In The Sky There Are

This Days One Must Be Careful To Avoid Awakening The Pain Of Another.

The Places I Come From Have Such Rich Languages, Such A Variety Of Expression. In Sierra Leone We Have About Fifteen Languages And Three Dialects. I Grew Up Speaking About Seven Of Them.

This Is One Of The Consequences Of The Civil War. People Stop Trusting Each Other, And Every Stranger Becomes An Enemy.

When I Was Young, My Father Used To Say, ‘if You Are Alive, There Is Hope For A Better Day And Something Good To Happen. If There Is Nothing Good Left In The Destiny Of A Person, He Or She Will Die.’ I Thought About These Words During My Journey, And They Kept Me Moving Even When I Didn’t Know Where I Was Going. Those Words Became The Vehicle That Drove My Spirit Forward And Made It Stay Alive.

I Had A Very Simple, Unremarkable And Happy Life. And I Grew Up In A Very Small Town. And So My Life Was Made Up Of, You Know, In The Morning Going To The River To Fetch Water - No Tap Water, And No Electricity - And, You Know, Bathing In The River, And Then Going To School, And Playing Soccer Afterwards.