Press-Ganged

"War counselling" is, in Africa, a part of an urban minister's work. This sketch came out of a counselling session many years ago. A press-gang had entered a young man's village, he said, and taken all able-bodied men for war. He was appointed valet to a colonel. But the colonel beat him severely, and he was terrified of gunfire. He looked for every opportunity to escape. When finally he did, he was soon recaptured. The colonel said, “You are a spy! That is where you went!” He ordered him to dig a big pit, and to pack the bottom with salt. The colonel made him lie in it, then closed up the pit with wooden boards, and posted a guard. After two days in this prison, one evening, the young man’s guard became drunk, was “smoking too much marijuana”, and had a woman. The prisoner opened up a hole, and peeped out. Quietly, quietly, he said, he climbed out of the pit, crept out of the camp, and “walked and walked and walked”. For days he walked, until he crossed the border. OBSERVATION: Press-gangs, it would seem, are now active in Russia.