Projects and Plans

Life is never boring, and always full of surprises. Just last week Vadim left Eritrea, to go back to Russia and work, and now I have a new room-mate, Gabri- one of my Dutch friends here, who is an architect working with the Ministry of Justice in designing court houses all across the country.

So after a lot of changes and some major disappointment (with Vadim’s sudden departure) I took another trip to the beach, and had a lovely weekend where I visited the Dahlak islands, with a diverse group of internationals all working for different organizations here in Asmara. We did some amazing snorkeling along the coral reefs and camped on a deserted island in the middle of the Red Sea.

So after another great weekend trip, I am totally refreshed and happy to be back at work. I am always so impressed by all the amazing projects the women are implementing and proposing. Currently I am working on a project proposal, we will be implementing with the Ministry of Health, thanks to substantial funding from the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS(which by the way Canada is a large contributor of). We are also in the process of preparing projects that will be funded through a new NGO in California, One Tribe Foundation, some of these projects include an expansion of NUEW’s micro-credit programming, to reach women in the areas surrounding Keren, a recycled paper production project (this will be a project I will manage out of our office in Asmara, as a pilot project to test the market for recycled paper), and a water purification project. The water project is pretty neat; Paula, the director of the NGO came up with the idea for the project, after her visit here last year. She asked someone in the Ministry of Health what was the major cause of death in Eritrea, and was told that over 50% of all deaths were due to water contamination and the complications related to water-borne diseases/illnesses, so essentially due to lack of safe drinking water. So after being told that, she did some research on the net and found an organization in Switzerland which discoverd that if you place plastic water bottles on top of the roof, under a sheet of coagulated tin, which is painted black, after 6 hours the water will become pure and safe for drinking, as the sun kills all the bacteria and micro-organisms living in the water. So now we are planning to do an initial 25 households in a village near Asmara, and after that test the results and progress and then most probaly expand the project to more families and to other villages.

More Xmas Holidays!

So in Eritrea, I had to work Christmas Eve and New Years Eve and there were not many holidays in December, but in January we have had plenty and last week we celebrated yet another couple more Xmas holidays, to celebrate the Epiphany(an Orthodox holiday) and Muslim Xmas Eid Mubarak. So with the last couple days I will get off as holidays until International Women’s Day on March 8th, me and Vadim took advantage and went to the beach on Thursday. We took a mini-bus to Massawa, leaving the station downtown around 11am and arriving in Ghinda(the half-way point) around 12noon. In Ghinda, I made friends with some of the beautiful Saho girls who were hanging around the bus station, and I took their photos. From Ghinda down to Massawa there was thick fog, as below Asmara its now the wet season and it was mostly raining. So contrary to what I was telling Vadim the weather in Massawa was not super hot and unbearable, but raining and cold. When we got to Massawa we settled into Central Hotel, as with the rainy weather the cable TV the hotel offered was a major selling point for us. I have never been so excited to watch CNN.( In Asmara, we don’t have a TV, and in general I barely ever see any cable English TV). However, unfortunately for us it was George Bush’s inauguration, and so on CNN we got to see it LIVE from Washington DC and then again and again, while the commentators continually emphasized how his administration will focus on Freedom and Liberty-whatever that means!?! Anyways after enough CNN brainwashing we toured around Massawa in the mud and found a good restaurant which was owned by a Canadian-Eritrean. He told us he has a restaurant in Toronto and it was always his dream to open a restaurant here in Eritrea.

The next day the clouds cleared up a bit and we decided to try a different hotel out of town a little ways, on the beach. It was a funny place, as you could tell that back in the day the place was a very popular beach resort, however, somehow it was not well maintained and now it looked a little rough, but all in all a good place to stay. We swam in the water and hoped the next day would have better warmer weather, and in fact, the next day was a beautiful day 30 degrees Celsius and so we got on our suits and suntanned a bit. I even took a camel ride down the beach and dressed as a Rashida Girl. We were also invited for some delicious coffee by a Rashida family who had made a trip to the beach to celebrate Xmas!

We could have stayed another night, but Vadim didn’t want to get more mosquito bites, as the night before they nearly ate him alive, I managed to stay under the little net we have – but Vadim had troubles, and was covered in bits and of course he worried about the possibility of Malaria... So we hoped back on the bus and climbed mountain after mountain until we reached the top- where Asmara lies 2400m above sea level.

