Our Life and Times in Somalia, 1985-1988; The Juba Hotel; Our Home; Invitation by the Boys to a Party; Torben our Danish Neighbour; Tide Pools and Sharks; Easter Sunday Mass at the Cathedral; The Visit of Anne Princess Royal
Hootoksi Tyabji
Whenever I reminisce about our times in Somalia, this proverb comes to mind – Where ignorance is bliss 'tis folly to be wise.
Robert accepted an assignment with UNICEF in Mogadishu, Somalia and I was thrilled! Africa was a continent I had always dreamed of visiting and here we were being given the opportunity to live there for a few years! I had absolutely no idea about the difficulties and the hardships, the frustrations and the hostilities, the deprivations we would be faced with and the challenges of running a home and feeding three young children and an ageing Labrador dog!
In hindsight, although it was the toughest assignment and living conditions were harsh, Somalia turned out to be an experience of a lifetime and a period of growth and understanding that for me, remains unparalleled to this day!
We learned about tolerance, forbearance, accepting, sharing, caring, laughing, crying, being hot, being frightened, being loved, being hated and even being attacked, being isolated, we learned it all and we learned it well so that we are able to carry “The Somali Experience” with us wherever we go. From then on, Robert, Hootoksi, Michel, Farhad & Adil have been ready, able & willing to live and be happy anywhere on the planet, something we all do quite nicely to this day.
Here are some of the experiences we had and the lessons we learned as I remember them............
Watch this video - landing at Mogadishu airport
Our flight from New Delhi to Mogadishu via Nairobi was comfortable and smooth. Apart from Robert, none of us had ever set foot on the African continent and my knowledge of Africa consisted of dreams of the vast plains of the Serengeti and herds of zebra, giraffe and lions in trees! I am ashamed to recall that I knew nothing of the geography, history, or culture of the Somali people and had no expectations of any kind.
As we disembarked from the plane on to the tarmac, there was an officious looking man at the bottom of the stairs who brusquely directed every passenger to "get in line". Confused and bemused, we shuffled into a ragged column under the burning equatorial sun. Then we were made to march into the terminal building. Once we entered the arrivals hall a tiny room with bare cement walls, our “leader” disappeared. We were left to fight our way through a sea of bodies and piles of baggage before we could get to the Immigration booth. There were no signs, and people were shouting instructions and yelling at each other. All around us was chaos – bags, people, trolleys some with 3 wheels some with 2 all bumping along higgldey piggeldy every which way.
We managed to push through to the immigration officer who asked us for our immigration forms. When we replied that we did not have any, he indicated that we had to buy them from "over there". Over there turned out to be a booth where the forms were sold but only in Somali shillings. If you did not have any, try the bank located outside the arrivals hall. Of course you could not go outside till you had completed the immigration process and just as we were beginning to panic Michel distracted us by pointing above. “Look ma” he yelled! My eyes followed his little finger and what I saw was unbelievable! It looked like a cage with some sort of wire mesh in front of it through which we could see a crush of people. Some were leaning over the top and yelling instructions to passengers newly arrived below, others were gesticulating wildly. Suddenly we found a Somali gentleman beside us yanking Robert's arm and yelling above the din so we could hear him! “I am the UNICEF fixer, follow me”, we did and miraculously a few minutes later we had cleared customs and immigration and fought our way through the crowd to the luxury of an air conditioned Toyota Landcruiser that whisked us off to the best hotel in town, the JUBA! .
The JUBA Hotel
Soon after we had dropped our bags in our room at the Juba hotel, Di & Stuart Mcnab came to welcome us with jars of jam and an invitation to visit their home in the evening. Stuart was UNICEF Somalia's Senior Program Officer and that was the beginning of a long and enduring friendship which we treasure to this day. Those jars of jam were a lifesaver! I used them to bribe the children to eat something every day as it was by far the most delicious food available to them on the menue!
Our room on the second floor was of a decent size and the bathroom was well appointed BUT there was very little running water. Often insects crawled from the taps along with a trickle of water and everything smelled of mould and decay. There were lots of roaches and flies scurrying about, not to mention lizards and ants.
The elevator was a creaking, jerky box which we risked using only when we absolutely had to! The power kept going on and off randomly which made using it even more dicey. Soon after we arrived, Robert asked the staff why the power kept failing and was told that the low water level in the River Juba was to blame. He soon learned that was a blatant lie!
