Excellent, fantastic, and...difficult story. Super well written, thank you. As I have a growing interest in Africa, this is fascinating and informative. So complicated.

And by the way, I have worked with trauma for years (personally and professionally), and actually am writing on trauma after disaster right now...and included in disaster is conflict. The definition of trauma is literally that a person directly or indirectly experiences a life-threatening experience (included in this is: witnessing), and experiences a sense of horror or terror about this event. It is NOT a mental illness, it IS a normal reaction to an abnormal event. Of course, if a person doesn't have a chance to sort it out, these kinds of things can definitely cause problems.

And I think writing and talking about it can be very helpful in sorting this out. I respect you for sharing the experience with us. Its tough stuff...hang in there!

"Once in awhile we get shown the light, in the strangest of places, if we look at it right" - Hunter/Garcia