Damn!  It’s Hidar already ?!

Not that I was planning on doing anything.

Hidar,  especially is tricky because you see, once you have finished it, you would be through one fourth of the year and one third of the year would be gone by the end of Tahisas, just like that!

My brother says that rate at which the year is burning itself out is an indicative of the advent of the end of days: bezian gize kenochu  kegobez rucha yefetenu yihonalu

Well! Normally, it would have been me heralding the apocalypse. But no; in this case I think the days are being shortened by BPR and they are gravitating towards that fateful of days – the mircha.  I mean, how could I help feeling that it would be fateful when every piece in the media is starting like “aratu” ?

aratu aratu aratu …

Like they were the fantastic four or something! Meles = human torch, Hailu = thing, Lidetu = Mr. Fantastic (based only on his “flexibility”) and Ayele = invisible woman.  I think the trend nowadays is from comic books to the big screen and then to life in some God forsaken country whose people  refuses to believe that it indeed is God forsaken.

I say fuck the mircha and all those involved.

With that short but fairly expressive declaration of my deep-seated detest for my country’s political process and the processors, let me snatch the trumpet back from my brother and do what I usually do.

So they say that when it is almost time for the world to go up in flames, the ratio of women to men would be something like 10 to 1.  This time in Addis Abeba, I had the pleasure and pain of seeing throngs of girls in skinny jeans that I felt I have seen every single one of them. And I wondered whose they were, because they sure as hell are not mine. So where the hell are my 10 ladies?

The work that took me to Addis Abeba was a disappointment in the order of a fart that builds up gloriously only to implode. I cannot even compare it to that because I was not keen on going anyway. Maybe it could be likened to a two weeks’ bloating. I puked thrice on the way there and took in the horror of the water that feels your mouth – thereby signifying the inevitability – just before you let fly. Sacrificed 10 million neurons for every day I was there and the only thing that appealed to me at the end of each day was sleeping with my head buried in the pillow.

 Man I hate committees! Don’t get me wrong – I hate myself too.

On the bright side, I discovered that yogurt tasted real nice with coke, took up eating raw shimbra and what else… nothing. In short, I am living like a menekuse who has not lost his zest  for experimenting. And I am suffering from intermittent headaches which just might be withdrawal symptoms of the anti -emetics (don’t you just love the name?!) which I have been taking for the duration of the mission, and without doctor’s orders. It is just that we used to spend a considerable time travelling in the same car in which I carried out my emetic heroics and I was afraid that I was going to repeat them.

Enough grossing you out.  I have been trying to choose a name for our hood in Addis Abeba and I think la luz fits the bill since the street lights are too close together. The name does not necessarily have to relate to a conflict zone now, does it?

I was amazed and at the same time entertained to read in a magazine article that Bahir Dar is one of the ten cities in the world best suited for living. The writer might have been referring to this:

“…UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura will present the UNESCO Cities for Peace prizes for 2000-2001 on March 18 in Marrakesh (Morocco) to Bukhara (Uzbekistan), Sharm el Sheikh (Egypt), Cotacachi (Ecuador), Lubumbashi (Democratic Republic of Congo) and Vilnius (Lithuania). Five other cities, one from each region of the world, will receive an honourable mention…

Bahir Dar in Ethiopia receives an honourable mention for its efforts to provide its citizens with a healthier and more pleasant city by tackling issues such as the lack of housing and the stagnation of the economy.”

I guess it is the same thing huh.

One thing that cannot be denied though, Ba Da has definitely got its groove back after the streetlights went back on.

One

I read this somewhere: ” lezare Mashallah lenege Inshallah”

A question: why do you think God created the devil ?

Please read this

I saw “The Athlete” this week. I is a biography-drama film about Abebe Bekila. If you haven’t seen the film yet and plan to do so, then you might not want to read this. There is little to spoil as the story is already pretty well known. But anyhow, just a warning.

