Asmara Eritrea - September 24th 2004

 

Yesterday's overdose of beles is causing a bad stomach. Fortunately, I brought enough medicine from Holland for a worst case scenario, so it will just be a temporary problem and a lesson for future visits to Eritrea: if you eat risky food, just taste it and do not consider it your meal.

I return to the Expo area, for a last visit to the exhibitions. I am so happy when I meet Mariam again. She guides me to the Kunama cultural exhibition, giving an explanation of items shown. I join the coffee ceremony with a family from Adi Keih, participants of the cultural show, and investigate the whole Expo area.

At 12:00 everyone is either packing or busy removing exhibition materials, so I guess the program in the Expo is finished. In the garden of a small restaurant on the Expo compound, I have a drink before I will walk to the Martyrs cemetery behind Tiravolo.

When I ask the direction to the cemetery, I am guided to the nearby Italian cemetery. To a man, resting on the lawn, I explain I want to visit the graves of the Eritrean soldiers. He asks me to wait a moment. He misses one leg and is now preparing himself to fit his prosthesis, by putting four socks over the stump that once was his right foot, and finally the prosthesis itself.

When he walks behind his wheelbarrow to the martyrs cemetery, his handicap is completely disguised. It is only a few hundred meters. Hundreds of graves, each with their own stone of white marble, some of them decorated with flowers. When we walk on the narrow path between the graves, the monument and the fountain, I realize that whatever I would give in terms of euro's or dollars, is nothing compared to what they gave to their country, and the loss to their families left behind.

I spend the rest of the day walking to the northern outskirts of Asmara, Abbashaul and its surroundings. Not exactly a tourist attraction. This is where the poorest people live. Small houses, dirt streets. Children and adults begging for Nakfa's. I make it a short visit, because I feel a bit uneasy in this part of Asmara.

The bus station east of Abbashaul is my next destination. When I ask an old man the direction, he offers to walk with me. "please be patient, because I am old and slow."

At the bus station I watch every day life. People waiting for the bus to leave. Children selling peanuts, candy, cigarettes, watches. I buy some peanuts and rest on a stone against one of the walls of the compound, to have some shade. Secretly I try to picture the children. They hide behind the buses. But they cannot hide all day, so eventually I catch them with my camera. I show them the result on the display on the back. They have fun. I buy some candy and give it to the victims, as a small reward.

Next stop is at bar Selas. I join an old man sitting on a table in the middle of the bar, and order a Coke. The man sitting opposite to me tells me I am his guest, he will pay my Coca Cola. Amanuel tells me about his family in Toronto, Canada. He is a business man. But is difficult these days.

When a boy enters the bar with a box filled with roasted peanuts, I hand him a five Nakfa note and ask him to spread some peanuts on a handkerchief, inviting Amanuel and others to have some as well.

Again I try to catch Freweini with my camera. She likes the game. And always wins. I show her today's pictures on the display, hoping she will change her mind and allow me to picture her. No chance.

When I visit the office of Travel House International to visit Tedros, for an update of this and next weeks program, he is not in. His secretary gives me his mobile number, so I can get in touch with Tedros to plan a trip by rail next week. At the post office I buy postcards and stamps for friends and relatives.

 

 

Expo compound - Asmara Eritrea.

Women from Barentu, men from Agordat - Expo compound Asmara Eritrea.

Bar and fast food restaurant - Expo compound Asmara Eritrea.

Struggle for liberation - Expo compound Asmara Eritrea.

Golden Fork fast food restaurant - Warsai Street Asmara Eritrea.

Victims of the recent war against Ethiopia - Asmara Eritrea.

Victims of the recent war against Ethiopia - Asmara Eritrea.

Old man - Abbashaul area Asmara Eritrea.

Post office - 176 - 8 Street, Asmara Eritrea.

Girl selling candy - Corea Housing Complex Asmara Eritrea.