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Day 2. Life is turned upside down( continued)
SAID ALOUD
Aim. To take the story forward, making sure that everyone understands its metaphor in the same terms.
Trainer. I will now continue the story. Remember to note what happens to the Woman’ s thoughts, feelings, breathing, body and heart!
Then something happened that turned life upside down. It was not an earthquake, wind or fire. War came to the country and threw the villagers and their communities into fear and chaos. People were killed, many fled. She heard that old and young women, even children, had been raped. Life became unpredictable and difficult to handle. She tried not to think so much. She did not smile so often or giggle as before. Her man became angry more often. She did not sleep so well and prayed for peace.
PART II: THE TRAINING
Can you recognise your own reactions when you hear about these changes in the Woman’ s behaviour?
One morning she went down to the river. Some soldiers found her there. She was filling containers with water. After that day, everything changed.
At first she tried to flee, but she could not escape. The soldiers laughed when they caught her and threw her down in the dust of the riverbank.
Then she tried to fight them. Her heart pumped in her chest, the face became warm, her arms were stronger than ever before. But they were four big men and they were even more brutal when she tried to fight back – hitting, biting, kicking, scratching and screaming for help. Their laughter rang in her ears. The smell of their bodies scared her heart to silence.
Her legs became as if dead, her hands and arms too. Her face became pale and it was as though she had lost all her spirit. She heard the sound of the river and the breath of the soldiers. She lost her sight for a moment. It was as if she had left her body or was hiding in her heart, looking at the soldiers from a distance, watching them do bad things to her. She saw it like a scene in a film, she did not feel anything. It was as if the men were hurting a stranger, though she knew she was the person being hurt.
Exercise 5. Identifying trauma reactions.( 10 minutes.)
EXERCISE
When the soldiers attacked the Butterfly Woman, what happened in her thoughts? In her heart? To her feelings? To her breathing and to her body? How did she react in order to survive?
Name the different responses of the Butterfly Woman.
Have you come across such reactions or feelings in other survivors? What other reactions have you seen or heard about from the women and children you have talked to and who have been victims of rape or other traumatic events?
Trainer. Thank you. Now take a deep breath!