This days one must be careful to avoid awakening the pain of another.

I was so happy that my mother, father, and two brothers had somehow found one another. Perhaps my mother and father have gotten back together, I thought.

I put my hands behind my head and lay on my back, trying to hold on to the memories of my family. Their faces seemed to be far off somewhere in my mind, and to...

Sometimes I closed my eyes hard to avoid thinking, but the eye of the mind refused to be closed and continued to plague me with images.

I lay in my bed night after night staring at the ceiling and thinking, Why have I survived the war? Why was I the last person in my immediate family to be alive? I didn’t...

One of the unsettling things about my journey, mentally, physically, and emotionally, was that I wasn’t sure when or where it was going to end. I didn’t know what I was going to do with...

My squad was my family, my gun was my provider and protector, and my rule was to kill or be killed. The extent of my thoughts didn’t go much beyond that. We had been fighting...

I joined the army to avenge the deaths of my family and to survive, but I’ve come to learn that if I am going to take revenge, in that process I will kill another person...

The branches of the trees looked as if they were holding hands and bowing their heads in prayer.

I was sad to leave, but I was also pleased to have met people outside of Sierra Leone. Because if I was to get killed upon my return, I knew that a memory of my...

Some people tried to hurt us to protect themselves, their family and communities…This was one of the consequences of civil war. People stopped trusting each other, and every stranger became an enemy. Even people who...

We must strive to be like the moon.’ An old man in Kabati repeated this sentence often… the adage served to remind people to always be on their best behavior and to be good to...

I was afraid to fall asleep, but staying awake also brought back painful memories. Memories I sometimes wish I could wash away, even though I am aware that they are an important part of what...

My squad is my family, my gun is my provider, and protector, and my rule is to kill or be killed.

How many more times do we have to come to terms with death before we find safety?” he asked. He waited a few minutes, but the three of us didn’t say anything. He continued: “Every...

It isn’t about knowing the most stories, child. It is about carrying the ones that are most important and passing them along.

The sun’s brightness painted our shadows on the ground.

Every time people come at us with the intention of killing us, I close my eyes and wait for death. Even thought I am still alive, I feel like each time I accept death, part...

Who can ever know what path to walk on when all of them are either crooked or broken? One just has to walk.

Whenever it shows itself – hope, that is – hands from the crowded streets reach for it with such violent urgency because of the fear that they may never see it again. They do so...

I am always quiet so that I know what to say when I must speak.

In the sky there are always answers and explanations for everything: every pain, every suffering, joy and confusion.

We took a bowl each and started eating. He went back into the little room, and by the time he returned to the table with his own bowl of food to eat with us, we...