacekeeping force to withdraw may be easing.

Saturday morning, following a few drinks and overnight thunderstorms, first impressions are of a town set in the middle of mountainous semi-desert, lots of white, flat-roofed, buildings and definitely a more Muslim feel to it than Asmara - the Eritrean way is for the different ethnic and religious groups to just get on with it, by the way, though there are reports that "unofficial" religions are not tolerated too well by the govenment.

We just wandered around for the day. The town has a biblical, middle-eastern air - camels and donkeys are still in use as beasts of burden (alongside large lorries and buses) and traditional clothing is seen much more than in Asmara. As is always the case we were greeted by cries of "you! what is your name?" from children and, occasionally, "Ts'ada n'a!" which roughly translates as "here whitey!".

Train Trip
----------
The train trip was actually a while ago (March 23rd) but since, it seems, we may be about to get some photos posted online (Un grand merci a un certain M. Fiquet de Guildford pour son aide) just a few words.

The trip was a fairly short one as far as the station at Nefercit and back and it took a morning and most of an afternoon.

It was a great day, some of the engineers on the train had worked on the railway 60 years ago and spoke some Italian (andiamo! was a frequent cry), there was also an Italian engineer working in order to pick up experience to allow him to teach others. The line is so steep in places that the small tank locomotive couldn't make it back up the section without stopping to build a head of steam.

Merciless sun, glorious views across the valleys and the drop-off to the coast, desert plants and dry (seasonal) river valleys, children at the stations armed with big smiles - get the picture? No? Well we'll add the link soon!

P

2008-04-04T12:15:00.000+01:00

Friday

We have a cold shower every morning. Never thought I’d say this but I’m almost used to it. It’s just that nanosecond when the water first hits you that I have a few problems with. Once a week we treat ourselves to a few hours of electricity for a warm shower and a hair wash.

Going to Keren for the weekend.

C

What are we doing here?

2008-03-29T11:52:00.003Z

Time for a serious post (the first in an occasional series).

Up until now we’ve been reporting like tourists, but we’re starting to see beneath the surface a bit so the tone of this one is a little different.

Well, this is Africa after all and Eritrea is a poor country which accepts a lot less in the way of help from the outside world perhaps because the institutions of the outside world have never been of much help (betrayal is the word used in a book on Eritrea by Michela Wrong - PLEASE READ IT - when talking about Italy, Britain, the UN, especially the UN, and the USA). VSO is permitted to be here in education only and is perceived as a good thing because its volunteers get stuck in and work alongside Eritreans at less-than-the-usual-NGO wages. I'm not looking for a slap on the back for this fact though. Please read on ...

Last week there was a girl - 11, 12 years old, not much younger than one of my nieces. She was pretty with a shy smile. She was poor. Her school uniform sweater was in holes. She wasn't very clean. She gave Caroline bougainvilla flowers. She followed us home. I hated myself for thinking "she wants money in return for the flowers". She waited for a while at our gate, then she left empty-handed.

We're asked for money a lot and the standard thought is "we're volunteers, we don't have unlimited money to give away" but it's not really like that because, at the end of our time here, we'll be going home ... it's like the line from that Pulp song "if you called your dad he could stop it all" so what to do? - probably give money to the occasional thin, sad, old lady and feel guilty the rest of the time.

So why come here? Well (and of course I didn't know this beforehand) Eritrea's education policy is, in general, a good one under difficult circumstances - get Education out to everyone, modernise as much as possible - hence ICT training for all is a goal, not there yet though!. Eritrea has a number of mother-tongues (7?) so a system has been devised whereby children are taught in their own language until Secondary school age and then taught in English - can you imagine how hard that must be? Add in the different customs of the different ethnic groups (there is one volunteer whose school terms often start late because the children are from a nomadic tribe and aren't there yet - so you go to the top of the nearest hill and shout "WHERE ARE YOU?" - probably not ...). There is also (reportedly) far too much use of corporal punishment in schools - it's still the norm.

But, to end on a positive note, progress HAS been made - I read a report which gave 20% literacy rate for the country in 1995 - even the UN says the figure will approach 80% by the 2015 millenium-target year. So, if we can contribute to the education effort over the next two years it WILL be a good thing and hopefully we will have made a difference however small.

