Berbera, Diving, and Somali Milk...

WOW! Lots to write as ever. Since last time I've been all over Somaliland!

So, on Friday 7th May I organised with some of the teachers from Abaarso (Kiette, Ode, Daniel, and Jenya) to visit Berbera, a town on the coast of Somaliland that constitutes its port. We left early, since we wanted to get the full day on the beach, so up for 5 in the morning. Arrived around 8 and after quickly dropping everything off at our hotel we went straight to the Mansoor Hotel to get ice cream, coffee, and Sprite... There was no ice cream...

Then I met 'Scuba Steve' most of the teachers had already met him and done some scuba, but me and Jenya hadn't so we discussed and he offered to do a morning of learning to dive for $50 each.

Later, we experienced the Somali beach experience, which involved a large number of young men crowding around the spot we were at to see women in bikinis. This was so bad that we had to make a run for it, as what seemed like the whole of Berbera came out to watch! Also... and this was very odd for me... the water was WARM!!!

Next day we did the dive, which was amazing! We both took to it quite easily, and after a bit of walking up and down the beach we managed to go down to 25ft... This was very exciting for me, but no one else I've told has shared my excitement and just ask how many fish we saw... and, unfortunately, we didn't actually get to see that many, the visibility wasn't great, and we were just in shallow water.

After the dive we came back, and I spent a couple of days staying at Abaarso (where they had lots of young adult books that I probably should have read three or four years ago, but ended up ploughing through them).

After staying at Abaarso for a couple of nights and being introduced to the joys of the animé series Avatar, enjoying fajitas Somali style and being asked if we had Mexican food in Britain (not by a Somali) as well as apparently watching a Naruto movie, I moved back into Hargeisa for a final few days.

This is when Said took me to see his family in the bush. This was a really brilliant experience and I wasn't nearly thankful enough at the time. Unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries so I got no pictures!! Basically, the Somalis live in tents, which as well as being bigger on the inside than they seem, they're built from wood and dried grass. I also learnt the words for all the different parts of the tent, and I can now remember none!

Berbera beach looking boring...

Classic Beach JCB shot

Before I finish (since this is pretty much where Somaliland ends and Ethiopia begins) I would like to say a massive thankyou to all the people who have helped me in Somaliland, my trip would have been utterly utterly dull without you. 

Specifically, Hamish (Whose was a total and unimaginable large fount of knowledge on pretty much anything I could ever want to know about Somaliland or Somali people), Mowlid, Khalif, Said and Ahmed (Who all looked after me really well once I'd arrived), Zamzam and Amhran (who also looked after me really kindly... and bought me chocolate and fish!) Kiette, Ode, Colin, Anthony, Daniel, Jenya (who very kindly let me stay with them and eat their food and were really friendly) and finally Abdirashid (for getting me a brilliant tour of Hargeisa and giving me the nicest Somali tea I've ever had!). 

Disclaimer: I apologise in advance if I have misspelled anyone's names!