So the film. Its very well shot. Specially the landscapes. There is one very very nice shot in the film where it shows Abebe training in the highlands. We see Abebe running close by and the camera slowly zooms out till the point that he is too tiny to see and the whole landscape he is in comes into perspective. We see a beautiful mountainous landscape with cliffs and mountains. I’d say it is early in the morning or just before dusk because the sun is shining sideways on the land. Come to think of it, I’d actually be interested to see more of the landscape in documentary (nature like) films. That shot was nice. There is also another one towards the end of the movie where Abebe and his couch get out of their car and admire the landscape. Abebe says something touchy about the sun shining on that land forever.

I’m not sure where they shot these. The first thing that came to my mind when they showed the cliffs was Abay Berha. But that probably isn’t Abay Berha. Abay Berha is very deserty as I remember it. It has a more white like landscape with less trees and probably sandy soil. Maybe its Lima Limo. I’ve heard a lot of horror stories about Lima Limo. Buses breaking down in the middle, road being slippery, and so on. So maybe it’s that. But who knows Ethiopia is a big country. I’ve even went to somewhere between Debre Sina and Debre Zeit which and walked a mountainous area for hours and hours. Seeing these shots makes me feel insignificant. In a good way though. Insignificant in that my worries are minute when compared to this landscape. It probably doesn’t make sense to you when I compare worries with mountains but that’s just how it makes me feel. I just feel like there is a larger picture, something more important, and that nothing is really as big as I think it is.

My most favorite part of the film is when Abebe chats with a priest in his car. He encounters the priest as he was driving along. The priest’s carriage was broken. Abebe pays some money to the carriage driver on behalf of the priest. As the usual Ethiopian tradition the priest says he could have paid himself and thanks Abebe. So on their way the they have a great conversation and we get to hear how Abebe was raised. The priest asks Abebe if he goes to church. Abebe says no. The priest then starts sing a church song. The best part about it was Abebe follows him without hesitation. You then believe that it is really inside him. What I found painful was they find a blind horse in the middle of the road. I coudn’t believe it when Abebe explained that horse owners poke the eyes of old horses so they don’t come back. That is very cruel. Never heard of that before. As far as I have seen farmers are attached to their animals. I can understand selling animals or slaughtering them for holidays but this seemed so cruel. So Abebe decides to shoot down the horse but takes the priest’s advice to let him live another day. The priest tells him calmly that the horse will get picked up by another owner. Very good acting there both from “Abebe” and “The Priest”.

One thing I didn’t like about the film (and a friend of mine) was that it was a sad film. It had good moments in it but was just too sad. From the outset, the film starts with Abebe driving. We see driving throughout the film. We are given many hints that he will have a car crash. I kept saying in my head “Maybe he will crash now”. The road is important in the film. We experience a lot of things when is in the road. But I think the film would have looked better if they didn’t give any hints about crashing. For example, one time he almost has an an accident when he tries to overtake a car. That I think is unimportant. He could have peacefully driven and the focus could have been on other interesting parts of the story. The story also focuses on his time after he gets paralyzed. There were many more interesting things to show, for example how was it like in his first race, how did he prepare, what was the expectation from his family, he must have felt the pressure and that would have been nice to show.

The actors I think come from a theatrical background, as many other Ethiopian. Theater has well thought scripts, it has long pauses, it is loud, it is more of body action than face expression. So the problem is when you have these people in films, the film looks like a theater. There is a scene for example where Abebe is pushed to leave a bar because some other solider was hostile towards him. Another guy stops Abebe and says this long loud well thought speech. It’s a touching thing what he said but I couldn’t stop noticing that it was very theatrical. He could have said it in a more natural manner while still keeping the contents of his speech.

The guy playing “Abebe” is a serious guy, laughs occasionally and thinks for a while before speaking. It sometimes looks like he doesn’t give a shit about everything else. When the priest talked to him, it first looked to me that he just didn’t want to speak to the priest. But he ended up singing with the priest and all my fears were gone I think he also performed in theaters in the past. It works for him though. He is a cool character.

Many other things I want to comment about but I have to go. I give it 7 out of 10. Must watch.

I’m watching the TV show as I write this and I’m shocked. The doctor just broke this guy’s leg, drilled his bones and inserted some metal. Why? Because the guy thinks he is too short. The process can cost up to 40,000 pounds they say. But what if it is for free? Ah,…. can people wake up!!!

