From: Thomas mountain (thomascmountain@yahoo.com)
Date: Mon Sep 08 2008 - 05:15:09 EDT
The rains this year in the highlands have been light and infrequent, causing a lot of concern. Earlier this year the predictions of drought for this rainy season had been greated with derision when early April brought what seemed like good short rains and a soon to be good summer rains. The short rains didnt prove to be a predicator of the summer rains though and we in Asmara have been a little nervous about the upcoming harvest.
This past weekend we drove down to Keren to visit family and it was a very differnt Keren than what i have seen during multiple visits since the beginning of the new millenium. Keren was green, green like those who grew up in Keren in the 1950's and 60's remember. Like when visiting Mariam Darit, one only needed to dig a few inches in the sand to find water, clean, cool water. The Keren I knew was a dry dusty desert town, subject to sudden kumsin, dust storms, that seemed to blow in from Sudan.
This past weekend, everywhere one looked in Keren was green, even the cliffs surrounding Keren where blessed with lines of emerald green where the rock terraces have been built and rebuilt since liberation. Bultuc(millet), mashalla(sorghum) and afun(maize) were growing everywhere, even on the steep hillsides above aboy and adeys home in blocko.
We hear the reservoirs in Gash Barka are full or near full so at the least we will have enough mashalla to make injera and wont have to spend our hard currency buying grain on the very expensive world market.
The harvest in the highlands may not produce much this year, though it is still raining a little, but we will eat our homegrown food thanks to the hard work of the warsai yekalo campaign and the food security program the government has been emphasizing.
Life in Asmara may seem to change little but life in Eritreas villages continues to move forward, with roads, water, electricity, schools and medical clinics making their way to the far corners of the country. Problems remain but nothing like the rest of Africa is experiencing.
We walk the streets day or night without fear, we celebrate Ramadan or prepare to celebrate Yohannes, together as one people, without religious, tribal or ethnic conflict, and no amount of money, jobs or business opportunity can replace such peace.
selam from asmara,
thomas c mountain
on our way to amerikkka and hopefully another shipment of books for Sawa.
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