Saturday July 25th - Sunday 26th We had a good flight to Dubai, landing earlier than expected at 11.30 p.m. The heat (38°) hit you as you walked down the steps to the waiting bus; it takes about 1/2 hour to reach the new terminal, air-bridges are so much quicker!
After finding the information desk, we had a long wait before we got the information we needed. From then on, it went much faster. The Marriott lady confirmed our booking, told us where to find a taxi, and gave us a much-needed bottle of ice-cold water – wonderful! It was quite good to be able to use up some Skywards points!
We had a very interesting taxi driver from Eritrea, who took us on the scenic route on Sheik Zayed Road past a lot of immense and rather overly-opulent hotels. It was rather hard to concentrate on the scenery as all we wanted to go to bed, but we woke up a little when he started to tell us about his family/life in Eritrea.
He said that life there has been crazy under the current president who took over 15 years ago, & who doesn’t appear to know anything apart from running an army & waging war as he is a former guerrilla fighter.
The National Draft snares people once they finish school. If you try to run away to avoid it, they arrest and even torture your father till you return.
Life in the army is hard: although you get fed, you only get US$20/month for your family’s needs. There is no guarantee of when you will be released, & it’s hard to get a good job as there are no universities; the president closed them down following Chinese revolutionary principles. One of the taxi driver's brothers are still in the army after 10 years, the other after 15, and there's no knowing when they will be released from service!
He has told them many times to leave the country, via Sudan or Somalia, or even via Mauritius to Italy, so that they could live in peace/safety, but they are too scared and don’t want to leave their families behind. But these days all fleeing Eritreans are automatically guaranteed full refugee status, which makes it possible to rescue families that have been left behind.
He has a sister in Belgium & a brother in Chicago; all three send money back to help the rest of the family, but they find it very hard knowing how tough life is there. He says he never wants to go back!
We arrived at The Courtyard at 1.20 a.m. for our free stay. Unfortunately there was no free airport shuttle, but taking a taxi was still a lot cheaper than paying for a room! It was lovely to be able to shower to get rid of the rest of the African dust, we must have been well-coated in windy Dar – our refresher towels looked embarrassingly brown on the plane after use! My flannel turned a similar shade in the bathroom!
After washing my sandals so they’d pass inspection in NZ, I left them to dry in the bath, then went to bed to get about 4 hours sleep before the alarm went off at 6. I took the photo on the left from our window before going down to catch the taxi at 6.30. This time we had a bearded Muslim driver, who took us on the quicker route via the coast – mostly construction sites & sand dunes!We had fascinating views of the long, strip-like fields and all the waterways near Bangkok on the way down. It was such a contrast after the aridity of Africa and the deserts of Dubai. It was a warm 32° at around six p.m.. Once again, there was no time to hang around and explore the airport, straight to the boarding lounge!
Monday, 26th July I managed to sleep a little on the way to Sydney, which was a fresh 9° when we landed! This time we were able to walk around the terminal several times, looking at the interesting goods on display, we didn’t want to sit down again too soon!
There were very few passengers to Christchurch - whole rows empty behind us – so it was easy for everyone to see the spectacular views of the Southern Alps, viewed in crystal-clear conditions, covered with fresh snow. Mt Cook looked amazing! Unfortunately the photo doesn’t do it justice! The pilot flew up the West Coast from quite far south, so we saw all the lakes. We crossed the alps just north of the Rakaia River, to start our descent over the plains towards Christchurch. It was a beautiful day, sunny & calm, so 11° didn’t feel too cold after all! Bronwyn soon arrived with our car, which seemed to have survived its outdoor storage very well.
The concrete-block motel unit seemed very cold, and there was only a small fan heater, so after a hot shower, we put on layers of clothing.
We had a lovely long sleep once we got back from our restaurant dinner and brief shopping expedition.
We woke at 9, just time to get up & eat breakfast before checking out an hour later.
We were glad to be able to spend the night with my parents in Oamaru, we were feeling very tired, but the next day we went all the way home to Gore, where Bruce's brother Colin had been looking after our new house.
Part VII – Where to from now?
Our daughter Eleanor started an au pair job in October looking after three little children; Anthony is still looking for work as a builder and Nicola only has a part-time job cleaning at a school; Jeremy lives part of the week in Mannheim with Judith, but still spends a couple of days in Duisburg where his work is. He's been doing a bit of globe-trotting recently - Japan and Canada - on behalf of the firm.
Bruce eventually found work (19/9) on a 900-cow dairy farm while another worker recuperates from a serious knee injury, but I still am jobless.
Our Maasai friends are sinking into ever deeper trouble with hardship increasing every day, their remaining livestock dying. They have so far not managed to get any government or NGO help. The CBO has no funds. People are now burning the scarce trees to get income from selling charcoal. However, one good thing is that they are now linked in to the CHE movement and we hope that will help effect some long-term changes in their community that will benefit them all. BUT IF YOU'D LIKE TO HELP, PLEASE LET US KNOW!
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