July 2026

I’m usually very hesitant towards children, maybe because I dropped a couple when I was younger or maybe it’s the awareness that to some extent they understand what they are doing. I suppose it is more the kinda older children who know but nonetheless my stance remains, but maybe it’s also because I also observed children do evil when I was a child. I watched some cousins take something from the house that they knew not to take and then blame it on some of their friends and then they put them in a pit with thorns. When they wanted to get out they would yell for them to stay there, I didn’t do anything about it, I should have, but I couldn’t speak the language and a part of me was afraid. They later left me in the middle of nowhere and I had no idea how to get to the homestead, luckily my uncle was passing that way and carried me home. I know not all kids are evil and sinful but I think I was and was also surrounded by many like me.

You see the bullying and unnecessary teasing and you wonder why your friends are doing it but you don’t stop it. Maybe I was just a kid but I knew better and never acted on it. Since were speaking on the issue of evil, let me tell you about something sinful that happened when I was a child. There were two girls, we’ll call them Uwuwi and Uluwembu, they were really close, your typical best friends. They did almost everything together, they played together, went to the same school and they ate and sat together in their classes. They walked home from school together, split up to do their homework at least when they weren’t doing it with each other and then meet later to play. They lived in the same neighbourhood, their parents knew each other and everyone knew if you’re looking for Uwuwi she’s probably with Uluwembu and vice versa.

One of their favourite things to do was to walk around the surrounding neighbourhoods, they would save their money from school and buy different things they’d find on their walks. It ranged from candy to drinks and their favourite thing ever; some fries and sausage from a little stand near a college. They really liked the fries but they couldn’t have them often because they had to save for longer to make up the amount. Either way they were happy and it was a thing they did together among the many others.