Do you have any salt...sa..l..t...s...a...l...t....?

Learning a new language has always had it's frustrations but I am now officially confirming that the most frustrating language to learn is Tigrinha. Just when I was starting to feel like I was getting somewhere with this crazy language, I had a huge struggle communicating the simple question "Do you have any salt?". The word salt was the cause of all my difficulties. It is written in English as "chewe" but when any Eritrean says it, it sounds more like "chow". A few days ago I headed to the local corner store to get a few bags of the stuff. "Chow alokee?" I asked the woman only to be answered with an extremely confused expression on her face. "ch-0w-we alokee?" I repeated, and repeated and repeated, to no avail. You know, the white stuff for food I explained, in halting tigrinha (I mean if I can say that much, shouldn't one simple word be easy to understand?) "Shiro?" she asked me..... Finally, her young daughter got what I meant. I left the store frustrated and determined to send the kids out the next time we need salt.

After two weeks of internet difficulties, all is well again and we are slowly answering messages. We'll have lots of time to do this as Kim and I were told yesterday that we have the entire next week off as it's national youth week. The kids may learn the same thing today but it may be only for the Arabic schools. It's funny how back home, you know the dates of all school holidays on the first day of school. Here, it's the day before, or sometimes, the day of the holiday. It makes it impossible to plan things well ahead of time but it also makes for some nice surprises. We're sending the kids off to stay with friends with kids in Asmara for the weekend (Monday is International Workers' Day) even if they do have school next week). Kim and I are planning on doing a bike trip on the beautiful winding road from here to the beginning of the highlands on the way to Asmara. Every time I take the trip to Asmara on the bus, I'm dying to get out and take pictures of the view down into the lowlands with the huge candelabra cactii and misty hills. Hopefully it won't be too hot if we start off early enough and we can get some nice pictures.

I hope everyone had a nice Easter back home. Eritrean Easter is one week later than in Canada. We had Sunday and Monday off so we went to stay with our VSO friends who work at an agricultural school 12 km from Keren. The kids took the bus and Kim and I cycled. It was a lovely, relaxing weekend with lots of delicious food, hours of videos (the latest British tv hits as well as a very disappointing King Kong with dinosaurs!!!!), and soccer and frisbee games. I always eat too much there then get hit with a bad stomach bug, so I ended up bussing home with Maya and Simon and Lukas cycled back with Kim. Getting to and from Hamel Malo on the bus is no easy feat. It involves trying to squish your body into the last few available cubic centimeters before someone else climbs in through the window. We couldn't get on the Sunday buses (or we could have but the kids' feet wouldn't have been on the ground), so we stayed an extra night and came home Monday morning. Next time, we're all taking our bikes!

The rains are here in full force though the actual rainy season isn't for another month and a half. We've been treated to heavy downpours which last 1/2 hour or so and are often accompanied by thunder and lightening. Unfortunately the rains haven't meant improved water delivery in our district. We haven't had running water for over a month and are at the end of our reserves. Today we'll have to pay a truck to bring us 30 barrels or so, which should last until the real rainy season.

Kim wanted me to let you know that he's very excited about his new activity: ping pong. He goes to the teacher's club once a week with a colleague who has just bought some paddles. He's also enjoying the football playoffs (sorry, I don't know the name of the league). They're just winding down but then the world cup should be starting soon. Maya has started practising football (I mean soccer) with her school league. The boys are prefering to relax inside the house in the heat of the day before heading downtown on the bikes for a beloved coke (now only 3 nakfa: 20 cents!!!)

I've used up my free computer time, so I'd better go.

Missing you all,

Barb