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From: Asmara, Eritrea
Sawa, also known as the Eritrean Defence Forces Training Centre, is also a school. At this school only the twelfth grade is taught. The National Matriculation Examination is also taken at Sawa after which you may receive military training. In this training, the soon to be citizen-soldiers of Eritrea are trained in both military discipline, tactics, and taught to become more physically fit. During peacetime the military training phase is to last some six months while the National Service phase is to last one year. During wartime however, this can be extended indefinitely. [Read more...]
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Outside of Keren is the Elabered Estate. From this plantation comes milk and fruit. To truly make this a heaven the only thing missing is the honey to make ambrosia. Nonetheless this small heaven on the road to Asmara from Keren is beautiful.
Elabered Estate
Ironically near a road called libE tigray (Tigrayans heart, a reference to an ethnic group south of Eritrea whose heart is said to be twisted) that winds its way up and down the mountains between Keren and Asmara.
This estate was built during the Italian Era and was an oasis then as it is now. In fact located beside the estate was vineyard and winery as well as a small hotel. For the Italians during the 30’s it must have been beautiful, but years of disrepair has left only the Elabered Estate in working order. One day though the winery may be restored, as well as the hotel and it can once again serve the toursits who pine for such an environment.
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Gerset is a town just half an our south of Tesseney. To call it a town may be a bit of an overstatement but we will give it the benefit of the doubt. Gerset is a place that has mostly been settled now by Eritrean returnees from Sudan.
Where they have decided to settled is both prime farming land but quite prone to flooding. Here though a damn is being constructed to both hold irrigable water for a test plot of 1000 hectares and prevent flooding in the area.
Tractors near Gerset [Read more...]
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For the past two days I have been on a bit of a jaunt to western Eritrea. What I saw amazed me. Years ago, back in 2001 I had been as far west as Barentu but no further because after the war gas was difficult to find in the area.
Anyway, back to 2005 and what had to be the most impressive trips I have ever been on. It is likely that most people wouldn’t be as amazed as I was but what could be seen was marvelous. The strides towards food security despite the setbacks of war and drought in Eritrea is amazing. [Read more...]
