Remebering Bet-Ghiorgis: Our Childhood Paradise
The fantastic fairy tale: " Midsummer Nights Dream" as told by Shakespeare reminds me "Bet-Giorgios," the famous resort site located on Asmara-Massawa road. It was built during the hay day of Italian colonial rule in this part of Africa endowed with attractive landscapes resembling the mountainous habitat of Alpanian people. In the late sixties, one could see a man-made swimming pool, tennis court, ballroom (lageto), and soccer field available only for the upper and business class Italians. Every Saturday night, it was exciting to see the old and the young in their dancing suits in a dimly lighted chamber with a background classical music such as that of Vivaldi, the great Italian Baroque composer.
Like that Shakespeare's Oberon and Titania dwelling place, it was so jungle, so amorous, so beautiful, and so fearful by night. But the honeysuckle scent emanating from half-slept branches of the tender trees refreshed the thin air polluted by the smoke of passing cars and trucks along Asmara-Massawa road. In order to ward off the imagined little ghosts at night fall, I used to sing as the following:
If you meet a fairy
Don't run away
They would not hurt you
But they only want to play.
Bet-Ghiorgis is the place where I grew up like those dreamy and studious Eritreans (shemdidatat) of the golden sixties, the most inspiring decade that produced a generation of young writers, artists, musicians, spirituals, comedians, sportsmen and revolutionaries who were driving forces in the Eritrean liberation movements.
It is a long story indeed!
As for now, let me share with you one of my favorite poems composed the day I joined Dehai. That was in the year of 1995. I hope the younger generation Eritreans as well as the older ones would enjoy reading it. It is time to reflect as the year 2015, the most eventful year in Eritrea history is close to an end. In the meantime, I wish you all a happy new year.
-Haile

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