Eritrea and VSO According to Liz Lee

There is always something weird about Eritrea out there and it comes in threefold.

There is this empathy or, perception if you like, that the Eritrean people are all good and it is shared among those who see the good side of ordinary people.  These could be Eritreans or those non-Eritreans who never fail to be fascinated by what is going on in Eritrea.  Then you have another bunch of Eritreans and non-Eritreans again who turn a blind eye to everything that is going rotten within and only open their eyes to the bright side – call it denial, if you will.  

Last and not least, you have a government – if you can call it one – that pretends to govern a country with no sustainable form of governance while showing off its best performance to beat the whole cross-section of the Eritrean society to submission.  In the flame of national security, it doesn’t have the diplomatic acumen to cool its own state and that of the neighborhood.  All it does is show off its inflated and dead muscular body-build to frighten itself – just another sign of a deranged mental make-up.  

In comes a blog of Liz Lee – a British VSO volunteer with all the good-will in the world to experience life and help improve life for the deprived in Eritrea.

Liz was kind and adventurous enough to give her time and expertise to Eritreans living in the countryside.  Had she not taken the initiative to share, we wouldn’t have known that VSO (Voluntary Services Overseas – a charity based in the UK) has terminated its operation in Eritrea.  That is what she confirmed in her latest posting.  She writes (in looking back):  

I'm now back living in the UK having spent a year working at an international school in Italy. As the years have begun to pass since I was in Eritrea I look back with increasing fondness on my time there- probably directly related to the decreasing memory of intestinal parasites, long bus queues and a shortage of fuel! Eritrea is a country of great people who are living in increasingly difficult circumstances. 

They are kind and share everything they have- often going without so that they can offer guests the best they have. Unfortunately Eritrea faces huge challenges- documented on websites such as Reporters without borders and Amnesty international. 

VSO are no longer able to work in Eritrea. The program was closed as it became increasingly difficult through the denial of working visas for volunteers amongst other restrictions. I hope that the work started by volunteers will have made some difference for Eritrean children and their families. For the sake of the lovely people who looked after me, please find out about this wonderful country and help raise awareness of the difficulties people are living.

...Later, we went to visit the orphanage based on the same site and run by the mission "Daughters of Charity", the orphanage takes care of babies up to three years old. The youngest child was just 10 days old on my first visit. Most of the children's mothers died during childbirth and there are no family members to take care of them- usually because fathers etc have to work. Many of the children are twins- orphaned due to the difficulty of birthing twins in more remote regions. It was distressing at first, seeing rows of cots with these tiny people, but when i got over the shock I realised what a great thing was happening. This service is provided free of charge to the families, the children have nowhere else to go and no-one to look after them. Families are expected to visit each month to maintain a relationship with the child, though many don't. This is upsetting to the women who work here. There are only a handful of workers but they work very very hard. At three, the children are re-homed, hopefully with their families- who are given support in looking after their child.

The above observation probably gives an insight into why Eritreans (in general) lose it all when they actually have it all – all at the same time.  In other words, they are not even aware of what they have in their own hands or probably don't know what to do with it.  That is actually the nature or another side of untamed power.  When you have it, don’t hold it.  Share it if you can.  Otherwise, just like uncontrolled fire, it might burn you…

This is probably an indication why, in the current scheme of Eritrean events, the traditional culture of taking care of each other and the larger community has been rendered dysfunctional and unsustainable (in Eritrea and Diaspora space) by virtue of an abusive and irresponsible government – a political system that has absolutely no intention to share other than to control and destroy.  What used to sustain the various cultures for centuries (sustainable does not imply peaceful coexistence, by the way) is breaking down. Liz Lee has probably given a glimpse into one or more of the dying Eritrean cultures.

You can read her full blog on Liz Eritrea Adventure.  Eritrea needs more observations of such kind.