By Coach Berhane Andeberhan,
This summer I was in my mystical home and it was simply heavenly! Seeing
family and friends, enjoying perfect weather, eating the most delicious
food ever, drinking the best cup of tea every day and everywhere and seeing
a people living in harmony with so much obvious and subtle beauty are among
the reasons for my pride and joy and almost unreal reactions to visiting
home. I was so thoroughly happy, at ease and at peace and full of joy for
the short month that I spent back in Eritrea this summer that I cannot
fully express the feelings and I did not want it to end.
I would like to deal with the small things that remind us of who we are and
what makes us tick without reference to big issues! Like the overwhelming
majority of us I am proud and impressed and often speak of the heroics of
liberation and the feats of building the nation! But this travelogue will
focus on a sampling of the seemingly small things that affirm ones identity
and what bring joy and pride in it.
When one meets and greets older relatives and acquaintances there is the
overflowing bestowment of inspiring flowery blessings and good wishes. Any
perception of your doing something worthwhile is rewarded a thousand fold
with blessings and appreciation and good wishes and words of approval. You
get treated so well and so warmly for just the simple act of stopping by to
say hello! It makes one experience such positiveness and encouragement and
acknowledgement that the heart is filled to the brim. That must be one of
the ingredients of pride and self assured identity and part of the essence
of us.
You really get to experience love almost in a tangible way! Hugging my Dad
as if we would never let each other go was so delicious! While that is
obvious the wonderful murmured niceties and good wishes and expressions of
joy (“welcome blessed son, how great to see you, how are you? so glad to
see you, what a blessing it is to see my children!”) are subtle but with a
warming and deeply felt effect. As you hug and kiss your relatives not
only close relatives but even neighbors and people who just tangentially
learned that your parents have offspring living overseas express such joy
to see you and meet you for the first time. They seem to be genuinely
happy for my father as they expressed their congratulations to him.
Was spaghetti with meat sauce invented or perfected in Eritrea? Be it
Asmara, Massawa or Keren; be it at home, relatives’ homes or in restaurants
my taste buds were consistently assaulted with such indescribable
wonderfulness. Is the food that delicious? Or is it just that the love
and generosity of the people made everything so much better because they
put you in such a positive frame of mind and elevate your senses? I don’t
know but it is truly enjoyable!
The inevitable visits to relatives’ and neighbors’ triggers generosity
seemingly without limit. How is it that tea is so amazingly delicious at
home or at the tea room? Truly there is love in the food and drink! It is
definitely offered with such indescribable goodness oozing in the words and
demeanor of people who offer their best with such humility and generosity
as if you deserve nothing but the best.
Massawa
After taking the bus to Massawa, I rested for a couple of hours and set out
to go look around. I went to the front desk of my hotel and asked the
young lady in front which way to walk to get to some stores to pick up
water and some refreshments. In a very kind and deeply concerned manner
she said “No! no! we are having ‘Sumum' right now! You cannot go out till
after 6:00 pm” Unintentionally exposing that I have been away from home for
too long, I asked “What is ‘Sumum' “ and learned that it is the extreme
heat that sometimes is common at the Red sea coast in the middle of the
day! I stepped out the door for about 10 seconds and quickly learned what
she was talking about! To realize our people have learned to survive and
thrive in that environment and have done so while maintaining the gentle
kindness that is pervasive at sea level or at nearly 8,000 feet above the
sea is simply impressive.
Keren
My cousin drove me to Keren and I finally got to see the famous Libby
Tigray! This was a crooked, scary and impressive at the same time. Now
my brother can no longer tease me about never having seen Massawa or Keren.
On the way back around Elaberrid there were some teenage girls offering
small baskets of guava for sale. We stopped and spoke with them as we
bought some fruit. They are gifted with so much gentleness and respect for
each other and they were so elegantly persuasive as they offered their
fruit for sale. They were more inclined to cooperate and support each
other than compete even though each of them had some fruit for sale! Of
course we bought more than we could consume!
Football
Football remains the great passion I remember from childhood! Finally our
leagues have been re-established and are making progress. I had the
pleasure of attending a few games in Asmara Stadium. The passion among the
players as well as the spectators is still high even though understandably
the level is not where it was and will soon be. The folks in the stands
were giving their comments of appreciation and criticism as the games were
going on and in the midst of all that I was impressed and amused by the
friendly arguments between fans about Barcelona and Bayern Munich and
whether Messi was the best player or was Cristiano Ronaldo better. It was
fun to just listen to such hot unresolvable arguments! The sport was
highly developed in Eritrea before the Struggle for Liberation. The
freedom fighters prevailed on the people to postpone football till after
liberation as the enemy tended to use football to attempt to divide us.
