My Resilience

Gabriel Sarah

Description

She was eight when the civil war broke out. She thought the sound of guns was thunder and was looking forward to playing in the mud. Before the day was out, her neighbors were being shot in the street. Sarah Gabriel remembers the run to the border, refugees eaten by crocodiles, her time in a rebel training camp and then, like magic, being whisked away to a residential boarding school in Cuba. This was a trial all on its own because her father, the SPLM ambassador from South Sudan, was recalled and he and her mother then disappeared.A compelling theme of this book is how she found the inner strength to overcome these obstacles, finish school, fly to Canada as refugee, and then prosper there through hard work.But beyond that, it is the story of how Sarah not only found herself but saved her family as well. One small girl against the world.It''s quite a journey; you''ll be amazed, awed, comforted, and uplifted by her story and her resilience.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique

Informations

• Publié par: Austin Macauley Publishers LLC
• Date de parution: 28 juin 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781645364559
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

My Resilience
Sarah Gabriel
Austin Macauley Publishers
2019-06-28
My Resilience About the Author About the Book Dedication Copyright Information Dedication Chapter 1 Back to Africa Chapter 2 May 16, 1983 – Revolution Chapter 3 Naked Shaman and Tribal Dentists Chapter 4 Pythons and Child Soldiers Chapter 5 My Father’s Story Chapter 6 We Run to Ethiopia (300 Miles) Chapter 7 Refugee Camp Chapter 8 Life in the Mansion Chapter 9 Arrival in Cuba, July 1986 Chapter 10 Reunited in Cuba Chapter 11 Eleven Years (Very) Old Chapter 12 Torn Apart Again Chapter 13 At School Chapter 14 The Collapse of Communism Chapter 15 Diversity and Conflict Chapter 16 Days of Hunger and Frustration Chapter 17 Graduation and University Chapter 18 Canada Chapter 19 Mission Priorities Chapter 20 Touching Miracles, Wishes Come True Chapter 21 Brooks, Alberta Chapter 22 Family Matters Chapter 23 Moving On Chapter 24 Paradise Found Chapter 25 Wings of Hope
About the Author
Sarah, the South Sudanese survivor born to Rebecca Akuch and Gabriel Achuoth Deng, author as well as the first South Sudanese Ambassador in Cuba in 1985, tells a remarkable story of survival, endurance, and perseverance during and after the Civil War in Sudan. She is the founder of Many Colours for Hope Foundation and is also a motivational speaker. Sarah lives in BC, Canada, and she competed in the Dancing with the Vernon Stars in 2014. Sarah also loves sports.
About the Book
She was eight when the civil war broke out. She thought the sound of guns was thunder and was looking forward to playing in the mud. Before the day was out, her neighbors were being shot in the street.
Sarah Gabriel remembers the run to the border, refugees eaten by crocodiles, her time in a rebel training camp and then, like magic, being whisked away to a residential boarding school in Cuba. This was a trial all on its own because her father, the SPLM ambassador from South Sudan, was recalled and he and her mother then disappeared.
A compelling theme of this book is how she found the inner strength to overcome these obstacles, finish school, fly to Canada as refugee, and then prosper there through hard work.
But beyond that, it is the story of how Sarah not only found herself but saved her family as well. One small girl against the world.
It’s quite a journey; you’ll be amazed, awed, comforted, and uplifted by her story and her resilience.
Dedication
This book is dedicated to my beloved brother, Agor, whom I truly miss and wish was here with us in this life. My brother had a big heart! He was a giver and sacrificed his life for the freedom of his people.
During his life, he always put others before himself. Agor dedicated his teenage and early adult years fighting to bring peace to his people. He fought with courage for his country in the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) during which he lost his life. Agor will always be alive in spirit, as he occupies a special place in the hearts of his family.
He was, to us, the one and the only Agor who can never be replaced by anyone. He was resilient! Despite the hardships he faced in his young life, he always had a big smile on his face and was still the happiest and most caring person I have ever met.
I will remember him as the big brother who was always there for his family and his people.
Copyright Information
Copyright © Sarah Gabriel (2019)
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher.
Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
Ordering Information:
Quantity sales: special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address below.
Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data
Gabriel, Sarah
My Resilience
ISBN 9781641826297 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781641826303 (Hardback)
ISBN 9781645364559 (ePub e-book)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019935078
The main category of the book — Biography & Autobiography / Women
www.austinmacauley.com/us
First Published (2019)
Austin Macauley Publishers LLC
40 Wall Street, 28th Floor
New York, NY 10005
USA
[e-mail]
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Dedication
I would like to give special thanks to my loving parents, Gabriel Achuoth and Rebeca Acuch Gabriel, and my siblings for their support during my book research. Without their help, this story and the wonderful life I have now would never have been possible.
Thank you! Jok Mach Nai and my cousin Achieck Jok for giving me information on my life in Cuba. I also want to thank Darcy Bomford, Allan Gee, Deborah Joell, Maria Luiza, Ruy Romano, and all the Sudanese students I knew in Cuba. They lived through this with me in Cuba and were known as the Lost Children of Sudan.
Thanks to my dear beloved best friend, Anne, who has become a sister to me, and her husband, Julius Ruechel. It was such a blessing to have their help and encouragement. Thanks to all my friends and co-workers at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency for believing in me during the writing stage.
A special thanks to Linda for her encouragement to begin my project and to her brother, Rory C. J. Frankson, who kindly lent six months of creative writing advice. He drew out the information that needed to come out to make My Resilience real.
Another member of the Frankson family, Kokie Elisondo, was a big help with the arrangement of my story and in naming the book. Much thanks to Dave Dandell for his photography and the fun photo shoots he organized for our ‘team’ project. He got just the right photo for my wonderful cover.
Thanks to Amy Jo Salter for her advice and contribution at the beginning of the editing stage.
Finally, I’d like to give a very special thanks to my editor, Frank Hilliard, and his wife, Pam, for their hard work in polishing, editing, and publishing my book. I have learned a lot from you both and will be forever grateful for your help in turning my dream into a reality.
Chapter 1

