Semper Fi!

Back from the boot camp and i have grown an inch or two.... The first day of the festival was an outstanding and thrilling event, especially the time of a funny encounter with the President Isias Afwerki! It was amazing to see and sit only 2 rows away from him! I didn’t expect to see him upclose mainly him running into ME! Yes, its true! I wasn’t paying attention of his motion; my eyes were busy checking my snapshots of him on a diggy camera. When I look up, I was startled of his approach and my 2 hands were occupied with camera equipments! I felt wedged at the moment. Finally, the soldier, (walking w/ Prez) w/ a huge machine gun, effortlessly flung me out of the crowd surrounding him! I didn’t feel a thing cuz my body turned numb. Moreover, a cabin-mate succeeded taking a photo of me next to the Prez! Yay. I just learned that it is typical of the Prez to walk around with low protection! He trusts his country entirely for his safety! It’s utterly Impossible if Prez Bush can do the same.
The most fascinating and remarkable sights of this festival were the marching band of soldiers and the militants in the audience!! The number of them overwhelmed me! In same time I was intimidated and in awe of the great number of the soldier participating this event or watching the march.
What floored me chiefly was seeing hundreds of male soldiers holding hands!!!!! It was like seeing a genuine oxymoron: 2 ideal warriors showing affection and warmth toward one other. Seeing this brotherly-love is a stirring and astonishing experience for me.
The activity I enjoyed immensely was tree-planting. I wish I could do more than just one. I hope to participate more similar events that will contribute to the nature someday soon. To my understanding, this country is suffering of low supply of wood, since a large amount of trees had been chopped down for fuel.
I Requested to Leave a day earlier from Sawa camp, wishing I knew I could’ve left on the second day instead on the third. For me, this festival would have been sufficient if it was just for ONE day. I felt it wasn’t truly contributing to my travel experience or research if I remained for the full 5-day stay. I did NOT want to miss the Eri-Sign Lang research mtg on Saturday mornings. I was so glad to make this decision or else id be stuck on the bus for 11-hour trip! In addition, the transportation mode they provided was the far most interesting I ever rode on—they told me id fly on a plane. Since it was a small group of us who signed/paid for the trip back to Asmara, I assumed itd be a small passenger plane. To my surprise, it was an Army Helicopter (the one which they’d drop off supplies in the air or soldiers jump out) flew us for only 45 minutes!!

FYI, ill be gone on the tour program for 6 days.