Hello again. I am back again as it has once more been longer than I would like since I last posted. Again, work and moving have affected the free time I have (in addition to starting a summer course far away from where I work, but close to where I grew up), but hopefully there will be more posts coming soon.
The other good thing about all this is that although I don’t have access to most of my book collection which stayed at my new house, I now have access to all the afaan Oromoo books I stored with relatives. Some of these will be going back with me to my home at the end of my class, and some will be staying here for different reasons.
Launhardt Guide
One of the books that has never made the trip, partly just because it is a huge book, is Johannes Launhardt’s Guide to the Oromo Language. In addition to the size, this book also mostly uses the fidel writing system to write afaan Oromoo as it predates the widespread use of qubee for writing. From my time living in Ethiopia, I can sound out the writing for the most part, but I had always lived in afaan Oromoo speaking parts of the country, so it was never something I put a lot of time and effort into as I focused on learning to speak, read, and write afaan Oromoo. Like many books I have collected, this also seems more directed towards beginners and although useful for vocabulary building and review doesn’t bring much that can’t be found in more recent published material, such as Griefenow-Mewis and Bitima’s Lehrbuch, although this one is in English.
This was a difficult book to find and if I have time, I will try to go through it in more depth, but the size makes it difficult to just bring along on a trip or for light reading in-between classes, and the writing means it doesn’t flow as well as many if the newer books I have picked up over the years. I haven’t seen it for sale since I bought it, although I wasn’t looking specifically for the book. I keep an eye AbeBooks and BIBLIO with some frequency to make sure I am not missing any out of print books that pop up, but unless I don’t know of it’s existence, I have found most except for Gragg’s Oromo Dictionary.
Oromia
For a couple different reasons, including the moving and class but also some other obstacles, I wasn’t able to make my usual visits to Ethiopia and specifically Oromia this year. I usually try to make it around 1-4 times a year depending on other factors. I often try to visit friends and places from when it was my home and also get the chance to look for new or older books that have popped up since my last visit. Since I wasn’t able to visit, I instead give you the view from one of my favorite walks and hope that I will be back again soon.