Voyage Sagas

Dejen and the ‘Abay’ Gorge (Part 2) … Chancho, Muke Turi, Fiche, and Gebre Guracha are among the drive-by small towns. These used to be pit stops for tea and bathroom breaks back in the day. There's less need for them now. We fly by them as if they don't exist. In all honesty, there isn't much to them; and there's almost nothing new. They're the same old "sprinkles of the Oromia region," I call them. Frantically established congregations along the opposite sides of the transnational highway roads. They're linear and align everything by the roadside. The crown jewel of my memory at these stops is a very underappreciated beverage called 'Lewz Shay.' Arabic speakers might guess this, but it translates to "Peanut Tea." And that's just what it is, a hot, rich, creamy peanut drink. It is one of the most warming and nourishing things I have ever had when done right. It's a shame that this isn't a commonplace drink in the city...

  Dejen and the ‘Abay’ Gorge (Part 1) "Abay mado … fila’w sir  yalèw bèré, na na gèbèré" – Anonymous So goes a timeless classic folk song. It is a warming song honoring farmers, whom Ethiopian society has an admiration-despisal perception towards. This hook grossly translates to… "Beyond the Nile underneath the reeds, is a bull in sight, farmer hurry and look." Translating the original language, Amharigna, to English is challenging as these two languages have almost no common root. Ignoring the funny outcome of this attempt, I want to emphasize one word I recently learned. 'Fila,' from my brief research, is a name for the group of tall, herbaceous, rhizomatous plants known as Cattail or Bulrush. It is a perennial plant of the Typha genus with an affinity for water that grows around water bodies like ponds, lakes, and rivers. I once saw these plants around the fringes of the Aledeghi Wildlife Reserve in Awash, Ethiopia. Maybe another time in the Nile Delta d...