NATIONAL EARTHQUAKE DAY

Dear ETNI readers.

Tomorrow, October 21, is National Earthquake Day, which ushers in National Disaster Week. Instead of trying to get our students into the classroom for the 11:00 lesson, we’ll be rushing them out of the building towards an open space. Our school doesn’t even have an open space, as it is built on a hill and the outside is three meters down from the door. A bridge connects it to the street, and the corridor is well fenced off to prevent jumping. After that comes the street. I’m quite curious about how they are going to solve this problem.

If you’re planning to teach a song tomorrow, either bring a guitar or some portable musical instrument. If you can’t play one, get extra batteries for your CD player.

Among the songs I recommend for teaching today are:

I feel the earth move under my Feet ( Carol King) All Shook Up (Elvis Presley, but redone by John Travolta) Earthquake song (Lady Ga Ga) Shake, Rattle and Roll ( Billy Haley and the Comets) Little Earthquakes (Tori Amos) Shakin All Over ( The Guess Who, famous Winnipeg Talent. but it was originally performed several other artists) Earthquake (The Little Girls) Earthquake Rumble (Mistah Richta, on Billy Nye the Science Guy. Joshua and at the Battle of Jericho (trad)

Some of you smarty-pants out there are pointing out that this list is available on YouTube. Well, not to brag, but who thought of telling the other teachers about it, eh? Not you, that’s for sure. Besides, I got most of the songs myself before I checked with Google. So there. If we’re talking about plagiarizing, I have this advice to offer for when the earthquake strikes. It’s take from a poster that once graced the walls of all the ‘clever’ guys in the ‘70s -- right next to the Frank Zappa poster: 10 THINGS TO DO IN CASE OF DISASTER

. . .

8 FIND A SECURE PART OF THE ROOM

9 SIT DOWN AND PLACE YOUR HEAD TIGHTLY BETWEEN YOUR LEGS

10 KISS YOUR ASS GOODBYE

If you want to try a movie, of course there’s Armageddon, 2012, and that one from last year where the asteroid knocks out terra in the first round.

There is also a ‘disaster’ movie from the ‘70s called ‘Earthquake’ and lots of other good stuff. Just where do you propose to set up a screen?

Do any of you have newly arrived Ethiopians in your class? Most of my pupils in the immigrants’ class are here for about half a year, but some of them just showed up a few weeks ago. What do you tell them when they see the other classes trampling each other in a rush for the open spaces?

That white fo’ks sure is crazy? Well, to help you, I looked it up: Yemereyt menketket! Limimi’d. Li mi mi’d.

( The earth to shake! A Practice! A Practice! ). The sound of the k is made a lot like ‘k,’ but at the back of the mouth so it sounds like you’re trying to choke. This courtesy of my Amharic Phrasebook by Semere Woldegabir. I can’t tell you how old this booklet is, as the first few pages are missing, but I’ll give you a hint: It once had as an opening page a picture of His Majesty Haile Selassie ( So it’s Haile Unlikely that it was printed any later than 1975). It is by no means a comprehensive dictionary; offering about 3000 words, but the choice of items is delicious. I can’t find the word ‘only’ , for example, but I can find maize, maid, louse, lowland and lowlander and loafer. On the preceding page I found leprosy, leper, lentile, lazar and leech.

Bankruptcy is keesara, babyhood is hitsanet, urine is shint, and ‘life(opposite of death)’ is hiywet.

The phrases offered include gems like “What is the size of your foot?” and “This is not properly cooked.” So I am quite confident that I’ll be able to hustle my charges out the door and over the bridge. Once safely placed out of earthquake range, I’ll have a lot to discuss with them, like do you have leprosy, when can we go back in for a shint, and what is the size of your leech?

After note: I got a lot of use out of this little book for years, but I was often frustrated by its limitations. A few years ago, a friend of mine went to Ethiopia as part of a medical team. I asked him to pick me up a modern English/ Amharic dictionary. All he could find was a slim volume, which turned out to be a new edition of the same book from 40 years earlier, minus the phrases and the grammar.

And so, in honor of Earthquake day, I printed out a picture of old Haile Selassie, along with the original cover of the book , thanks to Google, and repaired my ancient phrase book.

So, good night. Don’t get too shook up tomorrow, and I hope to be with you on Nov 18 when we celebrate World Toilet Day. (Check it for yourselves) /Barry Silverberg,

Kiriyat Shmona, Oct 20,2012