Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Sorry it’s been a while. It’s been a busy first few weeks of the new year with me chauffering the kids to various music lessons, sports practices, and tournaments. No, just kidding. We’ve had a busy few weeks, but life in Eritrea certainly isn’t hectic. As the months left before heading home become fewer, it’s hard to imagine getting back into a fast paced lifestyle again. I guess I’ll just stop thinking about it. Here, we finish up work at 12:30 and have the rest of the afternoon and evening to do as we please. Granted, everything does take longer to do, but the pace is definitely slow here.

I am now fully recovered from our New Year’s party. We ended up with about 15 young, energetic VSO volunteers spending the evening and wee hours of the morning seeing in the New Year with a big meal, soccer game, dancing, singing and much merry making. I managed to last until about 2 AM but the rest kept on going until about 5 in the morning, except Saba, Kellie and Yasmine who somehow managed to fall asleep despite the screaming (sorry, I mean singing) coming from the rest of the gang. I have decided that next year I’ll attend rather than throw a party so that I can quietly slip away and get some sleep. But it was a lot of fun and after a few days, I’d caught up on the lost sleep. I’m not too sure what our Muslim friend Abel Kader thought of the whole thing. He was met at the gate by a young woman wearing a penciled on mustache (the female volunteers were protesting the fact that all the guys will be going to a monastery that’s off limits to women.) She was holding a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other. We quickly ushered him into the living room past the gang of drinking, smoking volunteers on our front porch. He ate our meatless meal of peanut sauce, rice and pasta salad, and chatted with Saba and I (the two non-drinkers) while everyone else partied outside. He seemed to take everything in stride though I’m sure that he left thinking that we have an odd bunch of friends and odder ideas about menus for important occasions.

New Years fell right in the middle of Eid Al Adha, celebrating the yearly pilgrimage to Meka. We probably put on 5 kilos each as we were invited to several friends’ homes for meals, made up of a variety of dishes made of goat or lamb, which had been slaughtered for the occasion. We had another great Eid meal at our friend Adem’s and were also invited to a principal’s for an afternoon of stuffing ourselves and watching “Forest Gump” on his satellite t.v. which also aired Saddam Hussein’s execution, brilliantly planned for the first day of Eid. We’re still having a hard time figuring out who came up with this incredibly inappropriate day for this event.

January 7 was Eritrean Christmas. We decided to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas day with Saba and her family as VSO had taken over our celebrations for Canadian Christmas. Saba prepared chicken in tomato and hot chili sauce. This was an all day endeavour, beginning with the slaughtering of the chicken, followed by plucking it, burning off the feather ends, cleaning it and cooking it. As is the tradition, Saba wouldn’t slaughter the chicken herself, but asked a neighbourhood boy to carry out the task. He refused at first as he was Muslim. I later learned that in Eritrea, your meat must be slaughtered by someone of the same religion who says a prayer at the time of the slaughtering. This doesn’t always happen in Keren, where there are a lot of Muslims and Christians who are friends, but many people stick to this rule. Anyways, Saba convinced the boy that it was okay with him to slaughter the chicken and we ended up with a delicious chicken supper, accompanied by our family’s contributions of Maya’s banana cake, French fries, and salad. None of the chicken was wasted. Saba’s favourite parts included the stomach and intestine. We spent a nice evening watching DVDs. A package from friends in Canada had just arrived in time, so Madagascar and the Dukes of Hazard were available for our viewing pleasure. We opened gifts the next morning. Saba made us a beautiful taita basket. Kim is happy to announce that we spent the rest of the morning watching the Eri-TV Christmas programming: lots of music and some skits in Tigrinha. To top off the morning, I was treated to my first hair plaiting since I’ve been in Eritrea. My hair is a bit thin and the nerves in my scalp a bit sensitive to do this very often, but it was a nice treat from Saba.

I guess it’s time to stop complaining about not attending any weddings celebrations in Eritrea. I can now add two more celebrations to my list. On Eritrean Christmas Eve day, Kim and I were invited back to the home of his friend’s brother who had been married two weeks before. It was time to celebrate “sabat”, seven days into the newlyweds’ honeymoon (a little late this time because of Eid), when the family of the bride arrive for the first celebration between the two families. It was a bit strange for me, as we are friends with the groom’s brother, but I had only met the bride briefly after the wedding. I was however invited into her room as she prepared for her family’s arrival and was fed a dish of sweet spaghetti and fritters, which I thought were the meal. Kim, in the meantime, was celebrating with the men in the family. Not long after, the bride’s mother, sister and aunts arrived and there was a lot of ululating, hugging and talking. I felt really out of place in this intimate setting, so I thanked the bride for inviting me and prepared to go. It turned out that there was still a big meal and photo session planned so I waited around a bit and returned to the bride’s room where I was served a big dish of taita and meat. The bride was putting away gifts and her guests were waiting in another room and I felt very uncomfortable. Finally the rest of the guests were served and I made a quick exit as it was getting late and we had Christmas supper to prepare, not that I had any room for it. Kim stuck around longer and took pictures for the family.

Yesterday’s wedding celebrations were less intimidating. Last week, my friend Hassina, who teaches English at my school, stopped showing up. She had just been matched with an Eritrean living in Switzerland, who had come home to get engaged. I was really worried for her, as she had gone through a match making last year with a man living in Yemen and had told me that her family wouldn’t allow her to turn down many more offers. Her future would depend on how much freedom her husband’s family would give her. Luckily, things seem to have turned out okay for Hassina. I was invited to her engagement party yesterday, and her fiancée seems very nice, though many years older than her, and says he wants her to continue her university studies in Switzerland. The celebration was a lot of fun and changed a lot of my misconceptions about Muslims. It was a party to welcome Hassina into her husband’s family, and Hassina had invited her sisters and a few friends. Her husband’s sister greeted us at the gate and led us into their compound. Omar escorted Hassina first, welcomed by the ululations of his family. Then we were served a big meal of the best taita I’ve had yet. Hassina and her fiancée fed each other then the families fed each of them, then the guests fed each other. Feeding is a tradition here to show friendship and love and involves putting food (taita and whatever it’s wrapped around) into your beloved’s mouth. I have not yet perfected this stunt without making a huge mess, so I waited for the cake to do this as it involved a spoon instead of your fingers. After lunch, Hassina changed out of her outfit into a very pouffy, gold gown (despite her protests), for the cake ceremony and dancing. I’d just learned from our friend Adem that many Muslims don’t dance. As I understood it, you can dance here or you can dance in paradise, not both. But this family was well into the dancing, and we had great fun walking to the beat around in a circle, clapping our hands, snapping our fingers in time to the Egyptian and Eritrean music. I was also surprised by the fact that many of the women, including Hassina, had put on make-up, and that Hassina had taken off her headscarf. I’m guessing that in the intimacy of your family this is an okay thing. In school and in the streets, the Muslim women I see are all covered by headscarves and wear no make-up. The celebration ended with a coffee ceremony. It was really a very special event and I’m really happy that Hassina invited me.

The next big celebration: a welcoming party for Saba’s husband Steve who will be coming back to teach math for VSO in Keren. If all goes well he’ll be here within a month, in time to see his new baby born. This is the best news we’ve had in a long time!

Next week is exam week. Kim and I are all ready but Lukas has a week of studying to do, cramming his brain full of “important” facts that may be on his multiple choice exams. After exams it’s our mid-year break, which we’re really looking forward to.

I guess that’s all for now.

Take care,

Barb