"Vehicles"

Living in Eritrea has helped to broaden my vocabulary. Well, actually, that's not quite it. Rather, living here has helped me to broaden my definition of certain words.

One of those is the word "vehicle." Of course, when I think of vehicles, I automatically think of cars and trucks. But if I were asked to broaden my definition of the word, I would probably include any motorized means of transportation. Finally, I might include certain non-motorized conveyances, such as bicycles, canoes, horse carts, and dog sleds. But none of these definitions is quite broad enough for Eritrea.

This past fall, our office asked people living in the areas affected by the war with Ethiopia to complete claim forms describing property they lost during the war. The form asked about various types of property, including vehicles. I'm not sure what the author of the claim form had in mind with this question, but several of the respondents answered this question by listing the donkeys and camels they had lost.



While this response made me laugh, it's basically correct. People through out Eritrea still heavily rely on beasts of burden to transport themselves and their property. And in light of something James told us last night, I'm not surprised. Apparently, as a percentage of GDP, gas here costs the equivalent of $237.00 per gallon in the US.

Although the seal of the State of Eritrea is a picture of a camel, donkeys are far more common. In fact, donkeys are even a common sight in Asmara. In contrast, you have to drive a ways outside the city before you'll see a camel. Donkeys are used primarily to transport stuff, including agricultural products, water, and firewood. But Eritreans also use donkeys for transportation.



But I don't think anyone should give up their car just yet. One guy I know was supposed to go to a wedding in Adi Keih a couple of weeks ago. But he only got a travel permit to go as far as Dekemhare (about an hour from Adi Keih in a car). He therefore assumed he wouldn't be able to go to the wedding. But then an Eritrean friend of his suggested that he drive as far as Dekemhare and take a donkey the rest of the way to Adi Keih so he could avoid the checkpoints on the road. The guy thought yeah, maybe, and asked how long it would take. The answer: about two days.

Of Street Signs and Billboards...

Today I'd like to talk a little bit about the signage here in Eritrea. Recently I have been noticing some pretty entertaining billboards and street signs, and they got me thinking about some of the signs that seem pretty commonplace here but would probably look out of place in the west.

I'll begin with some of the more abnormal signs and billboards because they're the most entertaining. First, there's this "no trumpets" sign. The first time I saw one was in Senafe. Then I saw one in Asmara. I finally got to take this picture in Adi Keih. Anna and I speculated for some time about what it could mean. Anna suggested that it might mean "no parades." At first I thought that was a pretty good guess, because I really couldn't believe we were in a trumpet-free zone. But then, one day, I suggested that maybe it meant "no honking." We finally decided to ask an Eritrean and learned that that was correct.



The following billboard is either a condom ad or a community service announcement advocating safe sex. Of course, I personally doubt that anyone can discern the meaning of this billboard just by looking at it. But I happen to know that the picture of the man, the woman, and the dolphin is used in Eritrean condom packaging and advertising, so I know this billboard must have something to do with condoms. What? I'm still not sure.



This next billboard warns people in certain areas to beware of landmines. Although areas in and around towns have generally been demined, there are still large numbers of landmines and unexploded ordinances throughout Eritrea. Of course, the numbers are bigger in the parts of the country that were war zones during the most recent war. Nevertheless, there are still a number of landmines remaining from the Armed Struggle. This sign seemed rather poorly placed, considering that it was in downtown Adi Keih, a fairly large town by Eritrean standards. I really doubt their are landmines in the middle of Adi Keih.



And now for a couple of signs that are fairly commonplace in Eritrea but might seem out of the ordinary in the west. The first is this horse cart crossing sign. This picture was taken in Asmara, but you can find these signs in other towns as well. Of course, it seems the most bizarre in Asmara, which is as metropolitan as Eritrea gets. But, as I think I've mentioned before, you see plenty of livestock in the middle of Asmara. And, at least in my neighborhood, you see a number of horse carts on the streets.



Possibly the most remarkable thing about this sign is the trouble I had trying to take a picture of it. I knew that one of these signs was located near my friend Jina's house, so yesterday I went over there to take a picture of it. But it happens to be located near the home of someone who works for the European Commission. And the guard for that house came over to me and told me I couldn't take a picture. I tried to explain that I only wanted a picture of the sign and that I wouldn't get the sign in the picture. But he didn't care. He kept telling me no. I tried to get him to tell me why it was a problem, but he wouldn't give me a reason. This is actually one of the things I have found most frustrating about this country. No one will ever give you a reason for anything. I am often told that I can't do certain things or certain things can't be done, but no one will ever explain to me why things are the way they are. But, in any case, while I was debating with the guard, these three high school boys came by and told me there was a similar sign just a couple of blocks away. So, I got my shot in the end.



