To: HG
From: SK
Subject: Stuff...

Dear HG:

I read your last entry with a lot of interest and thought you were good in the conversation aspect of it. Perhaps it further proves that women are better conversationalists [like we didn't know this already!]. I usually have a shorter attention span even while writing, especially for my age [clue: was eligible for a driving license in ET when the worst thing to be called by then was a post-red terror Jolly Jack]. This shortness in attention span, as you very well know, is a common trait among ETs who hang out a lot at the local souq and who seem to have a full cheek and glossy eyes in most afternoons after nibbling on that thing; therefore I am not worried much. The ability to laugh at trivial things compensates for it.

HG, I am relieved that you finally had the bravery to address me with a respectable qulmiCha sim. Samicho rhymes with baricho; a rather occasional nick-name my sisters had used to describe me to downplay my good looks but highlight my sun-burnt complexion. Hey, I didn't mind it then and still love it when they call me with that name. Somehow, I sense their affection when they use that name. Funny though, your entry reminded me that.

Changing gears, I am glad you were able to see that I was very serious about the issue of AIDS/HIV and need for testing both for the women and the men. One needs to see the extremes in reactions of people who get tested to really appreciate how this thing has a firm grip in people's minds these days. Last time I was there (beginning of the year), I had dropped by the family clinic to chat with the workers there when a huge ululation was heard behind the closed doors where my father was giving the good news of a NEGATIVE result to a lady aspiring to go to Saudi to chase the "good life". The way my father narrated it later (not withstanding patient-doctor confidentiality?you notice the mistir thing here again?) was of course exaggerated with stuff like this: "doctor, ijwo ged alew; irswo ga temermiro POSITIVE yehone yelem. Kehonum inde Magic Johnson kilo inquan ayqensum yibalal." My father likes mild exaggeration and loves the praise from his patients. I sort of envy him for that. Coming back to the test issue, however, I was amazed by the larger proportion of women taking the test. How about the men?

Later I sat down with the lab technician (a relative of mine also) who does all these Elisa test and stuff. I was in the mood of learning and was watching closely how the dude was keeping and handling blood samples safely. And how a positive result has to be confirmed with another test that takes days and stuff?..From the corner of my eyes, I could see our 20+ year old refrigerator used for storing samples (used to be in a kitchen when I was growing up) and I am thinking?.. surrounded by these things??, how come I did not go to Medical school and also ?.. this guy is my relative but he has never even bought me coffee each time I visit home? Answer to question 2 was provided by my mom who said the dude loves money like life itself?. Ok?back to Medical school and why I did not go there story?..Long story?my grades were OK?may be good enough to have a wefram zemed help me out a little bit (ye-adebabay misTir?); but if you must know it is just my father patients who never made it for even a second check-up (kept on dying) that made me give up on medicine in Ethiopia?Hey, I am kidding here?.Honestly, though, HG, think of high-school in ET where a week before the dreaded ESLCE (aka MatriK), your math teacher decided he wants to have fun by calling each student's name and assessing his (sorry no her?this was SJS) ability/inability to go to Engineering school depending how well you know your freaking sines and cosines and some trigonometry and traces of calculus (or how to spell it, at least). If you were bad in math: then "sorry, dude, may be medicine; not engineering". How many minds were made up that afternoon? How many egos were hurt that day? A close friend of mine still wants to kill that guy even today after a government had gone and a new has come (and may be going!?.I can here Seleda editors getting edgy here?he just has to mention poletika?this man!?Hey, I am an ET?.). Needless to say, however, that some of the best and average minds alike went to engineering. This is not bad itself; but shows you the power these high-school teachers have on students and their aspirations. But every time, I see some of my father's favorite patients come back (not only alive) but with gifts like doro, beg and qbE, I remember that fateful afternoon in SJS and the teacher known as tila foq.

