AMAZING DREAM 😴

 Today I am happy to present to you the first results of the writing project of our artistic laboratory in Kibera.

The children were divided into homogeneous groups so that each group contained both older and younger children.

The Merceline group wrote a story titled: Amazing dream.

Here are the photos and the text, which we have transcribed for ease of reading.

AMAZING DREAM

It was during an English lesson when two strong men, armed with guns burst into our classroom and ordered us to get down on the floor. Everyone immediately obeyed, not knowing what was happening. 

They spoke in a familiar language, it sounded similar to our mother tongue.

We were all taken into a truck and tied up like slaves. Fear and terror colonized me and I broke the silence by screaming loud enough to wake the dead.

One of the armed men with his rough, hairy hands, slapped me so hard that made me see all the planets parading before Jupiter.

Before seconds turned into minutes, the driver kicked the engine to life, leaving clouds of dust dungling behind us. My heart skipped a beat. I was between the blue night and the devil, seated close to the door, which did not seem to be locked. It was up to me whether to jump out and risk a severe injury, or wait for what was coming. A lot of questions and thoughts dawned in my brain, tears of melanchony trinkled down my chubby child’s cheeks. In no time the truck stopped and well all alighted to our surprise we were in a spooky forest with scary voices everywhere. 

We were made to sit in groups of five, then one of the men called and spoke on the phone with an unknown person for about half an hour, then the men left without us. I wished the earth would split in two and swallow me. Our teacher was quiet all along, not even a world from him.

We untied ourselves and, under the teacher’s instructions, called the emergency number, all with his phone. It was too unfortunate for us that there was no network connection. I tried to brainstorm a way out with my classmates, but they were so busy crying in agony that could not share a thought with me. I saw it was better for me if I could just find a way home by myself. I started walking, following a footpath that led me deep inside the forest and departed from the very people. I was to stick with who could help me find a way out. I was now stranded in the thick bushes of the spooky forest. I tried shouting and seeing if anyone could hear my voice, but all I could hear was the echo of my own voice.

Some few steps from my right side was a bunch of strawberries that looked ripe and juicy. I went there and ate as many as I could until I was full, and carried some in my pocket.

Night darkness was nearly approaching, so I started looking for where I would spend the night. Finally I found a cave and lit a fire using a firestone like the crude people did. Then I set up a camp inside the cave.   

A big scary creature jumped out of a hole which was beside some heap of sand and started running towards me. I ran as fast as my wobbly, thin legs would carry me. The creature jumped up trying to pounce on me.

Just then I threw my blanket up in the air, sweat covered my face only to realise that it was all a dream. My mother had already made breakfast and I had to get ready for school. Craizy enough, the first class of the day was the English lesson.