The Best and the Worst: a Child Soldier and a 12-Year-Old Entrepreneur

Some of you saw this picture that I posted on Facebook of the gun-toting guard at the Uganda border who looked to be about ten years old. It’s hard to imagine children living with this kind of pressure.

Now, our friends here assured us that this boy is older than he looks. Well, you can decide what you think.

On the other side of the coin…

At that same border, we met Michael, a twelve-year-old entrepreneur. The day we crossed was a national holiday so Michael was not attending school. Rather than take a day to play, he was selling bananas and honing his business skills (according to his own statement). He was articulate, engaging, and very shortly had me handing him 20 shillings for a banana that I wasn’t interested in eating.

“What are you going to do with the money you earn today?” Brooks asked him. “I’m going to buy some school books that I need.”

Michael is, indeed, the very best of Africa. He has the attitude that is changing this continent and will continue to do so as true spiritual transformation changes poverty mindsets into God-inspired thinking.