Suddenly they had to run

In 1983 war begins in Sudan. Hundred-thousands of people flee to other countries. Many of them are children. Chol Paul Guet, at that time a nine-year-old, is one of them. He is playing with his friends when the soldiers come.

It was about five o'clock, Chol Paul was playing. Suddenly the soldiers were there. The children ran away, they didn't look where their parents or their family were, or if their mothers were still alive. They heard the mashine guns, the bombs crashing in and the crying (or dying) people. They couldn't take anything with them. They went many weeks without any food and they had nearly nothing to drink. Many of them died of hunger, other were killed by lions or other wild animals. They began to eat the leaves of the trees and even soil. Then his best friend died but Chol Paul carried on walking because he knew if he stayed at his friend's dead body, he would die too. After two months, they came to the Anyak tribe, who showed them the way to Ethiopia and told them how to catch fishes right at the river, but there weren't enough for everybody. So the hunger still went on. The next obstacle was a big river. Many drowned when swimming across. At least they got to the camp and there they didn't have any food for two month, but anyway - they had peace. Later Chol Paul was sent to Kakuma, a city in Kenya. There he lived with other boys. They built their own shelters, they cooked their own meal and they were going to school. Chol Paul wanted to become an engineer and when he would be grown-up he wanted to built up Sudan like other African countries.

He still doesn't know if his parents are alive or if they are dead, he only knows that his mother wouldn't recognize him because the last time, he had seen her, was five years ago, just before the soldiers came.

(written on march 20 ^th, 2003)

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