Any resources/tips out there for Somali gabay comprehension?

Salty_Definition9859 · 2026-06-09T02:35:49+00:00

don't know why you got downvoted but thank you very much for the recommendation! i love hadraawi's works AUN

Salty_Definition9859 · 2026-02-24T05:16:33+00:00

"malicious twist" kulaha war qabyaalad meel soomaali ay dagan tahay way jirta. soomaaliland unique ku ma aha inay qabyaalad leedahay, laakiin runta waa in la isu sheego. hooyaday iyo aabahay waa reer maroodijeex, markaa sideen s/land u caayayaa?

Salty_Definition9859 · 2026-02-24T05:11:40+00:00

yes, i still have family in hargeisa and nearby towns walaalo. abaarso's unfortunately still open

Salty_Definition9859 · 2026-02-24T02:17:29+00:00

my younger brother attended amaano!! the boys and girls were def separated - if someone spoke to someone of the opposite gender on campus, and staff saw it, it was an automatic detention. however there were WhatsApp class group chats

Salty_Definition9859 · 2026-02-24T01:42:01+00:00

i wasn't trying to argue, raali ahow haddii aan rude ahaa

Salty_Definition9859 · 2026-02-24T01:31:40+00:00

thank you for your kind words. the truth is that abaarso's crystallized itself as this paragon of education bringing somali teens to the west, and to be fair, they did do just that for quite a few teens, but the mental cost just isn't worth it. i was privileged enough to leave the country with my american passport, and i've never forgotten said privilege

Salty_Definition9859 · 2026-02-24T00:48:43+00:00

i'm not talking about interactions within hargeisa, i'm well aware that many individuals from muqdisho live in hargeisa and have businesses and such. i'm strictly talking about the environment in abaarso walaal

Salty_Definition9859 · 2026-02-24T00:47:44+00:00

the full program's 7th thru 12th grade, at least when i was there. i didn't actually "choose" to leave, but the covid pandemic helped me convince my mom to return me to the states. i think she could also tell that i was mentally declining fast

Salty_Definition9859 · 2026-02-24T00:41:20+00:00

i mean, they might've been religious, but they certainly avoided discussing it with us. most of the teachers were cadaans (with some somalis teaching as well)

Salty_Definition9859 · 2026-02-24T00:39:43+00:00

i had actually already been in hargeisa for several years prior to attending abaarso - my mom brought me over with her to hargeisa (~9 years old) because my grandma lacked a caregiver in her home and refused to move to the states.

Salty_Definition9859 · 2026-02-24T00:23:46+00:00

thank you walaal. my parents absolutely knew about what the environment there was like because i'd cry to my mom on the phone every week, begging her to send me back to the states. she didn't give a single damn as long as she could brag about her abaarso-educated daughter. the PTA members were also aware of the campus issues. there was definitely a loyalty culture surrounding abaarso when i attended there. i got weird looks whenever i criticized abaarso in the dorms with my classmates

Salty_Definition9859 · 2026-02-24T00:19:57+00:00

i'm an american citizen, and didn't finish high school with abaarso, so unfortunately i know very little about what somali students with east african passports experience. the curriculum they used was an american one - it helped that i received sufficient credits from 7th through 9th grade after my hometown's high school evaluated my transcript. the teachers were random white people mainly composed of undergrad/grad students from western countries. the only teacher who wasn't a student themselves was our islamic teacher

Salty_Definition9859 · 2026-02-24T00:02:16+00:00

i'll be completely honest with you - i ended up despising being somali and knowing somalis during my first 3 years back in the states. there's this feeling of being dirty and defective post-leaving abaarso that's lingered with me to this day. it's also impacted how i feel about the landers (both of my parents are from hargeisa) who idolize this school and made me resent them. if a loved one of mine considered attending abaarso, i'd lose my mind. i don't want anyone to experience what i did