P

2008-03-29T11:48:00.001Z

Shops are becoming barer and prices are going up. There have always been a small range of goods in the shops with the same things in all the shops and arranged strategically on the shelves so they don’t look too empty but it’s becoming more marked. It must have been happening for a while but it was suddenly brought home to me yesterday. I bought a tin of oats (breakfast) and the price had gone from 40 nakfa to 50. There are 30 nakfa to the pound. It may not sound a lot but consider that our local wages are 1,230 a month (41 sterling). We also get a top-up every three months from VSO who feel our local wages are not enough to live on and they pay our rent. Even with this safety net we’re finding it difficult to live within our nakfa allowance and have had to change some of the money we brought with us. How much more difficult must it be for the Eritreans supporting a family, and rent to find. Some are lucky and have relatives in the diaspora who send money. The majority are only just managing. And I’m seeing only Asmara. The rest of the country have it worse. These wonderful people are having a bad time. You get the feeling that something’s got to give.

I’ve just read P’s draft blog. It seems our minds are both working in the same direction today. I can’t say much about the little girl. Just the thought of her makes me want to cry. Even VSO tell us it’s best not to let children in but I just want her to come back so I can feed and clothe her and make her happy.

C

2008-03-22T11:57:00.000Z

Almost all volunteers are in Asmara this weekend, there’s a ride halfway down the escarpment in a steam train tomorrow. The track was originally built by the Italians and then fell into a state of disrepair during the struggles. It was renovated a few years ago, reportedly with the help of some of the elderly Eritrean engineers who worked on the original line. It usually runs a diesel engine down to Massawa on the coast but a tour group has chartered the steam engine and as there’s only ten of them there’s room for thirty of us so they’re going to be outnumbered, I don’t know if they’ve been told that they’ll be sharing the train with a load of scruffy (slightly) loud VSO vols but they’re soon going to find out. There’s a picnic and a coffee ceremony as well so should be a good day.

The cake culture here is not good for me, my daily chocolate doughnut and cappuchino seems to hampering the weight loss we were told that volunteers experienced in Eritrea. I think it must only apply to the ones in the villages, not the Asmarinos.

Fat C

Sunday Indulgence

2008-03-18T05:30:00.000Z

Sunday 16th March

The small sum of five British Pounds ... is a lot of money for a VSO volunteer in Eritrea being paid at local rates but that's what gets spent on occasion at Asmara's Intercontinental Hotel on a buffet (all you can eat) breakfast. This time the occasion was nominally the Sunday before St Patrick's Day (there are quite a few Irish volunteers in the current batch) and a mixture of Asmarinos and volunteers from the villages - they have a harder time than we do in terms of having a limited diet and are usually keen on maximising the breakfast experience - showed up for the feast.

It was all quite civilised really - a lot of coffee and food was consumed and there were a few accidents (breadrolls and pastries falling into open bags and the like) and a couple of hours later another Asmara experience had been chalked up and we were all stuffed!

P

Four of us are having Tigrinya language lessons for an hour and a half every Sunday morning - this involves learning a completely new script, the Ge'ez syllabary (we thought we'd left all that behind after our time in Japan). VSO cover the cost for the first 6 months. It's a jolly occasion with a lovely teacher, Amanuel, who was also our teacher on the in-country traing when we first arrived. Because of our slight over indulgence at the Intercontinental yesterday we were all feeling less than ready for the lesson (which was straight after the breakfast at our house) and we spent a lot of the time trying to deflect the teaching process by asking questions about the culture, the number of times I've been on the other end of this scenario ........ It's interesting to learn the language and use it but it possibly has limited use in the future.

