out of sight, out of mind?

khat, the green gold of somaliland

here enjoyed by the watchman of the CARE Compound

Of course i am here to learn more about CARE's work, about education in Somaliland, about how to run a project and last but not least about how to get a good paid job afterwards. But since the work for CARE doesn't keep me busy from dawn til dusk (actually they stop working at three pm in this country, and overtime is a word which must have been erased from the dictionaries some long time ago), i decided to carry out my own little research besides the research which iam doing for CARE. Finding a topic was not difficult. There seems to be only one really important thing in the everydays life of Somalilanders: Khat. Known also as Miraa, it is the most valuable plant to many people here in Somaliland. Packed on the back of middle sized lorries it reaches Hargeisa twice a day: for breakfast and dinner. First you hear the lorries honking the horn in at least ten different sound combinations, announcing that a new load of the green gold from ethiopia and kenia reached hargeisa safely. Not even five minutes after this noisy welcoming (only the mullahs are making more noise) you see man of all ages and backgrounds with a happy green smile on their lips. Khat is not only pleasing the mind, it is also giving the teeth a fancy green color. But what is Khat? As far as i know it is a kind of amphetamine derived from the leaves of the catha edulis plant. It is a mild stimulant. And it is legal in Somaliland. In order to show any kind of effect one has to chew it for some hours. And that's exactly what most men in this country seem to be occupied with from morning til evening: chewing. Up to now i met nobody who is not chewing. The watchmen inside the CARE compound do it. The Ministers do it (that is actually the reason why they close their offices by one pm - they must be recipients of the morning load). The police men are chewing (though those unfortunate guys have to work til late. Surprisingly enough they manage to keep the traffic under control - i guess they do so because they are in the same condition as the drivers). I am asking myself if my boss is also chewing? If so he must have a good toothbrush - his teeth are never covered by green leftovers. Women are not chewing - but they are selling. Many can make a living out of the addiction of the male population.

Some days ago the mayor of Hargeisa tried to enforce a new law which would force all the khat sellers to move out of the town centre. The plan is to establish some five designated sites in each part of town where sellers and buyers can meet. In his view this would decrease the amount of Khat consumed on a daily basis - and it would have a positive sideeffect on the environment: Thousands of small plastic bags, the bags in which Khat is wrapped, are scattered all over the citys streets. But not only there. Today i travelled to a neighbouring town in order to visit one of the project sites. Not thousands, but millions of those bags made the thorny trees look like chrismastrees at the end of the season - called also "somaliland flowers" they are defenitely a sign for the scale of the problem, and maybe some garbage can along the streets in the town centre would do a better job then those designated areas outside the town. After all, i dont think that moving khat out of sight would move it at the same time out of the mind - these green leaves are too deeply rooted in the minds of the people as if closing down the selling areas alone would solve the problem.

You want to know more? A friend of mine (actually the english teacher for the support staff af CARE) recently wrote an article on Khat. Read it, it will tell you more about the importance of Khat and of the problems it is causing here in Somaliland!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4145400.stm

And if you want to understand better the effects of khat on peoples mind, go to Dr. Mohammed Alkamels page: www.geocities.com/forceps1974/ That guy must defenitely have been eating a lot of khat while working on his website!

In the meantime it became dark outside the house, the Khat lorries are competing with the Dolby Surround of the Mullahs, and Osman, the cook, promised me to prepare pizza tonight. Besides Pizza, he offered me some whiskey - since i am not chewing khat (yet) ... ;-)

Have a sunny day!