Salva walks away from his war-torn village. He is a "lost-boy"
refugee, destined to cover Africa on foot, searching for his family and
safety.
We meet Salva at his school. It's a typical day when sudden gunfire
shakes the doldrums from the class. The teacher urges the students to
run and they scatter in all directions, abandoning the school. Salva
run in the opposite direction from his village, from his family. He
runs so far he eventually meets up with other travelers on the road.
It's a large group and they're told to break off into groups according
to village. Salva is comforted by familiar faces, though he knows no
one well. They walk all day, sleep by the side of the road at night,
walking the rest of the day as well. They find a barn the next night
but Salva wakes up alone. They've left him.
Alone, he
keeps walking until he comes upon an isolated home of an elderly woman.
She allows him to live in her barn for exchange for work. He joins
with another, larger group of strangers who come by her house. After a
while he meets a boy about his age and they become friends. This new
friend, Marial, tells Salva he thinks they're going East.
"East of Sudan is Ethiopia," he said.
Salva
has been walking for a month and is sure he'll never see his family
again. With luck he finds his Uncle who joined the group somewhere
along the way. Salva is overjoyed to see him. He's been in the army
and is in possession of a gun.
"...I'm going to shoot us a fine meal as soon as we come across anything worth eating."
His
Uncle is a provider for the group and Salva eats well, the group eats
well, but they're not the only ones. They're passing through lion
territory; 'some of the fiercest in the world.' Salva is woken up
wailing and discovers his friend was taken by lions. Salva is
devastated but the group keeps walking. They walk until they reach the
Nile where they stop long enough to build boats for the journey across.
Once on the other side they're told to collect as much water as possible
for the next part of the journey to Ethiopia; crossing the Akobo
desert, where there is no water to spare. It is his Uncle who helps him
cross that parched desert. Step by step, one step at a time. One night
they're attacked, robbed, and his Uncle is shot dead.
With
his Uncle gone the protection Salva had has vanished with it. The
group begins to grumble that Salva is too young, too small to survive
with them, that he'll slow them down.
'No one shared
anything with him, neither food nor company. Uncle had always shared
the animals and birds he shot with everyone in the group. But it seemed
they had all forgotten that, for Salva now had to beg for scraps which
were given grudgingly.'
They make it across the desert to
the Itang refugee camp, where there were thousands upon thousands of
people. Salva is grouped with other boys without families. He
remembers his Uncle's advice and takes it one step at a time. He lives
in the camp for many years and by the time he's 17 the Ethiopian
government collapses, the camp is closed and the refugees are forced to
leave. Soldiers chase them to the deadly Gilo river by shooting into
the crowd. Over a thousand people die trying to cross that river; being
shot by soldiers, swept downstream or eaten by crocodiles.
Salva becomes the unoffical leader of a group of 1500 boys, some as young as 5 years old.
'He
organized the group, giving everyone a job... whatever food or water
they found was shared equally among them. When the smaller boys grew
too tired to walk the older boys took turns carrying them on their
backs.'
Finally, after a year and a half they arrive
in Kenya, but the camps they find there are abysmal with little food,
medical help, nothing. Salva makes a point to learn to speak and read
English with the help of an Irish volunteer. It helps him secure a spot
on the list of boys going to live in America. A family sponsors him
and he finds himself on a plane to New York where he has a chance to go
to college. He holds the idea in his heart to return to his homeland to
somehow help the people there. He gets his wish, and not only returns
to Sudan but also receives word that his father is alive. He goes to
visit him in the hospital where he also learns his mother and siblings
are all alive and living in his old village. It gives Salva an idea to
help the people and families of Sudan. It takes years to raise enough
money but by following the advice of his Uncle, Salva makes his life
work come true, one step at a time.
A Long Walk to
Water has two stories, the one of Salva, and then of the people he helps
with is dream. It's a book of daring, of never giving up even in the
face of extreme adversity. The book is a story of hope, of
determination and the power of a dream. It shows that anyone can change
their world with the right attitude and a positive heart.
Click here to purchase A Long Walk to Water.
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