The smiles on their faces say it all. The children at Alba and Mai Habar - two camps for ward displaced Eritreans in Southern Eritrea - are happy to be back in school again. The pain and suffering of seeing loved ones die, of being separated from their families will remain with them for a long time to come. But for a few hours a day, the excitement of learning new things helps block the painful memories of the death and destruction they witnessed when neighboring Ethiopia escalated a border conflict into a full blown invasion of their country just over two months ago.
From 7 a.m. to noon every Monday to Friday, the more then 8,000 elementary school children in Mai Habar camp and the thousands others in Alba camp can temporarily forget about what brought them to the camps and concentrate on their lessons. And concentrate they must. For if they are to follow any of the day's lessons, they need to muster all their strength to focus on the blackboard and their individual teachers. A very difficult task indeed, given that classes are held in the open under the shades of the few trees around.
The need to focus on one's class becomes even more critical in cases where different classes are held simultaneously under the shade of one tree. There are no walls separating one class from another. The only way to tell where one class begins and another ends is the seating arrangements. One class will face one way while another faces another with children in different classes seated with their backs to each other.
"If this tree could talk it would tell a lot of stories" says Mr. Abraham Kidane one of the teachers, pointing to the oldest tree in Mai Habar - a graceful huge tree which now serves as the camp's school. "As you see we have more than ten classes going on under this one tree. The students do not have chairs but we improvised and they now sit on stones. We also lack school materials, like books and exercise books, " adds the school teacher who fled his home near Senafe to escape Ethiopian bombing.
"I have to focus and look straight ahead. If I even turn my face just a little, I end up looking at the next class and listening to lessons there", says second grader Berekti sharing her tip for making it in an open school. Berekti, who was separated from her family when Ethiopia bombed her village, says the thought of not knowing where her parents are adds to the difficulty in concentrating in an open school setting where life goes on all round you.
"It is difficult for some of the young students to focus on their education. They have gone through a lot," agrees Berekti's teacher noting that considering what she has been through, Berekti is doing well in her classes.
There is a severe shortage of school materials and students only have one exercise book each where they jot down all their different lessons. "I have divided my exercise book into Tigrigna, English, Math and so on," says Mebrat Haile a 2nd grade student showing visiting UNICEF and ministry of education staff how she writes down all subjects in one exercise book "I don't want my exercise book to be finished. That is why I write small," she adds explaining why her handwriting was so small.
There is no school in the afternoon, not because the children or their teachers do not want to or have much else to do, but because it rains almost every afternoon making it impossible for classes to continue in the open.
The day the UNICEF and Ministry of Education team visited the camp, it had rained heavily and the normally dry riverbed was full. The team had to wait one hour for the river level to go down before crossing over to the part of the camp where the school was. As the visiting team waited, some adults were helping students cross the river. Asked why they could not wait an hour for the water to subside, the students reply that they did not want to miss their classes or even arrive late for class. "We have been out of school for some months now and nothing can stop us now from continuing our classes, " they explain carrying their books on their heads to protect them from getting wet.
On seeing how eager the students were to learn despite the not so ideal conditions under which classes were being held, A UNICEF staff person remarks: "Against all odds, education is well and alive in the camps of Eritrea." UNICEF and the Ministry of education also promise to provide the camp schools with more exercise books, pens, pencils and recreational supplies.
Just as the UNICEF and Ministry of Education team was returning to Asmara, the camp administrator comes over to share a piece of good news. Word had just been received that Berekti's parents were well and alive and arrangements would be made right away to reunite the little girl with her family.