13 Boring Months!

“ Huh! What a beautiful day! You should not be in office now”, told me the janitor when he saw me going to my office. He is right. It is such a beautiful day and almost every one is now outside; lying on the grass; enjoying the clear sunshine and the perfect weather and playing all kinds of games. This is what they call a typical spring day. I have been told many times about the beauty of spring. And now, spring has started and every one is happy. The other night one of my Eritrean friends called me and asked me if I liked spring.
“What is a big deal about spring? I asked. If it is the clear sky and hot day, I had it almost all my life.” I just want him to talk. Otherwise, after 5 freezing months, I have started to understand why people appreciate spring and why we Eritreans don’t say “what a beautiful day”. My friend laughed and told me a story he has from his early days in the United States. In his first year here, the same time like now, one of his American friend (let’s call him James) asked him the same question- “do you like spring?”.
My friend admitted that he liked spring, and added proudly, “You know: in my country it is always like this- perfect weather: 12 months 12 hours sunshine”. He is right. I would have said the same. So does the Ethiopian government. The logo of the Ministry of Truism of Ethiopia proudly reads “13 months of sunshine”. By the way, do you know what the logo of the Eritrean Ministry of Truism is? It says “ three seasons in two hours”. It actually means, if you come to Eritrea, don’t forget to visit Massawa.
But James had been in Africa before and didn’t appreciate the full year tropical climate. So told to my friend “but you know what? It is boring- always the same, no change”.
Well, what do you think James would have said if he reads the logo of Ministry of truism of Ethiopia then?
“13 BORING MONTHS!”
But, fortunately, if he reads the Eritrean logo, he would say;“Cool! It sounds good. Three seasons in two hours: Too much change in a short time: it really sounds cool”
April 14, 2006.