A Very Emotional Book

Over the summer, I was fortunate to stumble upon a book that would later move me quite drastically, in a good way. In the dual-narrative book, A Long Walk to Water, written by Linda Sue Park, Nya and Salva are two relatively young children growing up in the same country. However, there always comes a twist with a dual-narrative. Salva, is growing up in 1985, while Nya is placed in the year of 2008. Little did they both know that one day they would meet each other and both their lives would be changed forever. During the 1980's, many countries in Africa had revolutions. Many citizens were frustrated with their country's dictator.Unfortunately for Salva the war would separate him and his family, for over a decade. For many years, Salva wandered from refugee camp to refugee camp all over Ethiopia and Sudan, until Salva met an American, volunteering at a camp who became friends with Salva. When the American told Salva that the camp was sending over 3,000 refugees to America, and that Salva was one of them, Salva instantly burst into tears. In NY where Salva was adopted by foster parents and was taken good care of. But there was one thing, that Salva couldn't get off his mind, his family back in Sudan. But Salva wants to give back to Sudan, so he raises money to help people in Sudan like Nya, who have to walk to a dirty pond that's a couple miles away twice a day, everyday for the whole year. With tickets payed by his foster parents, and money raised to help families get clean water, Salva heads off to Sudan. In the end, Nya and Salvas family, as well as many other Sudanese people were helped by Salva and his organization called Water for Sudan.

While reading the book, I noticed a theme that's very common in many war stories. That war is absurd. The idea that two people or two groups of people killing each other over a difference between the two is mind boggling. In the end, killing someone or many people over a disagreement does not help anyone. Many citizens of Sudan wanted freedom from their government. That's what started the war in the first place. Why fight and kill someone when there is such an easier way of dealing with these situations. Obviously, both sides, in this case Sudans government and the citizens would probably be willing to give the other side something that they wanted. For example, the citizens could agree that they would move South (at the time Sudan was divided into two parts. The North which was where Sudans government was based and the South, where many poor citizens lived) so that the government could have more. In return Sudan could have given Southern Sudan independence. With a little negotiating an agreement like this could have prevented the war long before it started.