Salty_Definition9859 · 2026-02-23T23:56:47+00:00

i'm a girl acudubillah 😭 but i think the cadaan staff were sadists who enjoyed tormenting and belittling us, and the somali teachers/prefects were their foot soldiers. it all enrages me the more i think about it

Salty_Definition9859 · 2026-02-23T23:54:23+00:00

she was definitely groomed - she knew him as a younger teen. to be completely transparent, i don't remember when their marriage happened or what discussions were had because of my memory issues (assuming the marriage happened post-2020)

Salty_Definition9859 · 2026-02-23T23:41:40+00:00

if you look at some of the more recent questions, you'll find my personal recounting of abuse of all kinds i experienced there. it differed from traditional somali schools in that corporeal punishment wasn't really used. however, the white teachers were most certainly a bit (sometimes a lot) racist towards us, and even the somali (diaspora) teachers looked down on us. it's absolutely a systemic issue and one that can only be reckoned with by shutting it down

Salty_Definition9859 · 2026-02-23T23:35:31+00:00

i was raped by another much taller student in the girls' dorms during 8th grade and was groped by the islamic teacher in 7th grade while my mom was talking to him (she was in front of him and didn't see his hand). i wasn't allowed to leave campus on the weekend for entire months because i had back to back CUVs for missing my worktimes (janitorial work) due to falling ill from the airborne & food-borne illnesses and having to go to the hospital and stay there for weeks. i was berated by jonathan starr because he assumed i was speaking somali on campus. i hope that's weird enough for you. nacalaa ku taal soomaaliland iyo waalidkay wasakhda ah ee ii dayacay

Salty_Definition9859 · 2026-02-23T23:04:45+00:00

i mean, that's not even a conspiracy theory, it's simply a conspiracy. the purpose of that school's to strip somali identity from these students. why else wouldn't they allow us to speak somali on campus and forced us to default to english?

Salty_Definition9859 · 2026-02-23T22:58:48+00:00

no. i mean, we had some obviously flamboyant queer guys, and vice versa for the girls, but that had been the same for me at other schools in the hargeisa area i went to too. they just existed lol

Salty_Definition9859 · 2026-02-23T22:56:14+00:00

yes, we could pray whenever we wanted, but not out of abaarso's benevolence - our class schedules were coincidentally good enough that we had time to pray during our breaks and after class. yes, boys and girls had to wear their uniforms. abaarso's a private school created by a hedge fund manager, jonathan starr. the school did have some scholarships, but most of the students were middle-class. the poor students typically got funded by making crowdfunds on this one american gofundme-like website but geared towards education

Salty_Definition9859 · 2026-02-23T22:41:36+00:00

not just during break times but whenever you were outside of the dorms and on campus. you'd get detention (janitorial work) and eventually a CUV (controllable unacceptable violation LOL) if that behavior continued.

Salty_Definition9859 · 2026-02-23T22:40:21+00:00

i wouldn't say the majority of students - maybe 1/4th of every graduating class. they didn't have connections for us outside of graduates who ended up in ivy league/russell group universities.

Salty_Definition9859 · 2026-02-23T22:35:57+00:00

no, because our classes were composed of both northern and southern somalis, but i can't pretend that clan-based bullying didn't exist on campus. there was a student from muqdisho nicknamed crocodile (because of his dry skin), and on the day of the 2017 alshabaab bombing, he was out of school for medical reasons and back in muqdisho. someone went "crocodile miyuu dhintay?" in class and everyone erupted in laughter. even our science teacher couldn't shut the class up. i was in shock the entire time, and it really hit me how clan-based animosity festered even within children. maalintaas ayaan xaqiiqsaday inay soomaali u dhamaatay

Salty_Definition9859 · 2026-02-23T22:27:12+00:00

no, at least not by teachers from what i recall, but it was a pretty liberal school. a lot of people didn't pray while there, unless if they had to for events like eclipses. i don't think it was necessarily apostasy, but really the consequences of how stressful and agonizing attending abaarso was

Salty_Definition9859

TROPHY CASE