Bios

It was a dangerous escape from my homeland. It was a forced trip. There was no other option to escape from the war that was going on in my homeland. We were under siege and an air embargo. Fate forced me and my one-year-old daughter to escape from Yemen to Djibouti. We were to meet my husband at the end of the journey, but during the escape, we were alone.

Escape meant fleeing across the sea with strangers in a small boat. Originally, they said that the trip would not exceed 14 hours, but it was a total of 24 hours. It was a day I would never forget.

We sailed in the small boat in the evening. The great waves of the sea made me very dizzy and nauseous, but I held on for my daughter’s sake. When the boat finally sailed into the middle of the sea, the sea began to calm down.

I looked and felt like a small drop in the sea. It was so dark, and I could no longer see anything. I felt lost and did not know where to go or what to do. I did not know the others, who were standing beside me. It was frightening.

Suddenly, and in the middle of the journey, the boat stopped. We were in the middle of the ocean, and there was no movement. The boat was out of gas. I was really afraid, but the owner of the boat told us that a small boat would by come and bring us some gasoline so that we could continue on our journey.

We waited very nervously for hours until the small boat came by. While I was waiting and looking out into the water, I saw amazing dolphins swimming near the boat. At first, I got scared because I thought they were sharks coming to sink the small boat, but I soon realized they were cute dolphins. They were swimming, jumping high, and playing around the boat. Their actions made us feel calm.

We continued the trip until we arrived at our destination. It was so hard to believe that we were finally able to walk on land. I just couldn’t believe that we arrived safely. During the whole trip, I had been worried that the boat would sink, but thank God, the trip ended safely.