Unfortunately now after liberation, the progress has been somewhat
inhibited by those who have opted to undermine the sport by linking it with
the shameful human trafficking that is plaguing our part of the world. But
this is just a small hurdle and like all things that too will be overcome.
A Walking Adventure in Asmara
When speaking to my brother back overseas on the phone, he reminded me to
bring back pictures. This made me realize that I, as usual, had not taken
any pictures even though I had packed a nice camera when I travelled home.
So after some discussion I tried to do my touristy duty and started at the
main Asmara Mosque. I proceeded to take several pictures at the Mesgid and
realized a beauty I had not fully appreciated before. I walked from there
to the nearby Coptic cathedral Inda Marian. It too was beautiful in so
many subtle ways I had not realized before. From there I proceeded to the
famous Cathedrale which is majestic and readily recognizable. I kept
walking and saw many other religious houses of worship. The overwhelming
realization was that these and many other houses of worship were within
proximity of each other. This brought to mind the fact that our people of
various faiths live in harmony! My only disappointment was that the
Adventist Church I attended as a kid while still standing was in disrepair
as it had been confiscated by the Dergue and had been converted into a
storage facility and had not regained it original function after
liberation. Despite no longer being a member of the church, I experienced
lingering sentimental memories.
Anytime I went for a walk in the beautiful boulevards of Asmara one thing
invariably caught my eye and made me smile. I would see people of all ages
walking hand in hand and arm in arm! I once saw a little girl of about
eight gently holding and helping her brother of about six along.
Apparently heading to school as they were both wearing the colorful school
outfits. In the morning one would see youngsters heading to school wearing
beautiful school outfits of varied colors. Often young teenage girls would
block the sidewalk as they walked in youthful abandon and occupying the
whole space, but in loving unison. I loved this too! The best example of
this, and I wished I asked them to take a picture, was about seven
beautiful teenage girls who were immaculately dressed and linking together
arms on each others shoulders and owning the whole sidewalk. What was even
subtly beautiful was that while all of them were immaculately dressed in
modern outfits, approximately half of them were wearing recognizable Muslin
headdresses and all of them seemed aware of nothing but their friendship
and closeness. This was the most beautiful and subtle symbol of love and
harmony I experienced and it warmed my heart!
*The writer is an Eritrean-American Berhane Andeberhan who recently
traveled to Eritrea where he spent some time. He is a member of the Cal
State Los Angeles Golden Eagles Athletic Hall of Fame and a former US Staff
Coaching Schools instructor and U20 Women's National Team coach .He has
over 30 years of coaching experience including at the youth, the high
school, collegiate, regional and national levels. He served as a coaching
instructor at the US Soccer Coaching schools from 1976 -2001. He coached
the men's college soccer team Cal State Los Angeles and women's college
teams at Stanford and Cornell. He led Cal State Los Angeles to National
Ranking and was an NCAA finalist in 1981. That year he was named NSCAA
Metropolitan Far West Coach of the Year and earned four CCAA Conference
Coach of the year honors. At Stanford he also served as the Director of
Soccer overseeing both men's and women's programs and was a World Cup 94
liaison at Stanford University. As a member of the US National Coaching
staff, he coached the Women's West Regional Teams to Olympic Festival gold
medals in 1986, 1987 and 1988 and a silver medal in 1985. He also served as
the senior amateur West Regional coach for both women's and men's
teams.Andeberhan attended UCLA on an academic scholarship where he earned
his BA degree in Zoology and was a member of the first ever Bruin varsity
team and he served as captain of the team in 1971 when the team was in the
NCAA final four. He holds an MS in Microbiology from Loma Linda University
and is a Ph. D. candidate in Food Science at Cornell University. In
addition to coaching he has taught collegiate Microbiology at Cal State Los
Angeles and was a Research Specialist at Cornell University. In soccer he
holds a Brazilian ABTF International Professional Coaching License and the
US Soccer A License and has attended numerous national and international
seminars. He has been a member of the National Soccer Coaches Association
of America for 26 years. He coached many of the USA’s national team stars.*
Received on Tue Feb 16 2016 - 11:22:55 EST