From:      Robel
To:          Sefanit
Subject:  Min feredebign ibakachihu!

Letewdedshiw ihite weyzerit Sefanit, selam, tenayistilign, yene imebet! Keteleyayenibet gizena se'at jemiro … yeah, you know how that goes … So, word around town is that the editors are fire-spitting evil-doers who brainwashed us into writing for these life diary things … (note to editors: that was said with all due respect and admiration, so please don't send your people to shoot me "where it don't grow back").

Yilukunis, bizu salQebatir, I'd better introduce myself, for formality's sake. My parents named me Robel. They claim it's biblical and means, "for God so heard my prayers and gave me a son." I don't quite know how one word could mean all that, but I suppose I have no reason to distrust them.

Betimihirtu akwaya, I am a bitter sophomore at a college that has the aura and congeniality of a mental institution, in a city where you consider yourself extremely lucky if you get mugged and all you lost was your arm and teeth on your lower jaw. Since this issue of SELEDA is about Science and Technology, I suppose I have to admit that I casually fit into that clique of people who're affectionately referred to as "techies." Gin, behig amlak, don't hold that against me. I am actually one of the few people minoring in both math and art … wannaw neger, my major is what they call Digital Media Design, which means I make a career of typing away on the Kulf-Tawla and clicking on the AyiT creating digital art (web design, print layout, animations, special effects, wezete…).

Anyway, I left Ethiopia only about two years ago, so yes, I'm fresh meat on this side of the Atlantic. But no, I never really experienced any of the culture shock or yeQuanQua siKay that so many speak of. The real siKay – and the one that is truly under-rated – is trying to juggle jobs and schoolwork, and still manage to have an ounce of life in you. No, actually, I retract that statement. The REAL siKay is trying to understand that damned Computer Science professor … Someone should have told me that Chinese was a prerequisite for the class. Data structure this, algorithm that, compile wedezih, debug wedezia … wey mekera! Demmo isum alans bilo iko, they just felt obliged to hire the guy with the thickest and least discernable accent.

Bicha, yiQribish yene imebet, technology can sometimes be like ye'ayiT weTmed … once you get caught, it's going to be a damn painful and bloody experience getting out of it. So you end up expiring in it … Oh, that was unnecessarily morbid, wasn't it?

You know, Miss Sefanit, the amusing thing right now for me is the mere fact that I have a CS midterm in 5 hours and 14 minutes (and counting) … and yet, here I am, "taking a much-deserved break" ranting and raving on IRC and ICQ while trying to put coherent thoughts into this short little entry (well, so far, coherent it is NOT).

I'm escaping a technology/science-related topic by indulging myself into manifestations of the same "entity"! Mellaw y'abesha hizb seems to be hooking up through the flimsy servers of ethio.com.

Damn it! I suppose I should cut it short here, because I'm running low on thought and creativity. (Editors read: Too bad, a page and a half seem to be unattainable at 4:53 am). And the reading material for that midterm keeps on giving me this look … very intimidating, I must say. I guess I'll have to succumb to its prowess and delve back into miserable academics again.

So, this said, I'll sign off and leave you to yelam-beret my teret-teret.

Robel

Slowly and softly "as in the morning sunrise," I approach this daunting task of putting coherent thoughts about a topic that is more foreign than is familiar. From all the archived diaries I have been exploring (in hopes of some guidance / inspiration), it seems as if the SELEDA editors with their whips and chains (what an image) are characters much feared by the brainwashed, tricked and be gulbet yetegededu past-diarists. So I hold my breath, pray to all the tabots I kind of remember, as I get ready to send my thoughts through this optic line! Be sime ab we weld we menfes kedus amen!

And slowly, Ato Robel, I approach to yelam beret yanten teret.

A little formal history from this side, as well? My name is Sefanit (woman of power/upon the throne – true? Can't say objectively), but my family calls me Munit (small, fragile, sweet – true? same as above). I would like to think I fall somewhere in between.

