Two Men Catch Toddler After 40-foot fall

This news article tells about a toddler who was hanging from a window. Two men both ran to the spot where they thought she would land. The men worked together to catch the infant before she hit the ground.

As I was reading this story, I was engaged, I had to keep reading. This story ‘spoke’ to me because it made me feel good. Once I read the title, I couldn’t stop myself from reading the article. While reading the short story, I couldn't help but think about my small sister who is only three. I would be devastated if she fell out a window, but thankful if people had caught her. I know how scared the siblings would have been while trying to hold her inside by her feet. The shock and terror of what would happen next would be running through their minds. The other part of this story that made me feel good is the fact that the people who caught the infant, didn’t even know her. It would have had no affect on the men if they didn’t catch her, yet they stopped what they were doing and ran to the scene. If they had not have bothered running to the house, the infant would not be alive today.

This story inspires me to look out for the abnormal.

This story made me feel happy because this event could have ended tragically but two men were willing to stop the death of the baby.

The Lost Boys of Sudan

Sudan has an interesting yet devastating history. Civil war has broken out many times and unofficial war has also taken place. The first civil war broke out in 1953 and continued until 1972. The second civil war followed 11 years later in 1983 which continued until 2005.

The People of Southern Sudan thought that the Government was favouring the Northern Arabic people. Rebel forces erupted against the Government. The story of the Lost Boys however, relates mostly to the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). This rebel force fought the Government trying to get peace for their people. After taking down one of the Government's convoys, the Arabic Soldiers came chasing after them (The Arabic soldiers were secretly hired by the Sudan Government to fight and to kill people). The Arabic soldiers found themselves at Bahar El Ghazal, where the Dinka Tribe lived.

In the Dinka tribe, the males work out in the field, away from the houses. The females work at home. When the Arabic soldiers invaded the village, the men in the fields heard the gunshots. They ran for their life. The houses in the village were set on fire. Young girls were raped and shot by Arabic soldiers, however, some girls did escape. People were captured. Children were left without parents. After the boys/girls had ran as far as they could, they decided to see who was left in the village. Upon return, they found parents and siblings shot dead, or they could not find them at all. As the 'lost boys' left the village they met up with many other children from their village. Reunited with familiar faces, the Dinka people walked for days to find a new home. During their courageous journey, the children were shot at. Some were attacked by lions and some could not swim so they drowned whilst trying to cross the Gillo River (also known as the Blue nile). The children had no food or drink and the skin on their feet was wearing off. The Dinka youth finally found refuge in a refugee camp in Kenya. They were all each other had. They became 'family'. After the children had done exams to prove they could speak English well enough, some were chosen to migrate to America where they would start a new life (this was organized by refugee camp workers). Among the chosen were Peter and Santino. T hey were so excited, they thought that America would be 'Heaven on Earth'.

Upon arriving in Houston, Texas, Peter and Santino were given a house to live in, and the opportunity of a new life. The boys were left to find their own work and to set up their life on their own. Money was a big issue for them. The boys found that many local charities and local people were very nice, as they donated furniture and other household items to the boys. However, an education was not provided. Peter and Santino found getting well paid jobs difficult as they were not educated and did not have enough money to pay for an education. When the boys finally found jobs, they found that the pay either wasn't very good or that their fellow roommates could not help pay the rent. In African culture, family is very important, they share everything with their family. Peter and Santino were expected to send large amounts of money back to their 'family' at the Refugee camp in Kenya. This added to the money issue. To solve their 'money issues', the boys either didn't send money back, or they found new jobs (some however, borrowed money). When family from Kenya called expecting money, Peter and Santino would just simply not answer the phone. Finding new jobs was hard in Houston so many of the lost boys moved to different areas in America. An example would be Kansas

While most of the local people in Houston were nice, the Africans did suffer from racism. The Americans saw Peter and Santino as scary because of their dark skin. One of the Peter and Santino's friends was hired at a local Wal Mart as a trolley mover. The boss told him that because he was from Africa, he must be used to working in the heat. Therefore he was 'well suited' to the job. This hurt the Africans feelings. When Peter, Santino and their friends faced racism, they couldn't really do much about it. They complained amongst each other and sometimes made jokes, but they knew better than to retaliate or pick fights.

