Journey from Nairobi to
Hargeisa
I can now conclude that people back in Kenya are totally misinformed
about So maliland. Life is much easier, comfortable and infact
am able to access all comm unication facilities like Nairobi,
infact I can honestly say that I have access to much more
information and communication facilities than I have ever had in
Nairobi. By: Mr. Eston Kwach,
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 commer cial 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, ev en one closest friend began to notice his gloom,
aloofness and don’t care atti tude. 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 outgr own 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 consul tation. 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 tir ed 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 lec turer 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 se curity 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 Hargeisa, 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 disru pted 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 learn’t 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 infact 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, Somal iland 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 him self 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 neighbouring country like
Somaliland.
The lecturer then decided to have an open mind concerning this issue
of work ing in Somaliland, infact 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 sca red 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 mentio ned 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 Som ali 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 Hargeisa
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 hos tile to me but they were all very
friendly and I remember the man who was sit ting next to me,
was telling me a lot of information about Hargeisa, 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 be fore proceeding straight to Hargeisa, Somaliland.
As we alighted from the plane at the Hargeisa 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 ever yone
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 Iam.”
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 secre tary 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 mi nistries, the Senate, Parliament and even the
Presidential Palace. He also show ed 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 unive
rsity, 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 infact am able to access all communication
facilities like Nairobi, infact I can honestly say that I have
access to much more information and communication facilities than I
have ever had in Nairobi.
Hargeisa is a very vibrant city, with very many up coming
enterprises, big shop ping 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 achieveme nt of their goals.
Written by Mr. Eston Kwach,
Lecturer and Dean Faculty of Journalism/Masscommunication
Pioneer University
Hargeisa, Somaliland
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