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Two months ago in Nairobi Kenya, there lived a young
college lecturer, who was very much bored with his job. He was a
lecturer of one of the biggest commercial colleges in Nairobi. Even
though he worked hard and efficiently every day, he prayed everyday that
he gets another job, hopefully outside Kenya.
To his colleagues at work, he seemed like he really enjoyed his work and
in fact some even assumed that he would stay and work in that college
for many years to come. He was the only one who really knew the level of
boredom he felt and he kept this secret perfectly, to himself.
What caused the boredom was the repetitive monotony of his life. He woke
up everyday and did the same things, taught the same subjects at
college, tackled the same old problems which he had been handling the
past 4years.
This repetitive pattern was becoming too much for him and as time went
by, even one closest friend began to notice his gloom, aloofness and
don’t care attitude. He still kept the longing and desire to himself, he
never explained to his best friend. His daily desire was to move on to a
new surrounding or country, appreciate new cultures and handle bigger
issues. In short, this guy had outgrown his job; he wanted new
adventure.
One usually cold Nairobi morning as he was in class teaching, he was
really enjoying himself because that particular class he was teaching
was composed of students who were lively, active participants and also
very intelligent. It is such classes that any experienced lecturer would
really enjoy teaching and wouldn’t want to be interrupted in between the
session.
It such classes that lecturer’s dread the sound of the door knocking and
being called outside either by another lecturer or member of management
for consultation. However sometime when the class is so interesting as
the one he was teaching, the lecturer could even ignore the knock at the
door; the students too would ignore the knock and hope that whoever was
knocking would get tired and go away.
Unfortunately, on that particular day, the person who was knocking, did
not get tired and neither gave up, instead whoever it was, became
impatient when the door wasn’t opened; the knock became louder until it
was unbearable. The lecturer was forced to open the door just make that
loud knocking to stop once and for all.
The person knocking was a security officer coming to report to the
lecturer that there a visitor waiting for him at the entrance and that
it was very urgent.
“You are sure it cannot wait until the lecture ends?” the lecturer asked
the security officer.
“No, she says it’s too urgent,” retorted the security.
After quick thinking, the lecturer decided he’d better go and see this
visitor and sort this matter so that he could resume the lively lecture
session. He turned back to the students and announced, “excuse me I hear
that I have a very important visitor, am coming back after one minute.”
With that he left with the security officer for the entrance. He looked
around and saw no familiar face, and then he turned angrily to the
security officer who removed him from class, “where is the visitor?
There is no one here I know!”
At that moment, a lady I had never seen before, who was sitting at one
of the seats at the entrance stood up and asked the lecturer, “are you
Mr. …….?”
The lecturer responded with a surprised expression, “Yes, who are you?”
The lady gave her name then led the lecturer to a corner away from the
security officer’s earshot; she then stated that she has been sent by a
University in Hargeysa, Somaliland to him as a lecturer for that
university. The lecturer was shocked.
“What! A lecturer where? In Somalia? Is this some kind of a joke or
what? If its a joke please excuse me I don’t have time for jokes now,
you have just disrupted my lecture,” said the lecturer dismissively as
he turned to leave.
“I was given your name by a Kenyan who works there, then let me come at
lunch time when you will be free and I promise to come with documents
about the university. Meanwhile you can check the Internet on
Somaliland,” said the lady with so much confidence.
The lecturer turned and left without uttering a word, he went straight
to the class. He went on teaching until the end of the time allocated.
Immediately he was free he went straight to his office computer and
searched Internet, clicked Somaliland region, then Somaliland
Universities.
To his shock, he leant that Somaliland completely different from Somalia
is a peaceful region, with its own government, currency and more
importantly it was very stable with many Kenyans and other foreigners
working there.
For more information, the lecturer called on of his students who comes
from Somalia to his Office asked her about information concerning the
country. First of all, the student corrected that Somalia and Somaliland
were very different and that she actually comes from Somaliland which is
in fact more peaceful than even Kenya.
“I have a cousin who is considering to work there, what can you advise
me to tell him?” the lecturer lied, in order to get more details.
