The Cradle : I Am Naafash, Son Of Urmine And Lemefess

Every afternoon, my mother would take my siblings and I down to the community park. It was a tradition of sorts. The leaves on the trees were brown, only days past Halloween. I sat under the dappled afternoon sun and played in the sand. On this particular day, however, a young girl approached me. Confused, I offered her a friendly smile but was, instead, greeted by the sand she kicked in my direction. Once my mother took notice of this, she came forward and placed a hand over the young girl’s leg without physically touching her. ”Stop,” she said. With this one word, the girl ran off. After a minute or so, an older woman approached my mother and I, with a string of curse words. It was the parent of the girl from earlier. Her husband attempted

I came home one day to see both of my parents sad. As a third grader, I didn’t completely understand at the time, but my father had been laid off from the job he’d had since his teenage years. My father had started at the age of eighteen as a student worker at Southern Miss, and after years of hard work he had been promoted to the manager of shipping and receiving on campus. When the recession struck, the need to save money resulted in his position being terminated. My father was without a job. My father loved that job and when he lost it, he changed. He found a new love, alcohol. He let his love for alcohol become an addiction. He would do anything for alcohol; he even had secret stashes when my mom had removed all the prior alcohol from the house. Quickly my father became a violent drunk and began to routinely beat my mother and me. He became unstoppable; no person could get him back on track so my mother, in an attempt to keep me safe, removed him from the house. Even my mother’s best efforts weren’t always enough, as my father constantly broke into our house. One day my mother and I came home and my father was waiting in our den with a gun. We walked in, he pointed the gun at us, and then back at himself. He couldn’t decide to kill my mother, himself, or just all of us. He had more hatred in his eyes

In John Bul Dau’s memoir, God Grew Tired of Us, he tells the inspiring and heart wrenching story of the Lost Boys of Sudan. This two hundred and eighty one page book was published in 2008 in the USA. John’s moving story begins by explaining the tense political situation in his beloved homeland, Sudan. Sudan is a country located in Northern africa. John was born in1974 into the Dinka tribe in the agricultural and cattle raising farm of Duk County. The environment of southern Sudan is scorching hot and dry, however the farmers and herders in Sudan, including the one’s in John’s own village, adapted to their surroundings by using different techniques to hunt and grow produce varying on the season. He grew up in his peaceful village very

He took me by the hand, pushing me, making sure I didn’t escape. I knocked on a neighbor's door, they opened the door and I ran inside, letting go of his brother’s hand, grabbed the telephone and called 911. With so much fear I could only hope that my daughter was fine because he didn’t want to give her to me. The police arrived, it was very dark and I could not see that my entire body was bruised. My sister arrived for me like at 4 in the morning because Jose and his brother ran away, but Jose spoke with my sister for me to return (pg 3) with him or he was going to kill me.

On 08/18/15 Bethani was whipped by her father with a belt because he felt she’d disrespected him. The child told her mother she’s unsure what happened to set her father off but she believes it may be because she chose to shorten her visit with him to stay with her mother. Bethani was unable to sit down and told her mother her bottom was sore; Bethani’s bruises are still visible after 24-hours but she doesn’t require any medical treatment or care. Bethani told her mother her father makes her feel worthless; the child’s father told her he would beat “the Amanda” out of her. After the whipping, Bethani cut her arm and legs and carved worthless in her arm. Mrs. Alman has never witnessed the child whipped by her father before during their marriage

Virgil’s seedcorn supper is where family and friends get together to talk, watch kids play, listen to hear if they won a raffle prize, and to eat roast, sausage, corn, mashed potatoes and gravy, and homemade bread buns. We go out into his corn field to look at different hybrids of corn; to see which hybrid dented better, which hybrid produced a better looking ear, and to see which hybrid produced better yields.

When it was time for dinner I began to yell for Walter he did not come the first time, so I yelled once again and slowly he came limping into the kitchen. I didn’t know what to say or do. HIs father asked him what is wrong, he said ‘’nothing’’ so he asked again while curiously waiting for a response all we got was is legs hurt but of course we knew that wasn’t the complete truth. He wasn’t telling us something. His father was getting angry and told Walter to take his pants down. Walter had bruises, blood and bad swelling up both of his legs then he had to tell us after waiting in silence he spoke. I couldn’t believe what words I heard come out of his mouth. “ Mama beat me with a stick’’. I couldn’t believe his legs looked that way, he blamed

Before he traveled around the world, he asked his father’s permission to become a Shepherd. His father agreed with him and gave him money. One night in an abandoned church, he dreamed of a child telling him that he will find treasure in the pyramids. The next day he meets a man in the town of Tarifa, who sends him on a journey to the other side of Africa. Early into the journey he meets an old king whose name is Melchizedek, who advices him to sell

