Walls

You are very fat now!
-Everyone


It took three days in Hargeisa before I was ready for a break. Overwhelmed with the chaos in the city center I decided to travel to the port city of Berbera. On the Gulf of Aden, Berbera has a great hotel just to the east of the city limits where a friend of mine from last time, Brit Steve Atkinson, runs his dive shop out of.

Two years ago it was Steve and his wife Gill who initially encouraged me when I first thought of trekking here. The hotel owner, Abdulkader Elmi, was instrumental in helping me through any red tape that I found in my preparations. Thus, I was anxious to get to Berbera to see them again.

The city itself is nothing special to me. A little poorer, perhaps, and a little less conservative than Hargeisa. Woman are more apt to engage me in conversation here and people just seem a bit more relaxed than the capital. But there are more flies and I get just as much attention wandering the streets so I can’t actually call the city “relaxing” in itself.

Two years ago the police tried to give me a 9 pm curfew, something that annoyed the hell out of me and ensured I would stay out long past that hour if only to bug them. This time they didn't even catch wind that I was in town until the day I left so my only contact with them was a stern warning that I should check in the next time I stayed there. (Yeah, sure.)

The staff at Abdulkader’s hotel, the Maan-Soor, all remembered me as the guy who walked from Hargeisa to Zayla, something that made my chest swell with pride. I was quickly deflated, however, when the the guards and then the manager both separately exclaimed "w'Allah, Mr. Peter! You are very fat now!"

To be fair, yes, I have gained a lot of weight. From a ten year low of 183 lbs just a year and a half ago I was up to 247lbs upon arriving in Africa last month. And the guards and manager were only repeating a theme I have heard at least a dozen times since arriving here. Those who remember me all call me fat. Not big or a heavy or healthy, but fat. I still haven't figured out if this statement is positive, negative or neutral, but it's hard not to get offended at least a little after hearing it so much.

Somali bluntness aside, it was a real pleasure seeing Steve again and to wander the Berbera beaches once again. My third day there I was with another traveler, a splendid fellow from the UK whose name was Phillip. We noticed the pod of dolphins Steve had mentioned sometimes wandered up to him during dives just a little ways off the coast and quickly dove into the Gulf together to try to get a bit closer.

I was surprised when they not only failed to flee but actually swam up to us, spending some ten minutes playing around and frequently wandering within a couple yards of where we were floating before veering off.

Those were a spectacular ten minutes. Part of the time I just floated there as they swam around me. The other part I'd swim towards them and one or two would sit still in the water until I got within a yard or two. Then they would wander off, only to be replaced by another a few yards further on.

I'm PADI certified so Steve took Phillip and me out diving the next day along a nearby reef and, while it was stupendous to explore the reed and spend that hour underwater, it compared little to spending that time with the dolphins the day before.

Back in Hargeisa after five days on the coast I tried to jump into the school project I mentioned a couple posts back. My enthusiasm was quickly stamped out though when I hit up against two brick walls.

I have always wanted to work in a mountainous region called the Sanaag which lies on the Puntland border. I liked this region because it is extremely difficult to get to so the aid agencies operate there less and because it is the least-developed region of Somaliland. Unfortunately, upon in arrival in Hargeisa I was informed that minor clashes had broken out nearby between the Somaliland Security forces on one side and Puntland Security Forces, Somalia’s Taliban group Al Shabab, and the regional militia called SSC (Sool, Sanaag, Cayn) on the other side. That there were clashes was less surprising than the fact that Puntland had decided to ally themselves, however temporarily, with al Shabab, a group well-known for its atrocities in the south.[EDIT: It appears that the al Shabab-Puntland connection was false. Puntland's support seems to be aligning only with the SSC.]

I had also wanted to trek the Sanaag but the presence of al Shabab in this conflict put my hopes for any contact at all with the Sanaag in serious doubt. Then just a few days ago I arrived at one of the ministries and was told “Today, the war begins.” And while it is far from an all-out war, the two sides appear to be getting ready for a possible one if the clashes which have left some 50 dead continue to happen. This would be limited, as it has been in the past, to the eastern regions. Consequently any hope I have in even setting foot in the Sanaag without a well-armed private militia are close to nil.

The second brick wall I hit was slightly more predictably in that the ministries do not see the need to put an emphasis on girls’ education. I was even lectured the other day by a rather high-ranking official on cultural awareness after I had broached the subject.

I’d like to say I’m struggling with the morality of the situation but I’m really not. Girls education seems pretty cut-and-dry to me. I’ll hold off for now the promise from my first post to spell the tangible benefits that a region and country receive from educating its girls, but I’ll summarize everything by saying again that really it’s just the right thing to do.

To say that cultural norms have to be respected is absolutely an appropriate comment to make, but I’m not trying to do something that is out of the norm here. 36% of the students in primary schools here are girls and as far as I’m concerned there is nothing wrong with trying to drive that percentage up.