Finally, here's a sign for the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE). The UN is everywhere here. They have offices and camps in virtually every town I've visited. And even when you aren't near an office or a base, they're there. UN vehicles swarm the streets of Asmara. UNHCR plastic sheeting is used for construction purposes (see my post on the west) or as cover when they're painting the InterCon. And WFP food aid appears in the markets (or at least the packaging does). Again, I have gotten so used to seeing vehicles with "UN" written on them, the UN flag, light blue, and the logos for the various UN agencies, that I forget that those things are pretty rare in the West.

Parting the Red Sea...


This past weekend, I took my first "vacation" since arriving in Eritrea. Sure, it didn't actually involve taking much time off (about four hours). But it did mean traveling outside of Asmara for some reason other than work.

I actually had a pretty hectic week. I spent most of it gathering evidence in Senafe with Anna, Yosief, and Amanuel. Then, twenty-four hours after returning to Asmara, we took off again for Massawa and the Dahlak Islands. It was a fairly large group (11 people), although we originally thought we would have 15. Our party was made up mostly of people from our office (Anna, Diane, Yohannes, Yosief, Amanuel, Isaias, and myself), but there were a few others thrown in.
One of those was Lana, a doctor from the US who is doing her residency at Yale New Haven Hospital. She is currently doing a five week rotation in Asmara and will be living with Anna and I. The other three included Diane's boyfriend; Yoselam (sp?), who is the only female cab driver I've ever seen in Asmara; and Pete, one of only two foreign correspondents in Asmara (The other one, Jack, appears in one of the pictures in my Christmas post.).

For better or worse, it was a pretty action packed weekend. We began by driving to Massawa by way of Filfil, the last remaining tropical forest in Eritrea. In the past, foreigners have not been allowed in Filfil, but those regulations have recently changed. Filfil is supposed to be a great location for spotting wildlife, including monkeys and baboons. Unfortunately, the only animals I saw were birds, and I didn't get a very good look at them because we were always moving. It was nevertheless an interesting drive. We began so high up on the mountain that we literally had to descend into the clouds below us. For awhile, the clouds were so dense that we weren't sure we would actually get to see Filfil at all. But it eventually cleared up enough for us to get the idea. Indeed, I think there may be more greenery in Filfil than in the rest of Eritrea combined.



We spent Friday night in Massawa. We didn't have much time to explore, but we did have an excellent fish dinner at the popular Sallam Restaurant. Fish is literally the only thing on the menu at this place. And bread is the only available "side dish." The chef cooks the fish by shoving it into a hole in a woodburning stove with a long stick. I'm not sure if I would have enjoyed the fish half as much as I did had I spent time in the kitchen.



Each of us was served a whole jackfish, and somehow I ended up with the largest fish at the table. Unfortunately, I was unable to finish it. But we did get this great picture with its head!

After dinner, most of the group walked through the old part of Massawa, which was built by the Ottomans hundreds of years ago. Obviously, it's quite different from Asmara, which is largely Italian. I really need to get back to Massawa before I leave the country so that I can spend some time really appreciating the architecture. Anyway, we ended up at a bar in one of these old buildings, which had a nice view of the water. The bar was owned by an Eritrean-American guy who was very excited to have Anna, Lana, and I there. On the other hand, he was visibly disappointed when Pete said that he was from Britain.

The next morning, we boarded the Holiday Eritrea for Dissei Island. We were originally supposed to be headed to Dahlak Kebir, which is by far the largest island in the archipelago. However, it is currently the rainy season in that part of the country, and we were trying to avoid the rain on Dahlak Kebir.



While we were loading the boat, I had a chance to snap this picture of the Imperial Palace. From what I have gathered, it was actually built by the Ottoman Turks. However, it is best known as Haile Selassie's palace. The structual damage was inflicted by Eritreans during the Armed Struggle. According to Diane, Haile Selassie's furniture is still inside.

The boat ride to the island was very pleasant. There was a warm breeze, and we were able to dangle our feet so that they got wet when we came across a large wave. We even saw a few dolphins.



