14 Hours in Africa

21 April 2013Avi S, Alex '16

Last Friday evening the Grade 9s were ushered into the McNeill Center to begin a night of excitement to try and understand the tiniest bit of what an African refugee might go through in a camp for displaced persons. It is fair to say that every one of us was nervous to start off; we were instantly attentive when we had to earn our basic needs for the night: food, shelter, & water.

Every “guard” (Grade 12s) was carrying a water gun to keep the Grade 9s in order.  As we did a search around the Brentwood campus for resources, if we were to run into the Grade 12 volunteers, they would say “Natural disaster” and we would lose all that we had accomplished up to that point.

As sunset came, the coldest night of April arrived with it. The students put their coats and hats on as they prepared a shelter that they hoped would protect them from the fierce wind. Darkness cast over the sky; specs remained bright as we cooked a simple dinner of rice and beans.

After eating, we were brought to the old cafeteria for a presentation by Mrs. Michelle Redfern, a local woman who had always wanted to help in the situation in Africa and at age 19 left home to volunteer in a refugee camp in Rwanda. She explained that at that time, because of limited communication, it was almost like she had disappeared for 2 years without her parents knowing whether she was even alive. Michelle described some of the difficulties people went through while they were at these camps such as food shortage, natural disasters, and illness. 

This was followed by a documentary film. During this film 7 girls were “kidnapped”. This happened at 10:30 pm. By that time, fatigue hit the busy Brentwood students hard. We were told that we could now go to sleep in our shelters and we were each a sleeping bag, but we did not know there was much more planned for that night. As we went to sleep, the guards wished us a good night.

Bellowing wind coming through corners of the shelter and knocking polls down kept us awake for most of the night. Adding to that, the guards were back with their water guns to remind us that we were not free.

I think it is fair to say that every Grade 9 came out of this experience with not only exhaustion but with empathy and understanding of living conditions in a refugee camp.

Thank you to all the staff members, students and guests for making this night possible and good job to the Grade 9s for toughing it out.

Avi S, Alex ‘16