“I was thinking, ‘Am I ever going to see my mom again?’ ” says Joy. Boko Haram kidnapped nearly 300 girls that night, threatening to sell them as slaves. The news rocketed around the world, sparking the viral hashtag “Bring Back Our Girls.” A few dozen girls managed to escape. In recent months, more than 100 girls have been set free as a result of government negotiations with Boko Haram, but more than 100 girls remain missing. Cousins Lydia, left, and Joy, right, pose for a portrait showing off their diplomas and university scholarships to Southeastern University in Florida (where they plan to attend college in the fall of 2017) after their graduation ceremony at Canyonville Christian Academy, in Canyonville, Oregon, on June 3, 2017. CHIBOK Erin Trieb On the night of the attack, the terrorists torched the school, then ordered the girls to march down a dusty back road and pile into open-air trucks. Joy’s truck was so high off the ground, she recalls, she had to use a small car as step-up to get in. As the trucks roared off into the night, the terrified girls frantically discussed jumping. Lydia recalls a friend saying it was better to take the risk than to disappear forever — right before she jumped. Lydia prayed, then followed her friend, landing hard on the ground, a searing pain in her hips as she scrambled up and headed blindly into the thick, thorny bushes, with her friend. “We ran and ran,” she says. Joy was debating whether to jump as well. She heard a girl say it would be better to die there—at least their parents would find a corpse. She felt a surge of courage: She could do this. Then she looked down at the ground far below. “Something is like, ‘Joy, you cannot. And I’m like yes I can.’ ” She leapt, landing on her stomach in a cloud of dust from the dirt road, before catching her breath and fleeing with two of her classmates into the brush. After that, they just kept running. Lydia and her friend were covered in blood from thorns, their clothes torn. They came upon a village where people had spent the night hiding in the bushes, fearing their homes would be burned, as Boko Haram had been there just hours before. The villagers pointed the girls toward home and told them to “run in a zigzag,” says Lydia, because it would be harder for anyone to shoot them. Meanwhile, Joy and her two classmates—exhausted and afraid to stop, especially now in daylight—had found a road, where they encountered a man on a motorcycle. “We ask him to please take us back home. He ask, ‘Who are you?’ We were scared. We don’t want to tell,” says Joy, who ultimately confided in the man, and he took them home. Lydia and her friend lucked out as well, coming to a road and stopping a man who drove them back to Chibok. Over the next few months, they worried that Boko Haram would come back to get them — sometimes sleeping outside where they felt it would be easier to hide. When they heard about an opportunity to finish school in America, they didn’t hesitate. With help from a human rights group in Virginia, the Jubilee Campaign, they came to the U.S. in August 2014. After attending boarding school for two years in Virginia, they transferred last summer to the Canyonville Christian Academy, a scenic boarding school in Oregon surrounded by soaring redwoods and pines. “They kept our tutors busy and worked nonstop,” says Doug Wead, president of the academy. “When they encountered scary new challenges, they kept jumping off that truck.” During her emotional graduation speech, Joy said, “I forgive the people who hurt me. I have nothing against them. I am praying for the return of my classmates to their parents.” *Originally published nub US based People Magazine To Receive Free News Updates, Add To Your WhatsApp: 08033857245; For Adverts Enquiries, Call 08083609209, To Publish Your Articles Or News Stories, Email editor@skytrendnews.com. READ ALSO! EXCLUSIVE: Armed Robbery Attack At Zenith Bank Southeast Owerri That Killed One (WATCH VIDEO) READ ALSO! 7 Women Lure Two Men Into Their Car, Rape Them Serially Inside A Bush READ ALSO! REVEALED: How Brave Policeman That Shot Dead Armed Robber In Viral Owerri Video Died READ ALSO! Why Celebrity Marriages Will Continue To Crash — Comedian, Bash READ ALSO! Shock As Married Woman Dies In Hotel Room In Enugu With Alleged Lover READ ALSO! Mercy Aigbe Visits UK Hospital For Treatment READ ALSO! OWERRI ROBBERY: Nigerian Police Under Fire For Disparity In Their Claim Versus The Viral CCTV Video READ ALSO! UPDATE: Why Nigerian Soldier Who Killed Suspected Boko Haram Terrorist Was Sentenced To Death ]]>