Oumar's mother sold off her cows at home to pay his passage and is now counting on him to make a new life and feed the whole family back home.

Whether he succeeds or not, a repeat voyage is not on the agenda.

"I'd rather die than go back to sea," he explains in halting French.

Oumar left the former French west African colony of Guinea three weeks ago, fleeing a place whose inhabitants scratch a living from around one euro (dollar) a day.

"Three days into the trip the rice had all gone and there was fuel in the water," the teen, now ensconced at La Esperanza reception camp on Tenerife, explains.

A group of youngsters listen to his tale of a nightmare whose content they knew only too well from personal experience.

"We had to stay stock still and try to sleep despite the sun, the mosquitos and the salt water which burned our eyes and lips," recounts Oumar.

Before he set off he had been optimistic, knowing several of his friends had made it, just a few of more than 24,000 migrants to reach the islands this year.

His mother was opposed to the plan to begin with but eventually he talked her round and she sold off the cows -- her only means of feeding six children.

Selling the beasts at Koubia market in eastern Guinea raised 500,000 CFA francs (some 760 euros/850 dollars) which were handed over to the traffickers who found Oumar a place on the boat.

"My worst nightmare," he stammers, looking back to the trip.

"One morning, when the motor boat was off Morocco, the captain said he was lost. We all started to cry. It was the most difficult day of my life. I felt like a condemned man," Oumar explains.

"People were saying, 'it's all over, it's all over.' I was furious with the sea, seeing so much ocean stretching ahead of us."

That night, a fellow passenger who Oumar says was "nervous" about the trip from the start, fell in the water and drowned.

"We asked the skipper to go and find him but he didn't want to."

Five skippers in all captained the vessel, taking charge in turn aided by a GPS satellite system and compass provided by the trafficker who organised the trip.

Spanish authorities finally intercepted the errant boat on August 18 and towed it to Las Palmas on the island of Gran Canaria.

Oumar will be cared for at the centre, where he is having Spanish and gardening lessons, until he turns 18.

He has ambitions -- but they will be hard to realise here.

"I'd like to be a mechanic, an electrician, learn trades, do a good job," says Oumar.

Having found out how hard it is to do that in Spain when you have no papers he is on the verge of tears.

"My father died during the war in Liberia three years ago. Now I have to work to send money to my mother. It's a commitment," says the youngster.

A few days back he managed to phone home.

"They all cried they had had no news and thought the boat had capsized."

"My mother asked if I was in good health.

"I said, 'yes'. But I told her to tell my big brother not to come."

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