My Life as a Child Laborer

Every day I get up and my body hurts.  Instead of going to school, I take a long walk to my job at a gold mine.  All day long I work with other children, sifting through dirt in search of gold.  I've been told that gold is what makes people rich, but I'm still poor - the men in charge pay me barely enough to eat.  My hands burn from working with mercury all day and many of my friends become sick.  When I come home, I am so tired that I go straight to sleep.  I dream one day of not having to work, of going to school, learning to read and having a normal childhood.