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A Weblog by Jason Anderson, English teacher and fanatical birdwatcher living in Adi Keih in the Debub Region of Eritrea |
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Introduction
Hello and welcome to Wattled Ibis, a weblog dedicated to one of the many beautiful endemic birds of Eritrea.
My name’s Jason Anderson. I’m an English language teacher, currently living and working in Eritrea, in a little town called Adi Keih, (sometimes spelt Adi Keyih or Adi Caih) in the Eritrean highlands. This weblog is intended to provide family, friends and other interested parties with a regular update on how things are going in my life and job. As I don’t have a very good internet link in Adi Keih, I’ll be updating the weblog only once a week at most, but at least I’m less likely to bore people! My major hobby is birdwatching, and here in Eritrea, at the north of the Abyssinian Highlands, the roof of Africa, there is a lot of birdwatching to be done, including some seriously beautiful Abyssinian endemics (birds which only live in Ethiopia and Eritrea). My other birdwatching website, of which I’m rather proud, is called Birdwatching in Sardinia.
Birdwatching in Eritrea - the website I created for birdwatchers who want to go birding in Eritrea.
Wattled Ibis merchandise, including Wattled Ibis T-shirts, his and her matching egg cups, and attachable party wattles to add that air of distinction to your dinner party apparel can all be purchased by sending 2 cheque for £189.42, a self-addressed carrier bag and three tokens from 80 or 160 bag boxes of Yorkshire Tea to the following address: Wattled Ibis Wattleblog Offer, c/o Jason the Wattlemeister, Ministry of Education PO Box 70, Adi Keih, Zoba Debub, Eritrea
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The Wattleblog (Note: blue text = birdtalk black text = normal(ish) blogging) June 13 2009Two days left in Adi Keih. Yesterday the MOE staff and school directors put on a wonderful leaving party for me. Three goats were slaughtered for the occasion, and the women spent a day and a half chopping vegetables and cooking zigni (the local speciality - a spicy, curry like meat dish). They even managed to get hold of some beer for the party, so we had a nice drink too! At the ceremony they gave me some really nice presents, a giraffe carving, a face mask and a video of all the Eritrean ethnic groups performing songs and dances, something I'd specifically requested. See photos page. It was a really nice occasion, if a little sad to think that I am leaving in a couple of days.
The Women's Evening wound up for this year on Tuesday evening. We had a nice coffee ceremony and all those that had taken and passed the exam got certificates, presented by the Head of the Sub Zoba, Zaid. See photos page. Interestingly, one of the stronger students, an Indian teacher called Jothi, has decided to take on the challenging job of teaching the English and computer lessons. She is at a higher level than all the other students and is respected by them as a result. Hopefully, the Women's Evening will become a permanent fixture at the PRC - it would be great to think that we have set up something sustainable there. Good luck, Jothi!
This afternoon, I'm throwing a coffee ceremony for all the teachers that couldn't come to the party yesterday, so we're expecting a big turnout, and then this evening, we will have the first Adi Keih PRC DVD Cinema night. We're showing The Bourne Supremacy, one of the DVDs donated by Sarah and Nick, which should be popular as they love action movies here. Hopefully, plenty of teachers will stay on after the coffee ceremony to watch - this way we'll get a good attendance for the first Cinema night. See photos page.
On Monday I go to Asmara and then, a week later, back to England. I've then got two months to get my documents and stuff together before I head out to Rwanda at the end of August. At this stage it still doesn't feel near, but I'm sure time will fly, and I'll be back in Africa before I know it; albeit a very different part of Africa, with new experiences, a new language, new customs and traditions and a new job with new colleagues. I'm looking forward to it, but I'm also a bit nervous about whether I'll have the energy to get stuck into a new job with as much vigour as I did here in Eritrea. I'll have experience to transfer, which will help me, but there will also be so much to learn, and that is the real attraction.
I'm still not sure what I'll miss most about Eritrea. I'll miss the birdwatching of course, roaming the beautiful countryside, finding hidden woodlands and new species. I'll miss the MOE, and the PRC where I've been based for my time here, although I won't miss repairing the computers! I'll miss the market in Adi Keih, where I would go every Wednesday to get the shopping, with its mix of people and camels and donkeys, chickens with their feet tied together hopping across the road in front of me. See photos page. And I'll probably miss the sleepy tranquillity of Asmara - a pretty, little town masquerading as a capital city. However, I think I'll miss the Eritreans themselves most: Their kindness, hospitality, sincerity, patience and their beauty. Of all the many things they have taught me, I hope there is one that has sunk in: Their ability to deal with problems so effectively: Taking bad news calmly, considering it philosophically and dealing with it without bearing malice to anybody else. If I can learn this alone, I will leave Eritrea a better person. I will never forget the time when I had just blown up several computers by plugging them into a faulty circuit at the PRC. After I had finished a ferocious bout of swearing, Abdu looked at me, raised his eyebrows slowly and said calmly: 'Never mind.'
So it's time to finish this weblog. I won't be continuing it in Rwanda, or starting a new one. But I will leave it online as a personal momento and to keep access to the photos I've uploaded. I've actually found it very difficult to write without knowing who my audience is: Family, friends, colleagues, people I've never met. I wonder... If you fall into the latter category, drop me an email to let me know why you were reading and what you thought of it.
