« Home
The Schedule   Delegation Profile   The Purpose   The History   Media Centre   E-Mail   Daily Reports

Pages of Peace Writing Contest

Dear Father, Mother and Sister,

I am writing to you from my trench in France, soaked to the bone as usual. It is ironic that the trench that protects me can so easily be transformed into a prison, a prison filled with the smells and the sounds of war. All throughout the cold, sleepless nights and the sweaty, damp days your love for me has been the fire within my soul, a soul that would have withered and died long ago without you. My friend John has passed, taking a bullet through the chest six or seven days past... who can count...

The fighting has died down, a surprising turn of events to say the least. My eyes are still watering from the dirt that fell on my face when a bomb exploded from above, so please know the tears fallen on this page are caused by dust and not by despair. The effort is going well, despite my melodramatic outlook. The enemy is on the retreat, back toward their borders; the further the better, I think. This war is silly business, fuelled by a hunger that cannot be sated. Greed, lust, jealousy, whatever you may say the motive is, it is petty. Thousands of innocent people, just like you or me, dying at the hands of a leader thousands of miles displaced. I saw an enemy soldier yesterday, having been captured for questioning at our camp, and I was very unsettled. This man was not the monster with hate in his eyes as I have been led to believe, but a mere child filled with fear. I had expected a monstrous foe, filled with hatred and deceit but found a boy just like myself, fighting a battle for "the good of his country," maybe as oblivious about the enemy as I was. Quite an unsettling business war is.

I can only hope to have this battle fought and won soon. I miss you all terribly. It is a lonely, frightening place out here. You keep me strong, keep me fighting, keep me alive. Please do not forget that if I do not return. You are my light, and I love you all. That is why I fight, for the sake of my country, for the sake of you, and I am proud. I miss you dearly.

Love,
Adam

PS. Mom, when I come home, I expect your apple pie waiting for me! xoxoxo