Upon arrival at our island, we were served lunch on the boat and then swam to shore (well, those of us who could swim did anyway). I then spent much of the afternoon enjoying the great snorkling just offshore. Although I didn't see any one thing that was particularly memorable (such as a baricuda or a shark), the sheer diversity of fish and coral was impressive. I really liked this one kind of fish that seemed to be both rainbow-colored and completely translucent at the same time. Unfortunately, I can't share the underwater photos yet because they are on a disposable camera that I need to have developed.



The rest of the daylight hours were spent exploring the island itself. Anna, Pete, and I even climbed up a hill in order to try to watch the sunset. Unfortunately, it was too cloudy, and there wasn't really anything to see. But here's the view back towards our campsite.



I would like to say that the rest of the trip was as tranquil and pleasant as most of Saturday was, but with the darkness came the excitement, much of which was of a negative sort. And for that reason, I won't get into most of it. But I will share a small part of the story.

To begin with, we had a little too much to drink, as one seems apt to do in Eritrea. And at some point, a group of us decided to take a walk down the beach to check out some shark heads that someone else had spotted earlier. Suddenly, Pete strips off his clothes, runs into the sea, and starts flailing about. The rest of us just stare at him bewildered, until he says, "It's the phosphorescence" (i.e., the light emitted by bioluminescent plankton). At that point we knew what he was talking about because he had been telling us about his previous encounters with such bioluminescent plankton earlier in the day. It didn't take Anna and I very long to jump on the band wagon, and suddenly we were swimming in stars. It was a pretty amazing sight, and we might have been in and out of the water all night long had Anna not stepped on a sea urchin.

With that one small mistake (which honestly I'm really surprised I wasn't the one to make it), all of the fun came to a screeching halt. Suddenly our attention was all on her. And thank goodness we happened to have a doctor with us. Although there was actually very little she could do, it was just nice to have someone there who knew what she was doing.

The next day was mostly consumed with packing up and making it back to Massawa. I got in a little more snorkling before we left our little cove. Before leaving Dissei, we stopped at an Afar fishing village on the other side of the island, and we all wondered silently how those people could possibly survive out there on what really is a dessert island. The Afar are yet another ethnic group living in Eritrea. They mostly live further south along the coast, near Assab. There are also Afar living in Ethiopia, Somalia, and Djibouti. Actually, I have heard that their king is in Djibouti. Anyway, the Afar don't care much about national borders and are not typically loyal to any of the countries in which they live. Instead, they seem to only be loyal to the Afar nation.



Unfortunately, I somehow ended up missing the boat to shore, so I didn't have a chance to buy any souvenirs from them or to see them up close, but I did snap a couple of shots from the boat.




After leaving Dissei, we had lunch on the boat and headed back to Massawa. I fell asleep on the front of the boat and didn't wake up until we are pretty close to the port. The day ended with the long climb to Asmara (over 2000 verticle meters in about three hours).

Can You See Sana'a?

Happy New Year everyone! This post is a little late coming, but I thought I would take this opportunity to tell you about the work trip I took to Senafe, a town directly south of Asmara near the Ethiopian border, from December 16 through the 20th.

"The word Senafe derives from "San'a fen', which in Arabic means 'Where is San'a?' This is said to have come from the question asked by Middle Eastern (Yemeni) traders who used to pass through this area and climb the high escarpment to try and see their home--San'a." See Edward Denison & Edward Paice, Eritrea: The Bradt Travel Guide 193 (2002). Senafe is situated on the same highland plateau as is Asmara. This plateau runs south into Ethiopia around Zalambessa and then eventually drops off. Senafe itself is located in a flat valley surrounded by boulders, peaks, and outcroppings. Gorgeous!



Our group on this trip included Anna and myself, Yosief, and Amanuel and Isaias, two of the other attorneys in our office. Compared to our trip to the west in October, this trip was extremely productive. We took 35 or 36 witness statements and collected reams of documents. We also spent a lot less time driving around than we did in the west because we only had one town to visit. So, once we arrived in Senafe, we basically just stayed at our hotel. The witnesses came to us there, and we took their statements in the hotel restaurant.

But despite this high level of productivity, we still had a chance to get out and see a little of Senafe and it's surroundings. Anna and I took walks around town on both Monday and Tuesday mornings. Monday was really foggy, so we only got a few pictures. On Tuesday we went to take a picture of Senafe's large mosque. However, we got lost on our way back and ended up wandering through much of the town before arriving back at our hotel.