May 11 2009Finally, I feel that I am reaching the end of my placement. Several things I've already done for the last time: My last round of cluster workshops, my last visit to most schools, my last batch of homebrew beer nearly finished. Today I'll write my last PRC Newsletter, and decide on a date for a farewell coffee ceremony. I haven't yet fixed the date of my return to the UK - this still depends on several things that haven't yet been tied down. I'm still determined to get to the western lowlands before I leave to see the birdlife there.
News - I'm off to Rwanda! Today, after a lot of consideration, I finally made the decision to commit myself for another year or two to VSO. I sent off my application for a position in a small town in the east of Rwanda, working as a methodology trainer. The work sounds quite similar to here, and whilst the languages required (French and Kinyarwanda) will be a big challenge, I have time to start brushing up the former and learning the latter. The MOE there has recently switched from French to English as the language of instruction in primary and secondary education, so there will be plenty of work to do. I have heard a lot of good things about the modern Rwanda and the people there, so I'm already starting to look forward to it. I ordered the Bradt Guide to Rwanda on the internet last night; it will hopefully arrive in a couple of weeks.
Amongst all the DVDs that I've had sent to me during my time here, the most useful one turned out to be The Long Way Down, a DVD about Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman's non-stop motorbike trip from Scotland to Cape Town across Africa. Thanks for that Shirley! As well as the video giving me an idea what Rwanda is like, I also found on there a very interesting documentary on the impact of HIV/AIDS in Malawi and Swaziland, called 'The Missing Face'. The local high school here has a really good, committed Life Skills teacher. Together we quickly formulated a plan to show the documentary to the kids at the high school. Here in Eritrea, the MOE is doing a pretty good job to educate kids about HIV/AIDS. Whilst exact figures are difficult to come by, official figures are low, and possibly even falling. Kids here have very little awareness of the possible impact of HIV/AIDS, so showing them this documentary was a good idea to bring home the reality of how this terrible illness is tearing families and communities apart across Africa. It's hard-hitting, of course. But the kids were interested and watched attentively. I've put a photo on the photos page. We hope to show it to more classes over the next few weeks.
Birding, as always, is swimming along nicely. One Eritrean birding colleague and I are preparing a paper on the shared endemics of the Abyssinian Highlands, which we hope to submit to the ABC Journal. When I get back to the UK, I should also be able to submit a solo paper on the 9 new species I've recorded for Eritrea. A trip to Adi Quala last week turned up 5 nice new species for me: Black-billed Wood Dove, Yellow-throated Sandgrouse, Barred Warbler (quite late), Brown-backed Woodpecker and the stunningly beautiful Green-winged Pytilia. Possibly of far more interest is a lark that I photographed near Adi Quala. I presumed it to be Blanford's Lark, due to the red cap, but on looking at the photos more carefully, it seems to be significantly different from the common Blanford's here in Adi Keih area. What it could be, I'm not sure. I've sent photos off to several experts, and we'll see what it turns out as. If you haven't already stopped reading this entry, you're going to have to wait till the next one to find out what it is. We'll all have a few sleepless nights until the ID of that LBJ (which in my book stands for Lovely Brown Job) is confirmed!
April 10 2009Only two months left of my two year placement. It seems amazing that things are coming to an end. One thing I've noticed here that I'd never registered before in my life, is that when life is really stimulating, full of experiences, challenges, joys and disappointments; your memory plays strange tricks on you; from one perspective the two years seem to have flown by - I can recall so vividly my first impressions and experiences on coming to Eritrea - and from another perspective, it feels like I've been here for much longer than two years, simply because I have so many similar vivid impressions - every school visit, every new bird species, so many friends, good times in Asmara, trips to the market in Adi Keih, so many meetings, workshops, meals, etc. At home empty gin bottles stood on the kitchen floor still smelling of homebrew beer, broken flip flops piled on top of my wardrobe, dusty inner tubes pocked with acacia thorn punctures, even the Geyso trees that my landlord planted as seedlings in my compound just before I arrived now stand 3 metres tall, attracting migrant Chiff Chaffs and resident Bulbuls, etc. The list could go on; and as I recall these events, it seems like I have been here for many years.
As I write, the first spring rains are falling on the tin roof of the PRC. It seems appropriate. Last year, they fell 2 days earlier, on the 8th of April, when the first Women's Evening took place, and also when our first internet customer logged on. And as I've mentioned before, 'rehus' means both wet and 'happy' in Tigrinya, as in Happy Easter or Happy New Year. There is nothing better to bless an occasion with here than rain. 1 year later and both are still going - the internet service is almost too popular, and the Women's Evening is still continuing, although only a 'hard core' of about 10-15 teachers still attend - they've improved both their English and their computer skills well. Although, I fear that the Women's Evening will probably peter out when I go...
Here in my 'office', from where I've written this weblog most weeks, there are changes. The computers have moved out, and there's a new desk - Jake has moved in. This year he worked as the Teacher Methodologist at Meam Mehaza, recently he decided that next year he's ready to take over my job, which is fantastic news - he's adapted so well to the context and the challenges, so the handover will be as detailed and as complete as possible. He'll be able to hit the ground running, and a new volunteer will hopefully be coming to take over his Teacher Methodologist role.
