kiosk outdoor tables are free. The boy looked embarrassed. Billy, the most talkative, speaks for all: "We have no money to pay," she says.
"You can be my guests." They look, they sit. As soon as the waitress brings to the table two roast chickens, their hands dismantle them piece by piece. All five have hair, skin, clothes, arms covered with a veil of dust. "From what you eat?" Billy smiles like someone who has just heard you say nonsense, "We are stranded , my friend. We can not afford to eat. In giving alms, we collect we can buy a cup of gari, sugar and water. And even those who by some money, but not enough to leave, do not spend it on food. Otherwise remain stranded for life. "
One after another said that for two weeks locked in Agadez. Their mind is still full of projects, dreams of freedom. But we can not move from the city of red mud because the bodies were trapped from everyday life. The lack of money. Hunger. The dust. The cost of the ticket and further away. Here is where do slaves of the twenty-first century. [...] Here are their faces closely. The tragedy is that nobody will ever tell them that they are doing something heroic. No one ever recognizes that their is a final gesture that has no equal only in the effort of birth. If you come live in Europe, call them even desperate. Although they are among the few in the world to have the courage to fight for the life full of hope.
Billy suddenly becomes suspicious: "Tell me, who are you? Because you have given us this evening?".
"Because you were hungry. And then because I would like to come and sleep all'autogare. Check in from Dakar and I'm trying to go to Libya."
"We all come from Nigeria, we are Christians," says Daniel, one of the friends. Billy interrupts him with another question: "You are European, because you want to stay all'autogare?". "Because I deal with immigration and I am doing the same trip that you do."
The boys exchanged looks worried: 'It's better not. We can not guarantee the security "replies Billy. "You do not owe me no guarantee. I come and sleep with you." "But you are white" says Daniel, "days ago, a Nigerian boy disappeared. The pieces were found in the bush, had taken all the money."
"I have no money." "They definitely think that a European money. And when you fall asleep, anyone can give you a knife. Forget it, it's too dangerous. "" Daniel, who are they? "
Billy shuts gently with your hand the answer to Daniel. Then he bites his lips closed, as if savoring the harshness of the words: "My friend, listen. Here there are people stranded months. When you're stranded 're worse than a dead man. Why do you still have the ability to see and hear a dead man has not. And then you suffer. They are everyone. Anyone in a moment of desperation can kill you just because you think that a white man certainly has the money in your pocket. You definitely a house, maybe a family. Do not play with your life unnecessarily. "
" I'm not playing with my life. I am doing some research, I need to talk to more people. And just sharing the same space and the same struggles, you can break down the barriers of the skin and get a feeling. But if the risk is so high, Billy, I trust your and your advice. "
ps stranded in English means stranded, stranded, left without means of transport, in trouble in need.
