A Long Walk to Water: Based on a True Story

by Linda Sue Park

Home for just long enough to eat, Nya would now make her second trip to the pond. To the pond and back—to the pond and back—nearly a full day of walking altogether. This was Nya’s daily routine seven months of the year. Daily. Every single day.

he felt so tired—tired of worrying about his family, tired of thinking about poor Marial, tired of walking and not knowing where they were going.

The worst moment of the day happened near the end. Salva stubbed his bare toe on a rock, and his whole toenail came off. The pain was terrible. Salva tried to bite his lip, but the awfulness of that never-ending day was too much for him. He lowered his head, and the tears began to flow.

Marial and Uncle were no longer by his side, and they never would be again, but Salva knew that both of them would have wanted him to survive, to finish the trip and reach the Itang refugee camp safely. It was almost as if they had left their strength with him, to help him on his journey.

What was it Uncle had said during that first terrible day in the desert? “Do you see that group of bushes? You need only to walk as far as those bushes. . . .” Uncle had helped him get through the desert that way, bit by bit, one step at a time. Perhaps . . . perhaps Salva could get through life at the camp in the same way. I