On our first morning at breakfast we were joined by an Italian gentleman who was in the pest control business and had been given the contract to service the hotel. He graphically described what he found in the pantries and kitchens and ended his tirade with “we just cannot get rid of all the pests because they are everywhere and they keep coming. There are even cockroaches in clusters under the tablecloths and they are almost as big as mice!” We had a hard time getting our children to eat at the Juba after they heard that!
We were in Somalia a week when my 34'th birthday came around and I remember the day quite clearly. In the morning I had been to the American International School (the only English medium school in Mogadishu) to enroll our children. To my disbelief I was told they only had place for two of our three. Later in the day I went looking for a supermarket and could not find one; I tried to buy a loaf of bread and went to several shops where most of the shelves were empty and by evening when we wanted to celebrate, I was reduced to tears at the thought of spending the next 4 years in Somalia. We walked along the streets, a forlorn family with no idea of where to go to find a restaurant to celebrate. As we ambled along a narrow lane Farhad tugged at my hand and exclaimed “Look mama, spaghetti!” and so we ate at this little dive and celebrated my special day with pasta, a hot favorite with all the family! We soon found that spaghetti and pasta were on every menu in restaurants around Mogadishu because Somalia had once been an Italian colony. Many Somalis spoke fluent Italian!
The following morning while Robert was at work the children and I roamed the streets till the hot sun forced us back into the shade of the Juba where the boys played happily with their dinky cars and I started tackling my correspondence. The first letter I replied was to Mother St. John who lived in London. She had been the principal of Presentation Convent, (PCK) the boarding school I went to in India. I described what little I had seen of Somalia and the hardships I would have to face living there. I lamented the fact that I did not know a soul and a week later, I received a telegram from her at UNICEF which said “Contact ex PCK-ite Elizabeth Mckee nee Rustomji whose husband heads ICAO. She will help you.” I did, and things soon began to look up and I could breathe again!
Elizabeth, Tom and their son Alex took us under their wing, showed us the ropes, introduced us to lots of wonderful people and through one of them, we managed to find a place for Adil at the American International School so all three children were enrolled there.
Samuel Johnson said “Adversity leads us to think properly of our state, and so is most beneficial to us” and this was certainly true of the expatriate community in Mogadishu which was a closely knit. It didn’t matter what nationality you were or who you worked for, everyone looked out for each other and helped out wherever help was needed. We shared food, carried letters back and forth when we traveled, called each others' relatives to deliver messages overseas, (telephones never worked!) and exchanged news on what shipment had come in, where and which store shelves were stacked, and which weren’t. We even organized for one of us to fly to Nairobi and shop for essentials which we then shared and paid for. This only worked in the short term but it was good while it lasted!
Most expatriates went on holiday in the summer and it was fun meeting up at the Frankfurt airport to catch the flight back to Mogadishu. Everyone’s hand baggage was stuffed with food. Salami, sausages and bread loaves stuck out of zippered bags and the overhead compartments in the plane smelled like a delicatessen! The Somali customs officials never dared open our luggage for fear of being tainted with pork products in our over stuffed suitcases!
Elizabeth organized film shows at the UN Compound. She procured the films from Nairobi and the shows were open to all UN personnel and their families. We watched them on a large screen under the stars and carried our own chairs, food and wine. It was magic and the highlight of our week!
Our Home
There were no estate agents in Mogadishu. The UN had a designated man who showed you whatever house was on offer; most folks found a place to rent by word of mouth. One of Rob’s colleagues at UNICEF had a relative who had a friend who wanted to rent his bungalow. We went to see it, loved what we saw and settled on a price right away! It was an old fashioned Italian style home that sat in a rambling garden with large trees and patios. It had a large tiled hole in the back, which was probably used as a swimming pool once upon a time. The kitchen and dining room were separate from the rest of the house but connected to it by a covered corridor. The house had lovely large rooms and passages lined with windows through which the garden came into the house, so to speak! It was in the passages that we did the ironing and watched the monkeys in the chikoo tree. The children had a lot of space to cycle and run around in and the house was light, cool and airy. We did not know when we rented it that the plaster work, especially on the ceilings, was shoddy and we often found chunks of ceiling plaster on the floor! This seemed to be the norm in many buildings, because the builders used sea sand which in time would rust the iron reinforcement bars. Robert walked into his office one Saturday morning (Fridays were the weekend) and found the entire cement roof had fallen onto his desk leaving the iron bars exposed. The desk and his Wang computer were destroyed. Thank God it happened on Friday, had he been at his desk he would have been killed!