Right now, I'm just hoping that the thunder keeps bellowing above us, and the rain keeps coming down - beckoning the fresh, lime green leaves from the seemingly dead acacia branches, returning life to the arid, parched landscape, calling the birds up from the lowlands, tempting the farmers back into the fields, oxen in yoke, remonstrating but obeying. I switched off my music to listen to the rain falling, and the children playing outside in the rain, getting soaked, joking and screaming. Nothing is more beautiful here than rain.
I wish Rehus Fasika (Happy/Wet Easter) to everybody.
March 12 2009Adi Keih PRC Internet Cafe is up and running! To the regular reader of this weblog (I proofread all I write), it will come as no surprise that any project for the PRC is bound to have a certain number of challenges, hiccups and mini-disasters. Since I nearly blew the computers up just over two months ago, we have had our fair share of further setbacks to the 'new computer room/internet cafe' project. But today I don't feel like dwelling on them. The most important thing is that we've got there in the end! It may have taken Habtom 3 weeks to rewire the room, and it may have taken a lorry laden with fresh vegetables to get the new equipment back to Adi Keih, but we have succeeded! Now Adi Keih PRC has an eleven-computer-strong computer room, with three computers online, working well and providing a service to teachers and the rest of the local community. We have a computer that can play DVDs, one with a CD-writer, a scanner, and everything is protected by voltage regulators and/or a properly earthed electricity circuit. We completed the cleaning on Thursday, moved the computers on Friday and on Saturday morning, our first internet customers logged in to use Yahoo Messenger. On Saturday evening, Fisseha gave trouble-free computer lessons to his students, who were all appreciative of the new room. Apart from all the new technology, the room is bigger than the old computer room, and the set-up makes teaching either computer or English lessons much easier, with a big noticeboard and whiteboard next to a PC with a big screen, so that the teacher can use them in tandem. Abdu and I are extremely pleased.
At this stage, we would like to say 'Thank you.' again to our sponsors on Tyneside, whose money has paid for all of the new equipment, and provided a reason for us to get control of this room back from the MOE Administrator. The sponsors are:
Sarah and Nick Atkinson: Their funds have paid for the essential rewiring work at the PRC, the scanner and other peripherals such as the voltage regulators. Norham School: Their bag packing project has paid for the four new Pentium-4 Computers.
We would also like to say thank you to Simon Amaniel and the team at the British Council, Eritrea for making the computers available; they imported and reserviced the computers and offered them at a very reasonable price by local standards.
Abdu, the PRC co-ordinator says: "Now we have people online, and computer lessons at the same time. The room is wide, so they don't disturb and the computers are better. We can give good services to customers. There is also more space in the library by the door."
Some of the users of the new computer room say:
"This computer is very good with Pentium 4. There are more computers, so I can train more students. Thank you." Fisseha - computer teacher
"It is nicer than the old room. Lots of people can work here without disturbing each other." Haile - teacher
"The new internet computers are fast. Today I sent messages to my friends in Asmara and in other countries." Helen - internet cafe user
"Now I can bring my children here. They can sit and play games there [points to the table] and I can watch them while I practise using the computer." Terhas - teacher's wife
On the birding front, things are still as incredible as ever. My poor quality images of Great Cormorant from Mai Nefe Reservoir were good enough for all the experts to agree - a first record for Eritrea! And more recently, on the long walk back from Abi Girat School I disturbed a roosting nightjar, and managed to get good photos when it resettled. Nightjar specialists from all over Africa and Europe were consulted and the bird turned out to be Montane Nightjar, the first confirmed record for the country! So that's another two species I've added to the Eritrean list, on top of the 7 I'd discovered so far. Would 10 be too much to ask for?
Asmara Rubbish Dump is hotting up (that's a good joke bearing in mind it's been burning for over 50 years) for aquila eagles. I counted over 70 Steppe Eagle last Sunday, along with a few Greater Spotted and (probably) Lesser Spotted Eagle, about 100 Black and Yellow-billed Kite, 30 Abdim's Stork and a lone Ruppell's Vulture all gathering at this incredibly bountiful (and equally smelly) feeding site before they tackle the Sarahan stretch of the journey north to their breeding sites in Europe. It's a case of mind-over-smell as to how long you can stand out there, but the birds, the Hamadryas Baboons, the burning rubbish and the views make this one of the most incredible spectacles I've ever seen in my life. Wonderful. February 08 2009Thanks to Norham School/Community College, Nick Hurst and Sarah and Nick! We are now into the second semester of the academic year, and things are slowly getting going again. The students and teachers did half a week's school last week, and this week they should be back up to full numbers. Next week I'll also get the Women's Evening started again - we still have quite a lot of the syllabus to get through by the summer.
