A Quick Hello

Nothing seems to be working well lately. First it was my teeth. Now we're getting power outages almost every night and we only get running water once a week in the middle of the night when we have to get up and put it into barrels before it turns off. Finally, I just gave an oral test to my students and most are failing quite badly, despite a very easy and repetitive curriculum....So what are we doing here??? Well despite all these challenges it's fun, in a quirky sort of way, and there are some great things:

1. Yesterday all three kids were busy playing. Maya is on a school volleyball team now and we just learned that the girls soccer team is starting up soon. She has also enjoyed volunteering at an orphanage and has become good friends with a local shopkeeper who fed her (literally, a sign of affection is to feed friends by putting food in their mouths) and painted her nails and spoiled her last weekend. Now all she's got left! to miss is sleepovers with friends, but she did stay at a local VSO volunteer's a few weeks back. Simon and Lukas were busy playing football and with their "cooras" (tops) that are the popular activity here these days. Some friends have helped them to perfect their cooras and they are outperforming beyblades. Yesterday, Simon had his spinning in our huge washtub, much better than the puny beyblade stadiums kids use at home!

2. Adem, our tutor and friend won the district debating competition! It's a big honour and incredible that someone attending an Arabic school should win an English competition against students who study all day in English. Kim and I can't take any credit. The kid is brilliant and we're really proud of him.

3. It has cooled down after a few days of intense heat and incredibly muggy weather. It feels like we're in for some rain soon, which wou! ld be lovely.

4. Simon won the cartoon competition for our VSO newsletter. The prize: 100 Nakfa!!

5. I've completed my visits to Asmara, knock on wood, and my teeth are mended and doing well. On my busride down, I had some thoughts to pass on about what not to do when travelling by bus in Asmara:

DON'T: - sit by the stairs. Someone will definitely put a container of oil or kerosene there and it will undoubtedly knock over and spill all over the floor, forcing you to carry your bag on your lap for the entire 3 hour, hot, muggy journey to Asmara.

- sit by the window: it will just frustrate you to see a potential way of creating a cooling breeze which is impossible to obtain because wind is bad for your health in Eritrea.

- get on the bus at the last minute. Get on an empty bus and wait an hour for it to leave. That way you won't end up squished between two other passengers for 3 hours on a hot, muggy journey and the lady who gets on at the last minute after you won't be angry because a "tsada" (white person) got the last seat

- stay on the bus if the driver has already beeped his horn ten times around corners before leaving the city. He's bound to go up the windy hills way too fast on the wrong side of the road with his hand placed firmly on the horn.

But DO: - enjoy the scenery: it's an incredible journey!

I've got to run, I've got a class.

Take care,

Barb