C

2008-03-09T10:42:00.000Z

The garden is being smartened up. The walls have been painted and all the wild profusion of purple flowers covering the outer walls and shielding us from the main road have been cut down. It probably hadn’t been done for years and needed to be done but still seems a shame. I like wild gardens. It looks as if the landlord is going to do up the house and put the rent up next year, he’s hinted as much to us before so we may only have one year in here.
It’s National Woman’s Day today (Saturday) so flags up everywhere and most shops are closed. Had it been a weekday we’d have had the day off work, unfortunately you lose out when a national holiday falls at the weekend. Walked into the centre, had lunch out with Tom, tried to buy fish at the fish market but got there too late, sat outside at a pavement café on Harnet Avenue and watched the world go by. The world today consisted of quite a few Indian UNMEE soldiers who are all pulling back from the border to Asmara before being moved out. For those of you who are wondering where this leaves VSO volunteers the official VSO position is that that is no immediate reason for action on the part of VSO to enact their emergency evacuation plan although they are being vigilant and in constant contact with the British Embassy. I have to say that it’s hard to reconcile this with the sleepy weekend atmosphere that pervades. The border stand-off seems a million miles away instead of less than 100 …

C

Today’s MoE football turned out to be a practice match against the Asmara police – who proved to be considerably fitter than our brave lads and we ended up well beaten . It was encouraging to see that the best player on the pitch was quite old but extremely fit. For my own part I only played for 30 minutes and I even felt the pace during that time – still it’s all part of the altitude training. It’s definitely time to try and get some football shoes though, running shoes are just too collapsible.

Shaking hands is big in this country but it’s not like the brief ‘hi, how are you’ with a strong grip then let go like the other person’s hand suddenly became very hot, it’s more you say hello then you continue to hold on during an ensuing conversation – which may last several minutes – so you get the sight of pairs of men holding hands on the football field while they discuss the week’s events and now the guys are starting to know me I’m by no means exempt.

Walking the streets of Asmara it’s noticeable how many very young children are just out playing or even wandering on their own – I guess it’s like the ‘developed’ world used to be before cities became to crowded and choked with traffic and before fear about what happens to children let loose set in – and even 3 and 4 year-olds will offer a hand and say ‘hi’, so hand-shaking starts from an early age.

P

Football

2008-03-02T11:00:00.000Z

Saturday 1st March

Ministry of Education Football

Saturday was the day for me to try and continue with my playing-football-everywhere ambition and, let's face it, I've played in some pretty out-of-the-way places – even once in New Jersey.

Football practice for the Ministry of Education is on Saturday morning, so I'm lying on my back in a pile of dust at around 7:30am (yes that's AM on a Saturday) looking up at an early-morning crescent moon listening to the coach exhorting the guys to greater sit-up efforts and thinking 'this is quite strange, really' and 'good job there's a beer shortage, my head feels fine' ... Earlier, I'd already started to blame the altitude for my inability to keep up in the running part of training – it WILL get better!

Later in the practice match, from my position on the left wing, I didn't do too badly – breathing became easier – and I was on the winning side! The reason for the 7:00am start became obvious, the sun was quite fierce by 9:15 which was when the final whistle was blown – next time I hope not to fade so much in the second half.

Plus, I learned a few Eritrean football shouts ('Bella' and 'Bravo Abdou!' mixed in with Tigrinya – 'kid' – for example 'Kid Daoud!' means 'Go Daoud!').

Sunday 2nd – just strolled outside our front gate to be greeted by an amused good morning nod from a guy riding a bicycle one-handed ... mind you, he was leading a horse with his other one – this is just a scene from daily life where walking and cycling are the main means of transport. The other cycling style in Asmara – the elite- is colourfully lycra-clad and riding expensive racing bikes (Colnago, Bianchi, Trek, etc) – a legacy from Italian times but with moden bikes.

One final note if anyone needs to contact us the 'old' way it's either of us, c/o VSO Eritrea, PO Box 5565, Asmara, Eritrea.

P

of dust and chairs

2008-03-02T10:53:00.000Z

There’s dust everywhere. My attempts to sweep up a room yesterday resulted in big piles which just dispersed back into the air when I tried to brush it into the dustpan. The small rains are due soon. I’m looking forward to them, damp down the dust and bring out the flowers I say.