Regarding our attempts to get the PRC's new computer room up and running, I managed to get all the wires, sockets and other bits and bobs that the electrician wanted, and he's rewiring it this weekend. We have been 'allocated' 4 new computers for the PRC after my request to the British Council. I say 'allocated' and not 'donated', as we still have to pay 5000Nfa (about £200) per computer, which is quite pricy, although thanks to the money donated by Norham School's Bag Packing Project, we will be able to afford all of them. This is fantastic! If it weren't for this money, we'd probably have to pass up on the opportunity, and we really need some new computers. The current ones are soldiering on, but one by one they are falling prey to viruses, failing hard disks and (see below) electrical shocks! So, thank you very much to all those who helped with the Norham Bag Packing Project. As soon as we get the computer up and running ('inshala' - as Abdu would say), I'll put a few photos on the internet to show how the money has been spent. Sarah and Nick Atkins' contribution is also coming in useful, as we have been able to buy a UPS battery (giving us extended computer and printer usage) and a scanner, which will be really useful for the PRC. Also, thanks to Sarah's ex-student who organised for 16 videos to be sent to the PRC. I picked them up from the post office on Friday, and let some of the kids watch a Lion King video on Saturday evening. My mum also sent a box of jigsaws and resources for the children to use, which will also be really appreciated. It is getting so busy there now that our only problem is getting things done other than just serving the day-to-day visitors!
After over a year's work, the website: Birdwatching in Eritrea is now online, and registering on Google and other search engine searches. Although I'll continue to add more photos and information to it, it is basically finished, and, hopefully will help to bring more birders here and develop more revenue from tourism for the country. I've really enjoyed putting it together with Dawit and Solomon, and we're quite pleased with the final site. If you have time, have a look. I guarantee you'll be impressed with the photos page. There's even a page for schools! Here's the link:
Birdwatching in Eritrea (it opens in a new window)
Over mid semester break, I went to Filfil, the rainforest area and Massawa on a 7-day birdwatching extravaganza. In Filfil, I tracked down a nesting site for the rare endemic Abyssinian Woodpecker, and got some good photos of this elusive species, as well as recording another first for Eritrea - Grasshopper Warbler. 2 more large mammal species as well - a beautiful male bushbuck and a very large warthog feeding on his own in a clearing. In Massawa, I saw my first Great White Pelican (the common pelican species here is Pink-backed Pelican - Great White is even bigger and rare here). In total, I got another 10 new species, taking my personal list for the country to 362. Annoyingly, I lost my glasses in the mangrove forests south of Massawa. I think they must have fallen from my pocket when I stooped to record video of mudskippers, and because of the soft mud, I didn't hear them hit the ground. I've got a spare pair, but they were good glasses, so I'm a bit saddened.
January 08 2009Keeping Things in Perspective - Babies and Computers that go Bang! Everybody who knows me and those that regularly 'tune in' (for want of a better metaphor - perhaps 'click on') to the WATTLEBLOG™ will know that I tend to have a disability to let things get out of perspective at times. Inherited from my father, are my short fuse and explosive temper (note the electricity metaphors), and whilst I have generally managed to keep a lid on them this year, last Monday was a bit of a shocker. Having had a lovely holiday in Egypt with my folks, I came back, with (among other things) an internet switch with a view to attaching more computers to the internet. We currently have a week-long waiting list for internet access. The switch was tested briefly in the current computer room, and things seemed to work well.
Phase two of the plan involved getting the MOE Administrator to open up the 3rd room in the PRC, which was appropriated as an ad-hoc storage room many years ago. Sarah and Nick will be happy to hear that, after 2 months of softening him up, the Administrator, to his credit, did stick to his word and handed over the key on Monday. So I quickly began filling the room up with computers (just in case he changed his mind). By sundown, I had the Adi Keih PRC Internet Cafe ready to go when the electricity came on at 7pm. At the chosen time, Abdu and I proudly switched on the power... to hear a computer go BANG! a monitor BANG! a printer BANG! and our voltage regulator KER-BANG! It appeared that the wiring in the room was somewhat faulty. For the next ten minutes, I went bezerk and Abdu followed me round trying to calm me down. Once it was apparent that there was no-one else I could blame, I got down to the business of assessing the damage. Somehow the printer and monitor were both fine, and only the fuses in several plugs were broken. Not so much luck for the computer - our best one, and the only one with a modem - the puff of smoke from its ventilation slats and the smell of metal fusion told me that we had another computer funeral on our hands (the graveyard is already bursting). The second stage of my strop involved a deep 'after-all-the-work-I've-done' type depression, and was made all the more poignant by a powercut. Abdu sat with me in the darkness, trying to get me to see it in perspective. Then the phone rang. It was my brother, Simon, calling from America. A week before his wife had given birth to their second baby, and suddenly I forgot completely about what had seemed to be the end of the world and listened to news about the little one, the improving health of the mother, and my brother's problems at work (he works in hedge funds... yes, I know - and you thought your job had got worse during the credit crunch!). I suddenly realised that one broken computer is not such a big deal... and Abdu and I went home.
The next day, I got to the computer morgue and managed to salvage the modem and other parts from the computer. Somehow, I have managed to stitch together a Frankenstein of a computer, and got it working quite well, given the total organ transplant and the peculiar smell that still emanates from it. Whilst we will have to wait a month or so for a capable electrician to rewire the room, we have still got all our computers, and even the voltage regulator works fine with a new fuse. Three computers are online, albeit with a few wires stretching across the ceiling, and we hope to have the internet cafe in service by February.
