Sharing my experience of back home

[Haatu]

xabad;932869 wrote:

NFD is ahead of the NW in every way. There is a real government plus law and order there.

In some things yes, in other things no.

[Homunculus]

Bump, we are waiting for the rest of your experience back in the old country.

[D.O.C]

Where is the evidence?

[OdaySomali]

This is going to be a short one, a teaser.

 

At Home in Tooray City

 

Burco appeared to have a very high number of mosques. Most of the mosques are very small neighbourhood mosques the size of an average house. But this very very convenient. It means that you can wake up early in morning for Farj, roll out of bed and do weyso/wudu, and go the mosque (house) at the bottom of your street to pray and be back within 15minutes. Walahi it made prayer so much easier and, dare I say, enjoyable. I really enjoyed praying in the mosques of Burco. They were clean, had great locations and I enjoyed the messages of the imams - who it seemed, have the attentive ear of many followers. The mosques had a sense of purity, peacefulness and simplicity about them in that they did not appear to have been materialised with excessive decorations and glistening interior decor. Instead, they were quiet places where you could relish in your prayer.

 

I may have been a "qurbojoog" and have not looked like or dressed like the "locals", but I never got that message or feeling from anyone. Nobody looked at me twice, said anything asked me anything. I think as returnee qurbojoogs we go back with a very defensive mentality. And this is precisely because there is such a disparity between our perception of the place and the reality. We go back with a very defensive mentality, prepared to be hassled, to be shouted at and namecalled (shouts of dhaqan-celis), to be questioned about our accent, to be asked what out clan (sub-clan) is and be hassled, attacked or discriminated for it. Non of that is a reality. As I sat there with everyone else, having done my wudu and waiting for the prayer to start, it was in a strange and unexpected way, quite an emotional experience. I felt very comfortable, very much at ease and very much at home. That was the case as I walked through the neighbourhoods - not knowing where I was - through the streets, allyways and side-streets, as I walked through the markets, sat in internet-cafes, sat in the busses - I was not, not once, in any way, hassled or attacked, or discrimitated, or questioned. I was merrily waltzing along, with fanny-pack, cap and bottle of mineral water in-hand. I got a few 'looks' but that is all they were. You can say that I had an epiphany of sorts. I felt like I was in my homeland, albeit impoverished and underdeveloped, and I was welcome and like inayna cidina iga xigin.

 

One thing that I did notice about Burco, in the mosques, the shops, the streets, was all the tooray/ablay's being carried. I was sat there in a mosque and almost everyone in my sight had a tooray the size of small swords hanging from their trousers. Hence I named the city, tooray city.

[OdaySomali]

I was just reading through this thread and I wondered if any member of SOL has recently gone back to the homeland? If so, I would love to hear about their experience.

 

[galbeedi]

Oday, thanks for sharing. How come I just saw this thread today?. , I saw your Dubai stopover but nothing else until now. I just saw your recent posts Diy Especially the last posts of your Travel from Hargeysa to Burco.

 

The life of the villages are exactly as you described. These people in the villages and the rural dwellers have the most valuable commodity in Somaliland, but , they are reduced to poor and beggars. There is no mechanism to transform their commodities, like livestock. Their meat is wasted after a day or two in the village market. We may all hate to compare to advanced countries, but it could be improved. I used to buy goat, sheep and cow meat from the countryside in small Canadian rural communities. This were small size family owned rural breeders.

 

In order to maximize their selling power, the surrounding communities held an auction every two weeks. Auction sales are final and they could take their money within days. Rather than take the few cows or goats to market and spend time. Back home a single goat sells $75 dollars. That is a lot of money for poor villager. A camel she sells about $1200 dollars. That is a series money. They need a government who can understand their potential. A government that develops plans to change their ways of life. This is the same life pattern for last hundred years.

 

In the early eighties I saw some Burcaw carry knifes, but , Ilaah baan kugu dhariye ma waaax leedahay reer burco 2014 ayey Toori masaajid la galayaan. I think you must joking, right?.

 

The Sparo That I saw in 2011, were mostly when entering a town. From Hargeisa to Borama, I saw one in Gabiley, Kalabaydh, Dilla and Borama. WE were riding in a landcruiser, and the police at check point, just glanced inside the car and waved to us without asking any money, but in some instances, they may ask the "duco: as you stated. Also, inside Hargeisa, at night I saw some random checkpoints in "shacabka", were top leaders live, the police, will stop you , greet you , glance the contents and you go. Infact , it reassured us that someone is minding the streets in the constant threat of Al-shabaab.

 

On the Villages between Bernera and Burco, you are correct. As you leave Berbera, there is one under the c" buurta sheekh", as soon as you leave the summit of Sheekh mountain , you come to Sheekh town. Except the mountain the distance is small. Also travelling from Hargeysa to Burco on the unpaved road, there was a village called " Go'a, not much villages.

 

It is true , as soon as you leave Burco to Garoowe, there is plenty of villages from Beer to Caynabo town, Oog, Yagoori and many others.

 

Is it me or I rarely see Puntlanders going home. They may go to Nairobi or Dubai. Oday Garoowe iyo Gaalkacayo miyaad gaadhaysaa.

[OdaySomali]

Galbeedi this thread is 3 years old now. I can't believe how quickly the time has gone, it feels like it was only yesterday. When did you visit the homeland? Was it recently?

[galbeedi]

Oday, it was 2011. I thought you were travelling right now. It is okay though. keep righting. It is always interesting that you notice little things the avarage Qurbajoog Isagu Tamashlaynaya ee aan u fiirsanayn noloshooda.

[OdaySomali]

The last time I wrote anything in this thread, excluding my comments today, was quite a while back nearer the time when I was travelling. But the forum has been having glitches/issues ever since the re-branding/re-launch so its possible that's why you may not have seen some of my posts in this thread before.

 

Galbeedi it was interesting to read your reflections, and you must be a fast reader to have read the whole thread already. What were the key things you learnt or took away from your visit.