My Fmily Escape Story - By Kasey When I was 11 years old I was forced to leave my home. Me and my mum, dad, sisters and brothers had to leave because bad people were taking over south east of Syria where our home was. One night mum woke us all up, mum and dad said you all need to get a bag and put some clothes and some other precious things that you might need because we are running away, it is not safe here anymore. But don't pack too much because we are walking and you have to carry it. My sister said why are we walking? Mum said because if we get seen we will get caught and then maybe hurt . Then my sister says Ok but how many bags can I take ?? Mum says no more then two. One of my sisters was crying, she was crying because she did want to leave. Dad said that we had to leave, It's not safe here anymore. My sister said I don't want to leave my friends. Dad said that her friends would probably be leaving too. Then she said can we try to find them but dad said no, it won't be very safe sorry Honey. Everyone is ready, it's time to go. Wait what about the animals? We will have to let them out, yes ok let them put and let's go. It made us all very sad to leave our animals. When we opened the door It was freezing. It was pouring down with rain, the wind was blowing, the trees were about to snap, it was that windy. I was scared I was about to cry. We had been walking for about 5 hours. I was tired so were my sisters and brothers, mum said we need to find somewhere to sleep. When we woke up We quickly picked up our stuff to walk again. My Legs were tired but mum said come on we still got a long way ahead of us. One of my brothers asked my dad where are we going dad said ask your mum. Mum said we are going to New Zealand. But I wondered how we were going to get there? we are going to go on a boat said Mum. Where is that boat? I Mum says it Isn't too far, come on only one more hour. When we got there , there were lots of people. I looked at Mum and said how are we supposed to all fit on there?. Mum said we don't have a choice? would you rather stay here ? . never mind Mum ok let get on the boat. Everyone stayed close. I was scared because there was big waves coming at the boat and this boat wasn't a very good boat either. I thought that I was going to die.There was heaps of people I was really squished. After some time Mum said that we were almost there. I was just praying that we'll get off the boat alive. When we got off the boat some people told us where to go. They said it was safe. We ended up at a refugee camp. It was scary, people had guns, there were guards. It didn't feel safe. We slept in a tent. It was crowded and dirty and it wasn't very nice to sleep in. It was hard there. But we made some friends with other refugees. Eventually some people invited us to come and live in New Zealand. I was confused, i didn't know where New Zealand was. But Mum said it would be good and Lets go. We felt happy and excited and a bit nervous. So we made a big trip to New zealand on a plane with lots of other refugee families. We found a new home and new friends and they taught us how to speak English and how to live in New Zealand. Now that journey is all over. I am in New Zealand and I can now say that I have a home again. By Kasey