It's not What One Thinks

 My childhood memories include playing football with balls made of rubber tree products. The trees were pierced and milked for elastic rubber substance that we mixed with other products to make balls in Gambella? Local shops occasionally sell real ones. In our local stores, commercial rubber balls are available that don't last very long, but we still buy them for fun. It might last a week or two, but who cares? We were satisfied with our limits. In those days, life was much cheaper and more beautiful than it is today. Gambella civilization radiated a sense of cleanliness and authenticity that attracted many from far and wide to visit the town. We spent lots of time cooking and eating food from the camp during the winter, hauling frying pans, breads, salt, and green papers to Teirjweni, to catch fish and to catch adpae. We did not eat home foods when we returned home, which made our families unhappy, but they understood. As a person with several family homes, I missed a lot of visitors who wanted to meet me but missed me most of the time. They asked my dad, Where is our son? Since we arrived here, we haven't seen our son, strangers asked my dad, "Where is he?" The kids, especially the younger ones, were curious. It was important to them that they saw me before they returned home. He told them he is around, he lived in the city and rarely returned home. They said, "Wow, that means we won't get to meet him." My dad says that happens most of the time. He doesn't spend much time with us. Sure, I'm busy with my friends out there. We speak a dialect developed locally in Gambella town called "dha Anywaan Paany", considered harmful beyond the town. Perhaps because several foreign languages were incorporated into it. Gambella, being a port city, is cosmopolitan, so many languages unique to the city are learned here. Many Anyuaks speak Amharic, Arabic, Tigrigna, Oromingna, and English, and some older people still speak Italian. Furthermore, Anywaa gained significant advantages through encounters with Ethiopia's Rapid Force "Feteno Derash". Through conversation and interaction with Fetenoderash, Anywaa has become proficient in Amharic. There are still some Gambellans who have never learned a foreign language. They don't care about them. Nothing to be ashamed of. Newland, huh? Back then, it wasn't called that. Because Gambella did not have any refugees. There was no such thing as Newland back then. The native of that section called it Chiengkwar, which literally means Sun Heat, as it turns out this is the only area in Gambella where sun heat is extreme. Historically, it was populated by Anywaa and Komo people who grew groundnuts, surghums, and other cereals as their main crops. A primary school was at that time located adjacent to Chiengkwar settlement, and a secondary school was located at a distance. During school breaks, we visited groundnut farms to scavenge groundnuts to eat while watching the farm owners, who sometimes chased us away. The area is also blessed with wild berries such as Olemo" or grapes Lang-diel red berries, root plants, which also benefit us in our diets. Down the slope, we have marshy grassy pools, which dries up in the summers, exposing Eels fish to extraction. Otherwise, it would be difficult to cash them when in waters. We dig Eels out of the mud soils, and we do it carefully to avoid being bitten by them or they can cut fingers. They are hard to catch, and one can only extract five or three for personal consumption. I have never seen Eels fish in the markets, I wonder why. Perhaps it's a cultural thing that other people don't share with us. Or one of the taboos things for others. I don't know.