A person’s life is built upon many events. Regardless of whether the event has a positive or negative result, its conclusion will always end with dramatic lessons. These lessons are the steps paved down for a successful life. Although each event takes time to be realized on how it would be effective in the near future, the time does come; and mine had.

On March 24, 2008, I voluntarily went to Sawa to live the true meaning of life, which had lasted for seven months. There, I met many people and learned about many different kinds of behaviours, cultures, languages…. Almost every evening I sat outside with a group of my friends just chatting and getting to know everyone while watching the many bright lights that shined in the black sky. Once in a while we had small parties where we took a large plastic container and used it as a drum as we sung and danced—different songs.

I learned that the harder it is to achieve something, whether it is a small or large, the more breath taking it becomes. These stolen breathes arose many times, such as when I was chosen to be apart of the military march during the 2008 Independence Day celebration held in Asmara. Before the competition day, we all had trained so much in order to participate in such an event. We had competed against other teams ‘Ganta’ to see which team had performed the best. Although being selected for the May 24 event was not by a whole team but by selection from each team, we just wanted to have fun and boast up to the other teams on who came first.

In Sawa, people tend to brag a lot about their team or force ‘Haili’. One day, while we were practicing target shooting, one of the team leaders had asked which team or line ‘Mesrei’ would have most of its members with the highest score. We all made a bet, if in one line ten people get a perfect score that line could leave the compound and visit their friends that were distributed throughout Sawa—which is a privilege. If one team gets the highest percentage, then they don’t have to clean the washroom until the next shootings—a lot of fun. The team in last place though, has to take the place of the 1st placed team’s washroom cleaning. So, we all agreed and when the results came my line achieved exactly the passing amount, 10/17 people who received a perfect score at the 200m-target practice shoot-outs. Unfortunately, we did not come in first place as a team, but we also did not come in last. But the team that came in first made sure everyone knew, especially the ones that ranked last.

Sawa, though, is not just about studying people’s behaviour or competition or great opportunities, it’s also about helping each other. If one person fails in a team or force then the whole group fails. Leaving one person behind is the same as killing the group, because if that one person is left behind he/she could have just been the greatest shooter in that force or the greatest trench builder, etc.

Although there is medical services available nearby, we usually treat the minor things by our selves. I remember times when I had stomach craps and was vomiting. My friend would always take me to my bed and squeeze lemons that she was able to find and had me drink it to calm my stomach-aches. Helping others goes a long way even though it doesn’t seem like it then. Someone would always be there to help you when you really need it the most. This is one of the many important lessons that I have learned in Sawa—helping each other.

Fortunately, I learned so many lessons by experiencing each one happening, not just to my friends but also, mainly to myself. By these situations occurring to me I had changed my way of living completely. Unfortunately though, expressing each event that had become lessons for me, would not be giving others the great opportunity of experiencing it themselves!