It was 1998 and I had just started life in the US. I was not yet eating pizza and cheeseburgers, but I was getting used to the taste of American injera.

One morning, I found out that a war between Ethiopia and Eritrea had broke out. We didn’t have CNN or BBC at home, but we had the internet. Every Saturday, my father would have me print out news about the war from different sources. In the process, I would catch up on what was happening. After months of that, it started to really bother me. None of the reports addressed my questions.

The 30 year war ended when I was in second grade, so I was too young to ask the fundamental questions. But this time, I was old enough to make my own observations. It seemed especially strange that these two groups of people should be at war. One of the headlines from back then best described my sentiments. It read something like, “Ethiopia and Eritrea: Brothers at War.” “Exactly,” I thought. While reading the news reports, I realized that many were citing “the Spokesperson of the Ethiopian Government in Washington DC.” Some of the articles used to share the email address of the spokesperson. I figured that must be the person with all the answers. So I decided to email her my questions hoping she could help me make sense of things.

I told her I was a young Ethiopian who had just moved to the US. I asked why the two countries were at war with each other even though they were the same people. She replied very quickly. She said something to the effect of, “Dear Henok, thank you for your message. This is a difficult time for all of us. Everyone in the Government is doing their best to resolve the conflict. Study hard and be well. I personally have great hope that your generation will be able to resolve all of Ethiopia’s problems once and for all.”

I felt somewhat at ease. I also thought, “it will be a very long time before my generation would ever have to worry about that.” It has now been almost 20 years. How do I feel? I feel that the next generation will be able to resolve Ethiopia’s problems once and for all.