So... I wonder if I've learnt to keep things in perspective - will I be cooler next time an apparent tragedy happens? As much as I'd like to say 'yes'. Probably the answer is: "Once a silly pr**k, always a silly pr**k", as I believe Bertrand Russell once said. December 18 2008Today I taught whole lessons (not demonstration lessons) for the first time in nearly a year, and really enjoyed it. It wasn't easy - when you have 70 students doing pairwork speaking practice can be loud and difficult to control - but it was great fun. In order to enable Jake, my colleague to visit a remote school, I offered to teach his students for one day. What is so interesting is how much I have learnt since I 'tried' teaching here in Eritrea a year ago - back when I didn't really know my Eritrean ass from my elbow. Since then, I have observed over 400 lessons, and seen some very good teachers; I've seen every technique, every game and every trick in the book; some of which succeeded today, some of which didn't! What struck me is that last year my expectations and beliefs about what should happen in a classroom differed so radically from those of the teachers, and importantly, the students, that often there was a complete misunderstanding that was tantamount to two-way culture shock. Jake has trained the students well, which made controlling them much easier. So we did English speaking tasks in pairs, exercises in groups and games as a whole class.
One small mistake I made was giving out sweets as prizes - they'll start bugging Jake for sweets now. A much bigger mistake I made was during a game to practise comparative adjectives: teams of students had to compare the appearance of different students to produce sentences like: 'Habtom is taller than Eyob.' One of the students selected was a girl with a headscarf (not Muslim), and the prompt was 'long hair'. So the other students demanded to see how long her hair was to compare it with another student's hair. Unfortunately, as often happens, she had recently had an infestation (probably of hair lice), and so it had all been shaved off; hence the headscarf. Luckily, her friend called me and explained this, so I quickly changed the prompt to 'big eyes', and we avoided potential humiliation.
Birding has quietened off, at least by Eritrean standards, for the winter. However, this hasn't stopped the odd new species turning up. Since my last entry, I've had 3 stunning raptors; Long-legged Buzzard finally confirmed, Fox Kestrel, with some great photos, and Brown Snake Eagle 2 weeks ago. Also, I've finally located 2 colonies of Hamadryas Baboons near Adi Keih, one of which allowed me to get quite close and take some photos and film of them interacting naturally. See photos page. November 28 2008Beer! Beer! Beer! Guess what? We got beer! No, Asmara beer hasn't reappeared. Homebrew is what's new. It worked. I brought the kit back in the summer, and, having started it 3 weeks ago (see below), it has finally matured. Last Friday we cracked open (or unscrewed, to be more precise) the first bottles, and it's got better and better since then. I'm not ashamed to write that I'm a teeny weeny bit merry now. I have to say there isn't much of it - 11 litres in total to be precise, about 5 of which were remaining at the last count, but it's the presence of it that makes the difference. Just once a week to have a few glasses is a real treat. It tastes somewhere between Old Speckled Hen and Carlsberg Special Brew, depending on the predilection of my taste buds on any given day, but bearing in mind how much sugar I heaped in, I'm just glad it didn't have time to turn into whisky. See photos page for the historic opening ceremony.
Work is going really well at the moment. We've had most of our cluster workshops, only the junior one to go, which is tomorrow, and they have gone really well. The cluster workshops are a lynchpin in the sustainability model that we've got going; developing them into a cycle of training, implementation, reflection and planning should ensure that the teacher training for all subjects, not just English becomes more effective. Finally, I'm working well alongside the supervisors who have been very positive about it. Luckily, a high ranking member of staff from the zoba paid a visit while I was doing a team visit with one supervisor recently, and that gave me the opportunity to promote our model - hopefully that will influence TD in other sub zobas. Tomorrow, Jake's leading the Junior Cluster Workshop on the subject of designing and using tasks in the classroom, which should all lead further in the direction of student-centred learning.
I am now quite proud to say that we're starting to see the effect our teacher training has had in the sub zoba. In several of the elementary cluster workshops and recent teacher observations I have seen teachers using methodology that I introduced last year. Teachers who a year before didn't know what phonics was, or were sceptical of the possibility of student-centred learning in large classes are now showing the newer teachers how to implement these concepts in their teaching. Even the supervisors are jumping on the bandwagon, and this week I recorded the first 'model lesson' by a key teacher, which included some impressive groupwork and pairwork with students speaking English in real communicative tasks. It's really great to feel that it's all worthwhile! Or perhaps this is just 'special brew' optimism. If it is, it should be followed quite rapidly by a bout of deep, soul-searching pessimism. Only one way to find out... Cheers!
