‘Come my son’ my father smiled, ‘do not be afraid. This will be an adventure’. 

I wasn’t sure about that. I had never seen so much water before. For all of my eight years, we had lived in a small village in a dry and dusty area where we had to try to save every bit of water that came in the rains. Sometimes even after the rainy season, the water tanks were not full, so we had to take even more care until the next rains came. Here was all this water as far as I could see but it was not gentle as the rains were, nor as unmoving as the water in the tanks. It was tossing up and down like a beast in pain. 

‘It will be alright’ smiled my mother even though she did not look happy and sure that it would be. ‘Your father and the other men will look after us’. 

‘Hurry up, hurry up’ shouted the men who had brought us in the trucks. ‘We haven’t got much time now’. 

They started to push us forward onto a small boat and were not too gentle or polite when they pushed the women as well as the men. 

There were so many people squashed together, men and women and children like me. The men from the trucks were giving out orange jackets which they called life jackets, but there were not enough for everyone. My father made my mother and I take one, but he said he would manage without, as there were not enough and he was strong and would be safe. 

I did not dare ask again why we were doing this for fear of making my father angry and my mother upset. They had told me that we were going to another country where there would be work for my father and we would have a better life and home, with plenty to eat and a better education for me. I did not understand because we had a home in the village with all our family and I went to the school room most days and could already read and write a little. It was true that some days there was not much to eat, but we all shared what we could so usually managed. I knew that the women shared their food with the children, so they were sometimes more hungry but that was just as it always was. The men had to eat if there was enough food because they had to work and try to grow whatever food they could, or go to the big town and find work there. 

My mother had brought a little food with us that all of our family had shared with her and the men gave us a small bottle of water. We were used to not having a lot of spare water, so that was not a problem. 

The first day was not too bad, but we soon found out there was not a toilet on this boat, just a bucket in the corner. My father and I held a shawl across the bucket when my mother needed to go, so that she had some privacy, but I could tell she was very unhappy. Some of the men were not at all polite and just used the bucket in sight of everyone, women included. Sometimes the men rowing the boat just emptied the bucket into the sea, but the horrible smell was still there all around us. 

The water was not very rough during that day so we only rocked a little bit. Then the night-time came. With the dark came the wind, and the water came up over the boat and threw it from side to side. It was dark, the wind and the sea were loud and I was frightened. I held onto my mother and knew she was shaking too. Other women and children were shouting and crying. Some of the children were very small and I tried to be brave because I was older and I wanted my father to be pleased with how well I was behaving. 

I tried to think back to some of the happy times I had had with my family in the village to cheer myself up, but it just made me even sadder to think of all the people we had left behind. I thought the journey in the truck was bad when we drove fast over the bumpy roads for two days, but this was much, much worse. Suddenly there was no light. The moon was covered by dark clouds and the wind got stronger and stronger, the little boat lurched and tossed more and more. There was an awful noise and the boat tipped so that suddenly we were in the water. It was cold, so cold. I clung to my mother, both of us floating a bit in our orange jackets. Where was my father? We could not see him. My mother caught hold of some pieces of wood that were floating by and both of us clung to them together. 

I called out ‘Baba, Baba’, to try to find my father, but I could not hear his voice over the noise of the wind and sea, and the other voices all calling out.All around the voices were calling, 

‘Baba or Ummi’ if they were trying to find their mother, or the names of their family member. 

Suddenly the pieces of wood were snatched out of my mother’s hands by some men floating by. This was not how people should behave. Not how my father had told us we needed to look after each other. Then another man floated by and he had a spare piece of wood that he gave to us. My mother told me to hold on to it as tightly as I could. All the time I was calling for my father, and she was calling out his name. 

Towards dawn, just as the light was beginning to glow again, it got even colder, and I was so frightened and tired. So tired, I just wanted to sleep. I saw my mother was sleeping and thought this was good. I did not understand how dangerous it was for her to sleep in this cold. Then in the distance I could see lights that were not from the moon or stars or from the rising sun.  

‘Ummi, Ummi’ I called. ‘There are lights, there will be people. We will be safe’. 

Before I knew what was happening big boats were there beside us and people were lifting us out of the water and wrapping us in warm, dry blankets. I was so happy that we were safe, I did not understand why my mother would not wake up. One of the men from the big boat lifted me into his arms and took me away, gave me a hot drink, but all the time I was trying to tell him, 

‘No you must help Ummi. You must wake her up’. 

He could not understand me, and I could not understand him. This was not the adventure my father had promised. This was the worst thing I had ever known. Worse than not having enough food in the village back home. Worse than not having enough water when it was so hot. Worse than when grandfather had passed on. I was alone. I did not understand what was happening. I only knew I had to be brave so my father would be pleased with me. 

That was some years ago. I still remember it clearly and sometimes still wake up at night crying for Baba and Ummi. I did not see my father again and I only saw my mother when she was laid on the ground with all the others who had not survived that night in the water. People tell me I was lucky. How can you be lucky to have lost all that you knew? How can you be lucky when your dear mother and father were lost to you in such a horrible way? 

Because I was a child, I was not sent home, although I thought I would have liked to have been. Some kind people took me to live with them, and that was lucky. They taught me their language and I went to school and I am learning so much. When I am older still I will learn to be something like an engineer or maybe a teacher, and one day I will go back to my little village and help people there. One day when life is better and calmer in my country.  

In the meantime I will try to live my life as an adventure, just as my father wanted, and always be grateful that I was found. 

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