You are next ;)

They say “A blogger’s life is an open book”. Or atleast they should! Not only is a blogger’s life an open book, but the life of anybody who came across a blogger would be an open book the minute the blogger hits the Almighty “Publish” button. We need them posts, and we are ready to sacrifice man or dog to get them.

This morning, for example, i was walking down the street to my office. It was a beautiful weather, warm yet windy, and the birds were singing and the bees were chripping (or whatever it is bees do) although i really don’t think there were many bees around. This being one of those neighbourhoods that has “tiid” trees lined up outside every “giBi”, and an actual gardner to take care of them, it’s prefered by all to the big street with the noises and “yemekina chis” on it. Stray dogs, especially, frequent it. As do children going to school!! So it’s not exactly new, although no less intriguing (this hostility between kids and dogs), observing one chasing or being chased by the other with either a stone or the baring of the fangs. And both were taking place, on the otherwise peaceful street, this morning.

A kid of about 8, wearing his bright colored uniform and carrying a school bag bigger than his tiny person (as is always the unfortunate case with these elementary school kids which, according to my little bro Babi, is a ploy to avoid punishment by those who don’t know their daily programs meaning which text book to bring to class. For me, it’s a preview to the kind of life they were brought into and are probably feeling the burden of on their young shoulder already) was throwing stones at a dog. A little down the street, three other dogs were chasing a lonely brute with one short leg, baring their fangs. The funny thing was, the minute the child (rebuked by the sister to leave the poor creature alone) had dropped the stone and went his way, the dog that’s been trying to hide behind a bush with its tail between its legs run out feverishly and joined the three chasers. Snarling and making all sorts of noises a determined dog does. A minute later & the stranger dog having fled the premises with as much speed as its shorter leg allowed, the three strays decided to go back to their spot & chill. And who should proceed them jumping and making victorious noises that no doubt meant “yeTabatu! Lik asgebanew aydel?” in dogish?! This very dog that has been busy trying to save it’s hide from a stone earlier & would have been licking a wound if it wasn’t for the sister!!!

I thought that was comic, almost humanly so!. (I’ve also thought this must be why men are usually referred to as “dogs”, they certainly behave that way when they find some poor stranger on whom to gang up. But that’s something I & I keep to ourselves ;)). So anywho.. the subject that brought the dog vs. kid story is a letter I’m going to share with you this fine day (a little warmer than earlier, but still fabulous). If your name happens to be Chris and you happen to be married to me, it might be a good idea to skip this part :-).

Now, it’s no secret this sister has been missing being kissed these past few days. Atleast it won’t be a secret any longer. And when your husband lives at the other end of the globe and you missed kissing badly, there is only one of two things you can do. You can go look for somebody you can kiss and run, or you can go look into old bags for memories of old flames to make you feel better about your not-getting-kissed-any-time-soon self. The sister chose the later! Upon putting which theory to action she came across a letter written almost a decade ago by an old flame. Hope you’ll enjoy reading it as much as I did and (still fogged as to why I keep switching between 1st & 3rd person singular to refer to myself) you would understand why I didn’t cut it to pieces and fed it to the fire place I don’t own, in a very Ethiopian female to letters of old flames fashion, when done. The writer was/is an Addis-born, “yeSengatera lij” nontheless, young man of about 29 who was in Hayiq (Wollo) “enjera filega” at the time. Double click image for a bigger, clearer, version!