My mom my pearl

It was after we got back from the gym, busy in the kitchen to fix some hot plates. My mom is, as usual, doing her magic with the food just to please my nutrition-picky nature and to make it less fatty, less carb more veggie and more vitamins and I, as I always do, was sit on the counter and chattering when I got stung by a mosquito “Weye bembiwa nekesechegne...” I told my mom and she said “...weye menabatwa…” and blindly kicked to the direction I was looking at to see the mosquito. My mother kicked the mosquito for me.

You might think it childish but it pondered me for while but I hadnt had the words to describe what I felt.

A few days back one of my post got 67 hits in two hours that was, for a no body like me, a kick off for enormous excitement. I had 5 comments, many “likes”s and many “interesting”s and felt like I got a topic that I could relate with others on. What was very fascinating about it was that I never even intended for it to get that much attention even though the topic was something that have staggered for quite time my intentions was solely to express what I felt and believe. My mind went into cycles to reorder directives that I should read and immerse myself in these topics if it is something that interests my readers but then something hit me. It was that conscious call that happens rarely yet makes you feel like you are being questioned in the witness stand and the question was about recognition: If you are thinking of recognizing others interest how about giving deserved recognition to the people that had great role in your life, recognition to good moments, recognition to the love you felt, the hate you felt, the resentment, the happy and funny moments, the “this is it” moments? I had to give my response to it which  made me decide to write about my most valuables that are close to my heart ,the ones I call my pearls of life. So I share the memes about the pearls of my life.

Pearl Number one:

The Lady you just read about at the top, my mom – Konje - is my pearl, just one of her kind.If Webster knew about her definitely the meaning of mother in the dictionary would have been replaced by her picture. She has been everything to me and I mean literally .She has been the father and the mother combined and she was so good at playing both roles that it has never felt real that I ever had a dad. It was when I was 7 years old that tough-times emerged in our life; my mother got fired/laid off from her work with no notice or compensation. Our family at that time was me, my mom and my baby sitter who actually brought her two kids who are technically my brother and sister; since my mom was the only provider of the house our whole life depended on her. She was 38, back then, who had no other experience than her 20 of being Chief Secretary at an export company and who had three children and two adults including herself to feed. At the moment looking for another work became impossible but she was not stressed or seem worried.She exhausted all her savings and we had no family to turn to.Now that I look back at it., everything seem to have a dead end but in all this, the one thing she has is a winning spirit ,she was/is always a winner who never gives up or loses hope easily. A fighter with a big heart

5 months after she lost her job she opened a beauty salon in our home, in the living room with just one hair dryer and two iron scissors.My baby sitter washes the hair and my mom does the rolling and styling and the funny thing is she had no clue on how it is done.My brother put a sign board for the salon and obviously the name was ማ የውበት ሳሎን. Her customers were a bit doubtful of her abilities but never said a word because they were all paralyzed by her incredibly nice personality and charm. She is  multi talented and creative person who dared any challenge ,one time her old friend who is my God mother told me that she used to match against men in a boxing flight wearing gloves and everything and that gives a cringe to a chicken like me who does not even have a gut to watch boxing on TV.

10 years passed like that, in which time my mom made hand crafts and made dresses for the women who come to get their hair done. Sometimes they refused to buy the dress they ordered after she spent all her energy and money. She worked at her sister’s coffee factory sorting and pulping coffee beans which she was paid so little that that disappointment nearly broke her strong heart, she prepared berbere and shiro to sale and she even bought 2 bee hives and sold the honey for some time and unluckily the bees flew away. She basically did everything that was out there to be done just to provide food in the table but all this time she managed to send me to school and give that indefinitely unconditional love. She finally won her court case with the company she worked for who had to finally pay her compensation with all the penalties due.

My mom is my hero and my best friend who still fascinates me with her high spirit and big heart and whom I could never pay back but just understand and treasure. I would not have been what I am without her even though I am not proud of what I am or feel like I have given her what she desired for me .She is a person who carried the entire burden and kept me untouched and let me live a prestigious life and after all she has done for me she still feels obligated to kick the damn mosquito for me.

I love you Konje yene enate

Ayaya America ...this is true story uncensored

‎(Teacher) After solving this problem I will give u a 10 min break...

(student)... if u don't I will break ur face

(Teacher) ...That was a good one hahahahaha

Is the teacher a knucklehead or a Nitwit ?

