pre-writing for memoir

i beginning writing my memoir with a keen sense of awareness of the struggle i endured living in Liberia. Within the memoir are three stories that supports the central idea that my memoir seeks to portray. the central idea or ideas are how greed, violence, the lack of education, and no love for your fellow man can destroy a person. However, knowing that we are all humans, and we should learn to love one another can save lives. the three stories are as follows:

story 1
The first story occurred during 1990 when the war was heated. There was no food, shelter and clothes. So people decided to escape the harsh parts of the country to a place where the war was less in intense. The streets were filled with people seeking refuge, and further ahead were the rebel. Traveling along with my mother and some of my siblings, we encounter a situation that I can never forget. This situation was the dispute between two teenage soldiers, barely the age of 16 and a pregnant woman. My family and I arrived at the rebel’s checkpoint and were detained while others were being killed. Along came a pregnant woman with no family, but the prospect of have a child whom she can call family. At the checkpoint she was asked to stop and put down all that she had. She did without being hesitant, thinking that her life would be spared. Looking at her condition (pregnancy) the rebels began to argue about the sex of the child. The first said, “This woman child is a boy, I can fell it.” The second said, “How do you know the child is a boy? You crazy man! That’s a girl!” With no way of knowing, they decided to cut open the woman stomach to find out the sex of the child. At while this was going on my mother had her hands over my eyes, but I could still see what was going on. After they opened the woman’s stomach with their knives, they started laughing and one screamed out loud, “it’s a boy, it’s a boy. I told man. It’s a boy.” Many people suffer immensely, however, through God’s grace we were set free and embarked on our journey for a safer place. One could never stay at a place for a long time, because of the many killings and bombing. So we constantly found ourselves moving from place to place.
This story is an illustration of how violence and the unconcern for human life can lead us to destroy one another.

story 2
A while after the first incident, we encounter another. This time it was more personal. This incident involved the lives of my both my mother and I. During this incident, we had lost some of the member of our family; some to starvation, sicknesses, and bullet. I was one of the fortunate of my siblings who to this date still feel unfortunate. We were still in search of a safer place while looking for my father and family member who got lost in the midst of the huge crowd of dying Liberians. I was sick, and had no strength left in me to continue living, but my mother for me and for herself. At another checkpoint we were asked to stop. They took all our possessions and separated the males from the females. Standing in the line full of men, I was pull out and was about to be kill. Immediately my mother ran out of her line screaming and crying, “Kill me, but please don’t kill my son” She got on her knees begging with tears in her eyes for a son who was so sick that his condition could be render fatal. After begging and crying, the rebels suddenly decided to let my family and I go, saying “the way he looks, he’s gonna die pretty soon anyway.” I left that checkpoint realizing that no love is stronger than the love a mother has for her child. Had it not being for the bravery of my mother, I would have been dead. Through God she was able to obtain such bravery and plead for my life.

story 3
The last story that I’m going to tell is about how the power of arm can make a man do anything. During the events of the last story I was about 15 years old. My health was better and we had reconnected with some of the other members of our family. We were in the interior or village when the events of the last story occurred. This story is about a pastor and his wife who were our neighbors. On this day they decided to go to the city to look for food, carrying their Bibles in their hands. While traveling, they encountered the rebels. They were stopped and asked questions. The rebels ask the pastor, “Are you a man of God”; the pastor said “Yes.” The rebel said, “If you really are a man of God you will kick your Bible. If you don’t we will kill you.” The pastor kicked the Bible with even thinking twice, and then he was asked to stand aside. Afterwards, the rebels asked the lady to kick the Bible and she said no. She said, No I’m not going to do it. If you want to kill me then go ahead, but God will safe me.” After she spoke, she was asked to leave and her husband was killed after she turned her back. She stormed into the village crying and screaming out the news about the death of her husband.

with these stories inserted into the memoir, it gives the reader an understanding of life in Liberia during the war.