4G 2023 02 28

It has been some days this time.

Passages of hours and miles.

When you work out the round about

Clock that goes with our round about world

You will find me four hours ahead.

My work time is three hours ahead,

But play time is four.

I have walked in the streets here too,

This time my streets are at sea level with

The mountains all around.

My work place is in mountains much bigger than you see here.

I have been here before and know a little.

I walk to a mall and find what is there.

Many shops, lots of people, and a few gems.

There are real gems in the jewellery shops,

They cost more than I earn in a year.

The gems that I am talking about are the odd places,

Sometimes out of the main routes and

Sometimes 'hidden in plain view'.

Last time I was here I found bonbons,

Their sign has the name spelled without capitals.

Bonbon is French for sweet.

They sell much more than sweets.

Today I had a Japanese green tea drink,

served by a Filipina,

In a cafe with a French name, to an Englishman (not in New York – ask your mom!), in Muscat.

We were all happy with the transaction (it is a fancy word for a 'deal' or a 'sale').

Yesterday and today I have been getting a little tlc on: my hair, my face, my nails. Fine tuning in readiness for the return to work at the end of this week.

You should look up the history of Oman, not so long ago it had an empire of trading from India to East Africa. It has mountains and desert, rocky sea coast and dramatic wadis. Ask Uncle Crip and Aunty Flo.

While I have been on the edge of the desert,

Dave has been to the lake.

Mystadot grows . . .

Tomorrow night I will have to go.

It is good to visit places I like and know,

In my break with Sencha Zen.

My real time, work is an adventure to do.

4G 2023 02 23

 Today I took the bus to Shiro Meda again, tomorrow (February 24^th) is the feast day for Kidane Mehret (Covenant of Mercy) celebrating the amazing Mary.

The streets were mostly full of church dressed ladies along with a few children and men. The churches were filling and houses were feasting.

I walked down a back track from the main road, behind the American Embassy, and into a public woods area and gardens. A long time ago Emperor Haile Selassie (Haile is pronounced like your 'highly') and his wife, Menen Asfaw, had a retreat there.

Now it is looked after as a gardens and public area. Four hundred metres from a nose to tail jam and I find a fresh, natural smell in my nose. Along with the foliage (leaves and stuff growing on branches!) generally and the eucalyptus specifically there was the magic of roasting coffee beans.

Two cups, one for each hand you might say! One with sugar, one without. Here, most people have a couple of heaped spoons of sugar in a coffee cup that you would know as an espresso cup.

The coffee is so good it seems a shame to lose the freshness and taste.

Looking around reminds me of the gardens at the Purlieu. Emperor

Haile Selassie and Menen Asfaw had a little more hillside than nanny and grandpa (not me, the original) so there are more terraces.

By the way, another Emperor's wife gave this city its name, Empress Taitu. If you look it up you can find the Emperor's name if you want. I have ignored him, everywhere you will see his name first, before Taitu.

He is famous but in our story she is much more important. He was a ruler, she named the city where I am. I wonder what it would have been called without her. Or, would there have been a city at all?

Hmm . . . said Pooh.

Back down the hill on the bus, a yellow and red one. Anbessa. On a normal day I would stand with no room to move. Today, no room to breathe!

A glass of water and a quiet write, all calm here now. Churches will ring out and chant through the night while most people sleep for their day tomorrow. Me too, good night.

4G 2023 02 22

Two more days until we can take a break.

I was very much hoping to come and see you and Teddy.

I checked the times and the details and could not,

Find a sensible way.

I will wait another few weeks,

Then I can come for a week,

Not just a couple of days.

Coffee is excellent, and sometimes the view matches it.

This area stretches from Entoto, across Shiro Meda to Ferensay and down towards Siddis Kilo and the main city.

Recently my friend has been trying to use up some of his food.

He likes things that he can not buy here.

So, he brings them from outside.

We have been eating sausage, chips, and beans.

A great meal for feeling good I find.

He is leaving us soon and hoping for another job in somewhere even sunnier than here. Near the sea too.

It is being the school show this week.

I saw it this afternoon.

Very musical!

Do you have any shows at your school?

Tomorrow we make a lesson for the people who work.

Those in charge will teach us how to

Do their job.

To be in charge.

First step I think is to have the respect of the people who work for you.

Next week there is a celebration of a famous victory.

This month is called Yekatit and that means 'victory'.

Do you remember I told you about the people from Italy?

In a place called Adwa the people from Italy were told to go away and not come back.

The end . . . for today.

4G 2023 02 18

 At the moment here there is a big meeting. It is an international conference but maybe the words are too big?

People who are treated as important have come to visit. The people they represent pay for them. They stay at hotels that cost lots of money. They eat food that does not grow here. They travel to meetings in cars that are not made here. The roads are closed so they do not have to be too close to the real city or the real people.

Their meetings are supposed to help the real people they never see.

So, that is my view.

I had been given warnings from the local airline about traffic delays. I decided though to go into the centre for some things because it was early and nice outside.

On the way back my bus caught the important people going to their meetings. Of course I do not mean that the important people came on the bus. No.

Ladies and gentlemen in many uniforms and vehicles, all with blue lights on top like your mom has at work. They were directing traffic across junctions and up side roads. To get back to my place we went on a trip around the city. A bit like going to see Nanna but being directed by way of Aunty Kerry's house to get there.

No photos for this story but I caught a 31 there and nearly a 55 back but I did not quite get on, so another 31 back.

4G 2023 02 15

 

It feels to me as though it is many days since

I last put fingers to keyboard.

People in the country are calm.

For those of us in school there are storms.

Work hard and try your best.

In other news . . . 

We have planted maize (corn) and other small crops.

