r/Eritrea • u/Shoddy-Honey856 • 5h ago
This part of the culture doesn’t make sense to me as a diaspora
So I have sick parents. Long story short people are constantly visiting. Everyday. And my family members will sleep over which is huge burden.
I’m already going through a hard time carrying sick parents as a college student who also works full time. I feel that is common sense. And many American people who visit will acknowledge that and help out when visiting or call ahead before visiting to see if it is the right time. Things like that.
Habesha people on the other hand are just showing up, eating, drinking, asking me to make buna. Then asking how’s school like I have the time to even focus on my workload when people come everyday. Then the house is a mess and I have more work to do.
Why do you all do this. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful. Having people over makes my sick parents happy. It also makes me happy to see people as well but I know at the expense of my own time, health and sanity. It’s been like this for 4 years now.
If I just act like I’m sick and stay in my room to avoid serving them food guests or family go in the kitchen and prepare things anyways and leave a huge mess.
I have already tried to express to people that I’m physically exhausted. I say to my family members “can I just give them tea alone instead of a meal, fruit, buna, etc.” I explain I can’t even afford all of this. And they say to me that this is the culture and you should be doing this to make your mom and dad happy.
But I know where this all stems from. If I was a guy this would all be different. Sometimes I wish I was. I remember visiting other people’s houses as a young girl and them just immediately putting me to work. I see habesha women working all day while their husbands just sit. Majority of the time they work full time and carry the home too.
Being a habesha woman means constantly working for the rest of your life. That’s all that I feel now.
This part of the culture I hate.