A Life of Too Many Ups & Downs

pgs. 7 & 8

On the downside, I’m wildly behind on this project. On the upside, I have gotten a lot better at project planning. Mostly, by learning more about the agile frameworks of project and product management, especially Scrum. Scrum has an added bonus for me as an alumnus of Pepperdine Rugby’s Scrum (2nd Row and Flanker). Anyhoo, this is the last bit of the text you will get in English for awhile. Next, I will be uploading the first 18 pages of the Amharic (minus intros and such) original. When I’m able, I’ll return to interpreting the missing pages and place them on this blog/newsletter. Enjoy.

A Life of Too Many Ups & Downs

Since the house we entered was one where you could eat according to your heart’s desire, we ate till we were full, sleeping in peace we spent the night. In the morning, on the next day, Front-Commander Derso took my little brother and I to the foreigners, made clear that we had come, and they discussed a lot. We knew nothing of what they discussed. We were able to understand that the Italians were very much looking at us with their evil eyes. Whilst, on our side, the question presented was “may we be given a pass to go to Gayint?”, as I made it clear above, after much discussion, their decision, however, was for us to make the ground surrounding Dabat suitable for cultivation for fifteen days, to gather the stones found upon it, with thousands of workers grazing and gathering. It was decided and told to us, that my little brother and I would go to this place and shekel. Even though Front-Commander Derso looked like he sorrowed over the situation, I didn’t think there would be a better solution to be found. From our foundation, since we did not know work, and since on top of this the famine that had reached us had tremendously harmed our bodies, all the people who saw us sorrowed. Nevertheless, in the morning on the next day, people took us to the place we would be shekeling, and gave us over. The situation did not put us in our feelings. Matter-of-fact, we counted the stones we were grazing for shekels to be like soccer, because everyday big ol’ bread, the likes of which we had never seen, was given to us. Our famished bodies speedily began becoming vibrant. At night, when we would go home, we began being incapable of eating sustaining pleasurable food. Since our mother didn’t understand the situation correctly, from her heart she sorrowed and was anxious.

We children who were invited to go to Rome by the Italian ruler, after being made lowly in the city of Dabat where we were appointed and awarded and where we used to have recreation, were given permission to pass over to Gayint after spending fifteen days shekeling. The day after we got permission, we were placed on top of a big truck flanked by spearchuckers and a tank, as we continued our journey to Gwender. After spending the day journeying, we arrived in Gwender around 8 p.m. When we saw that the city appeared to have been burned down by a blaze from an electric light, we felt great fear and terror. We got down from the car and began journeying on foot to search for and find kin. When we reached the public space, and its surrounding, it appeared to us as if we were standing in the same one burnt ground. After a lot of fear and anxiety, we found an address we were looking for in the cliff and it’s surrounding. Without staying long in Gwender, passengering in the big truck, we made it to Mt. Tabor. Then, we entered Gate-Commander Admasu Biru’s enclosure and spent the night. Since we began to find a multitude of our mother’s kinfolk, our troubles and fears came to lessen. It appeared that we forgot the famine country we were just in, as we got invited all over the place in Mt. Tabor. Without staying there for long, we continued our journey and made it to Wind Exit. After we rested a little in this city, we journeyed way out to a village called Yedero, where my mother’s brother Left-Commander Wendawk Tedla’s house could be found. Next, we went to Bethlehem and began living.

Since Bethlehem was Feeder Lema’s country, we found a lot of kin in the surrounding area. Our way of life became successful, especially, since we found my mother’s cousins called Front-Commander Beyene Nigusé, Front-Commander Zeleqe Anberbir, and Left-Commander Wendawk Tedla, and her younger brother, and their collaboration did not leave us. As soon as we reached Bethlehem, my mother’s brothers gave her three pits of barley, that had been there for many years, out of their Lower Gayint property annuities. To straighten this grain, searching for a road, many beast of burden holding merchants came from Isté, agreeing to render the pits, so we showed up, and when the pits were opened, the barley was so marred that it appeared to us that the exiting smell would be followed by elevated disease. We sold those marred pits of barley, all together, for 16 Maria Theresa silver coins, got a great profit, and journeyed to Bethlehem.