Yene gwadenya Mebrat / My friend Electricity

Yene gwadenya Mebrat / My friend Electricity

Mebrat is like my naughty friend who comes and goes as she pleases.

Always leaving unexpectedly and so upset to see her leave. Really miss her and hard to do life without her. Her absence is clearly missed and can’t wait to have her back.

When she leaves we cry out in vain, in such clear pain of desertion / abandonment. “Ereehhh Mebrat!!”.

She always leaves without warning, whenever she wants and suits her, never thinking how others may feel without her presence.

When she comes back, we are estatic, all bad feelings vanish and we yelp in joy at her return, her bad character of just leaving when ever she wants is at once forgotten. Life continues happily with her.

I hope one day Mebrat learns to tame her wild ways and stays for good, once and for all.

Exhavier yawkhal / god or universe willing.

*Mebrat means Electricity in Amharic

Cooking over coal

This piece of writing was written in 2020, around July, a time of utter desperation and vulnerability during corona confinement in Sebeta when during heavy rainy season power would go out often, sometimes for days at a time. A lot of cooking over coal, games by candlelight and chatting with family. It was a ‘dark season’ for sure, in many contexts of the phase, but in retrospect Mebrat gave us moments of connection we would never have created had she not left us.