Soon after we moved into the house we found and hired a wonderful boyesa (maid) called Morayo. She was an attractive cuddly sort of lady who did everything at snails pace but always smiled. She and I were terrorized by a large baboon with a blue bottom who would visit us and would stroll around the compound and bare his teeth whenever he saw us. We had to wait for him to choose his perch before we could walk across the garden! He took great pleasure in masturbating in the Chikoo tree while Morayo was ironing and she was convinced that he did this to embarrass her!
Speaking of baboons, Robert was standing in a queue waiting to check in at the airport when he noticed a large baboon standing along with everyone else with a scrap of paper in his hand, his "ticket" to board! He was convinced that it was this same baboon who would sometimes turn up in the UN compound and hang out with the drivers!
Our house was situated along the main road to the airport so every time a dignitary passed, they closed the road for hours on end and we couldn't get in or out of the house! Our neighbors were a group of more than 50 Danes who worked for the construction company Kamphil and lived in a compound beside us. We shared a common wall and the first Thursday night we'd moved in, loud music and the raucous sounds of drunken men and women kept us awake till the wee hours. Later that morning, we strolled over to complain and were met at the canteen by Torben, the company chef. He explained that we would have to put up with the revelry once a week as it was company policy, blessed by the Somali government, that “the men” needed one night to hang loose and that was Thursday night as Friday was a holiday! Somali women were brought over in busloads and a good time was had by all. To compensate us, Torben (who later became a good friend and held the keys to the stores flown in from Denmark) would slip us ham, cheese, sausage, salami, jams and even a real fir tree one Xmas. Best of all, he managed to give us an illegal connection to the company's huge generator when all of Mogadishu was without electricity for five months. We were able to run a few lights, the refrigerator, the microwave oven, and a stand fan. All five of us would sleep outside on mattresses on the floor. We strung up a large mosquito net under the Chickoo tree and blessed Torben as we slept in relative comfort to the soft whirr of that single fan.
The Somali are forthright people and they make no bones about the way they feel and were not shy to speak their minds, often expressed quite rudely. Foreigners were seen to be barbaric and unclean and children would sometimes throw stones at us and at our car. One Friday afternoon we were in our new Toyota Tercel driving along the beach when Robert decided he had had enough of this! When kids lobbed stones at our car, he stopped got out and chased them up and down the sand dunes with them running as fast as their little legs could carry them to the delight of our children. Michel had a bicycle and insisted on riding it despite the stones lobbed at him. He carried a bag with stones in it and did not hesitate to throw one right back!
We finally managed to get all three children admitted to the American International School and I got a job there as a teacher's aid. I also joined a choir and an Amateur Theatre Group which was a whole lot of fun. We put on plays and musical performances and through both these groups we met and made a whole lot of interesting friends!
Electricity and water were always in short supply and when it did flow we had to store it in large buckets. Petrol was rationed (UN staff could buy a quota supplied by the office) and finding food on shop shelves was always a challenge in Mogadishu. Sugar and flour, cooking oil and gas were in constant short supply and butter was never available. If you found bread it always had ants and weevils in it (we told our kids they were a great source of vitamins) and they happily ate them, but you could buy wonderful fresh fish and vegetables if you braved going to the market which I did.
I would park my car just by the wall of the wet market and as I tried to get out I would be surrounded by a throng of children all wanting to carry my basket. It was always hard to choose one child from among the many. One morning as I was buying my vegetables, from the corner of my eye I saw a Somali man walking towards me and staring at me with disgust written all over his face. He carried a mug of tea and was sipping it as he strolled along. He stopped in front of me and spat the tea right in my face, then continued walking at a slow and easy pace. He clearly believed that Muslims and Somalis are superior to unbelievers!!! Everyone who saw this continued doing what they were doing as I wiped his saliva off my cheek, swallowed my anger and hoped there was water at home so I could scrub my face!
Another time, I tried to visit a friend in a public hospital but was not allowed in the premises for reasons unknown to me and I was pushed out of the gate by a soldier who shoved the barrel of his gun into my stomach to force me out.
