Things I observed in Somalia

[gedo_gurl]

Things I've observed:

They think drinking milk thats been in the fridge for four days is disgusting; fresh is what they prefer.
They like women with hair (xaad) on their forearms and cheeks.
They like long necks and arms.
They make their own clothes from cloth, even surwaal is cut and made by a tailor who will stitch a jiinyeer onto it.
They grow tobacco, but people only chew the homegrown stuff.
Kids like to throw rocks when they get angry...I felt like a Jew stealing property in Gaza when I pissed off my little cousin, he could have killed me. They also stop cats from having sex using this method.
They don't like eating or drinking in public, especially for females...They'll give you nickname for it.
If you mispronounce Af Soomaali or speak too slowly, you'll be shut down like never before. They'll think you're retarded.
They think we walk too fast.
They hate anyone who looks at the ground when they walk...you should be ready for salaan and aware of your surroundings.
Unflattering nicknames and bringing up your shortfalls are normal, but taking offense goes against kaftan rules.
Every kind of milk is consumed. Fresh goats milk at breakfast, caano geel from aroortii ilaa it becomes sour and you make it a lassi....but Caano booro is then also used to supplement the diet when your goats are still suckling the new borns. Cow milk is looked down because its more likely to have disease/worms and thats why it's always boiled, unlike goat and camel which is drunk raw.
Goats come home to roost, cows have to be led back and tied up.
They have chickens, but they're used for their eggs...eating chicken is seen as lowly.
Nature is beautiful. People think Gedo is barren but there is so much green and so many wild animals. I saw: Baboons, warthogs, squirrels, antelope, Goodir, sagaaro, wild birds all running freely.
Farming is NOT beneath Somalis, despite what people on Somalinet think. There are a lot of farms growing seasonal fruit and veg.
You can things like fanta in random locations.
Some people still call xanjo 'maastiko' which is latin/Italian, but after I told this guy we had a word for it, he actually apologised, which brings me to my next point:
Somali people are actually really sweet, kind, considerate and they'll love you just or being Somali. They're not always snapping/angry.
Men wear cadar....even if its feminine but never women's perfume.
People still use slurs when describing clans...nothing new for Somalinet, but it shocked me when I was there...my family have mixed lineages even though I'm the same on both sides so a lot of it was directed at me.
Clan still matters, but not terribly. My aunt had a close friend from my grandmother's sub sub sub clan. When I came in she assumed that I was just a random member of my Reer Abti. When I opened my mouth and my dad's accent came through in a few words, she asked me my qabiil...I told her and she was like 'OK what, what are you doing here'...then my aunt says "she's my niece"...the woman has a little think and says 'are you so and so's daughter?...I was like yeah....she literally jumps on me and it turns out that her and my grandmother were the same jilib. The cold shoulder turned into a 'let me take you shopping, introduce you hebel and hebel'. It was like two different women. I declined her offer because my aunt pulled a face...my family aren't clannish, we prefer closer relatives...no more than 3 after your dad/mum.

[RoobleAlWaliid]

Are you threatening me? lol

I knew you would say that lol,

nah it's best not to risk your life over a dirac though.

[GAMES]

I thought it would be fun if I wrote down things I've noticed here and maybe people who have been here recently can add.

1. Men holding hands
2. Like 8 women all next to each other selling petrol.
3. People in the neighbourhood all extremely close and know eachother well.
4. Someone just randomly joining your conversation or adding his two cents without any further consideration.
5. After Asr and before Maqrib is like a sacred shah drinking time. People just sit in bibitos and drink tea waiting for prayer calling.
6. All the xamaalis working in the port all look the same.
( shorts with macawiis, skinny and dark skinned)
7. Girls going to weddings put make up on looking like clowns. ( the huge black eyebrows seems to be a mogadishu trend)
8. Khat is almost only sold by females
9. The police/ military have some really young guys, some look like to be around 15
10. All women have the same type of walk
11. Almost 90% of cars are Toyota

How much of a p.ussy are you? How hard is't to tell the offending person to STFU or tell them their .02 Taano isnt needed.