Furthermore, even the phrase “cultural norms” is misleading. Every society and culture is constantly in motion (and to assume that the forward motion is always towards a liberal or progressive direction is foolish).

Thirty years ago woman were wearing mini-skirts in Tehran, now they can be stoned for doing so. Woman were being educated in Afghanistan decades ago. This was limited under the Soviets, banned under the Taliban, allowed post-war in free Afghanistan, and now is being disallowed under regional leaders. In America there’s always something being branded a “social war” and things that were unheard of even a few decades ago are the norm right now.

Beliefs are always in flux, and the maddrassas being built by conservative (and sometimes radical) forces funded by Saudi money all over the Islamic world do not take into account cultural sensitivity during their teachings.

My hope is for something considerably smaller and less abrasive (and neither progressive nor regressive) than what would be branded any attempt to “change” beliefs here. I want things, if nothing else, to simply stay the way they are here. Educate boys and girls but try to even up the disparity between the two genders.

Right now, people here tell me it’s getting more conservative. The easiest gauge is simply looking at how woman dress. It is the older women, not the younger, who dress more liberally and show off their face. The younger generation are the ones who fully cover their face.

But the largely aesthetic covering (or not) of one’s face is less important to me than whether a woman has the ability to start up her own business, built a hut, tend crops or animals, and act as her own independent person throughout her life. I want the exact same thing for men as well; I think everyone should be educated as much as possible.

This is not a radical concept.

Even if I can make a very tiny dent in that still-too-large population of people who don’t have that option I’ll be incredibly pleased. If I fail, well, then at least I tried.

Obviously my original plans were dead on arrival and, while I find that incredibly frustrating, I purposely hadn’t made any concrete plans while back in America for the very reason that I wanted to talk to people here first. If working in the western or central parts of Somaliland then primary education is already at surprisingly high levels; I wouldn't be needed.

The vocational side of my plans, however, still is relevant. Almost everyone I talk to says that vocational centers are needed nearly everywhere. People graduate from primary or secondary school quite often here and then have no avenues open to them afterwards in which to make money. Vocational training would help solve that issue.

I’m leaving tomorrow for the city of Burao. It’s from here my new starting point for trekking has been moved. Burao deals in livestock from the surrounding nomad regions but supposedly it also has a tremendous population of refugees who have fled the fighting from south Somalia as well as a sizable population of Internally Displaced Persons (otherwise known as IDPs, a distinction from being refugees that really only matters to the UN High Commission for Refugees, an organization that for the most part only help those who have fled across international borders). Many of these people have been here for two decades, which begs the question; after how long, exactly, is one considered just part of the regular population after having fled their home?

I have a meeting with the regional governor and I hope to make inquiries as to the state of education and training amongst the refugees, particularly orphan refugees. While Somaliland understandably doesn’t want to make their refugee populations permanent by opening up schools and other institutions – as refugees are a huge drain on what are very limited state resources - there might be possibilities with setting something worthwhile up.

I’m tutoring a pair of members from the Somaliland Parliament who happen to be from the Togdeer region, in which Burao lies, as well. I’ve recently talked to one about educating the orphan population that lies within the massive refugee camps and he was extremely receptive. If I decide to take this avenue he has said he will help me along.

There are also educational/vocational possibilities I’m looking at the coast towards the Djibouti border, the region I trekked last time. Between the cities of Zayla and Lughaya for instance – more than 150 kilometers by foot – there is not a single primary school.

Any decisions won’t be made for another month or two though. My trek, if it goes through (and nothing is for sure here) will be totally off the grid and will hopefully take around a month so I won’t be able to work much during that time.

Tomorrow morning I drive out of Hargeisa and will take the Somaliland highway to Berbera and then spend a night in what is supposed to be a beautiful mountain town called Sheek. Then it’s on to Burao for two nights where I’ll be getting a guide, buying a camel, and finally starting out on a semi-circle through the mountains that will eventually lead me back to Berbera.

Obviously that time I won’t have an internet connection, but if you ever feel the need to facebook or email me with any goings-on I would really appreciate it. Whether it be personal news or national, it’s always great to hear from people back home.

(Funny story I just remembered; last time I was on trek here I heard that Congress had passed the stimulus bill from a local nomad. Somalis are always hungry for news and have a particular love of politics, including those in the USA. This Somali, a hundred kilometers from the nearest television and who had never even seen a white guy before me, told me both that the bill had passed and what Republican Senators had voted with the Democrats to do so. Even for Somaliland I found this pretty weird.)

Anyway, if there’s any awesome news happening let me know. Also, if you have any thoughts on what I mentioned above it would be great to hear from you. This is uncharted territory for me and many of you are much more experienced or have considerably more insight than I. If it sounds like I’m approaching something from the wrong angle or like I’m just being a jackass in general, I’d love to hear from you.

If not, well, I’ll talk to you in a couple months when I get back, eh?

Be well and stay warm.