The egg represents purity.
It is untouched, unscathed and innocent. Then, it is stepped on. The innocence is crushed. It sits broken and exposed.
The symbolism of the event is not lost on the Acholi people of northern Uganda. The ceremony is an important step in reintegrating and cleansing someone who has been away from the community for a long period of time. After 22 years of war, the Acholi have been doing this a lot for child soldiers.
They left as children - pure and innocent like the egg. But they come back psychologically broken even if they are still physically young.
They are children forcibly recruited by fighting forces. For them and the communities they return to, these ceremonies are essential for everyone to move forward.
Worldwide, an estimated 300,000 kids in 36 countries have had their childhoods replaced by horrors no person should have to endure. Their outer wounds are easy to fix. But, the process of rehabilitation and giving them a new life is complicated and requires personal and cultural forgiveness.
"Any child that has experienced this, the memories will never leave them," says Dirk Booy, executive director of World Vision Canada which runs the Children of War Rehabilitation Center in Gulu, Uganda. "It will impact them for the rest of their lives."
The conflict between Ugandan government forces and the Lord's Resistance Army is older than most of the child soldiers fighting the battles. In the last two decades, an estimated 25,000 children have been adducted for use as fighters, sex slaves and labourers. Although, some estimates put that number closer to 66,000.
"All of them have experienced different atrocities," says Booy. "The army has beaten them and forced them to watch other violent acts to desensitize them. Then, they engage in the acts themselves for fear of their lives."
Since opening its doors in 1995, the Children of War Center has helped rehabilitate 15,000 children associated with fighting forces. Booy explains the first step is to address the immediate needs - food, shelter and medical attention. Then, they move on to the psychological wounds.
"They come to us traumatized, stigmatized, some of them experienced signs of post-traumatic stress," says Booy. "The center works with them on these issues helping them draw out their experiences and get back to a normal routine."
These psychological approaches are essential to the healing process. Using counseling sessions, art and acting, the children are encouraged to talk about their experiences. These are often brutal stories of torture, forced killings, drugs and fighting. Even if the child never held a gun themselves, they often speak of sexual abuse, servitude and forced labour.
But just as important are the cultural practices. The egg ceremony has a distinct purpose in acknowledging the foreign elements that crushed the community and the child. In addition, the child must jump over two twigs. The first, called the layibi, is used to open the granary, symbolizing a return to where one once ate. The second, from the opobo tree is traditionally used to make soap. It represents cleansing.
While the tradition is much different from the counseling we often use in the Western world, the rituals work to make the former combatant feel safe and welcomed back into the community.
"We conduct them in a very public way with the community members in order to reestablish the kids and reintegrate them," says Booy. "We need the kids to feel good about themselves, who they are and how the community feels about them."
That's a process that not easy to anyone - community, counselor or child. Despite some of the best treatment in the world, we can never give someone back their childhood.
While their physical wounds will heal, it's the deeper, internal scars that will live on.