SMH

[RoobleAlWaliid]

Things I've observed:

They think drinking milk thats been in the fridge for four days is disgusting; fresh is what they prefer.
They like women with hair (xaad) on their forearms and cheeks.
They like long necks and arms.
They make their own clothes from cloth, even surwaal is cut and made by a tailor who will stitch a jiinyeer onto it.
They grow tobacco, but people only chew the homegrown stuff.
Kids like to throw rocks when they get angry...I felt like a Jew stealing property in Gaza when I pissed off my little cousin, he could have killed me. They also stop cats from having sex using this method.
They don't like eating or drinking in public, especially for females...They'll give you nickname for it.
If you mispronounce Af Soomaali or speak too slowly, you'll be shut down like never before. They'll think you're retarded.
They think we walk too fast.
They hate anyone who looks at the ground when they walk...you should be ready for salaan and aware of your surroundings.
Unflattering nicknames and bringing up your shortfalls are normal, but taking offense goes against kaftan rules.
Every kind of milk is consumed. Fresh goats milk at breakfast, caano geel from aroortii ilaa it becomes sour and you make it a lassi....but Caano booro is then also used to supplement the diet when your goats are still suckling the new borns. Cow milk is looked down because its more likely to have disease/worms and thats why it's always boiled, unlike goat and camel which is drunk raw.
Goats come home to roost, cows have to be led back and tied up.
They have chickens, but they're used for their eggs...eating chicken is seen as lowly.
Nature is beautiful. People think Gedo is barren but there is so much green and so many wild animals. I saw: Baboons, warthogs, squirrels, antelope, Goodir, sagaaro, wild birds all running freely.
Farming is NOT beneath Somalis, despite what people on Somalinet think. There are a lot of farms growing seasonal fruit and veg.
You can things like fanta in random locations.
Some people still call xanjo 'maastiko' which is latin/Italian, but after I told this guy we had a word for it, he actually apologised, which brings me to my next point:
Somali people are actually really sweet, kind, considerate and they'll love you just or being Somali. They're not always snapping/angry.
Men wear cadar....even if its feminine but never women's perfume.
People still use slurs when describing clans...nothing new for Somalinet, but it shocked me when I was there...my family have mixed lineages even though I'm the same on both sides so a lot of it was directed at me.
Clan still matters, but not terribly. My aunt had a close friend from my grandmother's sub sub sub clan. When I came in she assumed that I was just a random member of my Reer Abti. When I opened my mouth and my dad's accent came through in a few words, she asked me my qabiil...I told her and she was like 'OK what, what are you doing here'...then my aunt says "she's my niece"...the woman has a little think and says 'are you so and so's daughter?...I was like yeah....she literally jumps on me and it turns out that her and my grandmother were the same jilib. The cold shoulder turned into a 'let me take you shopping, introduce you hebel and hebel'. It was like two different women. I declined her offer because my aunt pulled a face...my family aren't clannish, we prefer closer relatives...no more than 3 after your dad/mum.

Pretty informative, thanks Gedo-Girl.

[gedo_gurl]

You're welcome Rooble. Have you been home ever?

[NobleGeeljire]

You're welcome Rooble. Have you been home ever?

Ive been to bari twice.

wow mogadishu seems a little bit different then bari. They like hairy women?

So what you said about Sab & hawiye beign mixed bantus wasnt a lie?

[gedo_gurl]

What's Bari like?

I was born in Mogadishu but I haven't been back since I left in 88/89. I don't know about any Hawiye clans. My obs come from trips to Gedo and one of the Jubba's, I forget which one, I was there for one day. I remember meeting a girl with thin/light hairs on her cheeks and when I told my cousins how ugly it was, they said it was something to brag about. Everything I described as ugly was seen as beautiful, including small boobs and gaps in the teeth.

[MoAwr]

They like water, baris, baasto, hilib, air, trees, camels, goats, sheeps, land cruiser, tooth pick, dirac, Pepsi, they don't like salad, somalinet, fiji, chickens and dogs!

Somali Somali isu sheegaya

[NobleGeeljire]

@Gedo Gurl Oh its 1988 /1989? Observations?

Makes sense! Some of the things you described seem like polar opposite to what I experienced bosaso
Men were holding hands, hugging eachother expressing contact.
People shooting at you if you wear qamis accusing you of being Alshabab. Even insulting our religion if they had to
Young kids getting raped and bullied.
Women wearing lightening cream like its expesensive fashion wear Even tho They are covered like ninjas
People having seriously fucked up teeth, which I couldn't stand to look at. The odd part they think it's beautiful.
Many people trying to constantly scam you out of your money.

the one thing that creeped me out their love for gap teeth and fat women. They also like dark gums and will use it to compliment people with it.

Everyone had weird nicknames, they go overboard with it sometimes.

I met one guy who had syphillis and his nickname was Ahmed isyphilito

Yemeni kids would call me falax! It means farmer in Arabic, Apperantly I was mocked because i didn't understand or know how things worked there. Did bunch of mistakes. They would ridicule me and treat me like some defective retard

Men & women would just sit around eat khat all day while.

