Introduction

We were woken shortly after midnight by gunfire coming from just across the empty block of land next to our house that, all of a sudden, seemed awfully exposed. The small group in the house quickly gathered in the most secure room, barricaded the window with a cupboard, gathered lengths of timber to use as clubs, and sat in the dark and waited as the gunfire rang on the high, eerie wind. Each of us later admitted that night, trapped deep in our own thoughts, we believed we were going to die.