An Update from me!

Life in Eritrea has been quite a rollercoaster so far! Had a few tough weeks in October - finding the lack of a friendship group in Segeneiti pretty tough - but I spent a week at an elementary school last week, teaching grade two, and I made a few friends there (teachers not kids!) so hopefully things will start to pick up. Have invited Feven (the grade two teacher) to dinner this week with her mum. She is in her first year of teaching. I went to her house last week for coffee which was really good. (More about coffee ceremonies later!) I was thinking of doing her a pasta and sauce type thing but have, this weekend, found out how to make baked beans so am now considering making her fried eggs, eggy bread, beans and fried potatoes with garlic - lovely! We did a great British Fry up this weekend - even had sausages, though we suspect they had been frozen at Senay supermarket for at least a decade! Senay supermarket is a shop in Asmara - supermarket is a little (a lot) misleading but you can get some British chocolate and toiletries if you're prepared to pay extortionate prices!

Coffee in Eritrea is like nowhere else. It's amazing, it’s everywhere and it’s a real social event. It’s so important it even has its own ceremony! You can buy macchiato, cappuccino etc. in Coffee shops and sit and watch the world go by; but the best type of coffee is the stuff you get at coffee ceremonies. During a coffee ceremony (performed by women, usually) the beans are roasted in a small pan over a charcoal stove - everyone wafts the fumes towards themselves and says "t'ohm". The beans are poured onto a woven mat to be checked. Bad beans which are still light in colour are discarded. Then the beans are ground, usually in a small pot using a huge metal bar. The beans are placed in a special jug type of thing called a ‘jebena’. Water is added and it’s placed on the charcoal stove. The coffee boils up and is poured back and forth between a cup and the jebena as necessary to stop it from boiling over. Once the coffee is cooked it is taken off the stove to cool a little. Loads of sugar is placed in small cups called ‘fingels’ and then the coffee is added. The cups are passed out and it is customary to compliment the lady on her coffee after a few sips. There are usually three rounds in a ceremony, although sometimes a forth (blessing) round may be given, and sometimes (I have heard) there can be as many as six rounds. The first round usually consists of two cups of coffee. The coffee is delicious - fresh and sweet (I like sugar in my coffee but even those who didn't when they arrived do now!!) Coffee is accompanied by salted or plain popcorn or bread. Sometimes the bread is ‘injera’,sometimes bread rolls, whatever people have. Ceremonies take about two hours and certainly never less than one and a half! They are lovely. I'm collecting a coffee set. When I come home I will try to re-enact the whole thing for you guys to experience. I think coffee ceremonies will be something I'll definitely miss when I leave - that and the weather!

I enjoyed my first Eritrean birthday a few weeks ago - thanks to everyone for the emails and stuff! A big group of us met up in Asmara. We had pizza and rather too much Asmara rum on the Friday night, ending up dancing in a bar at midnight - not really in keeping with traditional Eritrean female behaviour but lots of fun! Saturday was quiet for those of us suffering and the others had lunch somewhere. In the evening we went to the Roof Garden - probably the most expensive and posh restaurant in Eritrea. It serves Chinese and Indian and is based on the top floor of an office building at one of the highest points in Asmara. The views would be amazing if everywhere else had good lighting! They do a mean chilli lamb so I had that and noodles - yummy! Sunday was my birthday. Had yoghurt and honey for breakfast at Modern fast food which is friendly and cheap and has the best yoghurt in Asmara. (You have to get there early cos it usually runs out by lunchtime.) In the afternoon most people headed back to their placement towns but a few of us went out to the Escarpment. The Escarpment is at the edge of the city where the mountain kind of drops off and the views are great. You can see the steam train as it weaves around the mountains and through tunnels. It runs from Asmara to Massawa on a Sunday if there are enough people. A few weeks ago we met some train-spotters who had come all the way here just to ride it!

Monday was a meeting of volunteers based in my region. It was great to chat about the placements so far and ask for suggestions about how to organise my work. I pretty much make up my job as far as I can tell! Work has been difficult. VSO have changed the way volunteers work here. I'll try not to bore you all with the 'ins and outs' but basically the programme office is trying to make our work more sustainable in order that Eritreans are able to carry on our role when we leave – so rather than working on my own dashing about on my motorbike, running workshops etc, I'm meant to be working very closely with the supervisors (similar to county advisors), supporting them and helping them to observe effectively and identify training needs. The problem is that the supervisors in my area had already planned their semester work before I arrived and are not that keen for me to tag along every day. I've been out with one of them once. I was getting pretty down but things have improved. The PRC (Pedagogical Resource Centre) coordinator is keen to work with me and we have similar ideas about how to support teaching in the area so I think I'm going to work with him a bit more. Enough about that!

Just coming to the end of another great break in Asmara. Went out to the War Cemetery today which was moving, as you would expect. But one thing I noticed was that the graves were segregated. The British, Australian, Canadian, Senior South African graves were in three areas. And then there was a separate area for the East Africans and another for the Sudanese. I guess its not surprising considering the times but ... Anyway, we then bought tickets to go through to Asmara zoo. We kind of knew it wasn't going to be pretty and we weren't wrong there. The cages were tiny and the animals looked like they were going insane with boredom. It was really quite upsetting. British zoos have come a long way if this was the starting point. There were foxes, birds of prey, baboons, monkeys, ostrich, tortoises and hyenas. The tortoises actually had a bigger enclosure than the hyenas - not right if you ask me. It felt weird to be there but I guess it has reinforced my opinions of poorly kept zoos.

On the way back we decided to deviate from the path and have an explore. We came out near a checkpoint and wandered along the fencing, stumbling across a burial site. There were painted white rocks and flags. We went closer and in doing so found bits of fresh carcass where there had clearly been a huge slaughter. A small shack nearby had a moon and star and I guessed it was probably some sort of mosque. As we went to investigate we met an Eritrean man who told us that it was indeed a mosque and that a few days earlier there had been a big ceremony in which cattle were slaughtered and food made available for the poor Muslims that pray at the mosque. It had been funded by an anonymous Muslim and happened every two weeks in order that the poor people could eat. There were huge vats laid out in the sun drying. They were about a metre in diameter. The burial ground, he told us, was for the elders of the mosque and was very important to the people who pray there. They keep it clean and burn incense there in honour of the Hajj. The whole experience of being there was one of the best since I've been in Eritrea. I felt really privileged to have stumbled across such a wonderful community, and once again an open and friendly Eritrean who is only too happy to explain his/her customs.

Queuing for the Bus!

I am on the bus waiting to leave for Asmara. The queuing system is brilliant. It begins at an unmarked point in the dusty open space that is the bus terminal. People do not stand in the queue, they place an object to represent their place. It may be a bag, a stone, an empty bottle, anything. Everyone respects this order and knows exactly which object represents which person! Today I was a pointed rock! When the bus arrives the driver comes to give out tokens. I ended up being bumped up the queue and put in the front seat. They really will not take no for an answer. So, lucky me, I get a great view and loads of space! As I sit here I can see families selling belés (prickly pears) all in a row. Another queue waiting for the bus going the other way to Adi Keyh. Also some kids sitting on carts with donkeys taking flour and beans etc. back and forth. A camel just walked past heavily laden with God knows what. Yesterday I saw a camel taking a break in the petrol station – hilarious?

[Extract from letter received early October]