Album Notes

That Miraculous Village:

I like to express my appreciation and deep gratitude to my family and good friends who inspired me to prepare and present these poems to my audience. I also like to thank from my heart those who provided me critical technical and professional advice and help in taping, voice and music mixing, reading, editing and preparing the art design; including Ethiosound, Tbeb Studio, Discmakers and my good old friends. Finally, as an Ethiopian-American, I like to express my deep appreciation to our new country, USA, which provided me and thousands of Ethiopians a new life, freedom and hope with new opportunities to pursue our dreams, including raising our children, providing support to our family and relatives and paying attention to the serious concerns of our native-land-Ethiopia.

I present these poems with great humbleness because I don't claim to be a good writer. The poems are selected pieces in the Amharic language, which I wrote over the last two decades to express to myself my anguish, frustrations and deep feelings about the hardships my native land, Ethiopia has gone through. I hope they express the resilience, patience, strength, optimism and hope of millions of Ethiopians, primarily those in the countryside; including women, in the face of repeated adverse natural, social and political hardships, such as drought, famine, poverty, war, epidemics and political crisis. They also attempt to remind listeners the critical importance of tolerance, peace, unity and stability, if the country is to achieve lasting freedom from the vicious circle of poverty, manmade and natural disasters, which it is still facing, as it strives to reach a sustainable growth and development. These poems represent my modest contribution for developing awareness and motivation to keep-up those noble dreams with hope and hard work.

Thank you,

Abiyu Berlie
Blue Nile Art Streams