The Other Side

“I had a dream, that one day, I would have a country style house, a family, and loving husband,” says Faran.

She lost that dream in one day, when she got her hands chopped off by rebel boys with a machete. She was 12 years old and watched her family burn to death as rebels stormed by her home village of Sierra and set the home on fire with her parents, brothers, sisters, aunt and uncle inside. Everyone inside started screaming as the fire became an inferno. She dropped on her hands and knees, num from all her senses, shocked, scared, unable to move. After some time, the screams died down, and empty echoes of screams fill her ears.

Freedom, courage and hope was not something she could grasp at this time. She was confused, scared out of her mind, and alone.

“I was spared, because they wanted me to tell everyone what they did here,” says Faran.

“But, before they let me go, one of the rebels yelled. “You must choose a punishment before you leave.”

“What I stuttered,” says Faran as tears streamed down her face.

“Which hand do you want to lose first?”

“No!” She screamed, as she set off running, but the rebel caught her by his big arms and carried her back.

“Please, please, don’t do this,” she begged. “If you are going to chop off my hands, please just kill me?”

“We are not going to kill you,” one of the boys says. “We want you to go to the world and show them what we did to you.”

Three rebel boys held her down as her body began to sway. As the machete came down, Faran closes her eyes tightly, but they popped open in hopes of a prayer the rebels might just stop, but they didn’t and she saw everything. It took them two attempts to cut off her left hand, three to sever her right. Her legs gave away, and she sank to the ground as the boy rebel wiped the blood off his machete and walked away.

Freedom

We don’t think about it, and most of the time we take it for granted. Comfortable and cozy within the four walls of our country, we sip on our coffee’s, and get our way to almost anything we want. Education, health care, quality of life is all set up by our government. Unfortunately not everyone is so lucky.

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