Phew!?..how did we end up talking about high-school, test for HIV, careers, and "qbe" giving grateful patients now? Life Diaries, them the Seleda folks called it and stick with misTir ina yiluNta, they advised. If only we knew the power of this medium! Hey, it has been better than therapy..no couch, no nothing?just plain ET talk?..Hope you enjoyed it?I did?..With this, I am even tempted to drop my bad and expensive habit?you know what I mean, HG.

I remain,

Sam

To: Samicho
From: HG
Subject: Stuff...

Samicho, samicho, samicho (see how easily it rolls off my tongue with a little practice…a few more notes and who knows what I’d be calling you!!)

First, a thousand apologies for the delay, I was away for a little while letting myself be challenged with the choices of whether to have rum punch or pina coladas on the beach, what type of sunscreen lotion to apply, and, most important, which of the island boys to let apply it that day…oh, the dilemmas a girl’s got to face on vacation!!  I returned in a rather delirious state to attend un poquito bash– probably the last wedding invite I’ll ever get after my remaining eligible friends read my LD entry #1….   Actually, I looked for you at that party, you of the impeccable Cathedral/SJS pedigree- had to be there….but how would I find you?  By the red-rimmed, glossy eyes of course (to match mine)….unfortunately, all the red-rimmed eyes that I saw belonged to our recently abandoned middle aged brothers, ex-returnees, who were celebrating their one year anniversary without Tejitu…she having left with green card in hand for sunnier climes, leaving the brothers to drown their tears of sorrow in the free booze of our friend’s wedding—shared misery….on the subject of age and misery, what’s up with the people passing out cards for an over-35 Ethi club—now there’s a great idea….am I supposed to be THRILLED about joining the oh, so exclusive club of geriatric passé generation, now relegated to dragging our old bones to over-35 events….don’t make the music too loud, please, my hearing aid is acting up again…

On to more serious stuff…ain’t it strange what makes us decide to go into one field or the other?  Your teacher probably did you a great favor, because, by steering you into the exalted field of engineering, he allowed you to fit in more tightly into the ET-abesha community, where it is apparently mandatory that every male be either an engineer or a computer sci major, preferably both…and you can’t argue with timing, tech guys definitely whipped medical ass this past decade….of course, I know what I speak of, since I fall into the latter category --  in US style, this means seventy-nine years of school and training, and about 15 minute to practice medicine before you retire…poor.   No, of course not poor, but it is true that what is important about being a doctor is not anything to do with money, but instead everything to do with the emotional and social rewards…yea, I don’t really know what made me choose the field, it definitely wasn’t a lifelong dream, sitting on Ababiye’s lap while he single-handedly rid Addis of disease—I didn’t even really know any doctors, growing up, and no one in my family was particularly ill …I kicked around a lot of options early in college, but I liked biology, and medicine just seemed like a good idea when it came down to choosing….and I am happy with that choice…and NOT just because my mom gets to “talk” about it to her mehabertegnoch.. (although that definitely doesn’t hurt the cause).  After this rather random route, I’m happy to find that being a doctor is fulfilling--and fun.  People put an amazing amount of trust in your judgment, the results are often pretty rapid, and it is challenging enough because people, their bodies, their minds, their actions and reactions, are different enough that each day, each patient is a little different….good thing, because I bore easily (oops, again, don’t tell anybody I said that, I can handle the wedding invites drying up, but the patient list…essuma genzeb new, yene konjo—oh, I forgot, I’m not in it for the money…note to self—remember to stop all billing, definitely call off the Soprano collection agency).  But you know, Samicho, the bottom line is that I really believe that I might have been just as happy in a million other fields—who knows, even ceramic engineering or some such field??  It matters less what you do (within limits, of course) than that you do it well!

On that rather trite note, I guess I’ll end our discussion….it was good “talking” to you in this way, a little strange talking out into the void to a person I’ve never met, but, as you said, there is something a little therapeutic in the anonymity…(what anonymity, this is as much an adebabye mistir as anything, in our tiny little community half the fun is trying to figure out who the code name seleda authors are!! Keep guessing, guys)---and at least we managed to give the editors a headache or two (tee hee Sam).

Yantew,

HG

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