The program talks about how white body shape has become to be accepted as normal, beautiful, associated with success. Eastern Asian women find their breasts to be too flat, black women think they are too big, Asian guys think they are too short. There is one Asian guy talking about how short he thinks he is, how people don’t take him seriously and how it affects his career (hotel management). White people tan their skin, buy Indian hair for expensive prices, …. Ughhh I just saw a breast cut open. They enlarged it for her.

I appreciate the program. What usually pops in my mind too is how TVs, films and magazines screw up peoples thoughts. Repeatedly seeing American movies and fast cars is one of the reasons why many Ethiopians want to go to the US.

Everyone is screwed up really. Just before this show was another UK show called “How to look good naked”. The host of the show takes women who are not confident about their bodies and tries to build their confidence. I have previously seen some shows that do makeovers. I hated those shows. It misses the whole point. They are actually acknowledging that the woman actually does not look good and that she needs to change. It sends the opposite message. This guy, Gok he is called, who does the “How to look good naked” show, does not do makeovers. He simply keeps on telling them they are beautiful, gets somebody else to tell them so, and chooses nice outwear for them. I appreciate what he does in that he is telling them they are beautiful without having to change them in any way. But I still don’t like the idea of getting people to tell them they are beautiful. Obviously, the woman is going to find someone who thinks otherwise. What happens then? Her old fears will come rushing back, she will think everything was a dream, everyone had been lying to her, and that she will convince herself that she is indeed ugly.

That is what happens when people rely on other’s comments. So what if people think you are not beautiful? I’m sure I blogged about this but the key lies in someone’s outlook to life and to other people. How do you see other people? If you measure their height, breasts, color, then your mind will also criticize your own body.

I saw a black woman get her breast content pumped out, an Asian guy got his penis enlarged, an Arab guy got his back flashed out with some electric thingie so it doesn’t grow much hair, and some woman got one of her fingers cut because she thought it was sexy that way. Ok I’m kidding with the last one of course, but what do you know!

Saw this movie and I liked it.

A scene from the movie:

And the soundtrack:

I wonder if the singer is Ethiopian. Mamo, doh!

Addis Abeba le asr ken mehede new. So don’t you dare move a muscle !

It was working fine until I was told there are software updates, I update those, and I also decide to update the OS as recommended. Now I can’t see the shutdown button. I know, I know, it should be somewhere there and once I find it, I’d tell myself it was obvious where it was but still, it shouldn’t take me minutes to find it. Stupid thing. Now I shutdown on the command line. Even worse, the screen brightness has stopped working after the upgrade. The monitor is to dim. Half an hour of searching and no luck. Probably a known issue with Nvidia driver. Shit. I’m pissed off. You take an hour to upgrade a software and it’s worse than the older one. You spend half an hour trying to fix it, no luck. Now I have to boot on Windows which happily takes five minute to boot the laptop and put it on a responsive state. Kill all software engineers.

The founder of the Ubuntu Project is an interesting guy though.

So I went to Addis Abeba – again. And this be my ride when I slide in and out of town:

While I was there, I had the chance to spend some time in two places where they sell traditional clothes. And I discovered how much I prefer menen to saba:

menen

saba

I mean, the tibeb was supposed to stay down there. But people, in their insolence, pulled it up, way up, to give rise to this nauseating type of yehager libs which, many people happen to like by the way.  No wife of mine shall be wearing one of those saba thingies!

The first few days I spent back home, I could not help but go to the toilette 5 times a day. I guess my diet had diverged from the one I was used to.

And there is also the fact that my sefer is fast turning into Chechnya 2.0. I thought with the new road, many imaginative businesses could spring up with the hood maintaining its residential vibe. I even thought that it could be a school district. But alas!

And I cannot help but feel that the number of ferenjs in Addis Abeba has gone up. Don’t think, since I spent some time away in Bahir Dar, they have suddenly become a novelty. I am telling you, there is abnormally many of them.

And now I am back!

One

I wonder why noone had uploaded it to youtube.

Just because it is malaria season. Addis Abeba better watch its ass!  This should scare off the ferenjs. What ATeT a.k.a. cho… shut your mouth could not do, maybe malaria can. And no, I am not a xenophobe. I love humans, whatever hue.

It was nice passing through Enjibara, listening to this.

