Vacation Time

Well after a few weeks of figuring out travel permits and exit visas, I've got an afternoon free on my own in Asmara as I wait for Kim cousin Shelley's arrival tonight. After writing this and having some lunch, I'll head off to the fancy Lion Hotel where Shelley is putting us up for the night to relax, have a WARM shower (or maybe a bath!), watch some tv and relax before heading out to the airport. We're really excited about seeing Shelley and showing her around, especially since she is the only one of our many family and friends who has come out yet!!!! (hint, hint)

I should complete the travel permit story, but I will preface it by saying that all ended well. Everything I have done is Asmara has been completed easily, with friendly, smiling people at the ministry or education and the ministry of immigration. We have started processing Maya's residence permit and our exit visas and gotten all the necessary letters from various spots around the country with very few delays. My apologies for the attack on customer service here. I've found that a greeting in Tigrinha and a smile usually results in friendly treatment, though you still may be asked to get a letter from your kindergarten teacher's mother in law.

But I must admit that I finally did break down in Keren. The friendly, smiling man at the administration office who'd promised me my permit quickly wasn't there in the promised two days probably because he'd closed the office early due to a heavy rainstorm. I returned to see him last Monday, arriving before the end of the lunch break to be sure I'd beat the unavoidable line up. I'd already spent two hours waiting at the hospital that morning with no sign of anyone seeing a doctor, and I wasn't in the mood for waiting again. He took me into his office and started looking for my application but seemed to be having trouble finding it. So then he called in the next person and asked me to get Kim and my residence permits, presumably to fill out another application. I'd kept both in my bag over the last few days, but I searched and searched for Kim's and was unable to find it. So then panic sent in. You need a residence permit to get anything or anywhere in or out of Eritrea and it looked like I'd lost Kim's only a few weeks before we were scheduled to leave on holidays. So I let the man know and he gave no response as he continued to serve other clients. Five minutes and several clients later, my heart was racing as I pleaded with him "please, just tell me, what are your plans for me? Are you going to be able to help me or are you going to tell me later that I have to go and get a new permit?" He assured me that everything was fine, but I was losing it so I went outside and for the first time in Eritrea, despite the absence of privacy, found a quiet place to bury me head in my headscarf and weep. Two seconds later, I was being told by some man who knew me from somewhere "Barbara, calm down, it will be okay, stop making a scene..." He calmed me down and back I went to the office where the clerk started to serve me, having found the missing papers. He also asked me.."Why were you so angry?"...... Back home I found Kim's card so all is well. Travel has been smooth since (oh, they did almost stop Maya and me from comiing to Asmara and returning to Keren when she didn't have a permit, but after many minutes of explaining, I convinced them that the man in Keren they'd said she didn't need one. Since then, all the kids are on Kim's permit..)

Maya and I had a nice stay in Asmara will doing some of this document processing. Many of the volunteers are going back home for summer or leaving after 2 years service, and we got to say goodbye to many and have a special visit with our Polish VSO friend who served us pyrogghies!!

Then we headed off for a weekend with other VSO friends at the agricultural college 12 km from Keren, the same place we'd spent Christmas and Easter. As usual, our friends treated us like royalty, stuffing us with delicious food, allowing us to relax and watch our now favourite BBC miniseries, Life on Mars. It's mango season now and the college has many huge, old mango trees, so we stuffed ourselves, especially SImon, to our heart's content. We rode our bikes there and back and avoided the overstuffed busses. It was a beautiful ride along the Anseba river valley, and for the first time, we actually saw water in the river. The rivers are beginning to flow after every rain, though it doesn't last for long.

Last week was also our year end school ceremonies. Our kids' school ceremony was very entertaining with only one speech and lots of music, dancing and a play. Lukas and Simon ended up getting prizes for being 2nd and 3rd in their classes (Maya was 4th). Everyone is ranked here, and everyone knows everyone else's ranking. At the Islamic Institute, each report card was handed out at the ceremony, so every student had their ranking announced to the whole public (imagine how student number 62 felt!). Our school had four closing ceremonies (kindergarten, girls, boys, and final closing ceremony). Ceremonies in Arabic involve many long speeches, though the girls' did have a funny play. Unfortunately, I had to miss all but the girls' ceremony, but Kim was able to attend all 4. Some were up to 4 hours long and all were in Arabic and Tigre....

Well, I've got to run. Blogs may be sporadic as we begin our vacationing. We're off to Yemen on the 21st then on to Mozambique via South Africa on the 23.

Take Care,

Barb