November 9 2008This entry should be in blue, but I'm refusing to relegate this wonderful news to the 'sub-category' of 'birdtalk'. Although it was a week ago, I have been in stunned awe since. OK. It's a bird. Not just a bird, mind. A bird of great significance. Of all the Abyssinian endemics that are shared between Eritrea and Ethiopia, there were only 3 that I hadn't seen. And last Sunday I saw the most elusive of all three: Abyssinian Woodpecker. Now woodpeckers, I'm sure you'll agree, are always beautiful: Distinctive behaviour, colourful plumage, etc. But endemic woodpeckers are very few in the world. Being exceptionally beautiful, uncommonly small and sparsely distributed within its range, the Abyssinian Woodpecker is the kind of bird I dream of. What made the sighting even more significant is that it hasn't been confirmed in Eritrea for a good 50 years. After several large-scale conflicts, huge amounts of deforestation and environmental degradation, there was no guarantee that it would still be here today. But it is! And the icing on my delicious woodpecker cake: I even got photos. And, since you've all been so good as to read this far, despite knowing that this paragraph is about birds, here's one of the photos. Not brilliant, I know, but the first ever photo of the species in Eritrea! Now if you aren't yet converted to the wonder of birding, at least you might feel a sense of my joy at bagging the wonderful Abyssinian Woodpecker. The meeting was brief. 1 minute at most. 20 seconds in the binoculars and another 20 or so in the eye of the camera. The views were good, but were it not for the photos, I might be tempted to wonder if I hadn't imagined the whole thing. But I didn't: So, as Kirk Douglas (or was it someone else?) once famously said from a New York stage to a packed theatre audience in the film King Kong: "Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you... Abyssinian Woodpecker!" (imagine a curtain falling, and a sigh of amazement sweeping across a flabbergasted audience):
Now that the excitement is over, we can pass on to other news. The smell of beer has once again returned to Adi Keih. Admittedly no taste yet, but I have finally got round to brewing that home-brew that I brought back from England in the summer. Just a little batch to start with, but if it works, I can get some more sent over: enough to keep us in beer for special treat occasions. So far, so good. It fermented in the bucket for a week, and then last night I bottled it in old gin and plastic water bottles. I did overdo the old sugar dose a bit (by about 4 times), but you can hardly blame me, after so long without beer in my life. Hopefully the bottles won't explode, although I fear the plastic ones could split. I couldn't resist taking a taste, and it did taste vaguely like beer. It definitely smelt like it, at least. Another 14 days (if we can wait that long - I'm not sure I'll make it through tonight) and it should be ready to drink. There's about 20 pints worth, so it should last Jake and I for the best part of a day. I can't wait!
October 27 2008Today, for the first time in my life, I hit a child. And did it quite well, even if I do say so myself. A year ago, if you had told me that after a year in Eritrea I would be hitting children (or at least one of them), I would have probably smirked in your face. But now I'm quite proud of my achievement. He was only about three. I clipped him lightly on the top of the head, not hard enough to cause any pain, but hard enough so that, in the panic of his flight, he fell over and hurt himself enough to start crying. Those of you that know me well enough probably aren't in the least bit surprised at this turn of events, but the rest of you might be - having the impression that I'm a gentle mannered type incapable of lifting a hand to an indefensible toddler. But only those of you who have lived in Eritrea could understand (if not necessarily condone) my actions. First, a little background...
We live in a compounded house. This means a house with an 8-foot high wall around the garden. On our street all the other houses share communal spaces in front of them, none of which has a wall. The children are free to wander and play wherever they want to. A little marauding gang ranging in age from 7 to 7 months prowls the street in the hour before dusk, hungry, looking for mischief, food or giggles. Our walled compound, for such kids, you might imagine, presents a real source of fascination. As all children reasonably reason: If there's a wall to keep us out, there must be something interesting inside. And sure enough there is: 2 tsadas (white people) with all their strange habits and rituals. Thus our compound is naturally (from their perspective) a source of great interest. No maliciousness intended, they watch us from under the gate, knock on the door, climb the railings, call our names and hound us when we arrive home, constantly probing for weaknesses. One or two of the younger ones occasionally throw small stones over the wall. Occasionally. Last time that one of their parents saw, she gave him quite a beating. To the extent that I had to calm her down. That's the way it is here. Here comes the sentence that I never thought I'd say, least of all, write: It's the only language they understand. There we go. I wrote it. Unfortunately, as patient and pacific as we are, neither Jake nor I have had great success in trying to reason with children who barely speak their mother tongue. Our attempts to scare them have only fascinated them, and my strategy of making friends with the gang leaders and instilling responsibility in them only seems to work when the gang leaders are about. And today they weren't. So two cheeky little chappies, who have recently been causing more than their fair share of trouble on the patch decided to try to shut the bolt on our gate from the outside. If they were successful, they would have locked me in! I quickly cottoned on to what they were trying to do, and crept up to the gate. I pounced on them: The main troublemaker got away too quickly. I wasn't really willing to give chase to a child, so the other one, who was smaller and slower got a clip on the top of his head. And without intending it, I joined the ranks of corporal punishers that We (the royal VSO 'We') are trying to convert into employers of 'alternative reinforcement strategy'. I haven't felt a jot of compunction yet. And I don't expect to. And what's more, I doubt they'll try that game again. If this country had an immigration test, I would now pass Section 2: Child Management. I wonder what's in Section 3?
3 more bird species takes my Eritrean total up to 340: At Lamsa, near Asmara I found Lesser Whitethroat and Stone Curlew. And yesterday, near Adi Keih, I confirmed another trickly LBJ: Long-billed Pipit, with some v. good photos to reassure myself that it wasn't just wishful thinking. Also, interestingly, I've found another deep cut gorge near Gramatien which seems to have it's own range of species, including my second Short-toed Snake Eagle for Eritrea only 3 weeks after my first and several sightings of a hitherto rare bird here: House Bunting. I wonder whether this gorge could harbour any of the 3 endemics that I haven't yet seen. Is it right for a man to dream of White-winged Cliff Chats? I do. (See photos page for some pics of this incredible gorge.)
