aqumada

           

            About two weeks ago I posted an article I had written about “Abesha Women” knowing all too well their wrath would get me sooner or later. Despite insistence from some folks for me to come out of hiding and respond to some of the comments written in reaction to the article, I purposely stayed away from writing a response. This is not a response. It is a true story of poetic justice (sort of) that will satisfy abesha women who were upset by that article.

            Last week, when the cold front was just sweeping across the north east, lady luck smiled favorably on me and I had to fly out to Los Angeles to interview for a job (residency). Having done six similar interviews in the three weeks prior to my LA trip, and having gone through a few curve-ball questions unscathed, a false sense of confidence was starting to set in as I made my way to the UCLA medical center. The day long interview process started at 8am, shortly after I had received my itinerary for the day. I was to be interviewed by 7 different teams comprising a total of 25 people.

            Around noon, I left a team of physicians and proceeded to another room where another team of physicians had been waiting for me to arrive. Fast paced, I headed to the one empty chair in the room that unmistakably was designated for me. Cool like a cucumber and ready to answer their questions, I was only inches away from the chair when one of the physicians came from behind his desk and with stretched arms greeted me by saying “selam, tadias.” Caught off guard, I just stood there with a bewildered look on my face, frantically trying to remember the names of physicians I had seen on my interview itinerary. Disappointed at my own futile attempt, I shook his stretched out hand and asked if he is from the land of Punt (Ethiopia). “No”, he said and added “but my wife is” while pointing to a framed picture of him and his wife placed on the book shelf. That broke the ice and set the light mood in the interview room.

            I was about half way done interviewing with this particular team of physicians when one of them asked me what I like to do outside of academia. I started listing some things that interest me and as if out of habit, I said, “I also like to write whenever I get the time for it.”  Naturally, the follow up question came from the inquisitive physicians who wanted to know what types of articles I write. I have never been sure how to describe my articles because they tend to be about whatever tickles my curiosity. And that is exactly what I told them save for the part where I told them they could see samples on this blog. No sooner after that came out of my mouth did I start counting the minutes when I will be done with the interview so I can go online and delete that “Abesha Women” article. Who knew Dr. H (full name withheld to protect the innocent), who is a dead ringer for an Ethiopian and married to an Abesha woman, would start checking the blog while I was still in the room. Although, in the interest of time, he stopped short of scrolling down to the “Abesha Women” article, I don’t know what has happened since I left the room. Lord, have mercy! Isn’t karma a bitch?!