The Klever Magg

Bad Company
by Ten-Year-Old Ohemaa Abena Aboagyewa Bondzie

“Bad friends corrupt good manners”, so says the Good Book.

Maame Aba Mensima and Papa Kofi Ata lived in a village called Kyekyewere.
They had four children, Matthew, Georgina, John and Shantelle. They lived with their parents. Being very good Christians, the parents always attended church. They were active members of Christ The King Methodist Church and the children attended Sunday School. When Matthew was in JHS 1, he started using hard drugs.

His parents advised him but he did not heed their advice.

When Georgina also got to JHS, she joined a bad group of friends. Like her brother, she joined a group that smoked weed, went to a club, and even stopped going to church.
One day, Georgina realized that she was pregnant, and fearing what might happen if her parents found out, she told her friends about it and they advised her to abort the baby to get rid of her fear and other future problems.

Georgina refused because she had never done that before, and she had heard some scary things about abortion.
But her group of bad friends convinced her that it was safe.
Georgina agreed to abort the baby. Unfortunately, she died when she took the mixture of herbs and other medications her friends gave her for the abortion.

It was time for Matthew to write his final examination but he had not had time to study so his friends advised him to use cocaine unfortunately, he got mad and was sent to an asylum.

Georgina’s group of friends went to console Georgina’s parents but the parents called the police to arrest both the peers of Georgina and Matthew because they knew what the friends did was very bad.

Shantelle and John went to school and also joined the same bad groups as Matthew and Georgina but Shantelle never got pregnant, she became a drunkard and came home late every day.

John was an intelligent boy but he smoked weed every day. One day, there was an attack on their school by a notorious group from one of the neighbouring towns and because John’s group thought they were the strongest they joined the fight but they died in the end.

Well, Shantelle changed because of what happened to his brothers and sister. She realized that bad friends corrupted good manners.
Shantelle started attending church because of what friends had done to her siblings and promised never to join such a group again.

She found peace at church and had the feeling that God loved her.
She had learned a painful lesson, so she started telling it to her folks and classmates.

The End