You will see a whole family being transported on one bysicle between passing cars.

You can bribe the police with crums and get away with almost anything

I was only in bari only for a couple of weeks at a time during the winter & summer break.
Many people assume that if you send you're kid there it will straighten him up with dhaqan Celis.

Total lie.

young kids as young as 10 years driving motorcycles, trucks without license and crashing them wrecking them
The freedom for kids is almost unlimited in Somalia.
The old odeys have some sort of beastiality type relationship going on with their camels, it's almost borderline unhealthy obsession.

Somalis at the Mosque were the nicest most Humble & welcoming of them all. So i would spend most of my time with the sheikhs and at the Mosque for the most part.

[gedo_gurl]

My observations are not Mogadishu. I have some memories of Xamar during my childhood which were happy, people growing veg and fruit in the villas and just chilling all day, having parties with the kids and relatives a few times. Nice memories, and when I was younger I used to roam the countryside/villages as well, I think Somalia is great if you're a kid, adulthood is full of judgement and responsibilities.

What you've described sounds like the region is just very wary of Al Shabaab, they can trickle their influence in and I'm glad people reacted by adjusting the culture a bit, to save lives. Whats with the rape and beatings? Did you see this or hear it?

When you say Yemenis...do you mean Somali Yemenis like Shaanshi, or migrants?

[TheblueNwhite]

- Girls take bills to gain extra pounds.
- Men wear women's watches and they don't seem to be bothered by it.

[NobleGeeljire]

My observations are not Mogadishu. I have some memories of Xamar during my childhood which were happy, people growing veg and fruit in the villas and just chilling all day, having parties with the kids and relatives a few times. Nice memories, and when I was younger I used to roam the countryside/villages as well, I think Somalia is great if you're a kid, adulthood is full of judgement and responsibilities.

Walah that was pre civil war somalia, it used to be paradise i heard.

Mogadishu was voted cleanest safest city twice during the late 80s.


Today its polar opposite Even our culture norms way of life has changed for the worst. Corrupt as hell.

Whats with the rape and beatings? Did you see this or hear it?

The rape is something people there told me about and told me to be careful, i never went anywhere without a chaperone. Bulliying is a Huge problem as well.

When you say Yemenis...do you mean Somali Yemenis like Shaanshi, or migrants?

Somali yemenis i think. I didn't see many immigrants there only a few oromos.

I was there for only 3 weeks to attend a funeral.

[gedo_gurl]

The houses were beautiful, the people were friendly. The only gunshots I heard were in the countryside in the late eighties and a few days later we went back to Xamar and then not long after it spread there we left the country.

The thing we have to remember is that rape happens everywhere...imagine America with all these serial killers and serial rapists..not having police and DNA testing? Were you very young when you went/are you a young person now?

Ilaheey ha u naxriisto.

Did the Yemenis speak in Af Soomaali? The Oromo seem to be all over Somalia. I met one in Baardheere who didn't know a word of Somali except when I asked him 'Soomaali maa tahey'...he said 'ha'...then went on in Oromo...then I thought he was Raxanweyn but an Af Maay speaker told me he was Oromo, he looked Yemeni too....I wish there was a census done in Somalia, we have a lot of Muslim foreigners living there.

[NobleGeeljire]

The houses were beautiful, the people were friendly. The only gunshots I heard were in the countryside in the late eighties and a few days later we went back to Xamar and then not long after it spread there we left the country.

From what people told me the violence just erupted overnight, suddenly people were wondering if folks have gone nuts.

The thing we have to remember is that rape happens everywhere...imagine America with all these serial killers and serial rapists..not having police and DNA testing? Were you very young when you went/are you a young person now?

Yeah i know, im very understanding about the situation. Dont really see it as indicative or defining.

It was indeed a Huge culture shock.

Ilaheey ha u naxriisto.

Ameen!

Did the Yemenis speak in Af Soomaali? The Oromo seem to be all over Somalia. I met one in Baardheere who didn't know a word of Somali except when I asked him 'Soomaali maa tahey'...he said 'ha'...then went on in Oromo...then I thought he was Raxanweyn but an Af Maay speaker told me he was Oromo, he looked Yemeni too....I wish there was a census done in Somalia, we have a lot of Muslim foreigners living there.

Of course mehris ismaciils speak somali. Looool! Oromo He said Ha and Then spoke oromo to you?

Yeah, Somalia seems to be a free for all nowadays.

[Turbulence]

7. Girls going to weddings put make up on looking like clowns.

That always used to make me break out in laughter.