More than any other town I've visited, Senafe still bears its scars from the war. Former businesses and public institutions still lay in ruins. "Prime" real estate along the town's main road (the only paved one) remains unused. Instead, the remnants of destroyed buildings occupy those locations. This building (the TeleCom office), for example, was intentionally detonated from the inside rather being damaged during the fighting. My understanding is that Senafe does not have phone service today. Other buildings are now little more than rubble. Many of these could have just as easily been destroyed during the fighting as intentionally.



On Tuesday afternoon, after completing our work for the day, Anna and I decided to climb the Amba Metera, a large rock/mountain in Senafe. The Amba Metera is also a religious site, so there is a church about half the way up and a cross at the top. There are also a number of tombs located in caves, as well as in the rock face, all the way up the mountain. Many of these graves apparently belong to priests, but others clearly do not. We began to wonder who it was who got to be burried in the mountain. Unfortunately, we couldn't ask our guide, who showed us all the tombs, because he could not speak English. However, someone later told us that those were people who had fallen off the Amba Metera. I think I'm glad I heard that after we decided to climb it.

Before we went up, Yosief told us that we needed a guide to take us because the trail was not clear. So, we drove around in the car near the location and Yosief asked whether anyone would take us for a price. He finally settled on this older man who didn't speak English but who Yosief said he trusted. The man must have been in his late 50s or early 60s, and yet he almost ran up the mountain while Anna and I huffed and puffed along behind him. Since the sun was bright and it was pretty warm out, there were points where I really needed to stop and have some water. But every time we tried to stop, he would pressure us to continue on. And I couldn't explain to him that I was worried about heat stroke. So, we climbed quickly up the mountain, not really understanding what all the hurry was about and having to make sure we made the guide (Hadish) stop whenever we wanted to take a picture.



About 3/4 of the way up to the top, we reached the section shown below. It was so sheer, and as many of you know, I am such a clutz, that I was terrified that I would slip and fall while trying to make it up. So, I stopped there, and Anna and our guide continued up. The view from where I stopped was pretty impressive so, hopefully I didn't miss out on much.



When we reached the bottom, Hadish wanted to take a picture of us with some of the villagers. So we posed with the one woman who was willing to have her picture taken, and he took the photo with Anna's camera. But when he was done, he headed off at a pretty quick clip, and Anna and I found ourselves chasing after him, wondering whether he was going to give the camera back. We followed him down the road, for what seemed like quite a ways. The entire time we were about 20 feet behind him. Finally he led us up the steps to a house. We followed him inside, not really knowing what was going on. The house was small but well decorated. There was also a doorway that led into a very small grocery store (not much bigger than a kiosk, really). Hadish gestured for us to sit down and "introduced" us to the couple of other people there. Although we couldn't talk to him, we were able to successfully ask him whether this was his house and got an affirmative response.

Then he got up, and gestured for us to follow him back out. He was still carrying Anna's camera. Next we followed him to a small bar/cafe that was next door. It appeared completely empty other than the tables and chairs. But someone produced tea from somewhere, and Hadish paid a kid to bring animal crackers from somewhere--probably from his store. Then we sat there and drank tea and looked at the photographs we had taken. Then Hadish produced a piece of paper and wrote his name on it, and we wrote our names on another scrap. The next day, as we were leaving town, two boys appeared with the piece of paper we had given to Hadish. One of them told us that Hadish was his father. This was the end of our relationship.

But was it really...We are actually going to be going back to Senafe next week for a follow-up trip. So maybe we'll see Hadish again after all.

Look what I got today. It's the photo taken at my high school reunion in Southern Humboldt this summer. A lot of the class couldn't make it, but I'm really glad I took the trouble to fly down from Alaska because I was able to satisfy a lot of my curiosity about what happened to my classmates after we graduated.

Anyway, I thought I'd share this picture since, as many of you know, I grew up in a place that feels like the end of the Earth. Growing up behind the Redwood Curtain, I missed out on a lot of things that many of my current friends probably took for granted. The twenty-first century is beginning to invade Southern Humboldt, and it really isn't the same as it was when I was a child. But everyone in this picture grew up with the same distorted view of reality as I did, which might explain why so many of them have moved back to Humboldt County since graduation.

Rihus Lidet!

Christmas away from home is always hard for me. This was my third Christmas away from my family, and I think it was the hardest yet, even though the first was when I was 16. The main reason is that it just didn't feel like Christmas at all.

Oddly, it wasn't because I am in a country where Christmas is not celebrated. Although half the population is Muslim, most of the Muslims live in the low lands. So here in Asmara, at 7000 feet, the majority of the population is Christian. Of those, the majority are Orthodox, and therefore do no celebrate Christmas until January 7. However, the Catholics celebrate on December 25th, and it's a holiday for everyone. And either way, there are Christmas decorations all over Asmara, Christmas cards for sale, and even a store dedicated entirely to Christmas stuff. So I really don't know why it never felt like Christmas.