October 16 2008We are now fully into the swing of the academic year, and things are going well. At the PRC this week we had the first Women's Evening lesson and the first computer lesson. For the Women's Evening we had good attendance, and spent this first lesson planning out our syllabus for the year. Hopefully this will motivate good attendance. One of the MOE computer secretaries, Terhas has agreed to teach the computer lessons, so I only have to do the English. Thanks to friends in London (Mrs M., Simon and Kana) we have 2 new laptop computers to use in all the computer lessons, meaning more students and more computer literacy. Thanks for these computers, guys!
Jake and I have started playing football - me once a week, him 2 or 3 times a week, and the kickaround is really enjoyable, and keeps me (thinking I'm) fit. With the dominance of the English Premier League in the Eritrean football mentality (as far as they are concerned only 4 teams exist; Arsenal, ManU, Chelsea and Liverpool, much to Jake's discontent - he's a Villa fan!), they tend to presume that an Englishman must be good at football. Jake does well to uphold this myth... and then they see me, playing in my hiking boots, hoofing the ball with the same delicate balance of grace and brute force as a circus elephant.
I am hoping to get out to some schools soon to start my programme of in-school workshops and observations, but unfortunately I am currently being plagued by crappy computers. Since coming to Adi Keih I've got pretty good at repairing broken computers - crashed operating systems, broken part replacement, program reinstallation, etc. But one little bast*rd (the asterisks is for our sensitive readers - you can probably guess that I wanted to write 'bastard') of a computer is refusing to repair. So far, I and the town's best computer expert have between us spent about 50 man-hours trying to repair it. We've tried changing the hard drive, the RAM, the motherboard, the lot, but no, it won't repair. It crashes about half way through installation with that nauseating blue screen, declaring 'fatal exception'. Fatal exception must mean 'completely f*cked' in computer language. Tonight I'm going to dedicate my last hour to it, and if it doesn't come to its senses, I'll strip it to bits and sell off its organs for computer transplants. God I hate computers!
Off to Asmara this weekend to recharge the old social network batteries! Looking forward to it very much.
To add to the amazing photos described below, two weekends ago I got photos and film footage of the most elusive of the Abyssinian endemics - the White-backed (Black) Tit. Quite an amusing name for any non-birders that are still reading (titter, titter, literally), but this bird is very thin on the ground. The family party that I found at Safira was only my second sighting of the species. Luckily they hung around for about 20 minutes, allowing me to get some great photos. And last weekend I finished off the set with some very nice photos of the Black-winged Lovebird. What with all these black tits and lovebirds I... no, I'm not going to finish that sentence. Make up your own double-entendres!
October 1 2008
Today is the second day of the 'Id' holiday that follows Ramadan, so we've had two days off work. I've got back into the swing of things and work is going really well.
There are now two of us in Adi Keih. Two VSO volunteers, I mean (the town has a good 25,000 to its name). The new vol is called Jake and he's working as a teacher methodologist. He does half his day at the big junior school in the town and half his day working alongside me as a methodologist. He's settling in really well and we're getting on really well, too. That's no mean feat, if you have any experience of trying to get on with me. He's coping really well with all my nagging about water and kerosene stoves and the poo-stick (Don't ask what the poo-stick is; It's nothing to do with Winnie or Eyor.). What's more, he'll hopefully get me much fitter. He's into several sports, most prominent among them being boxing, so I've volunteered to be his sparring partner... You know me, I'm game for anything. Having seen him go through his training, I fear I might end up being his punch bag, but we'll see. It can't hurt to try, can it?... Oh, yes it can. This is boxing we're talking about.
On a more reflective note, it's amazing how much easier it is to deal with the vicissitudes of daily life when you have a companion. Looking back, I don't think I was aware of how hard my first year was, when I was more isolated. Of course, I have lots of friends and helpers in Adi Keih. I was never lonely, but last year I had a strong need to shut myself up in my compound at the end of the day and surround myself in my world. I resented my landlord's coming round to water the plants in the evening, as this constituted an invasion of my privacy (especially when he brought his whole bl**dy family... at 10pm). I was very strict about not allowing kids into the compound for similar reasons. But this year it's different. Anything strange or culturally different is no big deal. Jake and I joke about it, and it's just water off a Ferruginous Duck's back. It's also great to have someone to tell my successes to, to bounce ideas off and (to the extent that I can) to give advice to. This is going to be a really enjoyable year, me thinks.
Birding has gone from strength to strength. Having got my new camera back to Adi Keih, I have taken some phenomenal bird photos already, including what may be the first ever photos of Blue Saw-wing and juvenile Abyssinian Slaty Flycatcher. I'll put a few on the photos page, so you can see what I mean. As well as that, the new species keep flooding in. European Turtle Dove, Bimaculated Lark, Semi-collared Flycatcher this week to add to the fantastic birds I got in Filfil.
September 21 2008
What a busy time I've had! In Asmara, training up the new volunteers, corresponding about the bird books and drinking far to much beetroot juice, as we call the Red Wine here. Note that the use of capital letters is not mistaken. The red wine is called 'Red Wine'. There is no more information on the red label except for 'Asmara Liquor Factory'. Apparently it's made from powder. God knows how you powder alcohol, but... if anyone else knows, send me some - it would be much cheaper than all the other options.
