weekend on the beach

After a week of hard work and considering the general hard ship of life in Somaliland, we came to the conclusion that we defenitely deserve some hours of sweet lazinesson the beach. Though I wouldnt call Somalia a dream destination for holidays in the sun, there are some acceptable spots along the coast. Having seen them only on pictures up to now, i was more than keen to visit them on my own. A short glimpse at the map helped agreeing on a destination: Berbera, a coastal town, connected to Hargeisa by a direct road, appreciated by Ethiopia for its port, and known by the Americans for its strategic location at the gulf of Aden, was our first and only choice. Gwen picked me up with the ambulance car of his organisation caled HAlo trust www.halotrust.org Friday eight o clock in the morning. Together we went to pick up Leo, working for AfricaSettanta, Miguel, working for UNDP and Salja, working for NRC (www.nrc.no/engindex.htm). Besides this crowd two guardians joined the trip to the beach as it is the rule. No expat is allowed to leave Hargeisa without two guardians and two Kalaschnikows. Everybody was in a good mood, and so we started our trip in the weekend. The first hour of drive was dedicated by some of us to some more sleep (or meditation?) I myself cant hardly understand how Miguel managed to sleep on the uncosy backbench of the ambulance car (or rather a old landrover defender rearranged as an ambulance car). I didnt manage to catch some sleep - despite being thrown from one side to the other, I was first of all not sleepy and seconly too much interested in the landscape. Some camels here, some goats there - rocky hills and empty rivers - and every now and then a tiny village with a road block. Since people know each other in this small and less populated country, a quick wave by one of our guardians is normally sufficient to have the rope (thats acutally the regular appearance of the roadblocks) removed for us to be able to pass by. Driving over the rope with normal speed would have the same effect, but since they dont ask for bribes we usually stop.
During the drive I came to know that Hargeisa is located at 1500 metres above the sea level - and that the real heat is not there, but along the coast. With every kilometer we drove, the air became hotter and heavier. Stepping out of the car in Berbera felt like diving into a bowle full of jelly. There was some kind of wind, but calling it a breeze would be a mere exaggeration. Besides the hot wind i noticed soon that there were no trees along the beach. Jumping into the water seemed to be the only way to cool down! But the water, too, was hot and little refreshing.
The fact that me and Salja had to wear some trousers and skirts above the Bikini didnt do any improvement to the situation.
However, one hour in the water cooled us at least down to some extent, and created some hunger feelings. Lunch we had in a "seafood restaurant" next to the harbour. Skinny cats and birds were observing our eating progress with open eyes - ready to catch every singly piece of fish or pastas which (unintended) touched the ground.

The drive to the restaurant gave me the opportunity to have a closer look at this town called Berbera. All together i would call it a mixture of a town in the old wild west and a arabic coastal village. Many of the houses are still destroyed from the war. Few people are in the streets during the day - the heat is making most of the population hiding behind thick wooden doors. Only homeless dogs are crossing the streets in small groups. Many of the vessels seem to have been in the harbour for too many years, in the meantime rosted and broken, unable to leave the harbour and too big to be removed. On the way to our hotel we saw a Horpital, located in the middle of an empty field. It looked new, but Salja told us that it is abandoned - no money for staff and equippment.
Has Berbera once been an important coastal town, an important harbour for the entire region? It is still a harbour of a certain importance, but realizing its importance during the daytime (and on a fridays) is quite difficult.

The day on the beach ended with an extended swim session during the night. The stars on the sky were reflected by millions of little phosphorizing sparkles in the water. Every move i did in the water created another thousends of small sparkles. I must confess that I have never ever experienced such magic moments in the water.

Today I tried to find out why and when water is actually phosphorizing. Does anybody know? I hope it is not due to the nuclear rubbish and other kind of rubbish which has been dumped in the sea around Somalia for some many years, in order to fill the pocket of Siad Barre with some additional income :-/

International Literacy Day

As some of you might know, many countries around the world celebrated the International Literacy Day last thursday (I dont blame you for telling me that you either forgot about it heard its name right now for the first time in your life - regarding the abanduncy of international days, decades and weeks dedicated to more or less important issues like literacy, HIV Aids or mother tounges, one might easily get confused).
The literacy day was introduced by UNESCO back in 1966, and has since been celebrated in order to think about the iliterate people whose number still remains high at an estimated 860 Million worldwide. In Somalia, the day was celebrated during the regime of former dictator Siad Barre but has since been forgotten due to the civil war and the chaos which broke out in Somalia afterwards.
This year, however, different international NGO's operating in Somaliland decided to join in again. The day followed two weeks of hard work undertaken to a big extent by Ahmed from the african education trust and myself. As i had to discover one more time, preperations here are done in a completly different way than i am used to. Two days ahead of the celebrations the venue was still not booked, the main speakers were not yet invited and invitations were still waiting in the office for being distributed to different people and organisations.

Despite these major delayes things worked out quite well, people seemed to have fun, and the organisations involved in the day were happy, too (after all it is a well done publicity for their work). There are only two questions still nagging my mind: How effective is such a day and to which extend did we succeed in spreading the message about the importance of literacy across the audience and beyond?

Below a short summary of the happenings:

eight o'clock we met in front of the minstry of education - ready to start marching for a more literate world...

Here we go! girls and boys, women and men, literates and illiterates are walking together to the rhythm of the local police band.

