by Donna White
“Bruce? Sam?” he whispered. “Where are you?”
****
Sam stared into the darkness. A modest fire, contained within a circle of rocks, glowed in front of her. Above her a sliver of the moon lit the scene. A girl in a long white dress sat crouched on the ground holding a baby tightly to her chest. She rocked back and forth. A slow, mournful moan came from her lips.
Sam walked to her and crouched down. She lifted the girl’s chin and stared into her eyes. “It’s okay, Eseza. We can get through this.”
Sam held her and stared into the surrounding bush. She looked from one part of the clearing to the other. “Bruce? Scott?” she called out. “I’m right here! Where are you?”
She waited for a response. She called out again. The only sound she heard was Eseza’s sobs and the rustle of the leaves. She held on to her a little tighter.
“Maybe we won’t be together, Scott. Kinda looks like we’re on our own.”
AUTHOR’S NOTE:
Shortly after I returned from Uganda in 2008, I visited with a friend who had volunteered at the World Vision/UNICEF recovery center for former child soldiers in Gulu. He told me about Florence, a woman he knew from the center who had worked as a counselor shortly after her fifteen-year-old daughter, Angela, had been abducted by Joseph Kony and the LRA. Florence worked there for years, hoping each day that when one of the government army trucks pulled into the compound, carrying children who had managed to escape from the army, that her daughter would be on one of them.
She waited nine years.
Then one day while my friend was there, Florence’s daughter was found by the UPDF and reunited with her mother.
He said the whole center erupted in praise. The drums were brought out, people sang and danced and clapped and shouted and then a huge parade started and went from one end of the compound to the other and back again. He said the people on the other side of the barricaded cement walls must have thought it was the second coming. And then he showed me a picture of Florence and Angela hugging, and I cried.
And so, when I returned to Uganda in 2015, it should have come as no surprise when I walked into the Gulu Recovery Center that Angela came out to greet me, her arms extended in the traditional Ugandan way: You are most welcome. She was now head counselor at the center.
I said, “I know you. You’re Angela. I know your story.”
As it turned out, I only knew a very small part of it.
And so, I dedicate this book to Angela. A wondrous and courageous and strong strong woman.
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Glossary
As in the first book of the trilogy, I made great efforts to include common words and phrases of the Acholi tribe in their native Luo language. Sometimes, however, I used a type of street slang known as Uglish, a cross between Luganda and English. In other cases, I used Kiswahili, because it was more suitable for that word or phrase at that moment. Sometimes it was difficult to find a suitable word because the word in Luo did not exist, and if it did, the meaning was lost in translation. While the dialects of the people of Uganda vary widely from region to region and class to class, the dialect that is portrayed in this novel is an assembling of different styles of speech from various regions and various classes of the people of Uganda. If I have made any mistakes, I apologize, again. I am, after all, a muzungu just.
Glossary of Acholi (Luo) words
acel, ariyo, adek, angwen, abic: one, two, three, four, five
ajiji: Literally translated means “to see again”, flashback, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Anansi: famous spider trickster god
apwoyo matek: thank you very much
bolingo, and kakopi kakopi: popular games children play in Uganda and other parts of Africa
cawa marac: bedtime
cet: shit
goyo: beat
gu: large. For example: gu-rock is large rock
gway: hey
gweye: here
hyna: hyena. In Uganda the people do not say the middle e sound, so the word is pronounced high-na
hujambo: hello - Swahili
itye nining: greeting, “How are you?”
jela: jail
jok: evil spirit
ka: little. For example: ka-boy is little boy
kapere: Uglish for nobody
kit kwo ma gang: life at home
kit kwo ma ilum: life in the bush
konyi pee: dirt
kwaro: grandfather
latin gunya: child gorilla
latunge ki remo: brown noser
lajok: witch doctor - believed to possess great and evil power
maa: mother
min maa: grandmother
machet: machete. In Uganda the people do not say the final “e” sound, so the word is pronounced ma-shet.
muzungu: Literally translated it means “someone who roams around” or wanderer. Word used to describe first Europeans who came to Africa and appeared to be wandering or lost. Plural: bazungu.
ojone: please
opego: pig
romo: sheep
simsim: sesame seed or any sweet made using sesame seed and honey
sufuria au moto: Fire or pan - Swahili
tin: ammunition - slang
wora: father
Author's Thanks
No man is an island and no book is written solo. Well, this one wasn’t anyways.
To my beta readers/editors: Jeannie Pendziwol, brother Dave, sister Sandra, Susan Rogers, and Caroline Kaiser: Thank you. I could not have done this without your expertise, support and encouragement, and all of those lovely things you said about the book to keep me going. Your confidence in this story has been the foundation for my perseverance and I thank you immensely. And to Amy, Katherine, and Zachary, my testers, thank you for your feedback. You helped me bring it up a notch or two or three.
To Heather, my cover designer extraordinaire. Chip Kidd says, “A book cover is a distillation. It is a Haiku of the story.” Yep. You are one fine poet.
To Angela, Janet, Florence, Agnes, Margaret, Christine and all of the wonderful people who work at Watye Ki Gen, the Gulu recovery project for former child soldiers, I thank you. You have restored my faith in mankind. If you ruled the world there would be peace in abundance everywhere.
And to all of the men, women and children who shared their stories with me at the center I cannot thank you enough. You revisited your past and brought me face to face with your most horrid memories. I listened, we cried, we covered our faces in dismay, we prayed and you taught me: while there are many stones in our lives, we have the ability to plant the seeds and see the flowers grow.
To Peter, our driver and translator while in Uganda: thank you for taking us on the roads less traveled, to huts hidden and places haunted with sad sad memories. You kept us safe, and for that I am thankful.
To Ben and Penny at Great Lakes Safaris, thank you for the wondrous days of exploring the savannah and visiting places where your majestic animals roam free. Your knowledge of the plant and wildlife in northern Uganda, Ben, was a huge asset to this book. And meeting up with the lions and the black mamba was pretty cool too. Thank you.
To Jason, my friend and fellow World Vision volunteer, thank you for accompanying us on this trip. You are a rock and I think you know what I mean by that.
To Colleen and all of the World Vision staff in Canada and Uganda who made our trip possible, thank you. I could not have done this without you.
To Eben, thank you for sharing your story about the sun and the shadows. It completes the story just f
ine.
To my family: Gary, Kira and Karl, I’ve put you through so much and feel that I’ve neglected you greatly. But I’m hoping as I learned more and shared more with you that you became more compassionate and understanding, if that was possible being the wonderful family you already are.
And to God. Yes, you amaze me. Putting people on my path, directing me and helping me to persevere. You told me again and again: tell Charlie’s story, it needs to be heard, it needs to be heard. Thank you for giving me the means to tell it. Thank you.
And to all of the people who said, “That was a great book, when is the second one coming out?” thank you. You made me believe in Charlie’s story. You made me believe in myself as a writer and a story teller. A teller of Charlie’s story.
About the Author
Donna C. White is a teacher and author of the Stones trilogy. She resides in Canada with her husband and children. Visit the author’s website at www.donnawhitebooks.com to find photo galleries, teaching resources, information about child soldiers, and much more.
A percentage of the proceeds from this novel will be given to World Vision Canada’s programs to help former child soldiers receive medical support, counseling, education and, when possible, reunite them with their loved ones.
If you wish to make a donation to help these children, go to:
World Vision Canada
Now you know. Do something about it.