We bought two blue plastic chairs yesterday. We can now sit at a table to eat. Things are looking up. We were walking home through the streets of Asmara with them and passed a shop Saskia and I wanted to go in so we left Phil sitting outside on a pile of blue chairs. Michelle (another volunteer, it’s impossible to walk very far in Asmara without bumping into someone you know) walked past, had a quick conversation and walked on, not a word about why he was sitting there. Everything starts to seem normal after a while.

I’ve finished writing my first unit at work (student book and teachers’ guide). Another milestone passed.

An update for anyone thinking of visiting, I’ve changed my thinking on it. Weather-wise the
best time is probably now or January to March next year.

There are nine ethnic groups with different religions, dress, hair-styles living in this country. It’s amazing in a country this size. There seems to be no friction at all between them. The uniting factor is to be Eritrean. More of this later.

C

another mundane posting

2008-02-24T11:01:00.000Z

Two weeks into work and we’re starting to settle into it. I’m still feeling a bit new but it’s getting better. We both start at eight and work very close to each other in Ministry of Education buildings. It takes about 20 minutes to walk. Half an hour’s break at ten and two hours at twelve. Long enough to walk home and relax. We both finish at six. Dinner is usually vegetables in some form, haven’t got round to buying meat yet, often have it if we eat out. Butchers shops are quite off-putting, rows of carcases hanging up and I’m not sure if I’ve got enough language to buy it yet.
Traditional food is “injera. The real traditional is everyone at the table sharing from a huge plate in the middle of but in restaurants you usually have your own or a half injera. It is eaten regularly, not just for special occasions, had a workshop yesterday and that was lunch. There’s also a variety of burgers, pizzas and pasta and some good fish.
We’ve been living in pretty bare rooms for the last couple of weeks but have just got some furniture from the landlord which makes the place feel a bit more homely. It had been shut up in the garage and it’s just taken all morning to clean it up and get rid of many years accummulatio n of dirt and dead insects, lovely. We’ve a spare bed so we’re now officially open for visitors, I don’t think there is a best time to come, I keep being given different views by people, there are a couple of rainy seasons in May and July/August but like most rainy seasons it doesn’t rain all day, just a few hours and then the sun comes out. The only thing is that the summer is too hot for the lowlands, Massawa which is a big port and the nearest thing to a beach resort gets up to the mid 40’s and isn’t really recommended then. We’re going to try and get there for a weekend before the end of March.
Biggest talking point amongst volunteers at the moment is the absence of beer, the beer factory has closed down due to lack of something (hops?) and most bars have none or will only let you buy one bottle. Only the local wine left.

C

Picnic Eritrean Style

2008-02-24T10:54:00.000Z

Last Saturday was the day of a picnic which I was invited to, along with another VSO colleague, at quite short notice.

The destination was the Filfil camp ground situated in Eritrea's small area of rainforest halfway up the great rift valley escarpment at the top of which Asmara sits.

The large cooking pots being loaded onto the bus together with gas cylinder and burner offered a clue that this was going to be a picnic with a difference, the stop at the livestock market just before leaving Asmara provided confirmation.

The ride to the camp ground was initially across the high plains along the Keren road followed by the hairpins on the descent of the escarpment, through a layer of cloud, towards the Eritrean lowlands. The road itself is quite amazing, very well maintained with crash barriers in strategic places, and little used - but still providing many kilometres of fear and excitement.

At the camp ground I was quite surprised to find six other buses and several other picnics in full swing (meaning loud Eritrean music blasting out from music systems) not quite an idyll but interesting nonetheless.

So now we come to the preparation of the main ingredient and, in writing this, I am very aware that I am looking through the eyes of someone whose meat is usually pre-cut, sanitised and shrink-wrapped and that, to my Eritrean, colleagues, it is just the normal way things are done.

It turned out that we had brought two goats with us and that they weren't going to be invited to join in the dancing later ... pretty much all the guys participated in the steps involved in the killing, stringing up, skinning and butchering of lunch (apart from me although I was invited to observe closely and to take photographs with the assurance that I would be wielding a knife next time).

The meal was, of course, delicious consisting of various stews served with injera (flat sourdough bread, a local staple) and it was later shared with a number of people who just seemed to appear from the woods, it was accompanied by beer and wine and followed by an Eritrean coffee ceremony and dancing in a circle Eritrean style (lots of shoulder movement), which continued in the bus on the way home round the hairpin bends!

