Have a Nice Day

Customer service is not a concept that has been worked on much in this country. I'm aware of this and don't expect much but yesterday was one of those days where I wanted to find a place away from everyone to scream at the top of my lungs. Unfortunately, there are no places here where you can find such privacy. Fortunately, all ended up well in the end, so I didn't need to scream after all.

As I mentioned in the last blog entry, there are now regulations in place for non-national residents that make it necessary to get travel permits to go anywhere outside your town or city of residence. In the past, we'd needed these to visit friends in out of the way spots, but now we need them even to take the main road to Asmara, which we need to do at least once a month to get pay, rations and do various things for VSO. We've been hearing horror stories from other volunteers about the application process, so we've been putting it off. But as we need to get to Asmara to arrange our travel plans, we finally went in yesterday to apply. After visiting about 4 rooms in the big, new regional administration office, we were shown to the waiting room of some important official, where we spent the next hour and a half in our cushy leather seats, waiting for the man in charge to see us. It was a long wait. I suggested we burst into song, a strategy which worked once in a government office in Asmara but no one else thought this was a good idea. Finally, after telling the secretary that only I would stay and making a second set of movements to indicate that we were about to leave, the secretary checked with the big boss and told us that he could see us. We then proceeded to be criticized for not having the necessary letter from our director, blah, blah, blah, how was he supposed to know who we were, more blah blah blah. We'd been told at school that all necessary paperwork had been sent, but our friendly official was unable to find it, and sent us away in search of another letter from our school principal. While Kim went off to get it, Maya and I went to a cafe, where we were told that there was no Sprite, only Coke. We ordered tea and a cappuccino. Then Maya decided to go check our why everyone at all the other tables was drinking Sprite and not Coke. She came back with a Sprite for herself and I was served a cup of lukewarm milk with a drop of coffee and a ton of sugar in it. This is normal and I should be used to it, but I'd had enough! Kim joined us later to say that our director had said to go to the city administration office instead. So after a nice taita lunch which we shared with Saba and her family (during which she restored my belief that most Eritreans are wonderful), I headed off to the city administration office. There, a friendly, smiling man, filled out the necessary forms, told me "why not?" when I asked to add Massawa to our itinerary, and promised to get our forms done within two days instead of the regular ten. It turns out that we can get monthly forms that allow unlimited travel, so in the end they won't be as much of a hassle as we thought.

We've had more free time since school ended, so a few days back we all headed off on our bikes to our Indian friend's place to pick up our bread, which they get for us from the school he works at. We were invited in for tea, which then turned into lunch. We were totally stuffed with dahl, chapaties, curried potatoes and rice, and returned home for a nice, lazy afternoon snooze. Most of our afternoons and evenings now revolve around the world cup. Kim and the boys, and sometimes Maya, spend a lot of time at Saba's watching the games. Kim wants Holland to win and Simon and Lukas are supporting Argentina. I tend to daydream when I watch any soccer game that doesn't involve my own kids, so I'm enjoying some free time, catching up on my Arabic and doing some reading.

We had another nice social Sunday last weekend, beginning with an invitation to Lukas's friends house for lunch. We had taita and shiro and coffee ceremony with Nahome's mom and her family. Nahome's older sister has just finished grade 11 and will head off to military training at Sawa in mid-July. Her parents are ex-fighters and she has no reservations about doing her service, in contrast to many other youth we have spoken with. She isn't looking forward to leaving her family for the first time though.

After lunch we headed home for an afternoon snooze (a common theme here!) and then went to our friend Samira's to celebrate her son's 1st birthday (the only one they celebrate here) with more taita, coffee etc. This weekend it's our turn so maybe Maya and I will make some samosas and invite our belen family friends who are long overdue for a meal.

My time has run out. Just a quick note about the ant invasion. One night last week Kim was at a soccer game, we had a power outage, and I was cleaning up. You have to wipe up and sweep several times daily to keep the insects under control here. I went into the kitchen to find the floor completely covered in ants. I spent 10 minutes sweeping them out the door but they just kept coming. Finally, I dumped water and bleach on the floor, which kept them out until the floor dried. Kim "toxed" their entry point outside the kitchen the next day, so it's been better lately. Simon has also found the home of a huge colony of ants in our front yard, which he has decorated with sticks, leaves and various other items so that it looks something like a shrine.

Guess that's all for now,

Take care,

Barb