Looking for old friends

[Kool_Kat]

WLC Grant...I doubt you'll find someone you know here on SOL...But you never know...May be the sons and daughters of those you know...

Anyway good luck...

 

Originally posted by king_450:

Most of the ppl in here are those who born in the late 80's.

Try late 70's and early 80's...

[Grant]

Originally posted by Dhulqarnayn -alSumaale:

Interesting story Mr Grant, during the 50s,60s Osmanya was used in Somalia to print news papers for the public and even letters for government officials, did you ever teach this script to your students? and do you have any examples of old newspapers and school books written with this script?

 

Osmanya was adopted under the Barre administration in the early Seventies. Hersi Magan developed one of several scripts used before Osmanya. It used H overstruck with / for X and ' for C. It did not use doubled vowels, but most of the rest was the same. I have a book of short poems somewhere......

 

We used standard Dick and Jane series East African books in my classes, standard English. My afSomali was, and remains, horrible.

[Libaax-Sankataabte]

^^Grant, The "Latin Script" was adopted by Barre. Osmania was invented in the 1920's and was never adopted.

 

Please find the pictures and post them here. You are sitting on gold here.

[hodman]

wlc to sol intriguing stuff ur talking about

[Malika]

Originally posted by Jacaylbaro:

I think 1966-67 was when my father was born ,,,

That makes your father about 41,you must still be in your teens then Jacaylbaro..I wouldnt have thought..hmm

 

Grant,welcome to SOL,it will be much appreciated to us,if you share your experiences of living,working in Somalia in the late 60's.

[Grant]

Originally posted by Libaax-Sankataabte:

[QB] ^^Grant, The "Latin Script" was adopted by Barre. Osmania was invented in the 1920's and was never adopted.

/QB]

I did some checking and it appears I did get confused. However, the "Latin Script" used today is not the one used before 1969, and the changes are the ones I mentioned. I do wish I had saved some old Dalkas.

 

I will look for the pictures.

[N.O.R.F]

Grant, welcome to SOL. I think you have found the right place to share your experiences of a time most of us (if not all of us) did not experience.

 

Do please indulge us with whatever you can of your experiences if and when time permits.

 

Originally posted by Libaax-Sankataabte:

Please find the pictures and post them here. You are sitting on gold here.

I can see you rubbing your hands gleefully ya LST

 

Dabshid:

 

He told a story of how people couldnt believe and got upset with you guys after you showed a flim on the Apollo Moon Landing.

LooooL

[rudy-Diiriye]

oh! my uncle told me that he use to work at Jilib

project (River juba), hes in heaven now, so no need to say his name.

 

Grant, whats your take on the current policy of usa towards somali and african as whole?? i think

we need more ppl like u than soldiers and facist.

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Originally posted by Dhubad:

^Welcome on board M Grant. I think the majority of SOL users are a bit young but nevertheless, if you throw some names,I am sure there will be someone who will help you.

 

People like

Miskin Macruuf might know you old friends

Xaa ii yareynee, igaarka? Faceyga aniga Xaawo Taako, dhalinyaradii SYL iyo dadkii ka qeyb qaatay dhacdadii Dhagaxtuur ayee ahaayeen.

[Jacaylbaro]

Grant, since you said you lived in hargeisa, say some names from Hargeisa ,,, i live there and i might know some old folks here

[NGONGE]

As you can see Grant, nobody here knows the people you're asking about! Or at least if they do, not many are quick to ask their old aunts and uncles about the time of their youth. All they're interested in are stories of Somalia in those years and that time!

 

This is not a criticism of the people here. It's just human nature really. My advice to you is to give the people what they want. Somalis are an emotional people (I'm intentionally generalising here). They want to hear good stories with happy endings; they love to naval gaze and reminisce about bygone times.

 

Write up a long flowery and positive article about your time there and they'll all fall over themselves to find your lost comrades. If you include old photos and a contact e-mail I'd wager that you'd find your friends (or stories about them) within weeks, if not days.

 

Ps

Don't forget to post the same article in all major Somali websites (but Somalia Online, along with yourself, will own the copyright of course).

 

Good luck.

[Grant]

Jacaylbaro,

 

I only slept in Hargeisa two nights and did not get to know anyone there. Here are two posts from Snet describing my first few days in Somalia:

 

http://www.somalinet.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=48488&p=658569&hilit=#p658569

 

http://www.somalinet.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=48582&p=660078&hilit=#p660078

[Jacaylbaro]

My group had been preceeded by one other. One of the girls from this group had married a Somali, and her aqal was pointed out to us. It was said that she had red hair and that that was very attractive to Somali men, but we never saw her. I had rocks thrown at me in the Qaat market, but luckily was saved by two police officers, who were Somalis, but seemed very British.

The people in the North, almost uniformly, wore clothing that looked like it had once been white. It was a non-descript color, a light sort of brownish gray. I don't remember any color in Hargeisa except this, and the stark white of white wash on the buildings.

The land south and east of Hargeisa soon becomes quite flat. There is no horizon and very little to use for landmarks. I never saw a road or a rut, rarely even a track where another vehicle had gone before. On this trip, even our local drivers got lost twice and had to backtrack.

 

In the North, volunteers traveled amost exclusively on the tops of loads on "trade trucks", good-sized Mercedes lorries that carried goods to the various towns. On this trip we had at least two such trucks, at least one of which was empty this trip, plus we were joined by several police officers in a Land Rover. Including drivers and quides and two geeljiire who had herds at Tallex that first night, I think there were a total of about 28 people in the group.

[me]

^^Didn't like the report?

[Jacaylbaro]

A herd of about 40 horses and another herd of about 12 camels came in to water while we were in Tallex. I made a total *** of myself by jumping on one of the horses to proove my cowboy background and promptly got shoved off and to the ground by the owner

hahahahaha

 

 

Thanks for posting this Grant ........ nice reading indeed.