So it was a day of firsts for me – I'd never seen an animal killed before, I'd never been at a picnic quite like it ... oh, and I'd never seen a baby camel before (from the bus while travelling through the lowlands).

Living

2008-02-17T11:20:00.000Z

We’ve both been at work for a week now and our time here is starting to seem less like a holiday and more like real life. Living here is a strange combination of being different and yet being the same as everyone else. We obviously look different and aren’t aware of the finer points of the culture and yet because we are being paid on a local pay scale we’re living in the same way as everyone else. We don’t receive any pay for three months but VSO have given us an equipment grant for household items and are willing to give an advance on our wages if we need it, at the moment we’re trying to do without it but we’ll see. Tomatos, oranges ,bananas and sometimes apples are our main fruit. We eat meat if we eat out but haven’t braved a butcher yet to cook it at home. Water is in short supply at the moment as the mains supply is very erratic.
We’re living in an older style house (could date back to when the Italians were here – not sure), the owner lives in Italy and her brother is our landlord. Bedroom, living room, bathroom and kitchen (and a few cockroaches but I’m trying to persuade them to leave). There’s a sun deck of sorts around the house for those of you who are planning to visit and sit in the sun (I mention no names Rog).No furniture apart from a stove (we were very lucky to get a calor gas stove but as the gas is in short supply we may not be using it for long, most people cook on kerosene) and a bed. I tried to buy some furniture in the market yesterday but even the most rickety table and chairs were too expensive. I’ll try again next weekend.
Actually had a very nice Saturday yesterday. Phil was away for the day on a works picnic (I’ll leave him to describe it –it certainly didn’t have anything to do with cheese sandwiches) and I spent the day in town with a friend wandering round the market, drinking cappuchinos and out for a pizza in the evening. Asmara is so uncrowded and beautiful with faded Italian architecture and palm trees, it was a pleasure. It’s still winter here, t-shirt weather during the day but very chill at night.
My work’s ok, I’m still finding my feet, I’m a bit hampered by the fact that I haven’t worked in a school here but it’s coming together. The gov. is very committed to education and the text books completed so far are very good. The main problem seems to be in the level of teacher education and expertise which is where VSO concentrates a lot of its efforts. Children study at school until grade 11 and then grade 12 is actually a year of military service after which they take their final exams. This results in girls being married early as they then don’t have to do this final year. The trouble is they then don’t have their final exams and so have no qualifications with which to find work. Those who do take the final exam are then allocated to jobs anywhere in the country.
We’ve both got mobiles, paid for by VSO in case they need to contact us quickly. If you want the number drop us an email.

Read about the UN on BBC yesterday. They’re still driving around Asmara. Everything’s continuing the same.

C

Work Starts Soon

2008-02-10T14:13:00.000Z

So we have arrived at the end of "In Country Training" and we start our placements next week. We have also had some Tigrinya language training (it's not going to be easy you should hear the word for egg ... and there is a 200-character script to learn) but given time who knows?

Life in Asmara is going to be interesting and probably very busy - in my case there are already a number of IT tasks earmarked for me on top of the training and it looks as if I may be travelling in the rest of the country some of the time.

Asmara itself continues to amaze. The combination of a great climate - still gotta be a bit careful of the sun at this altitude and latitude - and the city itself with it's landmark buildings, bustling market and mixture of old and modern styles of dress is a winning one.

We've also seen inside our house which is a little bigger than we were led to believe so if anyone wants to come and stay ... and no - the palm trees are too far apart to sling a hammock but the tiled outside area for taking the evening sun more that makes up for this.

Watch this space for photos - we're working on it!