Anyway, back to my busy-ness. The new vols. all seemed settled in, and the training seemed to go OK, except for one training session that I did that had to be done in the garden. Not sure that that one was so good. Mental note to self: Don't train in gardens... unless your a gardener-trainer, of course.
I'm now back in Adi Keih, looking forward to starting work this week. Hopefully, this year we'll really start moving in a more sustainable direction. This word 'sustainability' is becoming too much of an obsession. I've invented a model for sustainability that doesn't include me... But it's starting to take over. I'm not sure exactly how I fit in. I'm thinking about sustainability in my shopping, my cleaning, even my toilet... This afternoon, I tried to facilitate the water getting from the tap to the barrel. It didn't work. The water insisted on me carrying it in buckets.
This morning I got up at 3 o'clock. Why? To get to the bus queue early. Buses for Adi Keih are currently quite scarce, so I thought, right, let's see how early we can go. My aim was to make the first bus. When I got to the station there were a few people for the Senafe queue, but none for Adi Keih. So I started the queue at 3:30am. By 4am, queues were building up for other towns, but no-one for Adi Keih. I wandered round to check that nobody else had started another secret Adi Keih queue, but they hadn't. So, I just stood there, wondering why my queue had no sustainability. And wondering why I'd got up so early. By 5am, another bloke turned up and joined my queue, and within about 1/2 an hour, we had a pretty self-sustaining queue. Then at 6 the bus driver came. Asked us why we were queuing - the bus was ready to go. So, I had queued for two and a half hours without need. Still, at least I sustained a good queue, which, now I look back on it, I see it as a symbolic test, a metaphor for the sustainability challenge that lies before me... or 2 and a half hours of sleep missed.
Birdwatching is still blindingly good. Huge numbers of migrants everywhere you look. Since I last wrote, I've had Marabou Stork and Common Cuckoo (views good enough to separate from African) near Asmara; Plain Nightjar, Marsh Warbler and Shikra in Filfil and Lesser Grey Shrike and Wire-tailed Swallow at Emba Derho, where I also finally managed to confirm Zitting Cisticola. An obliging female and a territorial male gave good song, good views and a few good photos. The Plain Nightjar was the highlight, mind. I disturbed it during the day, and got some incredible photos (see photos page).
September 03 2008
I've been back in Eritrea for a week, today, and it feels surprisingly good to be back. Surprising because I wasn't looking forward to going back very much when I left the UK - I remembered all the hassle, the problems, the shortages and more. Yet I had forgotten the people, and how they not only make up for these problems, but they excel them several fold. When I arrived back on the bus here in Adi Keih on Monday evening, the moment the bus stopped several children recognised me. Amongst the crowd of barrow boys offering to carry luggage for the passengers there were familiar faces. Then I saw Filmon, one of my best friends (a student from the high school who helps me by doing odd jobs), and I felt like singing the John Denver song (Hey, it's good to be back home again...), luckily I resisted the urge, and Filmon walked me home with one of the barrow boys. Half an hour later he'd brought me fresh bread, and I remembered how lucky I am to be here.
The last couple of days have been a whirl of greetings, present giving and shoulder-bonking (only former VSOs will understand this one - the shoulder bonk is a uniquely Eritrean greeting introduced by the resistance fighters in the struggle for independence). Sarah and Nick's presents have nearly all been distributed and so have mine - the last one is a wind-up torch that I plan to give to the 'manager' (for want of a better word) of the bus station to thank him for giving me priority on the buses to Asmara. Hopefully, this will continues, if he likes the torch. Some good news in the town - kerosene has returned, so I have something to cook with and the local forest has a temporary stay of execution from the charcoal hunters.
This coming Saturday 15 new volunteers arrive, and I'm looking forward to meeting them all, and participating with the training programme for them - it should be good fun! If I'm crafty, I might be able to sneak off to the incredible rainforests at Filfil for a couple of days' birding during the next couple of weeks.
Back in Asmara, just before coming here to Adi Keih, I managed to get a sneaky day's birding in. Went back up to Adi Nfas, in search of this elusive, probably invisible Abyssinian Longclaw. No sign of it, unsurprisingly, but lots of little feathered beauties, nonetheless. I got my longest single day tally for the Asmara area - 63 species, including 4 new ones for me in Eritrea - a magnificent African Hawk Eagle (juvenile coming into adult plumage), Pale Rock Finch (the ultimate LBJ that tends to fly off whenever you get within 30 metres of it; fortunately I eventually managed to stalk a party of 4 close enough to get good views, much to the amusements of a local cowherd!), Irania or White-throated Robin, whichever you prefer, and Marsh Sandpiper, finally confirmed and photographed quite well. The highlight of the day was finding Small Adi Nfas Reservoir absolutely teaming with migrants, including scores of Garganey, White-winged Tern, Black-winged Stilt, Swallows and Martins galore and 4 kinds of Sandpiper to choose from. Got some fantastic photos with my new camera, too!
Click here to go to the next page - entries before August 2008
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*Damn! You found the asterisk. Before you enter the competition, you should know that the sock puppets are home-made, the socks are second-hand and unwashed. If you still want one, sponsor me for at least £50 and then send me an email. If you win, you'll regret it. Two books that I've written for English language teachers: Teamwork and Role Plays for Today |
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