ColvenComp1RoughDiaryEntry

March 21, 2002 Dear Diary, I don’t know how much more ‘this I can stand. I been seeing too many of my friends and family getting slaughtered and kidnapped. They killed my father as he was trying to protect us from a raid; and they made me kill my own mother. My older brother was fortunate enough to be gathering water from a stream about two miles away. The last I saw of my father was him running out of our hut with his knife to try and keep the Janjaweed from coming into the hut where me and my mother were hiding. I saw my father running after a man, but the man took his machete and drove it right through his heart. My mother saw it too and she started weeping quietly. We hid for about two hours and it was nighttime now. Then, two men burst into our hut and grabbed for my mother. I got up and stood in their path so they wouldn’t hurt her. I grabbed for their gun but he just hit me with the butt of it and I fell over. He picked me up and said “well since you seem so interested in my gun, let me show you how to use it.” He picked me up, put the gun in my hands and aimed it toward my mother. He told me to pull the trigger. I started crying and telling him I couldn’t do it. So he grabbed my hand, stuck my finger on the trigger and pulled it. I saw my mother’s body cease to live in less than a second. I collapsed to the ground and they just left me there to suffer. Now I have to struggle to survive with my brother by my side until some miracle happens that will just end this chaos. I hope that day comes soon; I’m losing my will to survive by the hour.    July 12th, 2009 Dear Diary, My life is spiraling down one day at a time. Now that my brother is gone, I have no one to go to for protection or advice. The only thing I was able to do was travel for days to a “Internally Displaced Person” camp. But they suck. All I see is puke and rotten shit everywhere. Everyone is sick and even dying from these diseases. I don’t even know what it is that’s going around. I’m not really trying to talk to people, mostly because I don’t want to get sick, and the fact that I haven’t completely accepted the fact that I am alone. I don’t need anyone else. My brother has taught me everything I need to survive and I’m not about to go against it. Characteristics - Date -"dear diary" -event

Criteria -Something important that happened -feelings about what happened