Days like last Wednesday are what make my job rewarding. It was a beautiful day and the sun was finally acting the way it should and I’d just spent over an hour talking to a bunch of young writers about their lives, their stories and how they make sense of the world.

To be honest, it seems impossible for me to make sense of it sometimes, no matter how many times I hear the stories.

A violent conflict literally beats down your front door, scatters your family and leaves countless dead. You watch as family members die, believing others could be dead.

Your family decides to pick up everything and start a new life on a gamble, propped up by the possibility of finding something – anything – better. You’re forced to make sense of a foreign place and adopt it – along with its languages and customs – just to get by.

They’re doing all of this before they reach 20. When I try to think about my own life by comparison, it becomes all the more incredible.

The Telling Room brought all these storytellers together to coax them into finding their voice and sharing their stories. The Story House Project opens tomorrow at Space Gallery and is the culmination of their efforts.

But for more than a few of the writers, this could be just the beginning. Aruna Kenyi, who fled Sudan with his brothers after thinking his parents were dead, told me he doesn’t plan to stop writing anytime soon.

Kenyi said he was moved by Valentino Achak Deng, who visited Portland in February with Dave Eggers to discuss "What is the What," the story of Deng’s journey from his village in Sudan to refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya.
Kenyi’s story "The Photograph" shows the quick and brutal realities he faced in leaving Sudan and how one photo literally changed his life.

Here’s an excerpt:

"That’s when the Arab militia attacked. Everything was peaceful, and then I heard a noise like an earthquake. I saw the plane coming, and they started bombing our village. Then they came in trucks. The soldiers were yelling at us to leave our homes, and they started killing people and burning everything.

Of course, everyone ran in a different direction to save his or her life. Some mothers and fathers even forgot their kids. That’s how I was separated from my parents. My brother led us into a cane field and we hid there for the night. We could see the fires and hear the screaming. There were many mosquitoes and the grass was sharp and wet on my face.

In the morning there was nothing left. No houses, nothing. My oldest brother, who was 20 at the time, said, 'It's no use. Our parents are probably dead, and we don't want to die here, too,' so we got up from the field and started walking. 'I'd rather die ahead,' he said."

That's just the beginning.

The Story House Project has a very short run at Space this week, only through to Friday.
The opening tomorrow runs from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. If you can't make it Tuesday the exhibit will be open between noon - 6 p.m. until Friday.
You can also pick up a collection of the stories tomorrow for only $5.

E-mail this entry to a friend