Lunch On Liido Beach Mogadishu, Somalia 🇸🇴+ Stories
Intro
During my time in Mogadishu, Somalia, I got up to quite a few activities, one of them being having lunch on Liido beach at a beachfront restaurant. When thinking about Somalia, I am quite sure that a beachfront lunch with fresh kingfish doesn't come to mind, but that's exactly what happened.
For those wondering what most Somalis eat, it is a fishing town. Thus, most of what people consume is fresh fish bought from the fish market that I visited. However, if it isn't fish, there are plenty of local foods such as canjelo (a type of bread thing ish) and suqaar (soup).
Lunch
After visiting the lighthouse, the next stop on the tour would be lunch at a beachfront restaurant. There are few places in the world that are more beautiful than the ocean in Mogadishu, and this lunch was nothing short of fantastic.
My guide has arranged and pre-ordered everything, including this local juice. In addition, I learned that a lot of the food for these restaurants has been imported from Turkey. Interestingly, Turkey has the largest embassy in Somalia and is the only embassy not in the "green zone."
As we sat eating some imported Sphagehtti from Turkey and enjoying some kingfish that had been caught, my guide shared some stories about Somalia.
The first story:
As my guide explained, he feels that the world views Somalia as rotten (to be honest, he is not far off how people view Somalia, not me). One day, he explained how someone was eating some fish from the Somali waters, and he claimed the fish was rotten. He let his friends know that all the fish from the ocean were rotten and so on and so on. Hearing this story, it's really sad to see how people judge everyone else when they don't know the entirety of a situation (more on this in another post).
The second story:
My guide continued explaining to me how the world views Somalia. For those who are unaware, the second biggest resource in Somalia is livestock, and thus, the country tries to trade this. Somalia had set up a deal with a country in the Middle East for thousands of goats, and the country was going to make a healthy profit. As the thousands of goats crossed the ocean, a couple of them died (which is quite normal for the duration of the journey). Upon arrival, the country declined all of the goats due to the deaths of a few of them. Thus, they had to transport all of them back to Somalia after making no money on the trade.
There are always two sides to a story, but it puts into perspective how sheltered we are from the media as it feeds what benefits them.
Listening to these stories and enjoying the beautiful views over the ocean, I couldn't help but feel empathy for this country. For a second, put yourself in the position of someone from Somalia... People coming into your waters to steal your fish, civil war destroying your country, people wanting your resources and treating you badly.
Final Thoughts
Having lunch at a beachfront restaurant on Liido Beach was fabulous, filled with fresh kingfish, lovely spaghetti, and some local juice. However, the most beautiful part was hearing the stories and the real side of what the people from Somalia have had to face. Once again, Mahadsanid 🙏🇸🇴.
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