This was supposed to be a time for biochemistry, and not blogging.

I go to class and learn that the students are holding some sort of meeting; cooking up some sort of mutiny. You know -the usual. A student asks me if I could wait for them to finish the meeting. I give him 5 minutes-the amount of time left to the full hour and the beginning of class. His eyes betray that he is not satisfied…

I lose it.

They are a complaining bunch!

I concede that they do not enjoy the best facilities and the best teacher; I am talking about myself here though the meeting was not about me.

And I did not think it was about me when I burst into the class room, door banging and gun blazing. I take the minutes off the table and tell the chairpersons to sit down cuz it is class time and not sibseba time.

All hell breaks loose.

I exchange heated words with some of the students.

They walk out on me.

What the fuck is to be done now?

I KNOW! Go to the library of FBE and lay in the cut. And maybe blog about it. So how about it, Tibebe?  Uh?

A generation spoilt with mebt talk minamin or students really fighting for their mebt?

I DON’T KNOW!

Sure we too “fought” for “academic freedom” and stuff. But these kids I think are something else. You could even  say that they are molkaka ; and that, after subpar facilities and teacher have been brought into the equation.  

How I wish all of us first fulfilled our responsibilities before venturing into complaining about someone else’s doings ?! Then we would have had the perfect world with no bitching and moaning and whining and

And that includes you too, Tibebe.

Fuck! What the fuck!

One fuck, two fuck, six fuck, sick fuck,  ad infinitum.

I came home yesterday and no one was there, Tsega  my BFF called and we talked for about 20 or so minutes…I went and      checked my e-mails…nothing exciting and didnot get the e-mail I was hoping to get…; went to the basement  and saw NCIS… which always entertained me.. bla bla bla….Miti called and asked what I was doing?.. My answer “nothing.. trying to read Ludlem’s The matarese countdown”…, he thought I was jocking but when he realized I was actually telling the truth..” good girl.. that is the  Betty I know…” That made me laugh and it also made me want to cry.. then my bro came in and said ” this is the first time I saw you in the house before midnight”.. he was joking ofcourse, I spend the whole day with him and at night i try to go somewhere, most of the time to Etiye Mulushewa’s house and just sit or read or watch NCIS.. then get up and go home… that has been pretty much what I have been doing…. but when my brother mentioned that I am  not home for most nights… I realized that it was my way of hiding having no fun… I go to  the other home to feel like I am out of the house… but what difference does it make, it is just a different house….

There are times I feel so empty, my stomach turns upside down; I feel like just going , driving with no destination… just go…. these feelings creep into my thoughts when I am sitting,  or when  i get up in the middle of the night for no reason and that is what I felt when I woke up thinking I heard my alarm go off, but it didnot since It was set for 5.15am… it was only 1.40 am… I sat down and sailed in the sea of my thoughts…and thought of Aj’s verse

….. Empty spaces fill me up with holes

…..distant faces with no place left to go

…..without you within me I cannot find no rest

…..where I am going is anybody’s guess…

I wished I was free to just go out and drive back home… then I realized IGZIABHER is my road back home… then I slowley drifted back to sleep and when Iwoke up it was already 5.40 am…I came to work and there it was a basket full of yellow flowers ( actually they looked like Adey Abebawoch)…. it took me back home and I thanked GOD for that….. I loved the yellow flowers that only show up once a year, they gave me hope and they always reminded me of how bright every person’s life would be if we are always smiling even when things get tuff… It is God’s promise to us that even if it looks as if happiness left us… there should always be hope that bright days are not that far….

The emptiness never left me because I am away from those who filled it… but I always smiled knowing that  my smile brightnes up other people…. what right do I have to make other people’s days gloomy…..

