13/10/2020

 

A year has passed since the war began; I still remember what happened like it was yesterday. The screeching of the planes, the shaking of the ground as the bombs exploded again and again the people crying, children crying alone, but the thing I remember the most was the boat, the hardest thing was getting on to the boat, the stress to gather as many things as possible, having to push through children and adults, tripping on fallen people that were bruised and beaten up. But in the end I made it onto the boat I could only manage to grab a few things: my knife that my dad got me for Christmas a few years ago (the knife had a black blade and a camouflaged handle with some rope tied around it), a bag filled with six water bottles each containing about 750ml of water, half a loaf of bread and 4 cans of soup I also managed to jam my pillow into the remaining space in the bag.

 

When I did get on the boat and found myself a spot it didn’t take me long to realise that my whole family wasn’t on this boat, I knew my dad would be alright but my Mum and my sisters wouldn’t be.

 

I was fortunate to get one of the good boats and I scored a place under the top deck that had pillows and a small, rubber-like mattress. Sadly I had to share it with a few kids that were a lot younger than me. They looked about 4 to 7 years old which meant they were relatively small, so I had a fair amount of room to myself.

 

The trip lasted for what felt like a year or two the food I brought disappeared very quickly and I spent most of the trip starving, sadly 20 people died on the trip. It didn’t bother me that much because I didn’t know them, but others didn’t take it so lightly. Two of the people that had died were the kids that I shared the mattress with I think they got sick and just died. Luckily I didn’t get sick and I had more room to sleep ( I did end up getting more sleep as a result)

 

Now I am in a refugee camp in god knows where, we still aren’t allowed into this god forsaken country, I am starving (we are only given very little food but it’s better than none), cold and worried for my family, I hope I will see them soon.

 

Max Newcombe