He Has Much Strength

Dedicated to my helpful dad who I love very much

Copyright 2015

Maple Leaf Writing Project

Brattleboro, Vermont

.

Azubuike - He has much strength

“Azubuike... come here. Mother needs you to milk the goats,” yelled my older brother Bisa. I was sitting on a smooth rock not too far from my house in Sierra Leone. I hurried over to the goat stalls to get the tin pail I use to put the milk in. As I peered inside the stall I saw both of my white goats laying down. I shook the bell sitting on the ground. It wasn’t too loud but it woke them up.

When I was finished milking them I went back inside with the pail where I found my mother washing our laundry in a basin. I set the goat’s milk down next to her and went to my room. Inside my room I had a bed, a spot where I put my clothes, and a small bookcase with five books on it. I chose a book with fairy tales and started reading it.

The story was Jack and the Beanstalk.

It was about a boy named Jack who got magic beans and grew a huge beanstalk that went way up through the clouds. At the top of the beanstalk Jack discovered a world with giants and magical geese that laid golden eggs and golden harps that played magical songs. But while Jack was in the other world he had to steal the magical things without getting caught by the humongous giant.

When I finished the story I came out to the front of the house to see if my mom was done

with dinner. When I got to the kitchen I saw my mom had made brown rice with red tomatoes.

“Go get Bisa,” said my mother. I walked halfway to my brother’s room then shouted, “Bisa dinner is ready!”

“Coming!” replied Bisa. He slouched to the table where he pulled a chair over to sit on. We all quietly ate our rice and tomatoes. When all three of us finished Bisa walked back over to his room and my mother washed our plates and went to bed. When I finished I hurried back to my room to read more stories before I had to go to bed. This time I read another fairy tale called Puss’n Boots. This time a miller died and left his son a shape shifting cat who got the son rich by tricking a giant into giving him his castle. Once the millers son had the castle he married a princess and they lived happily ever after.

The next morning I got up, changed into my shirt and shorts, made tea, toast, and jam for my family and I and waited for my mother and brother to get up. Five minutes later we were eating breakfast together at the table. After breakfast we all went to the market and bought bread, tea, rice, and crackers. When we arrived at our house my brother fed the goats I helped my mother fold the laundry she had taken care of the night before. My brother got back and took his laundry to his room. We finished the batch of tea and ate the leftover rice from the night before.

After my small meal I went back to my room to read more fairy tales. As I was opening up my book I heard a harsh knock on the door. For a second I thought about answering the door but I heard Bisa already on his way. As I stared at the table of contents I heard two slams, one of the slams sounded like the door getting slammed. But the other sounded like a human getting slammed up against the wall. I heard running footsteps that were probably from my mom. After the footsteps stopped I heard a scream so shrill it hurt my ears.

Suddenly all the commotion stopped. Then there were footsteps that did not sound like my mother’s, it sounded like boots stomping down on the dirt in the hallway. They were coming to my room. All of a sudden I could feel my heart thumping so hard that I thought it would come out of my chest. I couldn’t do anything there were no hiding places in my room it was too small. I was about to just try to calm myself down and find something to defend myself with when a man with ripped, worn clothes and a gun appeared in my doorway he told me to come to him. I panicked and attempted to jump out my window but the man grabbed my shirt, pulled me up to him, then he injected me with something, and then everything went black.

When I woke up I found myself in the back seat of what appeared to be a military jeep judging by the guns mounted on it. One of the men sitting in the front was the man that kidnapped me and the other looked just like him except he had a badge that said RUF. What could that mean?

We arrived near something that looked like a large lake. There were also other people and cars much like the one we were in surrounding us. One of the men firmly told me to get out of the car. The other man grabbed me by the arm and dragged me to the edge of the lake. As I looked at the water I realized how dirty it was. It looked like a pool of mud.

One of the men handed me a sifter and showed me how to use it. He showed me a small baby blue pebble and told me that this is what I was looking for then he left. I put the metal sifter into the water and proceeded to push it into the sand. I took it out of the water and shook it around until all that was left in the sifter was a few grains of sand and a few rocks. I continued to sift through the wet sand. My fourth attempt proved to be lucky. As I finished sifting, I found sand and rocks again, but when I looked at the rocks closer before dumping it out I found a rock that looked just like the one the man showed me. I pulled what appeared to be a diamond out of the sifter. The rock was transparent and almost baby blue.

I ran up to the man that showed me what to do when I first got there.

“I found a diamond!” I said excitedly.

The man snatched the diamond from my grasp. Then he ordered me back to work. As I walked back to my work area my head was filled with questions. Who were these people? What has happened to my family? When will I get to go back to my home? Will I get to go back home?

Over the next few weeks I continued to work through the days, but I was unable to find any more diamonds. During this time I became increasingly aware of the scary soldier-like men. This was a work camp and we were being treated awful by these soldiers. They were unkind and abusive. We were like slaves.

Just six weeks after I had found my first diamond I wandered from the water and overheard two soldiers talking.

“That boy Bisa is a good fighter. He almost got a hit on me. It’s a good thing he finally surrendered and came to his senses to fight for us. He is almost ready to join in a raid. He’s a strong willed boy.”

The second soldier replied, “He finally stopped talking about his brother Azubuike about a week ago. He’s finally letting go of his past life to begin work for the RUF.”

I was scared and excited at the same time. They had to be talking about my brother. I wanted to find him, but I was worried about the way the men were talking about him. At least he hadn’t forgotten me.

