Long Time no Write

Sorry it's been so long since our last blog entry. It's been a busy couple of weeks and I haven't been able to get onto the internet. I'm heading off to Asmara once again on Wednesday so I thought I'd better post something today.

It's hard to know where to start. We are all well and adjusting finally to the ever increasing heat which started up a few weeks ago. We'd get out of school in the heat of the noon-day sun and have to trudge up the hill to our home, sweat pouring off my back, often to find all our cold water bottles emptied out by the kids. Now, after a few weeks, I feel used to the heat again. A good rest in the middle of the day is the best way to go, along with drinking lots of water and sugar laden tea.

We'll start with the kids. Ups and downs on that front. Simon is doing better these days after many months of hating it here. He's discovered "coorar", a top made out of the pit of the "acat" fruit. It's all the rage in Keren these days and Simon has made some buddies who have taught him how to make one (involved burning the outer shell of the pit and sticking a nail into the base and drilling a hole in the side) as well as how to throw one so it actually spins. Now he's working on doing tricks with it like picking it up with the string and making it spin on his hand. These new buddies are the ones I was letting into the yard to collect our guaza fruit. There's no fruit left, but a few kids still come to play coorar or football or Lego with Simon.

Maya's finding it a bit rough as she can't really do the things she loves back home: sleepovers (not done here, with all the kids in one household in one room, it's pretty full), shopping at the mall (our market doesn't seem to work for Maya) and skiing and soccer. We're working hard to find things to keep her busy as most of her friends are only free rarely to visit. She's started volunteering at an orphanage where she played volleyball last Friday and she really enjoyed that.

Lukas continues to meet people right and left. He is right into fitting into the culture (you should see how short his hair is now!), learning the language and meeting people. He got us all invited to a family's home in what he calls the shantytown, an area where the poorer people live in very simple huts with no water or electricity. We had a very nice visit, all in very bad Tigrinha, with the mom and her daughters. Lukas had some problems with a teacher at school who told his classmates in Tigrinha that all whites are bad and you shouldn't play with them. The principal knows about it and is finding a way to deal with it. Most people here, though curious and sometimes invasive, are very friendly with all of us.

Kim and I are doing to well, continuing to work on strategies to teach and manage our classes more successfully. Kim's classes remain small since the SAWA incident a while back, and suddenly my grade 8 and 9 classes have gotten smaller. Our grade 12 boys' class which we teach in the afternoons is coming to an end in a few weeks, so we'll have a bit more time and not have to bike back here in the heat of the afternoon, which will be nice.

I wanted to tell you about my women's day here. It was a very successful event at the school. The girls were all assigned posters or essays to write. Most didn't get into it and there were many fairly identical posters handed in (including three computer printoffs of exactly the same poster!). But when we got to putting them up in the boys' side of the school, the girls got pretty excited. The posters were definitely noticed and brought on comments like "when is international men's day" (the answer is fairly evident!) as well as some good wishes. We also provoked one male student to post an essay in protest of the whole thing. At least we got his attention! But the highlight was getting the field for the girls for the day. Usually the girls only go outside at their recess time as the boys get the field for gym classes the rest of the day. But I manged to get it for the girls for the day. Some girls sat around, some played silly relays and some got right into playing soccer. It was wonderful to see their radiant faces after the game. They have started playing at recess now and many have told me, "teacher, I love football!". I've also been promised another days' use of the field in June. (I tried for every Tuesday with no luck!)

The next day was the actual international women's day. We had no school but met in the afternoon and marched with some students and teachers to the stadium for some "exciting" speaches, some music and a play. It was hot and I didn't know what was going on, so I slipped out early.

The following day, I was treated to a hennah session by my teachers. My hands, arms, feet and legs were all decorated in a beautiful pattern by a young Tigre woman who drew it on freehand in no time at all. Then I was dressed up in traditional Tigre clothing, had my hair braided and the gold hairpieces for married women put into my hair. Then we feasted and took millions of pictures (the other teachers got dressed up too.) It was a really decadent day. The henna is still on, but is wearing off in frequently used spots, like my left arm, which I use to wash clothes with.

I missed last week's entry and will miss this week's because of visits to Asmara to see the dentist. My second lower front tooth chipped last week, probably from the same motorcyle ride, so last week I had to go down to see the dentist and make an appointment for this week. Trips to Asmara are long and exhausting (three hours on the bus with lots of errand running when in town). I'm looking forward to a weekend when I can just relax!

Guess that's all for now,

Take care,

Barb