At home in Asmara: Part 2

My office in Asmara is located on one of the city's very few main streets. Unfortunately, I can never remember what it is called. Unlike many of the streets in Asmara, however, residents actually know the name of this street.

My office is not located downtown, but it is towards downtown. The neighborhood is dominated by office buildings and the service industry. That is, we are located within a few blocks of several hotels, restaurants, and bars.

The office itself is located in a building with a bank and a few other government offices. In addition to myself, Anna, and Diane, we have five Eritrean attorneys, an office manager, and Simon, who does various things but is most valued for his ability to fix computers. I sit in an office affectionately known as the fish bowl. I guess it was formerly a sun room. I am fortunate enough to have a very large window to the outside world, which means that my office gets warmer than the rest. On the downside, on the other side of me is a huge window that looks into the central room of the office where both Yohannes, the office manager, and Anna sit.

The office building is entered from a back parking lot, and there is a guard to lives back there. The gate to the parking lot is locked in the evenings and on weekends, and the guard really doesn't like it that we often work overtime. He is constantly either locking us in or out. He even demanded at one point that we leave the premises, but we informed him that we have every right to stay late. Apparently one of the previous guards carried an axe, and Lea and a couple of interns locked themselves in the office and refused to come out.

Ooo, and Elsa's here with tea and pastries. Elsa lives somewhere right around our building, and she comes to our office every day to sell tea and pastries both for breakfast and as a snack in the afternoon. She is a very industrious woman, who must make a lot of money despite how cheap her products are. In fact, she even brought us tea when we were working weekends during the filing.

Elsa's great. She is the only one in this country making an effort to teach me Tigrinya. So far I have learned almost none at all, but she has taught me to count to ten, say thank you and you're welcome, ask how some one is doing and answer the question, and say tired, hungry, and no problem.

I don't have much more to say about the office. So, I will close this post with one last picture. Both of these pictures were taken from the balcony outside my office.