P

More from Asmara

2008-02-03T12:42:00.000Z

Sunday 3rd February

Apologies to those of you who may have been waiting avidly for the next posting (if any). I think we've got too used to instant Internet access and emailing in the UK. It can be very intermittent here, in fact non-existent sometimes. Hopefully we can sort out something more reliable when we move into our house which we're hoping to do in a week's time. On the subject of accommodation:

The standard varies tremendously. It's obviously better in Asmara as generally the standard of living and availability is better but VSO do make sure that the volunteers working in the villages (who are the majority) have have a good basic standard of accommodation - a bedroom and either their own or shared toilet and kitchen. The toilet can be a flush or a pit latrine. Water can be on tap or delivered daily by anything from a tanker to a mule. We've just had an overnight stay in a village with a volunteer as part of the in-country training, which was was really interesting and enjoyable. Kaska is a methodology trainer and lives and works in a village about 20 k outside Asmara. She has a large bedroom and her own kitchen and toilet in a compound which she shares with a family of 7 and a shopkeeper. We learnt how to maintain and use a kerosene stone and we cooked a meal on it! The family has 5 kids who were great and their mother set up a coffee ceremony for us - the coffee beans are first roasted, then ground and the coffee made, this is repeated twice, it's considered very bad form to stop before the third cup. Strangely enough the coffee is always accompanied by popcorn. It suits me, I love popcorn. We were shown round the village to cries of "Kaska" from all the local kids. Kaska's worked their for 3 years and seems to be adored by all the people living there. Her job involves working inside and outside the classroom training local teachers in more communicative methods, although she's based in the one village she also travels out to other outlying schools. It's a basic but very rewarding style of living.

We're going to be living and working in Asmara. VSO have found us a house which is being cleaned up and painted and they will provide us with the basic necessities. All I can tell you about it is that it's got 2 palm trees in the front garden which is good to going on with. We've tried peering through the undergrowth around the front gate but can't make out much more so more later on that one.

We're just about to start the 2nd week of in-country training which seems to be more work orientated than the first week, we'll be going out to our places of work and meeting co-workers.

We've taken lots of photos but haven't yet sorted out the best way to link them into this blog or even if we can , bearing in mind how slow the upload speeds are but watch this space.

Time to try and post this. Before I do, one thing:

My personal email is @mac.com but this is proving very difficult to use. Gmail is much easier, problem is we both have are email address books on mac and can't access them. So we'd appreciate it if everyone would send us an email at carholden@gmail .com (for Phil or me) so we can build up a new address book (and also because it would be nice to hear from you as well).

at last

2008-01-28T19:10:00.001Z

26th January Saturday

We’ve arrived and all’s well so far. Apart from the Internet. I don’t know when this will get posted as the connection is very slow at the hotel but I’ll write now while the mood is upon me and also I might feel differently in a few days.
The flight over was uneventful apart from Phil being put on a later flight for the first leg of the journey to Frankfurt and the nearly missing the Asmara connecting flight. I’d decided I’d refuse to board the plane if Phil’s flight didn’t arrive in time but luckily we were spared the experience of a showdown with Lufthanasa by P’s appearance 5 minutes before take-off. Five other volunteers were on the flight, nearly everyone else left at Jeddah so we almost had the flight to ourselves for the final hour to Asmara. Arrived at 10.30 by which time we were all in a zombie state and staggered through all the airport formalities including registering our mobile phones and changing money to pay the tax on them. We were met by a welcoming committee from the VSO office in Asmara who
Left us at our hotel with medical and induction packs and promises to return the next day.

27th January Sunday

Decided against joining the optional walk to the edge of the escarpment to see the baboons in favour of sleeping late. An afternoon walk around Asmara (partly in cloud) and an evening meal with the other in-coming volunteers and two on-going volunteers gave us a really good first experience of the place. The main street – Harnet – is just as we’ve seen in photos. It’s still hard to believe we’re really here.

28th January Monday

Up at seven for breakfast at the hotel followed by the first day of the in-country training at the VSO office. This lasts for two weeks after which we start our jobs. Four of us are based here in Asmara and the other three are going to jobs in the villages outside Asmara. Today was mainly a bits and pieces day, this morning was spent filling in forms for work permits etc etc. and then this afternoon was a getting to know Asmara tour – great fun. Lunch and dinner with other volunteers. Everyone is so friendly and welcoming, volunteers and all the staff at the programme office. We’re definitely still in the first euphoric stage of culture shock.
Language lessons start tomorrow.