Paul Peter Job Joshua (PPJJ)

Biography

Paul PJ Joshua (PPJJ) is a young Congolese boy currently living in the Dzaleka refugee camp after his family fled insecurities in their home country DRC. He is 17 years old and was born on 5th December 2005. Currently he is a student pursuing his secondary education at Dzaleka Community Day Secondary School.

PPJJ started writing in the year 2019 after being inspired by his closet friend Espoir Kahitani who is also a writer. Every time he would see him write or perform, he got motivated to try. Now he is a writer. He loves poetry because it is something that enables him to express his feelings and different experiences freely.

His poem “Black Out”, he wrote using the analogy of comparing a blackout with people’s ways of living where they seem to be dark in their mindsets, failing to meditate on things before doing them.

To everyone reading the book and website, he would like to tell them that PPJJ is aspiring to become a big writer and spread his writing talent worldwide, so help and support him.

Featured Poem: BLACK OUT

When there is a blackout in the camp Silence is the first word to be read When there is a blackout in the camp All the bulbs are dim There is a mixture of silence and darkness Giving us an unknown quietness

So I am standing not in the past Nor in the future But in the present At this moment I am not a Christian For I neither hold a cross in my hands Nor a crescent I am in the middle I am at the crossroads I mean I have no position

I am a man having a dark mind I am possessing a blackout in my medulla When you call me on a phone And ask me this question “Where are you?” I will tell you The place where I am standing Cannot be found on Google maps Nor in the location

Listen Life is not a gambling game Where you’ll use cards and coins to play Life is in the form of a multiple choice question, so you choose now You choose which adjective should describe your future

Remember That the present is just the preparation of the future So you’ll have nothing in the future If you didn’t fight for it in the present Life is not an inheritance So I cannot call a person with only inherited property A man

Life is a battle And your present is the fighting ring So you choose to lose or win Your destination is built by your present effort

I wonder why we are good at describing the blackouts in our homes But we fail to fight against the blackouts Stuck in our mindsets We fail to describe our positions in present life And we are dreaming of a prosperous future Always remember to live like a soldier And mark this in your thinking center and memory capacity “A soldier is never off work”

Biography collected and written by Lisa Gilman