Selam alekoom from Keren. I've left Barbara at home this morning with our young, male Arabic teacher. This required a discussion about whether or not this was going to cause a scandal. In the end it was decided that it was okay as long as they did they're work outside on the veranda. An older woman with a younger man is unheard of here in Eritrea - whereas the opposite seems to be the rule. It takes many years for most men to be able to save up enough money to be able to provide for a wife. So there are many weddings between middle-aged men and very young women. Men who have very little money or few possessions have little chance of marrying any suitable prospects of the female gender. I suppose this is similar in some ways to Canada many, many years ago. Lucky for me that has changed or I would be one of those wifeless men!

As for the Mohammed cartoon controversy, things are still very calm here in Eritrea. The uproar in many Islamic countries has not materialised here. Maybe because the government here is mainly made up of people from the Tigrinya culture and they are Coptic Christians. If you want to know more about that religion you'll have to look it up for yourself because I haven't done much research into it. It seems to be an Orthodox style of Christianity where the priests can marry and I believe the woman have more say in what goes on at all levels of the church. But don't take my word for it. All I know is that they start ringing their church bells much too early in the morning. Apparently there is an unofficial competition between churches to see who can ring their bells the loudest. It seems to me this would be a way to keep people away from the church, but that's not the effect here. They are quite popular and numerous. Of course, people here tend to be less materialistic and therefore maybe more spiritual. This would explain why the churches attract people even at 4 or 5 in the morning!

That's it for now. I have a coffee encounter with Barbara in a few minutes and I have to find out how her Arabic "lesson" went.

Ma esalama from the Eatburns!