Once upon a time there was a boy named Jacob, who was a very smart boy but just choose to hang out with the wrong type of people in his young adult years. Jacob had loving parents who would do anything to help him, Jacob also had a little sister named Alexis who lover her brother dearly. One day Jacob was hanging out with his friends they were pretty much bad kids and Jacob’s mother Alexandria did not approve of him hanging out with them because she know that they were bad news. Jacobs’s mother was right, not even a month later Jacob and his friends had the cops called on them for breaking and entering, so Jacob and his friends end up going to jail and later on that day his mother got a phone call from the county jail and

In Part One of Michael Pollen's book The Omnivore's Dilemma, the author looks at the plethora of products available in today's supermarkets and the ubiquitousness of one plant, corn. Corn is a grass native to Central America and unknown in other parts of the world before 1492 (Pollan, 2006, p. 23). After the Native Americans taught colonists to plant corn, they quickly learned to appreciate its value and versatility. Corn was ready to eat, could be dried and stored, and could be ground into flour. The grain fed people and animals. Dried stalks became heating fuel. Mashed, fermented corn could be made into whisky and beer. It was a commodity that sustained people in many ways. For nearly 450 years, corn remained an important staple that nourished humans and animals. It provided some by-products that were also considered quite useful. By the middle of the 20th century, however, corn became a political commodity and completely changed the way we eat.

“Well, perhaps not, although I did live there once. But before that, long before that, some few people from that city sought out new lands, well away from the rule of the king – not the current king, and the trammeled ways of stone and gate and city streets. They trekked north, settling at last along the Alith Nien river that feeds Lake Alithorin. There they fished and tilled the fertile soils to either side of the river. It was a good life, but a hard one. But the fish were plentiful, and the harvests of grain and fruit were good. Thus also, dwelling where they did, they became skilful with boats – the crafting of them as well as the using of them. But there were hunters among them too, for meat was ever scarce even when the crops were

[Egyptian] sultan al-Malik al-Nasir, he did me extreme honor and treated me with the greatest courtesy .... Then he forwarded to the royal treasury many loads of unworked native gold and other valuables. I tried to persuade him to go up to the Citadel to meet the sultan, but he refused persistently saying: 'I came for the Pilgrimage

Once, Nujood was married to her abusive husband Faez Ali Themar, she was forced to move back to her old town Khardij. In Khardij, she would live with her sister-in-law and mother-in-law as well as her monster of a husband. “As of tomorrow, I’m going to teach the child to work like the rest of us”, announced my mother-in-law, without saying my name”, Nujood’s mother-in-law announced about Nujood. Faez Ali Themar’s mother was Nujood’s primary oppressor. I was surprised that this lady would allow her son to mentally and physically abuse and also rape a ten-year-old girl. Nujood’s mother-in-law has a very strong personality and treats Nujood extremely harshly. During, Nujood’s first night back in Khadij, she was raped by her husband. She screamed for one of the women living in the house to come and save her. No matter how much she screamed for help, no one came to save her. “Why didn’t she come earlier, when I needed her help? Now in any case, it’s too late-unless she was his accomplice in what he just did to me?”, thought Nujood (90). Nujood was forced to obey all of her mother-in-law’s orders. If she stopped for a moment, her mother-in-law would pull her hair. Nujood a ten-year-old was use to playing with children her age. Since Nujood was forced into marriage, she was not allowed to play with children her age anymore. “A married woman cannot allow herself to be seen with just anyone - that’s all we need, for you to go ruining our reputation”, the mother-in-law demanded to

Once I stepped foot into the house that day, the gut wrenching feeling of a bad situation has dawned upon me. It was as if I was in a movie myself, seeing the scene take place slowly. As if I saw my dad’s pleading eyes slowly turn towards me and my mom’s glaring frown never tearing away from my dad’s face. Then everything went back to speed, with my mom sternly telling me to go inside my room. Eternity has passed by that consisted of countless yelling back and forth and I stood in my room transfixed and registering what I walked in to. I still won’t forget what it looked like to see my mom’s world tear down. Once the argument simmered down, my mom told me what happened. From what I heard, it has come to my

Mom had finally convinced Dad to move back to Canada and it was in my 17th year just when I was sitting my Highers, the Scottish exams to say you had graduated from High School. We sold our beautiful house and had to live with Dad 's Aunty Rose in a one bedroom house. All four of us and Aunty Rose living in a one bedroom house. What a nightmare. Aunt Rose and her neighbours loved to gossip. They preferred my sister, Talida who was “so much like, dad” and they hated me “ so much like my mom” It was because Mom and I were outspoken and unwilling to put up with their crap and Talida and Dad kissed their asses. One day after school, I over heard my Aunty Rose and her nosey neighbours talking about how much I was like my mother; a total bitch and how much my sister, Talida was so much like my father. I approached them and said how dare you talk about my mother and call her a bitch. I pointed out to them that I will bring it to my father 's attention ( the man they worshipped) how they feel about the women he loves and who has mothered his 8 children. They soon shut their mouths.