Blood Diamond

I had seen it before, but flicking through the TV channels last night I saw that Leonardo Di Caprio's film, Blood Diamond, had just started on BBC2. Watching it again was a moving experience as I was with people who had lived through the events in the film only a short time ago.

My friend, Alpha Kargbo, who helped pioneer much of the work we are involved in, had to flee into the bush from his home village in the North when they were attacked by rebels and he was separated for some weeks from his wife and children. He did not know whether they had survived or not.

A boy soldier

During the attack on Freetown, Alpha's home, a fine old wooden house built by the Portugese, was burnt to the ground and all the letters I had written to him perished in the blaze.

Money that I had just sent to him to buy the land for the school had been received on January 5th 1999 and he had collected cash intending to pay it into the bank next day. The rebel attack came that next day and Alpha had just enough time to bury the money in the ground. It was a couple of weeks before he could retrieve it.      

The rebels made him carry some of their wounded and then run errands for them to collect water. He did several trips under guard, but when they trusted him enough to let him go by himself, he escaped.

Alpha today in the school office.