Heroes & mavericks are alive and well in Debre Sina

Once upon a time, an enormous meteor fell from the sky and landed, smack, in the middle of a village. When the villagers returned from early morning mass, they were horrified to find this balegé ingeda occupying the space that had always been, since time immemorial, reserved for their cherished weekly market. Farmers did not know what to do with their grain; weavers did not know what to do with their gabis and netelas; merchants did not know what to do with their bars of salt; blacksmiths did not know what to do with their sickles; potters did not know what to do with their urns and jars; beekeepers did not know what to do with their raw honey; young folks did not know where to meTebabes.

The next day, octogenarian warriors removed their dusty swords and shields from their walls, saddled their horses and charged the meteor with aplomb. Several hours later, their children and grandchildren buried the old folks with great fanfare and shot their crippled horses, but the meteor did not budge.

Two weeks later, civic leaders ordered the entire community to braid tough strips of hide into a gigantic rope. Then, they looped the rope around the meteor and hitched it to all 99 of the village beasts. Numerous oxen and mules bled from the whiplashing they received, but the meteor did not budge.

A month later, religious leaders asked parishioners to attend mass daily and to abstain from food for an entire week. The entire village complied, but the meteor did not budge.

Soon, the villagers gave up on the idea of the marketplace. But their doro wat's and shiros did not taste the same without any salt; their clothes turned into rags; the dull blades on their sickles bent but did not cut the grain stalks; the local tavern shut its doors, unable to brew tej or tella in their broken urns.

Many began to abandon the village.

One evening, a group of bored teenagers decided to scale the meteor. They were surprised and excited to find a large crater in the summit. A boy and a girl, known throughout the county for their voices, suddenly broke into song and dance. Soon the rest of the group joined them as they all sang at the top of their lungs and danced until they fell.

Hundreds of robins that had already begun to nest in crevices along the crater awoke the teenagers the next morning. As the young people climbed off the meteor, resigned to their parents' imminent wrath, they were surprised to find the entire village assembled below. A young stranger in a suit, already being eyed by the sefer koredoch had encircled the meteor with some cable. He ordered villagers to move back about a thousand meters and pressed on a lever. Within seconds, the meteor exploded and crumbled into fragments. The stranger stayed and married the sauciest chick in the village. They all lived happily ever after.

April 2001 is the Heroes & Mavericks Issue.If you are or know of people that charge, drag, pray, fast, sing, dance or dynamite to battle despair or improve our lot, we need your stories.

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