Vadim and Eritrea

Me and Vadim at the Intercontinental Hotel


Inside the Bus to Keren
With Vadim here now I am having a lot of fun, showing him all the sights to see in Asmara, visiting all my regular cafes like Asmara Sweets, and Galaxy Cafe, for macchiatos and fresh pastries, visiting my favorite places for fresh juice, checking out the markets, etc. He has already met most of my international and Eritrean friends here and I think he is starting to feel a little at home. The climate is pretty mild so it hasn’t been a big adjustment for him, as usually its somewhere around 20 degrees in Asmara, not really hot enough to wear shorts, but warm enough to go without a jacket. However, somehow Vadim still managed to get a sunburn. Now all we need to do is find him some meaningful place to volunteer and/or work and it would be perfect. He may work with me at NUEW helping my collegeau Mobrato with his computer training classes and maintance of the computers in the office. He is also trying to track down the Russian Embassy, to see if there is anything he can do there. As well he thought about trying to get into working as an intern with one of the many UN agencies here( WHO, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNDP, UNMEE, WFP, etc…).

This weekend, we took a trip and left Asmara to visit Keren. I went my first week and really enjoyed my trip and so I thought it might be nice for Vadim to also see Karen, and catch a glimpse of what life is like beyond Asmara. Before we headed out on the bus, we were invited for lunch. Belanyesh, my co-worker (head of international relations at NUEW) invited us to eat lunch with her extended family, as her mother lives near the bus station to Keren and said it would be perfect for us to eat lunch and then hop on our bus with a full belly- so like usual we didn’t pass up the offer. After a nice lunch, we started out 2.5 hour bus trip to Karen. We got there and went straight to the Keren hotel, which we were told has one room on the roof of the hotel with a spectacular view, but unfortunately an Indian couple got there just before us and were also interested in the room -so we were out of luck. We decided we would come back later for a drink at the bar on the roof with the view, but would otherwise prefer another hotel. We ended up at a cute little hotel, where the staff where incredibly friendly, however where nobody spoke any English, which was quite strange as in Asmara, usually you always have someone who speaks at least some English. In any case, it gave me a chance to practice my Tigrinya, as the past 3 weeks I have been taking regular classes at the language school downtown in Asmara. One of the girls at the hotel loved my hair, I had it back in a pony tail, as I hadn’t washed it in a couple days, due to lack of water, but she sure didn’t think it was greasy, as she got a bottle of PURE OIL to put on my hair when she put my hair in braids. It was too funny, me and Vadim just had to laugh and enjoy the moment of me with my oiled up hair!

The next day we ate breakfast at the hotel and then walked around the market, bought a few things from the brightly dressed Tigre women sitting in the streets. And then after a couple hours we decided we wouldn’t stay another day and took the bus back to Asmara. If we were to stay we could've visited the famous Keren Camel Market, where you can see hundreds of different camels and where you can apparently buy your very own camel for around 10,000 Nkfa (about $500).

Merry Eritrean Christmas!

Last week Eritrea celebrated New Years, and Christmas. Christmas, like in Russia, is celebrated here on the 7th of January according to the Old Calendar.

New Years in Asmara was a rather large event, there were all sorts of New Years parties everywhere and all the bars, cafes and restaurants were full of people. I celebrated with my Dutch friends, originally we had planned to go for Eritrean food at the Blue Nile, however, after waiting over an hour at the bar for a table, we realized our chances at getting a table for eight without prior reservations was not too hopeful and so we opted for the another main alternative in Eritrea- Italian. After some delicious Spinach and Feta Cannelloni, we headed to Bar Aiba for some dancing. We had a fun time, the DJ was from Paris, and played a great mix of different music. Later I ended up at the intercontinental( the fancy only 5 star hotel in Eritrea- apparently made for Hilary Clinton- as when she came to Africa - she said there were not any adequate hotels). At the "Intercon" as international call it, I stayed up late talking with an American friend till 4am and then biked home. The next day for New Years Day I traveled to Massawa, the anient port city, 3 hours by bus away. The 2500m decline can be a bit challenging, but the warm, turquoise coloured Red Sea, accompanied by fresh fish make the journey worth while.

Christmas here was celebrated here last Friday, and for Christmas I got a great present- Vadim! He arrived here at 5am Friday morning, and then after only a couple hours of sleep I took him to meet a couple of my work colleagues, as I was invited to couple Eritrean family Xmas parties.

All around town, we saw people walking their Xmas goats home, so it was no surprise that we feasted on some fresh goat meat and ingera for Christmas dinner. The one surprise was the extra parts of the goat that were included in the meal. Some of which were literally hard to swallow, but we were told it was a specialty so we tried out best not to be rude and offend our hosts. As you can tell my part-time vegetarianism has been a little difficult to maintain here in Eritrea.

In any event, Christmas in Eritrea was a lot of fun, we drank a lot of coffee at we were at two coffee ceremonies, enjoyed great company and came home with very full bellies- quite satisfied. All in all, I think it was a great opportunity for Vadim to get a quick introduction to Eritrean culture and way of life.