“Your cousin would be a fool to ignore such an opportunity. You know
sir, Somaliland has got so much potential, business and educational
infrastructure are all coming up very fast, there is so much potential
in that country. There are also so many International Organizations
working in that country; this means that the entire world knows the
region is stable otherwise they wouldn’t establish their offices there,”
said the student.
The lecturer became amazed at the information because he always prided
himself as someone who understood regional and world matters more than
other people, so it now surprised him that he has been totally ignorant
concerning a neighboring country like Somaliland.
The lecturer then decided to have an open mind concerning this issue of
working in Somaliland; in fact he eagerly awaited that mysterious lady
to come back at lunch time. When the lady came, she was shocked to find
the lecturer in a good mood and also ready to learn more about
Somaliland and the university in question.
After having a good conversation with the lady, the lecturer was given 2
days to go and consult his family concerning the matter then call the
lady with an answer; whether he has agreed to go to Somaliland or not.
The family was scared at first but after getting information on how
peaceful Somaliland is, they unanimously advised the lecturer to
consider working there. This was how the lecturer finally became
convinced to take up the job of university lecturer in Somaliland the
rest as the Americans say, is history. The lecturer being mentioned in
this story is Eston Kwach who is also the author of this story
For an individual who had never been on a plane before or personally
interacted with people of Somali origin, it was not easy to understand
how I was going to communicate with them because I didn’t understand
even a single word of Somali language and I didn’t even know if they
liked foreigners or not. I was also wondering if I would get the food am
used to, if the weather in that country will be good to my health and
whether the people in that country will be hostile to me or not? All
these questions ran in my mind even as I took the morning flight Daallo
Airlines from Nairobi for Hargeysa Somaliland.
In the plane, I was the only one from my race with other almost 25
passengers of Somali origin. I was at first tense because I thought that
they would be hostile to me but they were all very friendly and I
remember the man who was sitting next to me, was telling me a lot of
information about Hargeysa, Somaliland and even the wider Somalia, there
was also another passenger who showed me where the rest rooms are
located. My heart could now rest easy because all my previous fears had
been replaced by warmth and friendliness and I began to feel like I was
at home.
The first stop was Mogadishu where the plane stopped for about 20
minutes before proceeding straight to Hargeysa, Somaliland. As we
alighted from the plane at the Hargeysa airport, there were so many
people waiting for their families and some were taxi operators waiting
for customers. I didn’t even know where to go for customs and
Immigration clearance and to make matters worse everyone was speaking
Somali language which I couldn’t understand even a single word. Suddenly
in my confusion, am man approached me asked, “Are you Kwach?” to which I
answered “yes I am.”
This man who I later learnt was the Head of Immigrations had been
contacted by the University which was recruiting me, was very efficient
and strict; he took me straight to his office at the Immigrations, told
me to sit down and his secretary gave me a bottle of very cold Rani,
which I greatly appreciated.
After sitting there for ten minutes during which the officer asked me
for the passport, which he said will be processed later together with
the work permit, he then took me to his car and drove to the university.
On the way he showed me all the major buildings, the offices of the
different ministries, the Senate, Parliament and even the Presidential
Palace. He also showed me some of the offices of various international
organizations like UNICEF, WFP, and FAO among others. After about half
an hour we arrived at the university, where another warm reception
awaited me.
I started teaching about one week after my arrival and it has been one
month and a few days now. I can now conclude that people back in Kenya
are totally misinformed about Somaliland. Life is much easier,
comfortable and in fact am able to access all communication facilities
like Nairobi, in fact I can honestly say that I have access to much more
information and communication facilities than I have ever had in
Nairobi.
Hargeysa is a very vibrant city, with very many up coming enterprises,
big shopping malls where someone can get the latest fabrics, top of the
range fashion and garments from Asia and Europe. Also available are a
wide range of latest electronics and computer accessories from Europe,
Asia and USA.
The town is very lively and people are warm and friendly. The students
are also very much attentive, obedient and hardworking with clear focus
on achievement of their goals.
Written by Mr. Eston Kwach,
Lecturer and Dean Faculty of Journalism/Masscommunication
Pioneer University
Hargeysa, Somaliland
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