Yahara Journal 2021

Memories of a Programmer Adama Sawadogo Almost like a daily ritual, he ended his day with these scripts in the command prompt: git add . & git commit -m “courses addable” & git push. He saved his long day’s work before shutting the machine down with shutdown /s. Nobila always had his fingers invisibly glued to the keyboard. Now, it was time to go to bed and enjoy the movies of his long-time but vivid memories. Quickly, his desperate attempt to revisit his day and his successes and failures did nothing but drift onto the island of his nostalgic childhood memories.

The last time he telephoned Grandma back in the Homeland to Honest People, he felt as though he had just left. Their conversations were long and deep, as he would often pull out common memories that he had with her, some of which she had already forgotten.

However, he avoided certain words and topics, as he knew that the old woman would not sleep days afterward just thinking about the distance separating them. He felt like it was just yesterday that he was farming with her, herding her sheep, and going on trips on foot for dozens of miles. This was one of the most cherished memories he wished to go back to. Or so he thought. His memories about the village where he grew up, his young uncles, his grandma, and the lake were so fresh that he could lose himself in them for a while. On his gran’s mat on the floor, under a thick and warm cotton blanket, laying on his belly, head up, he used to read his elementary lessons in front of the incandescent lamp. He was only nine or ten then. Best times ever!

Romantic memories sometimes stop by, but as he refuses to welcome them, they turn back and slam the door of his conscious mind that is crowded with sweet and innocent experiences. However, on rare occasions, he accepts the urge to look back at these beautiful young girls who had always had a crush on him only because he was smart, if not the smartest. Alas, the same way he refutes his memories, he ignored the girls. Now he wonders why he had not been courageous enough to talk to the teacher’s daughter, whom he 14