Adolescence

                                                                       
         
Thabo is fourteen years old, but he isn't your usual adolescent teenager. He does not have the usual fourteen year old worries of homework, girls or how-to-look-cool. Thabo has very different worries from your average fourteen year old. He has to worry about staying alive.

Thabo is from a village in Northern Congo. One afternoon, the rebels came to his village as he was playing in the field with his friends. Everybody desperately ran to avoid being caught. He ran with a group of his friends to the far end of the field and unfortunately the jeep followed them there.

From the distance he could hear a machine gun fire, as more jeeps rolled into his village and began their customary indiscriminate slaughter. He didn't even stop to look back for his own survival depended on him running.

He could hear the deafening roar of the engine getting closer. He needed to act fast.

There were two other boys running with him. They split in a different direction while he suddenly jumped off the trail and rolled into the undergrowth. The driver of the jeep did not expect this and continued his pursuit of Thabo's friends.

Thabo dived through a bush and hid under a small clump of trees. The thorns cut into his forearm and neck and insects began crawling up his spine, but he dared not move for fear of attracting attention. He lay in his supine position for hours as he heard more vehicles drive past, searching for potential child soldiers.

He lost track of time, softly reciting his favourite song to himself. After what seemed like an eternity, the sound of gunfire abated and the jeeps could not be heard any more.

Cautiously, he crawled out of his hideout and surveyed the destruction around him. The rebels needed child soldiers for their armies and to clear minefields, adults were usually 'sport'.

He returned to the village to see people slowly crawling out of their hideaways and searching for their separated family. A few huts were on fire and some bodies lay out in the open, nothing unusual for such a raid.

He found his mother and father, hiding in their improvised bunker under the house. His younger brother had unfortunately been captured. He would soon be wielding an AK47 for the rebel army.

Thabo was fortunate enough to get away... this time.