Totaly unrelated to the moral of the story….So Seni, Betty, Aki and I decided to watch Medea and Seni says she has to attend to natures call… I decided to do the same because I know I am going to be laughing silly when watching the movie and I might in the end wet my… you know… so sunny goes into this restroom without reading anything but she tells me to check if it is the ladys room from inside…( let me give you the architacture of the rest room, it is divided into two sections left and right… and usually most rest rooms here are lady’s on one side and men on the other side)… so I looked at what it says on her side and it said “Men”… so I yell and tell her to come out and follow me to the other one….. guess what… I stepped into the other one and there is this dude doing his thing… Iwas so shocked, I run out screaming … he was so mad at me… he followed me and screamed…. so apparently there was no lady’s room on that side of the building: it was on the other side of the building. In my defence “.. Architecturochu tewkaktobachew.. ye wond ena yest shintibet gon le gon lemin alserum like it is the norm in most rest rooms in the US”… but the look on the guys face was hilarious now that I think about it..”sorry dude if you read this, I swear I didnot see a thing”…..so that topped all of my embarrasing moments……

So today, I am going to a birthday of a one year old, I am excited… I need those of my own… although I would love it if Nahom was mine..

ciao

Shit I don’t want to be here…and now!

It has happened in my life- on many an occasion these past I don’t know how many units of time- that I am wondering whether I am in “that place” and am happy. And this voice inside, I don’t know whose, answers me quite often – “you deserve to be happy and this is not the way to go.”

So then, which is the way to go?

Started this week tired at the end of hectic four days, of which two were spent on the road between A and B. I had classes from Monday to Wednesday. The first two classes were awful; I mean I was awful. And that made me feel awful. And all the while I am thinking I should make up for the sleep I lost in the preparation for the journey and try and recover from the buslag. And the third class turns out to be kinda good, unexpectedly.  And hope comes creeping in.

And then it was gone. Darn!

Lord, forgive me for being this fool who has utterly failed to appreciate your infinite blessing…

but I don’t want to be here.

Then where?

One thing I have very much enjoyed recently is reading a book while travelling. I read the tale of two cities- yes I know, after the entire world had read it- and liked it very much. And I never thought Dickens could be funny. I did not develop that supposition after reading many of his works (I had only read great expectations and blest if I fully remember what it was about!) It’s just that, for unknown reasons, the name Dickens I associated with serious themes and seriousness; and for his face I always painted Abraham Lincoln’s. The tale of two cities is a serious sad story but it also has its funny moments.

Finally crossed Abay Bereha-after the entire world had crossed it- and it was beautiful, with the clouds down below, and scary-you know I am not that crazy about heights. Enjibara and Yechereka were also nice.

Lord, I guess what I am trying to say is,…, is what I am trying to say “I want to jump ship, just take off, say fuck it to everything, and spend my life travelling , seeing new sights and reading new books, listening to music, and maybe, just maybe, find that elusive thing called happiness or perhaps, let it find me. And,and, truth too ” ?

This post was not about a girl or girls.

Well, what do you know!?

Still, let it be known that I have known all the people I need to know minus one.

One

And oh by the way, I drank tej yesterday

A couple moved in next room.  The guy is a soldier. Mihidaren atebebut weys alatebebutim?  I think I better leave that for tarik and tiwild to answer.

I fear I may be inconveniencing them being a wall away with my eager ears. What was the word for a voyeur, but with ears instead of eyes?  A voyear?

It started raining last night and the guy was like “cover me I am going in!”  Turns out the rain was not really serious about raining and a rain check –but in the opposite sense –was called accompanied by “ain’t that a bitch!?”

I would have liked it better if a single female had moved in. But you know; you don’t always get what you want. Or is it, be careful what you wish for?  I mean, I was dying for some action but, I guess I forgot to specify that I wanted to be involved in the action.

Whoever moved or had moved in, I am not planning on being too close with them. In fact, I am working on ways of putting them off.  Given the fact that religion is big here, as evidenced in part by the many persons listening to mezmur from their mobiles, be it near the library or on the road – I am not insinuating that the people here are intolerant, but I hope that at least my neighbors get a bit irked by my actions – playing Amr Diab one morning, protestant mezmurs on the second and having enjera bekibe (chigir/sinfina bekibe yasbelal ) for dinner, and mind you it is yetsom ken, I think, could work.

Ironically, it was me who had twice greeted the wife and got no response. Okay I nodded my head the first time and the second time it was a very low decibel “dehina adersh?” which she might even not have heard.

Truth be told, I am not sure if my presence would bother them in the slightest in their bid to fulfill their, and everyone else’s, mission in life:  to screw without giving a damn who is watching or listening.

