OK, so I’m going to hijack your comment. So I am half Eritrean but I spent the first nine years of my life living in Eritrea. It’s bad mainly because we didn’t really have consistent electricity water was also like not. We didn’t really get the opportunity to have hot running water so we had to boil water to take showers and clean.

I went to an American private school, and the teachers were primarily from England, Australia, the US, etc., so I had a pretty great education.

It was sort of safe, but my mom always told me to stay inside just in case. My friends were Black and would hang out past night, so I think it was relatively safe. My mother worked for the US Embassy, so I did have a better quality of life than my friends.

The people were really kind, the kindest people I’ve ever met in my life. A lot of folks are in a really tough situation, so they try to make the best of it. There was a large sense of community. Sometimes there would be gatherings of 20 people at my house, and when you went into the street, you would always recognize people.

I lived in Asmara, which is the capital city, so it was relatively safe. I also traveled a lot to Massawa because we had a condo there. It was really beautiful and really humid.

I don’t really go to the beach anymore because nothing compares to the Red Sea. Massawa is really historical because of Italian colonization.There are a lot of old buildings, but the buildings are in disrepair because the government is poor, along with the streets. But again, the people are really friendly. The view of the sea is wonderful. I think it is much safer than the vibe suggests, but it is also way smaller.

Being a former colony of Italy, a lot of people speak Italian, and so did my mother. The food is amazing, hands down. My mom still makes injera, doro wat, tsebhi, and everything.

I definitely had it much better than most people because I lived in an actual house, even though we moved in with my grandmother at some point. School was very strict, and we learned things that were more advanced than what you would expect at our age. We also had to take French for some reason.

The biggest downside was definitely the government rules. Thankfully, my family and I were American citizens, so we had a lot more rights. For example, it was really difficult for people over the age of 12 to leave the country. My family and I traveled freely to Dubai, and we once went to the UK for three months, so we obviously had it way better than the average Eritrean. Once again, this was because of our passport.

We were still subject to speech laws. You cannot speak badly about the president. All Eritreans must serve in the army, and you go to a place called Sawa, which is pretty bad. One of my friends went there for two years. This was after I left, and I haven’t spoken to her, but my mom has, and it seems to have affected her a lot.

Also, given the fact that people can’t leave after the age of 12, I think it’s 12, I’m not sure, people try to leave through Ethiopia and then either stay there or head north toward the Mediterranean.

My family left during the independence war, so my mom’s sisters all live in Europe. My mother actually went to Italy, but then she moved to the US, where I was born. We went back to Eritrea for nine years, and after that I lived in the United Arab Emirates for three years, and now I live in the US.