Yeny and the Children for Peace by Michelle Mulder

Author’s Note
    In the northwest corner of South America, there’s a country full of mountains, jungles, and some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. It’s a place where most people speak Spanish—the language brought to South America by Spanish invaders five hundred years ago—and many also speak the languages of the native people who lived here long before.
    Colombia has shores on the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. The Andes Mountains run from north to south, and the capital city of Bogotá is high up above sea level, close to the center of the country. If you go to the capital, you can see where people made the first gold coins in the Americas almost four hundred years ago. You can ride a funicular up the hill ofMonserrate, or explore the exhibits at the Children’s Museum. In other parts of Colombia, you can hike through the jungle, climb a papaya tree, pick fresh bananas, discover how coffee grows, and see an anteater or a spider monkey. You can find children your age who love to sing and dance and play, and who are always ready for a new adventure. They’ll tell you that their country is a rich and exciting one, and that they’re proud to be part of it.
    But Colombia is also a troubled country. For more than forty years many different groups have been fighting each other for power, and it is now one of the most violent places in the world. Every year the fighting has killed thousands—sometimes tens of thousands—of people. Often these people were men, women, and children who just happened to get caught in the middle.
    All over Colombia, people are working toward peace. But this is much more difficult than it sounds. For one thing, Colombians have to be careful about what they say. It can be dangerous to speak out against any one of the fighting groups. So instead of naming them, Colombians often call them simply the
grupos armados
—the armed groups. And when people talk about their own homes, they don’t always name places either. Being too specific about anything might have terrible consequences.

    The characters in the story you are about to read are invented, but they’re based on the lives of many brave children who are working hard and courageously, every day, to bring peace to their country.

CHAPTER 1
Yeny, The New Kid
    Happy first day of school!” Juan cheered.
    Sunlight peeped in at the window, and through the orange curtain around her bed Yeny could see her cousin bouncing up and down. This day had taken forever to come. It was already October, and the school year had started way back in March. Back then, Yeny and her family had still been living in the village in the mountains. She had never imagined living in a city . . . but then, she’d never imagined what had happened in August, either. Now her life was split into “before” and “after,” and today, halfway through the school year, she would start at a new school, in a city a hundred times bigger than her village.

    â€œThis is going to be the best day ever,” Juan called, continuing his crazy dance on his side of the curtain. Yeny missed her village, but she loved having someone her own age to play with, now that both families were sharing the same house. Yeny’s older sister, Elena, had gotten so boring lately, only wanting to spend time with other teenagers. But Juan was lots of fun.
    Yeny laughed and jumped up from her mattress on the floor, pulling off her pajamas and putting on her new school clothes as quickly as she could. She had laid out her uniform before going to sleep. It used to belong to her oldest cousin, Rosa, but it fit Yeny perfectly, and she loved the dark blue skirt and the crisp white blouse. In the village, children wore whatever clothes they had to school, but here in the city it seemed important to look especially tidy.
    â€œWhat do you think we’ll do first in school today?” Yeny asked Juan, when she had pushed the