Invitation by the Boys to a Party
Torben our Danish Neighbour
Torben worked for Kamphil the Danish construction Company as their Chef and would often stroll over for a beer and a chat. Once he asked if he could use our house to entertain some of his friends. He wanted to have a special sit-down dinner for a pal who was leaving for good. He would do all the cooking, I just needed to provide him the space. We were more than happy to oblige, and I got out my best silver, set the table with my best linen and crockery, packed the kids in the car and we left the house to Torben.
The next morning, I asked him how his party went and he pulled a face that told it all! He made me promise that I would not tell Robert what he was about to divulge to me. For his party menu he had decided on choice cold cuts, salmon, caviar, and salads and had laid everything on the table while he left to have a quick shower. On his return he discovered that our cat Boofy, had helped himself to the food in Roman style! He ate, vomited, ate some more, and vomited some more all over the table, the floor, and on some of the dining chairs. The room was a terrible mess and the food a disaster. Fortunately, he held the keys to the stores and was able to keep the beer flowing while he rushed off to prepare a whole new meal. I was glad he didn't have cat on his menu!
Tide Pools and Sharks
Somalia has a beautiful coastline and the most fabulous beaches. On Fridays we would take the boys and go out wading in the tide pools where we would try and catch fish in our hand held nets. Michel was the champion at this activity and once caught a nudibranch which was such a wonderful addition to our fish tank. It reminded me of a Spanish dancer in her flamenco dress as it swirled and swam around!
Raymond and Masooda Marchand and Bill and Jackie Singlehurst worked for the American oil company CONOCO, and became close friends of ours. They had a lovely holiday cottage perched on a cliff with a 270 degree view of the ocean. We often joined them at the cottage on a weekend and our children d loved to fish while we sat on the porch, drinks in hand gazing out at the vast expanse of shimmering blue water.
Though the beaches in Mogadishu were spectacular, we were wary of them and forbade our children to swim in the sea because it was shark infested. Somalia had the second highest known incidence of shark attacks in the world. This was because the Russian Government had begun to build an abattoir in the city which was being used without it being properly constructed and completed. Consequently, the offal & blood from the slaughtering went straight into the sea attracting the sharks who came from miles around into those shallow waters to feed.
One Friday as we were lazily sitting around a table gazing out at sea, Bill spotted the dorsal fin of a shark sticking out of the water. There was much excitement at the sighting, it was a monster, we were all amazed by its size!
We got home that evening and were taking a shower when Michel barged in visibly upset and told us that our friend Abdillahi was at the door and he was crying. Robert rushed out with a towel wrapped around him and amid heaving sobs he heard Abdillahi say “Nirura is in the morgue please come with me" Nirura was the 13 year old daughter of Abdilahi and Sandra, Robert's colleague at UNICEF and good friends of ours.
She was in Michel's class at the American School and she was at the beach with two of her friends and their parents. The children spent a wonderful morning, they got out of the water and were all set to go home when the children had a change of heart and begged their parents to be allowed back in the water one last time. It was very hot but the parents reluctantly agreed and the three young girls held hands and ran into the sea screeching with delight! They were paddling in shallow water that came up to their knees when suddenly a monster shark rolled in on a wave and attacked Nirura who was in the middle between her two friends. The girls only heard her say “Ouch” as the shark tore her apart! The children were besides themselves, screaming and terrorized as their father ran down the beach and dragged what was left of Nirura as the shark came in for a second attack! He just managed to pull the bloody mess that moments before had been a beautiful, young child, out of the water and collapsed on the sand. There were some people around who came to help and managed to calm the family and get them the into their car. After placing what was left of the body in the morgue, the parents went to Sandra and Abdillahi's house to break this horrific news to them. Nirura was their only beloved child. There are no words to express their shock, despair, grief and pain nor can I comprehend the emotions of the parents who took the girls out and the trauma faced by their children and by them, nightmares that would haunt them their entire lives!