Deje-selam: the wikileaks of EOTC

I have been a frequent reader of Deje-selam for about 4 years now and as far as I know it has been the outlet for all the current news in the EOTC. But since the Church has lately become a house of chaos Deje-selam’s dynamics coherently and gradually changed.

One thing is true, EOTC issues are very close to the public and we get to read them on tabloids and other papers which always lack religious ethics, vocabulary, evidence and eloquence Deje-selam has fill that gap. Most times issues hit Deje-selam even before they happen which I feel has been very confusing for those individuals to believe that this isn’t someone among them or an insider who is trading them out whichever the case may be it has been a big pill to swallow not knowing the inside leak .The frustration has led them to finally decide to sue Deje-selam a blog site hosted on blogger.com and which does not have an officially known owner. For me it is like catching air. Deje-selam has become the wikileaks of the EOTC .Just like wikileaks who for the second time has released the largest military leak – the Iraq war log – Deje-selam has been exposing documents, memos and logs of individuals or groups in Church.

As the saying goes “Truth hate delays” I believe Deje-selam should continue its service and delivery no matter how difficult it is at times to only talk about dirty scams.

After all the Jews were right.....lol aye bemotkut

Walls of Jericho

Just another phone conversation with my appealingly cute humorous cousin.
It is about our common friend who is a new driver with a new car - name is kept anonymous for fear of overrated ridiculing
Me: - አናንመስ የት እንዳለ ታውቃለህ ?
My cousin: - አይ!!! እሱ እኮ አዲሱ መኪናውን ይዞ የሚሄድብት ቦታ ሲያጣ ጊዜ የሚኖርበትን apartment እንደ ኢያሪኮ ግንብ 7 ...ጊዜ ዞሮ በክላክስ ሊያፈርሰው ነው

God is my Shepherd

እግዚአብሔር እረኛዬ ነው፥ የሚያሳጣኝም የለም።

በለመለመ መስክ ያሳድረኛል፤ በዕረፍት ውኃ ዘንድ ይመራኛል።

ነፍሴን መለሳት፥ ስለ ስሙም በጽድቅ መንገድ መራኝ።

በሞት ጥላ መካከል እንኳ ብሄድ አንተ ከእኔ ጋር ነህና ክፉን አልፈራም፤ በትርህና ምርኵዝህ እነርሱ ያጸናኑኛል።

በፊቴ ገበታን አዘጋጀህልኝ በጠላቶቼ ፊት ለፊት ራሴን በዘይት ቀባህ፥ ጽዋዬም የተረፈ ነው።

ቸርነትህና ምሕረትህ በሕይወቴ ዘመን ሁሉ ይከተሉኛል፥ በእግዚአሔርም ቤት ለዘላለም እኖራለሁ።

Damn!!! Railway

Living in the US has taught me that life is not as Sleeping-beauty where you have others to do things for you. Here minute, second and milli-second matters a lot. Coming from Ethiopia where time is, as you know, not very important I would have loved to have a laid back and lazy life as I did back home. If you think about Ethiopia, we have been around for 3000 years and there isn’t really much to hurry about so if I have to do something today, I can do it or I can do it tomorrow ironically speaking I went by the clock not the time but here everything runs on due date.

Time in sync

It all started with the railway station which had its own clock which was different from the hotel clock and the bank clock and the entire rail users clock because back then the concept of time was not relative.It became a problem to be able to make it in time to pick up the guests for the hotel or the money for the bank therefore the only alternative was to sync the clocks with the railway clock which eventually became the standard. Gradually other institutes sync their time with the bank or the hotel so the only option that is left for a local-bragger with a clock is to sync his clock with the rest of the world. With the same token I place myself in the local-bragger’s shoes; I needed to sync my clock with my apartments lease office, my student loan, ,my gym subscription and the meter parking because not paying on time has its own consequence (YeQelete mezegeb), back then you would just miss the train but then again missing the train might mean you were not in time to pick up the bank notes oophs!!! So are you going to close the bank for a day or not pay the wages of your employees? Even worse your employees might strike or sue you in court for not paying them oophs!.

