Walaloo Mana Barumsaa Koo | 2024 |

I stood there a long time. Then I took a piece of chalk from my pocket — I always carry one — and beneath those words, I wrote:

The walaloo of my school celebrates the cracked desks. On those desks, previous generations had carved their initials, love confessions, and mathematical formulas that refused to stay in the brain. That physical space, however imperfect, was the womb of intellect. walaloo mana barumsaa koo

One memory haunts me sweetly: The last day of 8th grade. We had no graduation party, no cake. Instead, we gathered under the odaa tree, and Barsiisaa Girma — now old, using a stick — asked us each to sing our own walaloo about the school. I stood there a long time