Peter and Santino noticed that everybody in Houston seemed to be busy, this made finding friends hard. Both boys were too old to go to High School, which reduced the chance of making friends. Peter, Santino and their Dinka family eventually managed to make some friends. Some of the boys changed their age and had new birth certificates sent from Africa. This allowed them to enroll in High School. Another area in which the boys made friends, was a church family. They joined church groups where they could make new friends and grow stronger with their lord Jesus Christ.

Peter, Santino and many of the other lost boys found adjusting to America hard. They were trying to decide on whether to stay in America, or return home. After the Boys had adjusted and their culture shock wore off, they managed to settle in well and make a great new life. The lost boys have touched many people with their dramatic life stories and continue to share them with the world.

If you would like to learn/read more, the movie and book are available-search them on google.

Adventuring to Cairns

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, this was going to be a blast!

All the year eight students of Port Moresby International School (POMIS) were seated in the lecture hall, listening to our year coordinator Ms Tavil. Ms Tavil announced that for the first time ever, year eight students were being given the chance to have a school trip. The chosen destination was Cairns, Australia. Ms Tavil told us that the trip would take place after our exams were finished so that we could have a fun and relaxing holiday, after all our hard work.

After the excited buzz and chit-chat finished, Ms Tavil talked to us about the funding for the trip. Our school in Papua New Guinea (PNG) didn’t have the money to fund our trip. As a result we had to do A LOT of fundraising so the trip could go ahead. Many people believed the trip wouldn’t happen because we wouldn’t get enough money or enough students to travel. Our fundraising included many different events. The walkathon was our main fundraising event . Port Moresby is not safe to walk around, so we had to hire security guards and police escorts for this event. The walkathon required traveling students to find people who would sponsor them to go on a three and a half hour walk, in 35-40 degree heat. My best friend Jorjia and I walked around our compound over a period of two weeks getting sponsors. About two days before the walk took place, I came down with tonsillitis. I went to the doctor and she told me that I had to rest for a week and that I wasn’t allowed to participate in the walkathon. At this stage it looked as though I wouldn’t be able to go on the trip because my parents didn’t want to pay the full price for my trip. Their reasoning was that I had already been to Cairns three times and had already been to many of the places that we would visit during the school trip. After many discussions it was decided that I would have to walk around town with Dad at 5’oclock in the morning, four or five times, to walk a similar distance required for the walkathon. This made me happy as I would complete the requirements of the walkathon and keep the money that I had been sponsored.

The traveling year eight students did lots of other fundraising activities as well. We were separated into fundraising groups and held cake stalls three times a week during lunch. We also sold jewellery that we brought up from Australia. Our fundraising also took place weekends and at night. We held a dance in which year seven and eight students from our school and neighbouring international schools could come for a night of fun. We invited our parents and friends for an evening of entertainment and good food. Traveling year eight students were required to serve food and entertain (act/sing/dance/stand up comedy), on the night. On Saturday mornings there were trips to different houses in Port Moresby where students would do community service for the owners of the house. After all the hard work that we put into cleaning gardens, baking cakes and preparing for fundraisers, we finally had the amount of money that we needed. All that was left was to find a sponsor for camp T-shirts. This turned out to be easy!

The time to travel eventually came and people who thought we couldn’t raise the money were shocked! The trip was a week long and we had free time almost every day. We went to some tourist places like the Zoo, Kuranda, Go-Karting and other places. On one of the days we went to Cairns State High School to mix with students from a different country and to see what school is like in Australia. In the afternoons we could walk to the shops if we wanted, or stay at the hotel for a swim. For lots of my classmates it was their first time out of PNG and it was interesting to see how they acted in Australia. The teachers on the trip were constantly telling students that they couldn’t just sit around on the side of the road and in the middle of footpaths, as they do in PNG. This was interesting, as sitting in the middle of the footpath isn’t something we think about doing in Australia. My friends were shocked to see shopping malls (there isn’t much shopping in PNG) and that we could go to the movies! The trip was great fun and I think many people learnt that you can make something happen if you try hard enough!