rekindled spirit

 

my father

my father and mother escaped from eritrea (at the time it was part of ethiopia and after years of civil unrest and tension a war had started that lasted close to 32 years). my father’s life was in danger because he is an eritrean that served in the ethiopian air force. when they escaped in the middle of night, it was a secret that only my mother’s oldest brother knew. they made arrangements for me to stay at my grandfather’s house because they had no idea where they were going. i was 3 years old. they crossed the border into sudan on camel and were lucky to make it through because thousands of people were killed attempting to leave the country daily. they were safely settled in khartoum for three months before my father risked is life again and returned to asmara to get me. he had his mother deliver me to him in the country side outside of asmara (where my mother’s family lived). today, he tells me that he was astonished at how easily i remembered him and was so happy i was to see him when he picked me up. he told me that was afraid i would forget him. this time we crossed the border in a little white van. it was 1975 and at the time it was rumored that the ethiopian government was conspiring to over throw numeri, president of sudan. so we were stopped and searched, and jailed at the border. they separated me from my father because i was female and he male. i stayed in the women’s cell while he in the men’s. i can still feel the pain and horror that i felt when they separated me from him. i remember a lovely eritrean lady named hewit (translates to life in tigrinya) befriended me and took care of me for two weeks. i got very ill. there was hardly any food to eat and i was very dehydrated. i was so sick that they finally took me to my father. he was outraged and he demanded that we see a doctor. we were accompanied by an officer to the hospital where i have my first memory of a tongue depressor being stuck in my mouth making me gag. after i was treated, this was just for a few hours, the officer that had accompanied us with no authority, decided to let us go free. i don’t remember how we got to my mother, but i remember i was sitting on my father’s shoulders when we got to the door. my mother, who had been mourning our deaths, because we were two weeks over due, thinking we had been killed by the ethiopian army dropped to the ground and started crying when she opened the door. i had no idea that our lives were in danger and that we were lucky to have survived. as a child, this experience stayed in my memory. i would talk about it and mention it growing up and my parents just couldn’t believe how much of it i remembered. they often would say oh elsa, you overheard us talking about it, didn’t you? about five years ago, my father and I spontaneously told the story together to other family members for the first time. as he spoke and recalled details, people, and conversations, i for the very first time heard the fear, anger, and sadness in voice. it was also the first time that this story made me cry. i also learned that he decided to risk his life and return to get me because my mother cried for me everyday. i think about them everday. now even more than ever that we are so far apart. and on days like father’s day, I feel overwhelming love for my father as I do everyday. i think about how he saved my life, took it in his hands and changed it forever.

happy father’s day baba! i love you more than i can say!

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 17th, 2007 at 2:11 pm and is filed under from my roots.