Day 1

All I feel is pain. The pain of my body aching, the pain of being taken away from my family, the pain of being part of an army, the pain of almost being killed, and the pain of knowing I may never go back home. Just yesterday, I was in my village cutting bananas and sugar cane. Today, I am at a Revolutionary camp being trained to fight! I have never even lifted a gun before, and now I’m handed an AK-47. How am I expected to kill a human being? Even thinking about it makes me so mad I find it hard to control my anger. I want to kick Juan, Esteban, Sergeant Diaz, Sergeant Batista, and Whistler till they hurt so much they won’t have the energy to pick up a stupid gun again. It is pure injustice to take kids like me, Lolo, and Ignacio and force us to fight. And after taking us from our village, and forcing us to come here, they treat us like filthy pigs. In fact, even pigs would be more important than us right now because they could be used as food. We have to train all day with hardly any rest, and at the end of it, we get yelled at for our poor performance. There is nothing in the world that will ever make me enjoy this. I don’t care what Juan or Esteban say, or what anyone else here thinks. I will work to become a good soldier, but only so I can stay alive. I will never be one of them even if they keep me here for years. But, as soon as I get the chance, I will escape from here. Even if it costs me my life, I will escape, and that’s a promise I can make.

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