I would blame it on the sunny weather, but I'm from California, so Christmas doesn't mean snow to me anyway. And it's not like it doesn't get cold here. Although the sun might be out, it's pretty chilly, at least by California standards.



But although it never ever felt like Christmas, I probably celebrated more here than I have most years in the US. I guess it all started with the UN Mine Action Coordination Center's Christmas party at the beginning of the month and culminated with a four day weekend filled with debauchery.



In particular, on the 23rd of December, I went to President Isaias Afewerki's Christmas party here in Asmara. It was pretty crazy. It was catered by Gidey Restaurant, which makes the best Eritrean national food in the city. I ate a lot. We were also apparently entertained by some of the most famous singers in Eritrea. Unfortunately, I didn't know who any of them were.

I was forced to try out my Tigrinya shoulder dancing. It's hard to explain, but the Tigrinya people dance with their shoulders and have an amazing amount of control I don't have. I think I need to take a video of this some time. Anyway, we even danced with the president's chief of staff, Yemane Gebremeskel. (If you read news from Eritrea, you will often see him quoted.) It was pretty exciting. Of course, we had wanted to dance with President Isaias himself, but he didn't dance.

On the 24th, I celebrated with several of my closest friends here in Asmara. My friend Genet hosted all of us for dinner at her house. She and her mom prepared a lot of food. Anna and I contributed lasagna, cookies, and some flavorless brownies. The brownies turned out really strange because I used this cocoa that we had in our house which apparently has no flavor. I finally thought to test it after tasting the brownies and realizing how weird they were.

After dinner, we went to the English mass at the Catholic cathedral. It was very pretty. The choir sang a lot of Christmas carols, and they had a nice nativity scene set up. Unfortunately, there were several awkward moments.

First, we arrived late, so there was nowhere to sit. There were already a lot of people standing, but this guy Frank, who's an architect for the American embassy, suggested that we go sit on one of the kneelers at the front of the room. But the church clearly didn't want us there. So, some guys went an got us chairs from a back room. We moved into the chairs, already feeling bad. Then, the bishop and priests got up from the first pew and went to perform the mass. When they did so, they insisted that we move into their reserved pew. We were so embarrassed. I think I was particularly embarrassed because I rarely go to church, and I'm certainly not Catholic.

Then, I started to get dizzy during the mass and had to sit down when everyone else was standing. This was totally bizarre, because the one other time I went to services at the cathedral, I started to black out and came very close to passing out. The only thing that prevented me from actually passing out was Anna running out and getting me something to drink at just the right time. Well, this time wasn't anything close to that, but it scared me anyway. And some friends who were sitting a ways from me thought I was falling asleep. So, because we were in the front row, I am sure the priests saw us and probably also thought I was falling asleep during their mass.

After mass, we did something very Christmasy: we went drinking. I've never thought of Christmas as a drunk holiday. Halloween, yes; Fourth of July, sure; New Years, absolutely. But not Christmas. However, this year Christmas seemed to involve a lot of alcohol. And so Sunday night we went to a bar called Zara and then back to Jina's house for dancing. And of course we were out very, very late. I think I'll blame the fact that Santa didn't visit my house on the fact that I didn't make it home until 3 in the morning on Christmas Day.



Christmas Day brought yet another party and even more injera. I got up "early" in order to bake a pumpkin pie to contribute to the office Christmas party at Diane's house. She ordered Eritrean national food from a neighborhood restaurant, and we had a nice lunch at her house with several of our coworkers. The food was good. And Diane, who doesn't drink, apparently expected everyone else to get drunk because she ordered 2 cases of beer. But most of us stuck to Coke. Unfortunately, no one liked my pie. I think some of the Eritreans wouldn't even try it, and those who did took one bite and refused to eat anymore. I'm just glad Anna and Diane liked it. Otherwise I might have to rethink my belief that I know how to cook.



Christmas Day ended with a call to my family in California and a reminder of how much I miss all of them. It was particularly hard talking to my sister Rachael, because I literally haven't seen her since last Christmas.

But Christmas in Eritrea isn't over yet. We have through the Orthodox Christmas on January 7, when apparently there will be a lot more celebrating. So I guess I have until then to get in the Christmas spirit. So, "rihus lidet" (Merry Christmas)!