I was dragged out of the car and a shootout began with the bandits

Abdi Kadia.

Abdi Kadia was eight years old but didn’t know it.

He’d seen white people before, but only at a distance.

They seemed friendly enough, and they waved back when he waved at them.

He and the other children in the Somali camp discussed the matter at length while playing with stones, but they couldn’t agree, because they’d heard both good and bad stories.