And someone goes “this boy’s problem has reached critical levels! He needs an outlet, and quick before he succeeds in sexing-down every facet of his and everybody else’s life.”

I politely agree with that fellow and then kick his ass just for good measure. I have not been in a fight since seventh grade – and it was with a boy whom all the feasibility indicators had shown to be beatable and I am an aspiring lover not a fighter– but I could learn, right?

At any rate, if the event is that I am cramping my neighbors’ style, they need not worry; at least not for the coming  _ days because I am going home; and no Babylon can stop me now!

May your new year be just like your old one!

I mean, if this year did not get its ass out of the way, we probably would not have had the chance to see the new year, now would we ?

 Hold up; it is still 2001 !?

And, I wanted “coming home” but this is just as good.

One

One day Betty ups and tells me that she will be going to the United States of Athers.

Before that, let me say a little something about two of the days she pissed me the most. Ours must be a very good friendship that I seem to remember, and want to talk about, only the bad stuff; the good stuff-too commonplace to stand out.

Awash, the heat did me in and that, combined with my intrinsic bad, had me acting nechnacha, and especially towards her. Senior year, we were supposed to have a committee meeting and she and some of the other guys were slacking off. And that made me mad. Now, I am not implying  that I was an epitome of hard work and dedication to “the cause”. All that I was asking from them was that we maintain a respectable collective level of mediocrity. I mean guys, really, was that too much to ask?

So she tells me that she is going away. Puzzled, I ask her:

“Haven’t you read what I will be posting in our blog three years from now? As far as interests expressed on t shirts go, I should have been the one going to the US. Ok, The Backstreet Boys are Americans but … why do you wanna go anyway?”

“A girl gotta to do what a girl gotta do!”

“Oh, that! Look, please!  We can get married if you want and have tons of kids …”

“No you sexist dimwit! I mean I have to spread my wings and fly. For many years…”

“I get it! But wait, I thought you would be taking an airplane?”

With all of my elements I did not want her to leave. But you heard her, stubborn as a mule!

Some of my elements even thought about going down on bended knees and asking her to pleaaaase stay. My nang and namoos would not let me do that however.

So, I did what I could standing up, and then,  she went away.

I start reflecting on my life without her. On the one hand, joining a convent sounded like a compelling proposition. I used to want to be a priest until the devil gave me a false hope that I would be going places. And he was right; I think I will be going places. And besides, it would be a much better thing to wait for 2012 from inside there as compared to going on living outside, pep talking yourself: “Gitty up! only _ years to go !  You would not want to miss it, do you?”

(The end of the world)I would not miss for the world!

On the other hand, I could get in touch with my inner prepropimp, activate it and get me a triple of felines just to dull the memories of her.

And the computer starts playing a song she recommended to me: Bella Luna- Jason Mraz

But knowing me, that would be just, eh, what was the word I was looking for? Oh yes, impossible. And I don’t mean to say the impossible that takes longer than the difficult to accomplish. I am talking about the impossible that even time would think twice before taking on.

On the other hand…

How many hands have you got man? Are you a Hydra or something?

Oh, it’s you again. For your information, a Hydra does not have nine hands; it has nine heads

And for your information, you have none. And that’s why, from now on, I am going to do the writing for you.

So on the one dick, the two had a pact that they would marry each other if they both are single by the time they turn forty. Sucker seems to have listened to only the last few words of the statement and he be waiting for her like “only 13 years to go”. Her on the other… fuck it …she is getting all cozy with what’s his name. And has anyone stopped to ask why he is wandering? Is he running from the law? I hope they get his ass and that it does not work between them. And I wish…”

 Ok, that’s enough!

Betty is a loving human being. And she is always saying nice things about me even though the things I have done for her are a few at best. Let alone that, along this post, I could not bring myself to talk about her good deeds. About how she loves animals and how they do not seem to know that she exists and how…

I think I got one

We finished the last exam (geology) before graduation and were feeling atop cloud nine. And what comes to pass to make our ecstasy dearthless? – She and E bring noodles to 23 (our dorm)!   

We taste it and say “damn women, that’s salty!”