Back to Africa
Back to Africa—this is where I was going, flying back to my past. Africa, where my life began, held little of my collected memories. Most were from a world away as an adult living in Canada, having settled in British Columbia’s beautiful Okanagan Valley and its small city, Vernon. Now, I had the dawning reality I would soon be on my native soil. It caused many mixed emotions: a dreamt of moment almost impossible to imagine. Most of the work, to organize what I knew would be yet another major life-changing event, had been done. The ticket was paid for with money saved from months of study and unfamiliar work. The planning and numerous international phone calls to family were finished.
It had taken me thirty-two years, but I was really going home; home, to put together the pieces of the puzzle that was my life journey; to understand the frustrations, the constant imaginings of my life, the life that was, and my life in the here and now in 2008. My wanderings had shaped me so differently from the family I was now going back to find in Africa I’d been torn away from in 1986. With so many years and countries between, my mind was reeling with memories and emotions coming to the surface. They were mixed in with all the details of my final travel plans, and the combination was very close to overwhelming.
This was my Africa, where I hoped to find answers to a lifetime of questions and deep feelings of loss. To see my family for the first time in over 18 years made me very nervous. They were living in Nairobi and would pick me up at the airport. I was to stay with them at my brother’s or my stepmother’s house. I was nervous, but I was also really very excited that we were finally going to meet. I asked myself how I’d recognize them; I had never met most of them before. The only one I knew was my younger brother Chol, who was also meeting me at the airport. It had been twenty years since I had last seen him, and the only picture I had of him was one he’d sent me five years earlier. There they’d be, this family of strangers at the airport, waiting for me, and I wasn’t even sure I’d recognize my own brother…such strange things to think of continually.
Sometimes my weird and silly thoughts became nightmares. I imagined my family might be a bad family that might catch me and carry me off to some forgotten village and sell me for cows. Or I thought I might be captured in enemy raids by other tribes who might only do the same. There are a million ways tribesmen can keep a Sudanese woman captive in their country. I might never see Canada again! That dream really got me going, to the point that it became a very real idea. I told myself I’m now a Canadian citizen. I have found the place I chose to call home. I’m safe coming back as a Westerner. And yet, Africa is such a big place. My real friends and family might never find me, and oh man, lions! For some reason, lions are a very large primal fear for me. Imagine being eaten by a pride of hungry lions!
I could see me kicking and screaming all the way. ‘ Chomp, chomp, chomp ’…oh dear, Sarah Gabriel. Just gone!
I had to giggle to myself at those, at times, funny, nervous thoughts.
As my travel date came closer, many more hours were spent in this kind of anxious state. I would have pictures rise up in me from my past, visions so strong I could almost smell the great heat that comes off the soil of my homeland. Dusty days of childhood play, Mama calling us children to dinner through the kitchen door, the buzzing hover of bugs; it all filled my mind. I