Selam

We've survived another week here in Keren although Barbara did have a scary, yet comical encounter with an obstinate donkey. We were riding home from school on our bicycles one day and there was a herd of donkeys coming from the opposite direction. I swerved around them, but Barbara got entangled with one donkey and its rope. I looked back and I could see Barbara's head and the donkey's behind - this looked like Eritrea's version of a Centaur. What a picture that would have made! It's usually me that looks like a donkey's behind, but this time it was Barbara! On the subject of donkeys, this morning as we were coming to school I almost ran into a donkey crossing the road. The donkey herder was taking his sweet time so I wanted to yell to him a rude suggestion in Tigrinya, Tigre or Arabic, but I am not yet proficient enough to shout, "Move your ass!" Maybe in another month or so.

We are starting to take Tigrinya and Arabic lessons every week in order to progress somewhat in these important languages. Unfortunately, learning even one of them is a tall order for us (especially me!) It's frustrating not being able to get past "Hello, how are you?" which seems to be the only thing I'm comfortable with as of yet. My brain used to work, but I think the afternoon heat here has melted most of my circuits!

We are doing fine on the home front, although water use and expense is a big issue at our house. We have a cistern, but it will cost us too much money to get it filled with our limited salary, so we have decided to move to another house which is connected to the city's water pipes. It will cost us a lot less and we can start flushing our toilet regularly. This new house has a big yard that the kids are quite excited about and it is spacious inside as well. So at the end of the month we'll have a new "Chez nous". Now we just have to figure out how to move our beds, desks and a few other heavy objects. Maybe Barbara can ask her new donkey friend to lend us a hand.

Here is the Cranbrook Townsman article that made the first page in early September!

By MATT COXFORD
>Townsman Staff
>Kim Eaton and Barb Ryeburn were planning to pile their three kids
>into their station wagon this morning and head for the coast.
>However, it's not your average late-summer road trip. By the time
>they come back in a year or two, the family will likely be fluent in
>Arabic and Tigrinya.
>So begins their year-long adventure on the horn of Africa with
>Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO).
>They leave North America on September 7.
>"We get 20 kilos each with Lufthansa, basically," said Ryeburn.
>"We're packing lightly."
>"The thing is with Eritrea, it's a country that's very poor," said
>Eaton. "We're not sure what's going to be available. Some of the
>things we've heard they don't have, so we'll have to make sure we
>have a battery charger for all our little devices. We pretty well
>need them - radios, shavers, electric toothbrushesŠ."
>The family - who is rounded out by their 14-year-old daughter Maya,
>and sons Lukas, 12, and Simon, 10 - is headed to the town of Keren,
>in the highlands of Eritrea.
>Both parents have taken a year of leave from their jobs: Ryeburn is
>a
>French Immersion teacher at T.M. Roberts school. Likewise, Eaton is
>the English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher for Southeast
>Kootenay
>School District 5. He also teaches some French Immersion classes at
>T.M. Roberts.
>Now, they are both headed to an Islamic school in Keren.
>"It'll be a lot different, because it will be huge classrooms full
>of
>students, as opposed to the one-on-one and small group work," said
>Ryeburn.
>The classes are split by gender, so Eaton will be instructing boys
>in
>groups of 40. Ryeburn, on the other hand, will have as many as 80
>girls in her classes because of a dearth of female teachers in the
>country.
>"Mine should be more well-behaved," insisted Ryeburn, gently teasing
>Eaton.
>He agreed that the boys might be more rowdy.
>"It's not because boys tend to have more discipline problems, just
>there I think the boys and men have a privileged position. It's hard
>to say. This is just conjecture."
>So much of what they will experience remains to be seen, such as
>their living arrangements.
>They will have some options to mull over, although living on a
>family
>compound sounds like a good plan to Ryeburn.
>"I think we're going to try that, because it would be a good way to
>get integrated," she said.
>The kids will be attending a local Catholic school, but teachers at
>Mount Baker and Parkland have given them science and math materials
>to bring along in case their schooling doesn't pass muster.
>"We didn't bring any social studies books with us because we figured
>they'll get plenty of social studies," said Ryeburn.
>The kids are excited at the opportunity, although Simon, who is a
>fairly picky eater, has expressed mild misgivings.
>"I think he's really worried about friends and leaving them behind
>because he's quite social," said Ryeburn . "He's the one that really
>gets into the language learning. We're not too worried."
>Although Keren isn't much more than 100 kilometres from the Red Sea
>as the white-rumped Babbler flies, it takes several hours to reach
>the coast.
>"Apparently, the roads are really something else," said Eaton.
>Eritrea is a country with a troubled past, and it struggled to gain
>its independence. It most recently had a border war with Ethiopia
>from 1998 to 2000. Still, the family isn't worried about either that
>or the drought that stretches into its fourth year now, noting VSO
>wouldn't be comfortable sending them into an area of that would put
>them in danger.
>One of the elements of Eritrea that intrigues the family is the
>cultural diversity found there.
>"I'm looking forward to making friends with people from different
>ethnic backgrounds. Keren seems to be a really diverse area as
>well,"
>Eaton said.
>Fashion dictates that women don't bare their shoulders or thighs,
>but
>burkas are not de rigeur in the religiously mixed area.
>"From what we've seen, the women will have something covering their
>head, like a scarf or something," said Ryeburn. "If that were asked
>of me in the school then I would say fine, it wouldn't be a big
>deal.
>I don't think it's going to be a question of burkas."
>Ryeburn supposes exposure to such modesty will serve their teenaged
>daughter well.
>"The style here is quite revealing. I said she'll come back (to
>Canada) and she'll look at people and go, 'My goodness.'"
>A VSO in-country grant will give them the means to purchase any new
>clothes that they might need. At school, the children will wear
>uniforms.
>Eaton said that, aside from tasting the reputed-worst beer in the
>world ("I've drunk some pretty lousy beer in the past, but we'll see
>if it's worse than the beer my brother makes.") he is looking
>forward
>to getting away from the many distractions of Canadian life.
>"We'll have some Internet access at school, but not at home. I don't
>think we'll have TV at home. It'll be 'Okay, we have this time.
>Let's
>do stuff that we really want to do, but haven't because of all these
>other activities.'"
>While they learn the local languages, the male members of the family
>can rely on the international language of soccer.
>"It's kind of nice too, they have 12 months of soccer," said Eaton,
>an avid soccer player, who also coaches Lukas's rep team.
>"Apparently women and girls play netball more so than soccer," he
>noted.
>Any disappointment Maya might be feeling at not being able to play
>football was short-lived.
>"One of the most popular sports is camel racing," said Eaton. "I
>don't know where we heard that one, but Maya really picked up on it.
>She wants to buy her own camel."
>Ryeburn and Eaton both spent time volunteering abroad with Canadian
>Crossroads International before settling down. They were aware of
>VSO's work through friend Kate Greenway, a Cranbrookian who has
>volunteered in Africa for many years.
>"We knew we'd go (abroad) at some point. Actually, it was our
>daughter who said 'Come on you guys, hurry up and do something,'
>around Christmas," said Ryeburn.
>Working with VSO was the first option, given the number of teaching
>positions available and its compatibility with families.
>"It was important for us to do it now, because once Maya gets into
>secondary school, it's going to be even harder."
>The children's experience and life-education will be more
>significant
>than any classroom could provide.
>"It's the same as with us, but also getting an idea of how much we
>have here, and how much we take for granted here," said Ryeburn.
>"Just packing up, there's so much junk we accumulate and I think
>that
>our understanding of what the majority of the world actually lives
>like (will improve)."

Ma esalama (goodbye) from Keren