Robert accompanied Abdillahi to the morgue and called the UNICEF doctor, Chris Bentley, who told us later that he had never seen such a horrific sight in all his years in medical school. The shark in one mammoth bite bit off an entire side of the child. Nirura's funeral was attended by local dignitaries, school children, Government Officials and the entire expat community in Mogadishu. Unbelievably, the very next Friday after the funeral, we saw some of the people who had attended the funeral along with their children, swimming at Sharks Bay where the attack had taken place. Those are the ones who believe "it won't ever happen to me," but the attacks continued unabated. We think that the monster fin we saw from the Conoco Guest House that afternoon belonged to the same shark that took Nirura.
Easter Sunday Easter Mass at the Cathedral
"Mogadishu Cathedral was a Roman Catholic cathedral located in Mogadishu, and it was the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese. It was built in 1928 in accordance with the Italian plan for the development of Mogadishu as capital of Italian Somaliland. It was built in a Norman Gothic style, and based on Cefalù Cathedral in Italy. The last Bishop of Mogadishu, Salvatore Colombo, was killed while saying mass in this cathedral by armed insurgents in 1989. After some years, the building was completely destroyed by Muslim fundamentalists."-- Wikipedia.
It was 1986 and I was invited to sing a solo during the offertory at the Easter Sunday Service in the Mogadishu Cathedral. Several Bishops and Cardinals were arriving from neighboring countries and I was asked to sing "Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring" by Bach. Though I knew the song well and was happy to sing it, I had to find someone to accompany me as the beauty of that piece is in large part dependent on it's accompaniment. Someone recommended Elizabeth Okafo, an African American lady and a talented musician. She taught at the American School and was more than happy to play for me. We made enquiries about the organ and were told that the cathedral had recently updated their instruments and was now in possession of a brand new electric organ to replace the old one which had bellows that had to be pumped to produce any sound. The new organ was perfect, it had a lovely tone and the rehearsals went smoothly, the acoustics were terrific and I was all set to sing.
The service was splendid, the cardinals and bishops decked out in their finery and the cathedral packed to capacity. The offertory began, people lined up for the sacrament and Elizabeth began playing the introduction on the electric organ. I was concentrating on the number of bars before I had to sing my first note when I heard Elizabeth say "Oh shit" which echoed through the rarefied air, shit, shit, shit, which had the bishops and cardinals all aflutter! The electricity went off and the organ was dead! Elizabeth was not to be deterred! She indicated that I should follow her and we marched across to the bellows organ where she set up her music in a cloud of dust and pumped away heroically, coaxing some sounds out of the old box. She did a fantastic job and that was one solo I will always remember. Sadly that beautiful cathedral was bombed and has been destroyed in the wars between the various militias. The last bishop Salvatore Colombo was murdered in 1989 and I wonder if he had been at that memorable Easter Service when I sang?
The Visit of Anne Princess Royal
Princess Anne is involved with over 200 charities and organizations and she visited Somalia while we were there in her official capacity as President of Save the Children Fund. Being a British citizen I was a member of BLISS (British Ladies Living In Somalia). It was a fun group and the ladies in it were all aflutter because the embassy had set aside an afternoon for BLISS to host a tea party for the Princess. There was panic when it was discovered that none of us had sugar cubes, essential for the princess' tea. A member travelling to Nairobi offered to bring some back, a silver tea service was found and the menu for the tea was endlessly discussed and often changed according to the ingredients we had at hand. Wardrobes were aired, clothes borrowed, hats created, and little Gemma Clarke and our youngest son Adil, were chosen as the children to deliver flower posy's to the Princess. They were taught how to courtesy, bow and smile and were repeatedly told to speak only if the princess spoke to them. They were spruced up and ready as were we all. I looked utterly absurd in a borrowed blue suit and ridiculous hat, and we all lined up in our finery and stood on our predesignated spots at the British Embassy.
Princess Anne arrived in a very ordinary dress wearing comfortable sandals and she graciously accepted the flowers from the children who performed perfectly. As she was going around greeting each seriously overdressed BLISS member, Adil ran up to me, and loudly announced "you told me she was a princess but where is her crown?" everyone burst out laughing, including the Princess!
Princess Anne was very gracious and spoke to every member of the group. She talked to me about sharks in Somalia and then proceeded to ask for a glass of orange juice as she did not drink tea! so much for the sugar lumps, silver tea service and food which she hardly ate...we polished it all off and had a good laugh over Adil's outburst for many years to come!
We met Princess Anne again in Dar es Salaam at a launch of a new Land Rover car. She was gracious as ever and again, did not wear her crown!!