He was clearly still talking about me. I approached closer to continue hearing what the men were saying. I needed to make sure they were talking about my brother without revealing my intention to listen to their conversation. The men continued to talk about their work with recruits for the RUF. They shared that their camp was outside a village that was next to my own village. The village I had been kidnapped from. The men talked about other RUF recruits and I decided to leave before I was discovered missing.

I left to go to my tent with the intention to build a plan to leave the diamond panning camps without getting caught the next day. I wanted to find my brother and escape to our family. The guards watched us constantly throughout the day and patrol our sleeping area during the night. I would need to leave early in the morning while it was still dark to give me time to get away without being seen.

As I built my plan I continued to pan for diamonds. I sifted through the mud and rocks as I devised the plan. After I went through my tenth panning I had found a sizeable diamond. I looked for the guards who were yelling and hitting another boy. I slipped the stone into my pocket and continued to sift. I was lucky. I was not noticed when I had taken the diamond. Had I been seen, I could have been beaten to near death or maybe something worse by the guards.

The day finally became night time and after we ate our meals I left for sleep. I tried to rest before my early morning escape. I couldn’t help myself from thinking about the stories I had heard in my village about the RUF. I couldn’t stop thinking about what has become of my brother and what he had to deal with as a new recruit for the RUF. In my mind the RUF is like the giant in my stories. They have power and take over people and things. The RUF could force us to work from them, stealing from our land and our people. I needed to be a hero and save my brother and we needed to return to our family.

After a short rest I began to watch the guards. They had a pattern and I had moments between their patrol in my area to escape. I waited for the right moment to escape but then I would worry about getting caught. I would get paralyzed and refuse to move even though my mind was saying go. It was the idea of being caught trying to escape that worried me. If I was found escaping I could be beaten, maybe to the point that I may not be able to walk. If I was caught with the diamond in my pocket I could have a hand cut off or worse, they may kill me.

Finally I allowed myself to overcome my fear. I pretended I was Jack running away from the giant and slithered away with the speed of lightning like a snake in the bush. My heart was beating so hard it was like the pounding of the drums in my village. I felt the force of my heart beat, fast but steady. I ran. I ran. I was running to save my life. I could feel the dusty rocky earth beneath my feet. I felt like I had been running for just moments, but I looked up and realized that the sun was beginning to rise. I had been running for much longer than I had thought. The sun was telling me that I could slow myself and catch my breath.

I was free and I had not been caught by the guards. I needed to remain safe and think about what was next.

Just as I was about to create my plan to search for my brother. I realized I was not far from my own village. I had not been taken as far away as I had thought. I used the sun to figure out which way was west. I set out on a path to get closer to my brother. I decided to walk most of the way. I had made it quite far from the camp that I was brought to and the day was just beginning. The sun would grow stronger and the day would get hotter. I needed to conserve my energy and pace myself to maintain on my journey through the day. I judged that this journey would take me through the entire day.

I struggled to keep myself walking. The sun’s heat and the air density was taking it’s toll on me. The vision of my brother kept me going as I wrestled with the idea of quitting. It’s weird how much you can push yourself to do with enough motivation. At one point I dropped to the ground. Dehydration was making me dizzy. I pulled myself together with the village just ahead.

I had made it. I made it a point to drink some water. The water was from a bucket I had found sitting around. It wasn’t particularly clean, but it quenched my insane thirst. I found a bench in the village and collapsed. A couple of hours later a local villager sat beside me. She stared into my eyes and asked me if I was feeling ok. She had brought me to her home and placed a cool rag on my head.

I talked to the woman telling her my story. I walked her through the journey that I had experienced. It felt good to connect with someone and tell them my story. She was familiar with the things that the RUF did to innocent people. Although the time we spent talking was kind of healing for me, it was also taking me away from the quest to save my brother. I explained to the women the conversation I had overheard and she shared that there was a RUF military camp not far from the village. She had an idea where I could find it but wasn’t exactly sure of details to reach it. She offered for me to stay with her awhile but she understood my interest to leave and find my brother. I told her that someday I may return, with my brother.

I followed her directions to the north of the village. There I found a small African savannah with people rummaging through the ground with RUF military soldiers. I decided to continue watching them and then follow them to their camp.

Once I approached the camp I sat on the outskirt to be an observer. I noticed some men that were kept separate from the diamond miners. They had to be the military recruits. There were several guards and soldiers directing them and ordering several of the boys to fight in what seemed to be a training.

I looked for Bisa in the crowd. I finally spotted him. He had been sitting with his head looking down to the earth. Bisa looked up as a man shouted to the group. He turned his head as if he was aware I was watching him. He grew a smile that told me that he had not been brainwashed. He was still Bisa, my brother.

Suddenly Bisa jumped up and began to sprint towards me. Bisa’s arm reached toward me as a shot rang out. As Bisa dropped he yelled, “However long the night, the dawn will break”.

I turned and ran while tears rolled down my face. I ran back to the village. I was so sad I just walked into the nice woman’s home. She comforted me and offered me to stay with her. She shared that she had lost her own son to the RUF a few years ago. I eventually was made a bed and went to sleep.

When I woke up the woman already had breakfast prepared. We ate bread with her homemade jam. I sipped tea with her as we talked. We were sad about what we had lost to the RUF. We were driven with motivation to help end their violence and destruction. She shared that there was an agency that worked to end the blood diamond trade.

I suddenly remembered that the large bulge in my pocket was the diamond I had stored. I pulled it from my pocket, placed it on the table and said, “let this diamond be the first step towards a new dawn.”