Keren: The City I've Almost Visited


This past Friday, I went to Keren to interview a couple of witnesses for work. This is the third time I've been in Keren, but so far, I haven't really visited the city. And, unfortunately, with only three weeks remaining until I leave Asmara, I'll probably never make it to Keren for real.

The first two times I was in Keren were in October 2006. We passed through Keren on our way to and from the West. On our way to Barentu, we stopped in Keren just to have lunch and tea, so I basically just saw two buildings: the restaurant where we had lunch and the hotel where we had tea. When we returned from the West, we again stopped in Keren to eat. However, this time I wasn't hungry, so I decided to go explore the market a little bit. I had heard that there were nice baskests in Keren, and I was determined to find some before we left. I did succeed in finding a store where a little old woman was selling beautiful baskets, and I bought a few. It was actually a pretty funny experience, because she couldn't speak English, so we had to communicate in a combination of very limited Tigrinya and Italian and Spanish. (She speaks Italian, and I speak Spanish.) And at one point, she ran out into the street to find a kid who could help her translate something into English.

But, anyway, by that point in our trip, I was low on cash and couldn't afford to buy several of the things I wanted. So, I left Keren determined to return before the end of my stay in Eritrea so that I could spend a lot of money at the market.



Unfortunately, that has never happened, and this Friday was the first time I had been back to Keren since October. Again, I saw very little of the city. We ate lunch at the same restaurant we had been to before and then headed off to the Keren Hospital to meet our witnesses. After completing our work, we actually spent a fair amount of time just hanging out in Keren. However, we didn't really see anything. Instead, Yosief, our driver, and I had regular coffee at the cafe at the hospital and then headed over to another cafe to have traditional coffee. We must have spent an hour and a half just having coffee.



Finally, it was time to go. I had been hoping to stay in Keren for the weekend, but I was waiting to hear from Genet and James about whether they were going to be able to take the bus to Keren and join me. In the end, James said he couldn't come because he didn't get a travel permit, and Genet couldn't tell me whether she could come or not because she was waiting to hear back about something related to her job. So, in the end, rather than spend the weekend alone in Keren, I returned to Asmara with Yosief and the driver.



Maybe someday I will actually make it to Keren, but for now, it shall remain the city I almost visited.