They retort, a bit offended and critical of our knowledge on noodles “that’s how it is supposed to taste like”

The naïve/sly ones among us go “ riiiiiiight”

The hot-tempered ones go “this is supposed to be the happiest day of our miserable little lives and you bring us this? Get lost and take your shit with you before I call the proctor!”

That was not painting a very good picture of Betty-it is the thought that matters and all that bullshit endetetebeke hono. And that means I cannot use Silent Bob’s line to pay her homage: “there are millions of women in the world but they don’t all bring you noodles-albeit salty-to dorm.”

But I stand by the line that she is special and being too liberal with her usage of salt does not make her any the less special. I keep looking for big things to make me happy and be thankful. I guess that makes me an asshole .But she, she is happy about and thankful for the little things –things like me. I guess that makes her a quasi saint who has understood her real task in life and she stands a very good chance of going to heaven. Trust me; when I say so I say so.

I hope that this, a senseless blabbering, makes you, Betty, happy, in this, 1094^th day of your departure, from this, that “beautiful country in the horn of Africa”. (I used the quotation mark because I checked on the map of the world: all I  can see is Djibouti, Somalia, Eretria and Ethiopia. And I am confused which country you are referring to. Looks like you bought rose-tinted glasses. And I am not saying that Ethiopia is not beautiful. And I am not saying it is beautiful either. I will stop before the brackets burst.)

And if it does not make you happy… what am I saying? Of course you will be happy. It’s you.

One

I would have liked very much to have  embellished it a bit by adding the hours and minutes that have elapsed since that fateful date. But I am not sure whether you flew your way over there or took a plane. So you see, the time of departure turned out to be tricky.

Saturday, around 12:35: 

The rainbow in front, twilight at the back… a rush of dopamine … so thankful to have been alive at that moment!

INGRATE!

The following is based on actual events and people. But that does not necessarily mean that it is true.

I have known Betty … My earliest recollection of Betty, she was wearing a t shirt with The Backstreet Boys on it. She must have had blue jeans and white sneakers (with the black/brown “u” lining their front side). I, for my part was wearing a t shirt with Texas on it and blue jeans and brown shoes. My peeps and I were playing basketball and she came looking for one of us. By the way, I used to net some really mean three pointers. I was not good at basketball or anything but, somehow, in a bahilawi sort of way, I used to bang them in. May be I was good and it was the acomodador that prevented me from improving my game.

As you can see, I have been reading The Zahir

That was freshman year. Sophomore year we start talking. We would be waiting in front of the back entrance of B ½ for the teacher to arrive and I would tell her how nice it would be to jump. I still flirt with those kinds of thoughts. Last night, I dreamt that I had shot myself in the head and I was walking around, hole and all.

The difference between then and now-Betty is not around and I cannot tell her about it.

Man I miss her!

Wait! This is not the end. But I want it to come out right; you know, the perfect tribute to a friendship that has spanned seven years.

I am feeling sleepy

To be continued…

and this …

I am saying, whatever happened to buhe My first holiday away from home.  I was expecting at least to hear a jiraf. Chifera yele min yele. Mulmul  yihew beayne endezore kere  

The plan is to go to our neighbors –who are reputed to have, though I am yet to see her, “the” daughter –and say hoya hoye. May be they would take pity on us in more ways than mulmul.

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yeah in the end  that is what he said.” what do I know, I was just talking… don’t take what I said and let go of what you believe in.”  Was I taking it all in or was I only taking what I believe is helpful for me at this moment at least?I didn’t need to ask my self this, so I replied ” … Don’t worry I only take what I need and the rest I put it for later if I need to consider it.”  The truth is for the most part he is right

… seriously I hate that he is always right in so many ways. Dr. Rappleye would have loved to have him as a student… because he thinks far ahead of people and he sees the bigger picture in almost every situation; as Dr. Rappleye put it for me once…( This is not a quote)..If you take people out into the jungle, most of them would tell you that they saw a tree but they will not mention that they saw a forest…but “he” is one of those few people who will say he saw a forest, now that I think about it  you both are one of those few as well…