YeQelete mezegeb

Not being in sync with other relative clocks now is not as spontaneous as it used to be. Now it will not forget nor forgive instead it will give you time to sync your clock and just to make sure you won’t un-sync again you will take the full pleasure of paying your enemy to note down your indignity points on the YeQelete mezegeb (Credit history).It is an oxymoron like buying a lash so that I could get backlashes.YeQelete mezegeb works in a really witty way:

YeQelete mezegeb point 1

You are on your way to meet your friends – you found a great parking space on the street side right in front café your friends are at – parked in delight and run off to catch up with old conversation and laugh – engaged with a happy mood you decided to change spot and out to your car – out of the generosity the sweet police man left you a white piece of paper on your windshield – a love note that says you are fined 100 dollars for parking on a rush hour spot which just started 4 minutes ago. Sync your time and pay it or 4 weeks later that will be double still if you don’t the records will be passed to the lawmaker and you will be charged with offense.

YeQelete mezegeb point 2

You wrote a check to drop off at the lease office of your apartment – on your way to the lease office with the check on the side seat your phone ran and it is your boss - engaged in the conversation on things you should have done at work, you passed the lease office and reached you’re apt – completely absent mindedly slammed the door of your car and off to the PC to impress your boss how hard working you are – 4 days later you get a letter that say you have not paid the rent and that the fine is 15% of your rent – too bad this time it has already gone to your Qelete mezegeb so next time if you decide to change apartment – they too refer to the same mezegeb so you have to pay half your monthly rent as a deposit because you are not trust worthy neither thinks your Boss oops!.

I can go on but all I mean to say is everything and every action counts so for a person like me who finds it really hard to compartmentalize, who gets distracted by a sad story on the news or by thinking about a friend who is in need or a very hard working boss the only thing that worked for me is asking myself the question “What is that something that is mine and that has a clock which is not in sync in short what is not current?” But then again this is something that I need to ask myself again and again so that I don’t fall out of time or relative clocks. This triggers a prominent question about life and systems.

The railway was built for me, I suppose, and so is other systems in effect life will be easier but apparently these systems demands a lot a time from life that there is no time to live. So as for me dear friends I rather lay back and gossip with Wezero Debritu who is my neighbor back in Ethiopia and makes a damn good coffee.

Please note this is now way a challenge or way to define life but rhetoric way of expressing my laziness.

ያልተገበረበት ርስት አይረጋም

ሃይማኖትና ምግባር የአግዚአብሔር የወግ ዕቃዎች ናቸው።

 ምዕመናንም የአግዚአብሔር የወግ ዕቃዎች መሆናቸው የታወቀ ነው ።

ከእነዚህ ከሁለቱ ዕቃዎች ከምግባር እና ከሃይማኖት አንዱ እንኳን ቢጠፋ ምዕመናን በሀላፊነት መጠየቃቸው አይቀርም ።

ቅዱስ ጵውሎስ የአግዚአብሔር ያጠፉ አግዚአብሔር ያጠፋዋል ብሏል።

ሰው ሆይ!  

ከአግዚአብሔር ትዕዛዝ አንዷ እንኳን እንዳትፈርስብህ እና አንተ ደግሞ ከአግዚአብሔር ቤትነት የፈረስክ እንዳትሆን ተጠንቀቅ።

ጠዋት ከመኝታህ ተነስተህ ቀን በዋለክበት ውለህ ለምሳ ማታ በመሽህበት አምሽተህ ለራት የምታስበውን ያህል ለበጎ ምግባርህ እና ለእግዚአብሔር አምልኮት አስብ።

ከበጎችህ አንዲቱ ስትጠፋ እንደምታዝን ካንተም  ሃይማኖት ወይም ምግባር ሲታጣ እግዚአብሔር ያዝናልና።

ፍጡር ሁሉ የአግዚአብሔር ገንዘብ ስለሆነ በዚህ በገንዘብነቱ አዛዡ የአግዚአብሔር ነውና ለእግዚአብሔር አልታዘዝም ለማለት

የሚቻለው የለም ።

የመምለኬ አግዚአብሔር የሆነ ሁሉ አምልኮት እና ሃይማኖት የአግዚአብሔር ገንዘብ መሆኑን ይውቃል።

እንዲሁም ቸርነት ባለጠግነት ኃያልነት ፈራጅነት እነዚሀ አራቱ ነገሮት የአግዚአብሔር ገንዘቦች ስለሆኑ በቸርንቱ ያጸድቃል በባልጸግነቱ ያበለጽጋል በኃያለነቱ ሁሉን ያሽንፋል በፈራጀንቱ በእውነት ይፈረዳል ስለዚህ የአግዚአብሔር አምልኮት ፍሩት ውደዱት አመስግኑት የፈሩት እና ያመለኩት በስጋ ተጠቅመዋልና

ምንጭ፡ -  ስነምግባር