Personal Narrative: My Trip To Tunesia

After bearing the dry day air and icy night air of the desert for three days, we finally arrived in Tunesia. The lorry would stop at the Choucha refugee camp, where we would be one step closer to our destination. I heard people talking about passports. I was confused. I didn’t even know what a passport was – let alone why you might have needed one. I was shocked by the sea of people I saw on the shore. Lots of men, but there were women and families with small children, too. Everyone was fighting for a place on the boat, desperately. Mothers with young kids, crying. It was all a big chaos and awful to see. And the smugglers taking advantage of us by demanding ridiculously high prices for a spot on their boat. There were no fixed prices: although

I was naïve to be worrying about the engines breaking down at sea, because I soon realized that the waves were going to cause us more trouble. With three hundred and fifty people on this seventeen meter long boat I realized that he boat wasn’t made for such a journey, not at all. Every time a big wave would hit, I could barely keep myself upright. I looked at Souleymane and I could see he was just as worried as I was.

I knew that our voyage to Italy would be a rough passage. Storms in the Mediterranean area are rare but the sea was suspiciously calm. There was a storm a brewing. The boat started to tip from side to side as the sky grew darker. In all of a sudden the temperature dropped and thick dark clouds obscured the sun. A few seconds afterwards, I felt the first droplets fall on my head. I knew this was bad. Within a few seconds the few drops of water turned in pouring rain. Water poured down endlessly by the black sky. Lightning illuminated followed by a heavy roar of thunder. It started to get so windy that I couldn’t keep myself upright anymore. I stretched my arm trying to reach for Souleymane but I couldn’t feel him. Waves tried to swallow the boat. The wooden planks started buckling and

At first I thought it was just another deadly whirlpool trying to pull me down even further but then I realized it was a person pulling me upward. A strong arm pulled me up slowly and I felt myself becoming conscious again. As soon as I was above water again, I coughed and gasped for air.