LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Eritrea: Arbaete Asmara
built 656 days ago
The best souvenirs to bring from Eritrea are traditional handicrafts made from leather, olivewood, clay and straw. These can be found in most souvenir shops in Asmara along with traditional home-spun cotton garments. Posters and postcards are ... readily available at most press-kiosks even at the airport. Leopard- and zebra skin as well as ivory items can be found in the souvenir markets but you will be stopped from leaving Eritrea with these as well as stopped and fined at your home destination because international trade in such materials is banned. Eritrea however has several souvenirs made from goatskin. Gold, Pearl and Silver Jewellery is also available in the markets in Asmara along with frankincense and myrrh.
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Drought, famine, and intensive offensives launched by the Ethiopian army on Eritrea took a heavy toll on the population — more than half a million fled to Sudan as refugees. Amid the culmination of Soviet support to Ethiopia and a major fall-out between Eritrean and Ethiopian anti-government rebels, the EPLF achieved two of its greatest and most decisive victories. In 1985, Eritrean elite commandos infiltrated the Ethiopian and Soviet held air force base in Asmara and destroyed all 30 fighter jets there, suffering only one casualty. In 1988 during a massive Ethiopian military offensive against Eritrean rebels, a third of the Ethiopian army was annihilated in the northern Eritrean town of Afabet.[21]
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Internet facilities were introduced in Eritrea in 2000 and the capital Asmara is now full of Internet cafes with users queueing at all hours of the day and night. Similar services are being extended to other cities like Massawa, Mendafera, Karen, and Decamerah. Cellphones were introduced in March 2004 and, although somewhat expensive, are used in profusion especially in areas where there are no landlines. However, such services are yet to be provided in rural Eritrea.
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Activities: The ABSB is the only primary residential school for the blind in Eritrea. The current training programmes for the children are the Academinc National curriculum of the MOE, Braille type, training in Braille contraction, orientation and mobility, daily living skills, abacus, handcraft skills and Latin typewriter. After completing their primary eduacation at the ABSB the students are sent to various secondary schools in Asmara and other towns. The ABSB acts as a centre for these integrated students to encourage them and provide them with the resources that they require for their studies.
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There are five levels of education in Eritrea: pre-primary, primary, middle, secondary, and post-secondary. There are nearly 238,000 students in the primary, middle, and secondary levels of education. There are approximately 824 schools[52] in Eritrea and two universities (University of Asmara and the Institute of Science and Technology) as well as several smaller colleges and technical schools.
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Asmara is the most civilized city in Africa, despite Eritrea being one of the poorest countries. In 1993 the World Bank figured the average annual income was $75-$150, and life expectancy was age 50. There is no begging, little crime, streets are clean and safe.
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Arbaete Asmara