The Liberian Civil War
Imagine what it would be like to be a child who is living in a country that has been through 14 years of Civil War. Imagine you are with your little cousin standing on the side of the main road on your way to purchase some snacks, when all of a sudden you hear a loud sound: POW, POW, POW. You see people scattered all over the road running toward streets corners, behind buildings, and running into stores to avoid being shot. If you were a ten -year- old child at the time, what would you have done? I have experienced things that many people can’t imagine. To me, a typical day now is coming from school, playing with my friends, and going to get snacks; but back then, my “typical day” was seeing people using weapons and seeing people fleeing for their lives.
I have seen war in movies, and I have heard people talking about it on the news. I never knew how horrifying it could be until I experienced it. I remember clearly; it was 9:00 pm on a Thursday night. A rocket was thrown over the rooftop of our house. I heard a loud sound which made me go deathly quiet until I blacked out for a minute. When I regained consciousness, I heard my uncle cry out saying, “I am bleeding!” He had been hit with one of the rocket particles. When a rocket explodes, it breaks apart into small pieces that project and cause damage. My mother, uncle, auntie, cousin and I went into my mother’s room. My uncle was crying because the bleeding would not stop. That night there wasn’t any medical equipment or any medical attention anywhere. As a result, my uncle continued bleeding throughout the night until the next morning, when he was taken to the hospital. That night, I feared we were all going to die, and I wondered if other kids had ever been in the same situation that I was in at the moment. Thanks to God I am alive.