The march was followed by a official ceremony. And to make it not just official, but rather very official, the minister of education addressed some thoughts to the audience. In my eyes we had to many speeches and too less activities. However, since there is not much going on in Hargeisa anyway, people appreciate every single speech, show, or entertainment, no matter how boring it is.

But things didnt end there: Against the slow moving morning program we provided a rather exciting afternoon program: circus, Drama and Distribution of certificates and earned a lot of sympathies for it.

Not only from human beings, but also from the goats which one can find everywere in this town!

And if you want to find out more about the day, dont dare writing me an email - I am currently preparing a summery of the happenings for CARE which I can post you!

updating my social life

Drei wochen bin ich nun schon in Hargeisa. Die erste woche war gefuellt mit neuen eindruecken. Die zweite Woche war bereits etwas ernuechternder: Arbeitsmaessig gab es nicht viel zu tun, und waehrend meine arbeitskollegInnen normalerweise das Buero puenktlich um drei uhr nachmittags verlassen und vor sieben uhr am naechsten morgen nicht wieder auftauchen, verbrachte ich meine nachmittage mit lesen, nachdenken, internet surfen, oder kurzen marktbesuchen. Nicht gerade sehr spannend. Entgegen meiner anfaenglichen ueberzeugung, binnen weniger tage die halbe stadt zu kennen, dauerte es ganze zwei wochen, bis endlich kontakt zu anderen menschen, die hier leben, hergestellt war.

Mittlerweile hat sich die Situation auf einer Skala von null bis zehn mindestens richtung 8 begeben :-) - Risiko Partien auf der Dachterasse, aethiopischer Kaffee am Strassenrand, und Ausfluege in andere Staedte haben meine Laune um einiges gehoben! Hinzu kommt, dass ich mich endlich stolze Besitzerin einer Telesom Sim Karte nenne - nach zwei Wochen warten und unzaehligen vergeblichen Besuchen im Headquarter der Telesom Company! Der Nachteil dieser momentanen guten Laune Phase: fuer webblog updating bleibt leider nicht viel zeit. Als entschaedigung ein paar bilder aus denvergangenen Tagen

Ahmed and the ethiopian coffee... There is no better way to improve the working atmosphere!
Gemeinsam mit Ahmed Abdullahi vom AET (African Education Trust) habe ich die vergangenen Tage von morgends bis zumindest nachmittags an den Vorbereitungen fuer den world literacy day (8. September) gewerkelt. Waehrend der unzaehligen Streifzuege durch die staubigen Strassen Hargeisas in Ahmeds klapprigem Toyota habe ich eine wirklich gute entdeckung gemacht: open Air Cafes, in denen es ausser starkem, suessen aethiopischen Kaffee keine anderen Getraenke gibt. Warum auch? Der Kaffee, der direkt ins Auto serviert wird (man beachte die Tasse in ahmeds rechter hand) ist mehr als ein Genuss!

Gwen, Miguel and Ulrike enjoying the afternoon sun and the good, old risk at Miguels roof terrasse

Aufgrund der Hitze wird in Hargeisa normalerweise zwischen drei und fuenf nicht gearbeitet (oder ist die Verdauung nach dem Mittagessen Grund fuer diese Siesta?). Anlass genug, sich auf die Dachterasse zu begeben und eine Partie Risiko zu spielen. Normalerweise bin ich ja kein grosser Fan von diesem Spiel, aber bei der Fuelle an Freizeitaktivitaeten, die Hargeisa bietet, ueberdenkt man gerne seine Vorlieben...

Fadumo (CARE Somalia) in Boroma - mehr als stolz auf die Tatsache, dass dieses Jahr beinahe gleich viele Maedchen wie Jungen in die erste Klasse eingeschrieben wurden...

Hin und wieder bringt auch ein Ausflug in eine andere Stadt Abwechslung in den Alltag... Gestern besuchte ich gemeinsa mit Fadumo, einer meiner Mitarbeiterinnen, einige Schulen in Boroma. Boroma ist eine Kleinstadt nur wenige Kilometer von der aethiopischen Grenze entfernt. Neben Dollar und Somalischilling kann man in Boroma auch mit aethiopischer Waerhung seine schulden begleichen - erstaunlich, wenn man bedenkt welche Umstaende es vielen Menschen in Europa gekostet hat, "nur" in zwei Waehrungen (etwa Lire und Euro) zu denken... Meine Begeisterung galt allerdings mehr den Schulen als den drei Waehrungen, und nach Gespraechen mit den Direktoren vereinbarte ich, naechste woche zuerueckzukehren.

Grenzland

Boroma liegt, wie bereits erwaehnt, an der Grenze zu Aehtiopien. Im Gegensatz zum Umland Hargeisas gibt es in Boroma Berge, endlose Sorghum Felder und eine atemberaubende Landschaft - waehren der dreistuendigen Fahrt habe ich immer wieder versucht, diese Eindruecke festzuhalten. Das Ergebnis ist nicht gerade sehenswert. Grund: die Strasse war kaum mehr als ein holpriger Feldweg, und den fahrer zu bitten, stehenzubleiben, damit ich ein Foto knipsen kann, war mir irgendwie doch zu bloed. Aber der Ausflug war bestimmt nicht mein bester, und ich werde mich bemuehen, die landschaft in zukunft besser festzuhalten!