Emotional Connections

Akinyi's Faith

The Emotions here are Terror and Faith

A Village in Africa – Present Day - A little Girl's Faith

It was quiet, but hot in the classroom as the children sat at their desks writing. The flies were buzzing lazily around the blackboard as the teacher wrote with white chalk. Akinyi glanced at her little brother Makena, who hating writing, and he pulled a face of disgust. Suddenly, a deafening noise hit their eardrums and angry men with guns burst into the room. The teacher screamed and one of the men hit her face with the butt of a gun. She fell heavily to the floor with blood seeping from her wounds. The children were horrified.

Akinyi knew the men were recruiting child soldiers for their war. "We want four children" shouted one. No one stood up, so the soldiers grabbed three children from the front row. "And him." shouted another, pointing at Makena. Akinyi stood up immediately and said "No, he is sickly. Take me." For a long time afterwards, Akinyi could not forget Makena's sad, stricken face as she was taken away.

Akinyi's thoughts flew to her mother. Her father was too sick to work, two of her siblings had died of sickness the year before and her elder brother had left as a soldier for the Government. 'How will my mother cope now?' she thought.

Three trucks were waiting outside and the children were pushed on board. "Where are they taking us?" asked Belinha, one of the children. "To their camp I think." said Akinyi. "I am as afraid as you, but we must be strong." Belinha began to sob quietly and she held onto Akinyi's hand for comfort.

After a long, dusty journey they were taken to a camp and given a little food and water. They slept that night in a tent and Akinyi told them to keep up their spirits. Someone would come to rescue them soon, she felt sure.

Two months went by, but no one came. Akinyi, who was the eldest, was beginning to think they had been forgotten, but she continued her prayers for rescue. The children were shown how to defend themselves, how to kill and they lived each day in fear of violence.

One very hot day, they were all loaded onto a truck and taken back to their village. Kneeling on the floor, battered and bruised, were a group of men and women. "You are to kill these people," shouted the leader of the soldiers. He dragged Akinyi to the end of the row where her own mother knelt. "Shoot now!" he shouted. In horror, Akinyi raised her gun and shot at the air above her mother's head. At that very moment, shots rang out from the bushes and Government soldiers came running out. Akinyi quickly grabbed her mother and they ran stumbling into the undergrowth.

A brief, but bloody fight began. Soon the guerilla forces had been killed by the Government soldiers, one of whom was Akinyi's brother who came and found her and their mother and took them home.

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This is based on fact.  Children are abducted and trained as

soldiers in certain parts of the world and especially Africa.