Big Fish Story

About three years ago we look our first family road trip. We aren’t fans of driving and usually fly. But instead we thought it would be fun to spend the whole day driving to New York. Map Quest said it would take about ten hours. But it took a lot longer then just ten hours. My grandparents decided to come with us. We didn’t let them drive because they have a habit of getting into fights and almost causing accidents on the road. We left the house around 6 am. About 20 miles into Ohio between Toledo and Sandusky we were stuck on a bridge. Everyone was tired and annoyed, and we weren’t stopping until we got to Sandusky. I looked into the rear view mirror and saw a semi coming straight towards the car. My mom swerved onto the side and the car almost crashed through the side of the bridge.
We just got into Pennsylvania and there was a huge hail storm, hail the size of baseballs were denting the car and nearly breaking through the windshield. About 10 miles up the road, there was a ten car pile up that was backed up about 5 miles. After about an hour of waiting my mom drove on the side, to a median and turned around taking a “back way” through the mountains that she thought would get us their sooner. There were no guard rails, between the car and the mountain edge. The road was small, unpaved and bumpy. Half way into the mountains something hit the car from behind, it was a deer. The deer kept hitting the bumper until we were almost off the edge. Once the deer left my dad got out of the car to see the damage and realized we had a flat tire as well. We didn’t have a spare and none of our phones had service to call AAA, so we continued to drive until we got to the first mechanic we could find. They said the car couldn’t be fixed until the next morning so we stayed in a hotel for the night.
The next morning the car was fixed and we got back on the road. We were only two hours away from New York now. Everyone was so relieved and happy to just get there and as far from the car as possible. We were at a stop light and the car shut off. It wouldn’t start up again and people behind us were honking and yelling. We had to push the car to the side of the road. My dad opened the hood. A squirrel jumped out, attacked him and bit his arm. A man pulled over and rushed him to a hospital. The emergency room was very busy and by the time he was checked out it was late, so we got another hotel room for the night. It was over 24 hours later, and we were still not in New York. A 10 hour trip took more than twice as long.

The UN should become more involved in helping the people of the Congo.

Millions of people have died in the Congo since the Rwandan genocide ended in 1994 . 30 times the number of people died in the Haiti earthquake. The Hutu militias are mostly responsible. The UN needs to put more troops in the Congo to protect the people from these militias. Women of all ages, even children and being gang-raped and husbands and sons cut to pieces in front of their families. They have no defense or protection.

“It’s awful to see 300 women in need of help and you can only take 10 because the ambulance can only take 10,” said Dr. Mukwege. The hospital can only take 3600 women each year. The UN needs to provide more medical and mental care for the women. The home of an 8 year old girl was invaded by the Hutu militia. Her father was killed, her mother was raped and the girl was raped for a two-week period, and then abandoned. She is so ashamed and traumatized that a missionary had to persuade the little girl to accept a hug from her.

The Invisible War of the Congo