MY LAST TRIP TO SOMALIA

[Kamal35]

Story on process... Let's see what happens.

[AbdiWahab252]

Kamal, Michael and I sat down to order the house special, beer and laxoox. While eating breakfast, I got a phone call. It was from the office of the flamboyant Minister of Commerce and ex-warlord Muse Suuthi Yalaxoow. We were to meet him in his Madina headquarters for an interview. I called up my cousin to arrange for the escort out there.

An hour later, three technicals and a black Landcruiser pulled up to the hotel. We had about 3 hours until the interview so I decided to take Kamal and Michael on a citywide tour. Our first stop was Villa Somalia, the former Presidential palace. It was a sprawling estate which had seen better times and was the scene of heaviest fighting in 1991. The next several stops were in the Hodan/Wardhiigley areas to visit mainly UNOSOM II sites: Blackhawk Down Museum, the Abdi House, Radio Mogadishu, the spot where the Paki Blue Helmets met their ends and other notable areas. Kamal insisted on seeing the Iirtogtey Arms bazaar. He had heard that anything could be bought in Somalia.

Iirtogtey was true to its name. The sounds of canons, and small arms fire enveloped this deadly real estate. Merchants of death plied their wares for sale. Buyers were haggling and testing the equipment. As we walked around, the merchants began to shout out offers for their wares: $150 for an AK, $50,000 for a Dhuunshilke, $75,000 for APC and other deadly arms.

"Abdi, lets fire a few !" said Kamal.

"Are you sure ?" I asked.

"Yes, I really want to. Its not like I can feel like Rambo." He replied.

I asked one of the traders show me an AK-47 and proceeded to give it to Kamal.

Kamal gripped the gun closely and reveled in the moment. He smiled from ear to ear as he caressed the fine piece of Soviet engineering.

"You know how to use it ?"

"Yes, its simpleÂ…. " he replied as he pointed it off into the distance. Kamal pointed at this old wall and was about to fireÂ…..

"Warya, Kamal you got the safety onÂ…." I shouted.

He looked at me in bewilderment. One of our guards walked over laughing and released the safety.

Kamal went wild and started firing off. He was sweating with euphoria. I had never seen this side of Kamal before and wondered was he a natural born killer.

"Okay, Kamal, lets go now. Give the man back his merchandise." I yelled.

Michael during the whole time was snapping photos of the bazaar. This had brought some unwanted attention to us. A group of irate looking men with long beards began to walk towards us. They demanded to know what these foreigners were doing in their market. Our bodyguards asked us to leave quickly before anything happened and we quickly got into the vehicles and left.

It was about 1 hour later before we pulled into Madina. Haji Muse Suuthi Yalaxow had been expecting us and sent out a car to pick us up. Our escort had to leave us right outside Madina due to security concerns as the guards were not natives of the neighborhood but said they would wait for us.

Haji Muse Yalaxoow's driver was a 30 year old, dark skinned man with wavy Sri Lankan hair. He asked us not to write anything negative about his boss. The Madina neighborhood was teaming with people and driving was difficult as both pedesterians and vehicles shared the road.

[michael_ital]

inabti, that was awesome!!! HTF did I miss this????? Bravo!!! I love it!!! The rest are just hatin, (like, spare me!! Snetters nitpickin grammatical errors???? Please!!) cuz they aint in it!!

waitin for the next installment.

[Kamal35]

Good one, Abdiwahab!

I told you: you should write a novel about Somalia with all your experience. The only book about it is 'Black Hawk Down', by Mark Bowden. You should write a book about the whole story. It would sell a lot!


Waiting for the next chapter. Congrats, mate!

[gurey25]

youve got talent mate.
keep it up

[muslim-man]

NOT impressed at all. i don't know wether it's the story that is not to my liking or wether it's writing style that is bothering me .

I am not much of a critique when it comes to this focking foreign languages but to be honest, his previous stories were classier than this latest ones

You're trying hard mate, be your usual self and the story will flow without much hassle or much thinking invested into it. other than that, you got potential to become like me in ten years time inshallah. good luck