Sunday early in the evening Sandy was at the computer and I was in the kitchen busy preparing dinner. I heard Sandy making a fuss about something ‘Carole come see!’
At the front door was Sambata, Kifleys gateman.In his hand was a bag with 3 fish, fresh from the Gefarsa river, still flopping. Oh, are these for us? Yes, he says. Can we pay you for them? Yes he says. How much? 50 birr he says. OK, we just want one. Yes he says.
Sandy goes to get her wallet and Sambata is out the door with the bag of fish and up the stairs to Kifleys. When he comes back by our door Sandy takes him 50 birr but now he doesn’t have any fish with him. Sambata, can we have one fish ? Yes he says.
Well, he takes Sandy’s 50 birr and off he goes out the gate. Where do you think he’s going in such a hurry? Sandy asks me. Uh Oh! I’ll bet he’s going for more fish. No way ! Do you really think so?
About 2 hours later our friends Samson and Enat stop by and we have temporaily forgotten about the fish. Next thing we know, here comes Sambata to the front door and what does he have? A bag of fish, fresh from the Gefarsa river still flopping. What to do with 2 fish? We really only wanted one.
Naturally we decided to follow Ethiopian custom on this one and happily entreat our dear friends to take one of the fish, and we will not take no for an answer . I’m pretty sure Enat did not want the fish, but so much gets lost in translation , I could be wrong.
As for the fish, he never quite made it to the table for dinner. By the time our friends had left it was late and we just stuck the fish, fresh from the Gefarsa river, still flopping into the fridge for the night.
This morning when Sandy put it on the counter to clean, we thought it looked a little bloated. I did my best to sharpen a knife for the delicate process of disemboweling it. Bravely, Sandy makes the first cut. OOOPS! That incision was a little deep. Is it supposed to look like that? I don’t think so. She tells me how her dad always insisted that the fish be gutted and cleaned as soon as they were caught. Well, in retrospect that is excellent advise. Sandy just couldn’t quite bring herself to do that while it was fresh from the Gefarsa river still flopping in the bag.
And where was I during all this? Standing at a safe distance offering lots of encouragement and moral support of course. Well the neighborhood cats will love us tonite, we’re just waiting for dark to sneak the fish out the gate . We dont want to face the embarrassment of paying 50 birr to the feed the cats a fish fresh from the Gefarsa river no longer flopping in the bag. CW with collaberation from Sandy
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