13/12/2017 13:29 PM
To our female Veterans that gave up on motherhood
If anyone asks you if you count as a mother, tell them yes.
You are the mother to my own children.
If anyone asks you if you held a child and listened to his first breath,
Tell them yes, you heard the breath of all our children.
If anyone asks you if you count as mother whose belly grew and heard a heartbeat.
Tell them yes, because you gave us a chance to have our own kids while you were building roads that took us to freedom.
Tell them you made the enemy run for his dear life.
Tell them that all the kids you did not have are free to run the landscape of our beloved country.
Tell them that you as a mother counts – million times over – even if your belly never grew, if the heartbeat was not growing in your being, or the baby cries did not fill the night through.
You count as a mother to babies you do not know the names. To pain no one understands how deep.
If anyone asks you if you had a boy or a girl, tell them you had many of each.
If you feel that you have been robbed of the opportunity to be a mother,
tell them that to all Eritrean children you gave the opportunity to be.
You gave too much and received no honor to this day.
Here is what heroes with a good heart – like you all - do: You give excuses when we forget you.
You make us watch the best we can be. When we are at our worst, you lift us up.
You are never busy, but always available for Eritrea.
We wonder why you were willing to give up so much and gifts us with more.
You smile and accept the love – you think – you have earned. And we just accept the love - we think - we are entitled to.
I hope you will never give up on us, because I dread that day as one when the sky will become suddenly grey.
Our heroes, our guide, our tomorrow is all of you.
I am grateful.
Kiki Tzeggai
December 8, 2017
"Of all the forces that make for a better world, none is so powerful as hope. With hope, one can think, one can work, one can dream. If you have hope, you have everything."
" Peace is a wall we will all create by building it brick-by-brick together". (Trade mark)