"Boy Soldiers" (1997)

Excerpt from the draft of “Apostle to the Pygmies – The Doctor Jerry Galloway Story”

By December, I was back in Pendjua. However, my trip was not without problems. On the day I planned to leave, a massive storm took place, and the lake was too rough. We loaded the boat onto the trailer and prepared to transport it to the beach. Two 16-year-old soldiers arrived, armed with submachine guns. They asked me if I spoke Lingala. "Yes, I speak Lingala," I responded. "What do you want?"

"We are going to go to Kiri in that boat," one stated. I politely said, "I have one hundred pounds of medicine and vaccines on this boat, along with my suitcase, plus a teacher and a chauffeur. There is no room."

"If we are not allowed on the boat, then we will not let it leave." The young soldiers fingered the triggers on their guns. "The vaccines are for the children, and if I don't take them, they'll spoil," I explained. "We are more important than little children," they responded.

I realized it was useless to talk to them, so I said the boat would not leave, and I took my bags back to the mission. The bishop's assistant finally convinced the soldiers to let me go, and the boat left at noon. The trip to Kiri was a 100-mile-long journey by river, and upon my arrival, I stayed at the mission for several days. Then I departed for Pendjua by jeep, and all dikes and some bridges were under two feet of water. We got out and stood on the wooden bridges, so the driver knew where to place the jeep's wheels.