Living away from my best friends has been driving me crazy for a long time, but now I think just like Tiye told me once, Tesfa sikort tekebelkut. But what Sammiye has said will always tie us in one way or the other… people we meet from now on are not going to be our friends, they are just going to be acquaintances. This was what I was discussing with “him,” I was telling him that I was afraid of making new friends because I felt like I am going to forget my real  friends… “ok that didnot come out right.”I say to myself;  and he proves me right by saying “ uuuu  ” … ok may be I babble too much when I sometimes talk to “him.”   I plan to say something and it comes out totally wrong… the truth is I donot want to make new friends, I want to be myself around people:  if they accept me then eseyew, if not then their loss.  He says ” you are away from your best friends now, you cannot have that friendship, you just make new friends because all of you in your own ways will make a life for yourselves and you just get lost…” I guess I was mad at him at this point because I wanted to cry and  he must have sensed that so he said ” What do I know…”

For most people what he is saying is true, but not for us, it is something that I know and hope for as well. We are friends tied by the bonds of love, brotherhood and sisterhood, we are actually blood tight…one may be across the Atlantic, the other in Europe, the other in the highlands of that beautiful land in the horn of Africa, the other in the low lands of the horn of Africa ….the list goes on,. We have been through a lot; we have touched  each other’s lives in so many ways and most of all we understand each other even without spoken words; we understand each other’s needs even in silence, and that just doesnot come by over night. But it also didnot come by a lot of effort, it was something natural that just took place… other people donot get it and to be honest I donot care if they do or donot. But I want “him” to get it and hopefully with GOD’s help” he” will.

So that is why I would rather channel all the energy I have in keeping you all in my life than make new friends wherever I go, I donot want to be like “Fugitive,” the lion trying to get accepted by ” Brutus,” the pride alpha male.

This doesnot mean that I will be a loner here because I have become friends with the most amazing people: Stef is one of them, I love her dearly and ” he” is also another one.  

But it also means that I will keep you all in my heart wherever I go, because when loneliness strikes; when things get tuff; and when the rest of the world doesnot give me time, you are the ones I run to, you all have been my safest place to  hide, for this and many more reasons I love you all and thank you for being you.

ciao

‘

I wish they had ghosts that would haunt their owners like: ” I serve you for Lord knows how many years…how could you do me like that?…”

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I know that the quality of the picture is ghastly ;  but,let us face it –  so is the future of its subject.

In a migb bet I saw a person order food for an “ebid” and make eat it . Some (I) -  though a potential member of the club- did not even dare take  a decent look at the poor fellow and others (a waiter) roughed him up a  bit.

The Good Samaritan sort of  restored my faith in humanity (myself).

And I was  made to remember the verse ” …bayenewim gize dem gibat yelelew….atkuren enkua endanayew fitachinin sewerinibet…”

Sometime ago, we, at andthree were contemplating the possibility of  a Mulatu-DMX joint.

A snippet was leaked a while back from the collabo album distant relatives.

Here is as we enter  a.k.a  afrobeat and has a sample of yegele tizita:

Hope Mulatu got paid for it. I know Nas is going through  baby momma’s drama but Mulatu, get your money man!

And other favorites:

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Google Chrome rocks! I am working on a connection that IE failed to detect. So ,biochemically speaking, chrome has got  a higher affinity for internet connection.

Ten years ago- matric weta . My bro and sis take my bro and I shopping and get me this: 

On this watch, I have lived, loved and …loved again…

On the real though, then I was tripping on which department to join and what kind of teachers I was going to meet. Ten years later, I am the teacher taking a picture of his watch on the office desk and parents are happily sending their kids to be edified by truly yours.

You gotta love it

If only they knew! They would have read the riot act to the university.

What I want all parents to know is that their kids are in good hands. And I am doing the best I can. I am doing what I can. I am doing.

Many successful football coaches stank as players. So fret not!

It’s weird, celebrating a watch’s anniversary; it is the one that’s keeping time after all.

Passed the “100 days in Bahir Dar” mark. Still without a stimulus package if you know what I mean.

Here’s an idea:

Emoticons usually stand for a single emotion, right? So how can we show mixed emotions and connotations? Granted we can line ’em up. But I think I have got a much better idea.

So here is the idea

The idea is…

Let’s use forward slashes.

Examples: 

/   = dinigate yazele desta

/    = tiyake yazele asteyayet

/   = kifatin yazele techemari kifat

/

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