I've been out of Ethiopia for the past eight years…almost half my life, a little less, and for the past eight years, I have been truly blessed to have the opportunity to live in a couple of countries due to my mother's occupation and educational opportunities, becoming a Global-Ethiopian-Citizen (and to come to terms with this title was a struggle!) So, here I am today writing from the bitter coldness of northern Massachusetts that my two-seasons, zenab-wey-tsehay-only, moderate-weather loving self can't quite handle, in my first year in college and third year in the States.

I, too, am caught in the frenzy of the 'mid-term-blues.' They say those that suffer together are elevated to a higher level of intimacy and consciousness. No offense, but I'd rather rise to such levels through other means than three papers and an exam. So, instead, I write a life diary.

Well, Mr."Techie" (struggling to stay on topic!), I must confess. Technology and I have had quite a love-hate relationship...with more of the ha … never mind. (In college, I am inclined towards the medical-anthro, international relations and the arts. Need I say more?) I have to admit my fear of this unknown, mysterious entity called the Internet and how all the IRC's / ICQ's and other acronyms, I can't pretend to know, work. (For example, how did SELEDA staff find me at all my multiple addresses?) [staff reply: We mobilized the New England division of our cyber joro-Tebee seraweet. The operation took a whole NINE seconds.] I couldn't even hide! At the same time, as I fear it, I am utterly amazed at the potential the Internet has shown as a means to network amongst so many Ethiopian minds/lives of all wakes and of various backgrounds/ ages / experiences / knowledge. This science and technology business (Igzihare yebarkew!) is allowing for things I never dreamt possible to happen. Berochen kefetfet, bergedged eyarege new!

Quick examples I can give of such 'impossible-dreams' that have become realities are the creation of such forums as PAHA, People-to-People, Ethiopian Students Association (ESA) and of course, can't forget that SELEDA thing! [unforgettable editors reply: we just about snapped our whip, there!] Prior to the introduction of other 'Ethio-techies', much of my knowledge of Ethiopia in cyberspace was limited to Ethio.com (and the oh-so-many that spent hours upon hours of entertaining / incoherent / frustrating / inspiring dialogues about everything and nothing) and the Addis Tribune. Although I had attempted to join in the dialogues of Ethio.com chitchat, I could never keep up with the speed of their type-send buzz and whirr. So, for the slower ones like myself, the forums, such as, the ESA provided, were ideal.

I could slowly compose my thoughts / worries / joys / pains and hopes about being an Ethiopian 'singing my song in a strange land' and in isolation, and I could share it with many others that thought along the same lines as I did (ego?), that were also fervently dreaming about a better day in Ethiopia and taking an active role in making this dream a reality. Not only was there support, there was also much inspiration. As a CHuCHe, a young one, I was glad to have many others to look up to and see striving for / achieving wonderful dreams of giving-back to the land and people that have given so much! It has made a difference in shaping my future. I could finally scream for joy, "I AM NOT ALONE!" And what a glorious feeling that was, to come out of isolation.

Of course that meant that I had to take a crash course on TIME MANAGEMENT and learn, the very hard way, that I can't spend all my waking hours writing/thinking/dreaming about future projects with the Ethiopian students. I also had to survive college…the present. After all, I didn't care much for being disowned by mother for failing my first term! But it was in cyberspace, with all those hundreds of screen names (couldn't even tell if they were men or women…they were merely brilliant minds forging equal grounds, working "hand in hand" without knowing what the other looked like etc.) that I have met wonderful people such as you (oh, oh…is that…gasp…your head inflating? Waa! Endayfeneda!), and many more that I can see myself working with for years to come…ideally and hopefully!

There is nothing as powerful as the power of NETWORK! So despite my fear of it, here I am daring these techno-waters. But I have to leave you as I might have to re-engage in another crash course on time management…and that I can't afford…unless…well, lottery kalashenefku (in the next coming days). And as I don't see that happening, I say goodbye…and hope that your books megelametun akomewal. Yenae metsehafetoch selamawi self liwetu menem alkerachewem! Let me go and maintain order.

Engdih endegena eskenegenagn deres,

Take care,

S-M