dinner with VSO staff
farewell coffee ceremony
It’s strange that I called this blog “travels in Eritrea” when I really did very little travelling once there. I only travelled the 32km between Asmara and Mekerka. Foreigners need travel permits to visit other towns and as we never got residence permits we were never able to apply for travel papers. I was lucky to be able to get to Mekerka and that’s only because it’s off a very minor no exit road with no police checks.
So, after a very frantic few days packing up and saying goodbyes, I flew to Cairo with 2 other VSO evictees. We spent the first few days being totally overwhelmed by the noise, traffic, dirt, amount and variety of food and everyone trying to rip us off...it couldn’t have been more different from Asmara. We then headed down to Luxor to be overwhelmed by the Valley of the Kings and the temples at Karnac and Luxor. John and Aaron were headed off to do some diving in the Red Sea and I’ve come to Altea, Spain to plan my next move!
Leaving
I left Eritrea on 29th March. We had heard the week before that work permits would not be issued to us and on the back of that VSO said our contract there would end on 31st March. Although the news was not totally unexpected, the fact that I had to leave and so quickly, took a while to sink in. We were given no reason nor explanation for the decision which makes it even harder to accept. Even now, 10 days on, I feel so terribly sad when I think that I won’t be going back to my home and job in Mekerka. It really is an amazingly beautiful place to live. And I have been fortunate as an outsider to share this place with those who live
there and welcomed me so, so warmly.
I left Eritrea on 29th March. We had heard the week before that work permits would not be issued to us and on the back of that VSO said our contract there would end on 31st March. Although the news was not totally unexpected, the fact that I had to leave and so quickly, took a while to sink in. We were given no reason nor explanation for the decision which makes it even harder to accept. Even now, 10 days on, I feel so terribly sad when I think that I won’t be going back to my home and job in Mekerka. It really is an amazingly beautiful place to live. And I have been fortunate as an outsider to share this place with those who live
there and welcomed me so, so warmly.farewell coffee ceremony
It’s strange that I called this blog “travels in Eritrea” when I really did very little travelling once there. I only travelled the 32km between Asmara and Mekerka. Foreigners need travel permits to visit other towns and as we never got residence permits we were never able to apply for travel papers. I was lucky to be able to get to Mekerka and that’s only because it’s off a very minor no exit road with no police checks.
So, after a very frantic few days packing up and saying goodbyes, I flew to Cairo with 2 other VSO evictees. We spent the first few days being totally overwhelmed by the noise, traffic, dirt, amount and variety of food and everyone trying to rip us off...it couldn’t have been more different from Asmara. We then headed down to Luxor to be overwhelmed by the Valley of the Kings and the temples at Karnac and Luxor. John and Aaron were headed off to do some diving in the Red Sea and I’ve come to Altea, Spain to plan my next move!
doing the tourist thing in Cairo 
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