Abraham and Muhammed

Muhammed was smiling but quiet.  Then he said, "I have never eaten with white people before.  I want to remember this moment."  (boy across from Dad)  There was a salad there called "Lampedusa Insalata".  Since both boys landed there we thought that was quite remarkable.

Gelato in style!  Muhammed was reluctant to go inside the shop.  I had to coax him in.

Downtown Rome with Abraham (L) and Muhammed (R)

Today we met with Abraham and Muhammed.  We met Abraham while we were in Lampedusa.  Dad gave him our card and we told him we hope we meet up again.  He kept the card, and indeed, he has been sent to a camp near Rome.  Today we managed to meet up with him and his roommate Muhammed.  It was a bit hard for them to come into the city and especially hard to find our meeting place:  we had asked them if they could get to the Spanish Steps.  Luckily they had a phone and between pictures and texting we were able to find them.  We took them to lunch and had a very nice long chat.  They have only been in Rome about a month.  Still very grateful for everything.  In fact Muhammed kept saying:  "I really appreciate to them what they are doing for us in the camp.  I really appreciate.  I have no family here so I really appreciate them, what they are doing for us."  He said it over and over again.
Even after hearing what they have been through, they said with conviction, "God is good.  God must be given the Glory.  He is the reason we are alive today.  God is good to me.  Yeah, God is good."

Abraham (Ibrahim):  21 years old.  Comes from Sierra Leone.  Dad died.  Mom still alive and he has 4 brothers and 3 sisters.  He is the last son of his mother.  Went to school, and after exams they had no money for further schooling.  He had high grades so he got a scholarship to a Christian school.  That's where he met his wife.  His wife is Christian and his father's family is Muslim, so they were going to kill him and that's why he fled. He said that his family wants him dead b/c he is now a Christian.   His wife had to stay behind in the village.  Abraham has called his Mom who still supports him, but there is no news of his wife and children.  Fled to Guinea to find work.  Didn't realize they spoke French there.  Couldn't find work, nor in Niger or Mali b/c of the language.  Heard there was work in Libya.  Hadn't heard that Libya is a nightmare!   They don't like blacks in Libya.  They put him in prison.  They put all blacks in prison.  He tried to escape but they caught him and put a hot iron from a fire on his leg and on his foot (he showed us the burn...like a branding)  His stomach is full of scars:  they thought it was appendix but it wasn't so they did another surgery and couldn't find the cause.  The Dr. said, 'it's black magic.'
He tried to escape a second time from the prison and succeeded.  He left with a group of friends at 2am.  Some succeeded but others were caught and some were killed.   He managed to get to the seaside, where there are a lot of blacks looking for boats.  They let him get on a boat "they just want the blacks out of Libya".  We met him in Lampedusa just a few days after he landed.  He came over in the same boat with Muhammed,  shared a room with Muhammed in Lampedusa and now they are together again in Rome, for which they are very grateful.  They shared the voyage with us! (They didn't know that you can't turn your phone sideways when taking a video, so half of it is sideways)

This captures how crowded the boats were.  Like sardines.  They drove until the 'blue water' which is the international border.  Then along comes somebody who takes away the motor and the driver!  They were on the boat for 14 hours.  Abraham was on the side with his feet in the water.  And they also have a video of their rescue!

Muhammed is 20 years old and from a village called Makinny in Sierra Leone.   He has a mom but his dad died.  They wanted him to join the Poro Society, but he didn't want to and ran away.  He fled with his childhood sweetheart who didn't want him to go without her.  They ran to Guinea to find work.  They also ended up in Libya thinking there would be work.  They first went to the seaside to hide.  The Asram boys would wear police jackets but they weren't police.  He didn't know who to trust.  They look for blacks from 8am until 10pm.  They slept in an unfinished building with no windows. To find food they would go to the market and eat the food that had been left in the trash.  That's how you survive in Libya.  You can't go to the shop and buy food or they throw you in prison. Still he ended up in prison called Zaweh for one month.  Sometimes they would only get one piece of bread for 6 people for the whole day.  Even that bread was not easy to get.  The prison was stifling.  No window or door open.  Sometimes they would open the door for only 5 minutes.  No breeze.  An Arab man took him from the prison to work for him in a garage.  He swept, worked on the motors, etc.  The man didn't speak English so he would gesture what he wanted Muhammed to do.  Sometimes he was paid, but most times he was not paid. He worked for the garage man for 4 months.  There are no laws in Libya.  If they want to kill you, they kill you.  If you resist they search you and then kill you. In the end, the garage man put him and his wife on a boat (she is at present 6 months pregnant).  They got on the boat and said:  "I give my life to God"  There was no way to get back home from Libya.  "You die there.  Nobody can walk home.  People are dying there every day.  Gunshots.  Everyday gunshots.  It's not easy.  Nobody knows about those prisons."

Mohammed is in the center.  Imagine being like this for 14 hours!

There was one incident on the metro home from our outing.  It was a really packed metro car and when the car lurched forward Abraham lost his balance and bumped into a lady behind him.  She tore into him and I quickly moved myself in between him and the lady.  I kept telling her I was sorry.  She kept ranting but eventually she settled down.  It was awful.  Those poor boys.  Even when we were trying to meet up, when they would try to ask people for directions nobody would talk to them.  If they only knew how brave and courageous these boys are they would give them honor instead of scorn!