Chapansi and her best friend Luano love collecting inswa.
They love to play on the old dirt road…
….even if Mama would tsk-tsk because the stones hurt her feet.
One day, big cars arrive.
Mama calls them Caterpillars.
They cover the road in black stuff.
Mama calls it tar.
The road is smooth now.
Like walking on a mattress!
But when Chapansi and Luano go to the road to catch inswa…
… they only caught three!
Chapansi used to love playing chiyato with Luano.
But there are no more stones on the road to play with.
Chapansi is worried.
What if the inswa can’t breathe anymore?
Chapansi kicks the road!
Chapansi goes to Mama.
‘Don’t be sad, my child. Inswa will always find a way out,’ she says.
One rainy day, Luano comes running to Chapansi’s house.
‘Inswa is back!’
Inswa is back! It defeated the road!
Mama was right after all!
Credits
Originally published by Book Dash under a Creative Commons Licensed BY 4.0. This book can be read for free on https://bookdash.org/books/the-new-road and was created by: Nicodemus Silingo (Illustrator), Murray Hunter (Designer), Fiske Serah Nyirongo (Writer), Margot Bertelsmann (Editor)