We painted the house and upset 

The last of the bees.

We persuaded them to move from inside the walls

To high in the trees.

Much better for them and for us.

Almost the last of the rains so the soil is at its

Easiest to work. For the next few months

until the crops grow,

We will water to help them.

Our task on the next trip up for Dave

Is to work with the plumber to

Install the pump.

Properly this time because before

the people who tried to make it work

Did not do it right.

I miss watching the sun rise from the lake

Starting at four forty-five and by an hour later,

My coffee drunk, both I and the sun

Are ready for a new day. 

4G 2023 02 12

 In the sunshine it is warm, the shade makes it cool.

I think that is a metaphor, you say it;

'Meta' (nothing to do with Facebook), 'four'; metaphor.

You can check the meaning.

My first line is about 'life'.

It will be a long story to say how I mean it.

Do you remember

The people who were sad?

They are not as sad today.

Some voices have said things that were not right.

Those people were not understanding,

Not understanding what the others were saying?

It has caused some trouble

And it is close to being a big problem.

Now one of the people who was not understood

Has talked to them,

He made himself understood.

He showed them what their sadness meant.

That is background for the story today.

Yesterday I went to a place of great history.

Tiya is a World Heritage site which means

That not only do I think it is great history but experts

From around the world also think it is great history.

A millenium and more ago, that is a thousand years,

Ten centuries, around two hundred times as old as you!

People who made strong acts for their village, tribe, were remembered with carved headstones on their graves.

These were people between teenagers and under forty years

Who had defended their friends and family, or had helped in some way to make the family better.

All buried in a special place on a hilltop with beautiful views of the
area they helped.

I got to Tiya using a number of minibus taxis. These are small buses that carry passengers for money. The more passengers, the more money. Usually the minibus has around ten seats. A normal journey
with a minibus taxi has at least fifteen passengers.

Here we have good drivers and quiet roads. They usually take their trips on the same road, sometimes no more than a couple of kilometres inside the city and perhaps fifty kilometres once outside the main area.

It means they know their road, and the bumps, holes, and other hazards. So here, sober, bumpy, but arriving. Other places I have been it has not been safe to go with them.

On the way back was going to be a trip to a carved chapel, I had not worked out if it was in a cavern or a canyon! We passed the sign for it on our way to Tiya.

The day went wrong with that sign!

Now, I was also invited to a wedding in the same area.

More background:

Ferengi is a word in many languages,

It means a foreigner – not someone who is "waiting for a girl like you" – your mom can explain.

It is used as a term to describe people like us when we go to those countries.

I find it interesting that they believe it is okay for them to talk like that,

Yet when we use similar words in our country about them they decide it is not nice.

There is a word and your mom can expain if she thinks you are ready.

When you smile and joke with someone like that and 'own' their word it means we can all be people.

Not "them and us".

I went on a side track didn't I?

In some places people have seen ferengi on a screen,

Perhaps not in their village.

Now, we stopped at Muti

To take the side road to the wedding and chapel.

It became difficult when some people thought

It fun to tease and try to trick the ferengi.

When that happens it is best to walk away.

We did.

We drank coffee, very good coffee.

Fifteen or so young boys from five to teenage stood

All around us.

It is a shame when one or two bad people influence

Young people.

Try to be wise about that, you must listen

But sometimes you must decide for yourself what is good advice.

Later we found that the information about the chapel was wrong.

The family who we visited for the wedding told us.

We missed our chance to visit.

Sometimes people will mislead you so that they get something they want.

Yesterday, for me, was like that.

It is like that in the country with the sad people, I hope that they learn peace and truth from their lessons.

Return to the city was another adventure.

Very quickly (because I have used some words that needed explaining and you have read this far):

Horse drawn trap (small cart with two wheels and a bench seat), camels (we saw these, we did not ride them, ask your mom, she has ridden one), minibus, bus (yes a full size bus like you see, one of those with one floor, still carrying many more people than seats though!).

Up to the raised railway, watching the convoy of army trucks pass below, searched by the soldiers before boarding the train,a sort of metro train and we went on the one section that goes underground so I should claim it as another form of transport.

Up the stairs from the underground station, another, final minibus taxi, I think the tenth of the day, now close enough for me to walk to where I stay.

Today those army trucks have closed the roads,

If we had stayed overnight with the family,

We would not be allowed to our places in the city.

When people do bad things,

Somebody must act.

When those in charge do bad things

It gets complicated.

You know when somebody tells you off?

For something that you did not do?

You know how sad that makes you feel?

Today it is peaceful, I hope those in charge have done the right things for it to stay that way.

4G 2023 02 07

 

Here, there is another calendar.

There is another way of telling the time.

I can tell you what they are but

When you read it they will have changed.

Today is the 30^th day of Tir which is the 5^th month of the year 2015. It is approaching 1 o'clock.

The hours are really easy.

I will show you but not now.

We are all excited about your new Teddy.

My students asked yesterday and looked at the pictures of you both.

I went on another adventure today.

To an area called Piassa. 

The word looks and sounds a bit like pizza doesn't it?

It is from Italian, like pizza, and means a square.

You might think it odd to have a place name in Italian here when this is not Italy.

Many years ago Italian people came here and they built some things.

The buildings they made are old now and most of the Italian people have gone but the place name,

remains.

Many people here are upset at the moment.

They are being told their church is breaking.

Some people want to do their things differently.

It would mean two parts of the church.

The many people of the old church are so sad they wear black.

Black because they are in mourning.

Breaking their church is like a death.

I hope they learn to smile again soon.

When people are sad, or upset, in their religion

It can often mean big trouble for other people.

I came back to have dinner. Rice and vegetables.

Enjoy yours too.