The Lioness

The Lioness

(Jewi Refugee Camp Ethiopia, 1996) !2 year old Hawa ducks. The shooting and shouting continues. Suddenly it goes quiet. The footsteps get nearer and nearer toward Hawa. She holds her breath, praying she doesn’t get found. Then the worst of the worst happened. She sneezes. A loud ‘ACHOO’ echos. The soldier whips his head toward the direction of the sound. “Aya hiji deui nu masih hirup di dieu! One more here!” The soldier yells. But she recognizes the voice. That same voice who told her to leave and never come back. It was her father. “Bapa!” she yelled. He stops in his tracks. “Hawa? Is that you?” His expression softens for a split second but returns to the cold expression he had before. “What are you doing here, child? Naha anjeun teu aya di lembur?” He whispers, clearly not trying to put too much attention on her. “You told me to leave. So I left. Why are you asking me knowing that you told me to leave?” She whispers back. “To keep you safe,” He looks around, making sure he was alone. “You must go to Kenya, it should be safer there. I may have abandoned you, but I still care about you-” He stops as he hears his coworkers shout his name. “Tong! Naha anjeun nyarios ka budak éta? Traitor!” They shout and point their rifles directly at his head. “Run! Run and never come back here Hawa! I love you-” BANG! She starts crying, knowing exactly what he was going to say if they let him finish the sentence. That he loves her so much. She is going to survive, for the both of them. She wonders what’s going to happen to her sister since her guardian is dead. She starts looking for survivors silently. She finds only 3 survivors, including herself. The only good part of it is that they are older than her so they can take care of her.

(Itang, Ethiopia 1996) Hawa and the others look for food, searching until she spots some fruit. “Guys! Fruit!” She whistles, trying to notify them by whistling. Suddenly she hears roaring and spots lions charging toward her. She starts running but she ran out of time. The lion pounces on her and immediately starts mauling her arm off. She kicks the lion's nose and it lets go. She takes the head start to run and hide, hoping it loses her even if she left a trail of blood due to the loss of her arm. A few minutes later, she returns to the exact spot and sees her group that she saved and cared for leaving with a handful of fruit. She starts chasing them, screaming their names. They turn around for a split second and start walking faster. She had been abandoned by the group she saved.

(Gilo River, Ethiopia 1997) Half of Hawa’s body is dead, limp. She can’t seem to wake it up. So, she limped the entire way to the river. The people she met there were kind. They fed her the entire day she was there. But at night, the mosquitoes made her infection on her arm worse. She could feel all of the needles sucking out the blood from the arm that no longer exists. She was the distraction. No one got bit but her. She was a feast to the little vampires.

(Akobo Desert, Sudan 1997) Before she left, one of the kind ladies, Susie, hands her some leaves to cover her open flesh the lion marked on her. She wraps the leaf across her arm, the juices from its stem helping her infection and the wound. At day, she scavenges for food, rotten fruit, roadkill, bugs and even the sap from trees. But at night, even if it was a bit cooler, she felt the blood trickling into the sand from her feet from how much she had been limping on the hot sand.

(Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya 1998) Hawa crawls all the way to Kakuma, people are staring at her disfigured body due to the infection turning blotches of her skin a dark, murky green. The people stared but the Red Cross nurses acted fast, immediately taking her to the medical tents as soon as they saw her. At first, they fed her and gave her water as much as they could so the condition she had wouldn’t get any worse.The nurses talked in whispers in front of her but she heard but one day, she heard the gossip from the loud mouthed nurses that Hawa had chlorosis. “Is it curable?” The nurse asked, “Enya, but we need many blood transfusions. The problem is far from fixed with only 1 or 2 transfusions.” Hawa looked away, she couldn’t bear to listen to her diagnosis. Will she even live? What will they do with her? How is she going to live with this? She has so many questions that will probably stay unanswered. Suddenly, one of the nurses comes in to check on her. “Hawa? Hawa Biar? You have a visitor.” Hawa looks up, confused. “Who? Who is it?” she asked, “Your sister. Fatima.” Fatima walks in, looking more fragile than Hawa last remembered her looking.

“Fatima? How did you get here? What are you even doing here?” Hawa asks, “Don’t worry about it, sister. I just need you to remember that I did and still do, love you. I was quite stupid to send you away. I must pay the price I owe you.” “What are you talking about, sister? What are you planning?” Hawa responds. “Sister, we have the same blood type. If I donate my blood to you, you will live. I won’t. But I owe you. Really.” Fatima replies, “Sister! No! Don’t do this for me-” “Sister, you don’t have much time. The nurses told me. This is the least I can do.” Fatima sighs, “What will happen to you then, sister?” Fatima doesn’t respond, but by her expression, Hawa can tell exactly what is going to happen. Hawa starts crying. “Are you sure? Do the nurses know?” Hawa asks, “Yes. That’s why I came here to see you. I wanted to say goodbye before I go.” The nurse knocks softly. “Fatima, Hawa, it’s time.” The nurse walks in with a wheelchair for Hawa and takes them to another tent to perform the transfusion.

Hawa wakes up and she no longer feels an aching pain in her arm that was bitten off by the lion, she notices the blotches of sewer green on her skin have slightly faded. The nurse walks in. “Hawa you're awake! And just in time! You have been chosen to go to the United States! Pack your things and let me know once you finish packing. I will take you to a room and you will learn more, okay?” She nods. She doesn’t know where she will go but hopefully somewhere she is free. Somewhere she can survive for her mother she lost when she was just five, her father she lost because he was trying to protect her, and her sister. Who gave her life away for her. One thing for sure, she will live a happy life for them. She will tell her future children all about her wonderful family who gave everything for her.