Salva made up his mind. He would walk south, to Kenya. He did not know what he would find once he got there, but it seemed to be his best choice. Crowds of other boys followed him. Nobody talked about it, but by the end of the first day Salva had become the leader of a group of about fifteen hundred boys. Some were as young as five years old. Those smallest boys reminded Salva of his brother Kuol. But then he had an astounding thought. Kuol isn’t that age anymore—he is a teenager now! Salva found that he could only think of his brothers and sisters as they were when he had last seen them, not
Salva made up his mind. He would walk south, to Kenya. He did not know what he would find once he got there, but it seemed to be his best choice. Crowds of other boys followed him. Nobody talked about it, but by the end of the first day Salva had become the leader of a group of about fifteen hundred boys. Some were as young as five years old. Those smallest boys reminded Salva of his brother Kuol. But then he had an astounding thought. Kuol isn’t that age anymore—he is a teenager now! Salva found that he could only think of his brothers and sisters as they were when he had last seen them, not as they would be now. They were traveling through a part of Sudan still plagued by war. The fighting and bombing were worst during the day, so Salva decided that the group should hide when the sun shone and do their walking at night. But in the darkness, it was hard to be sure they were headed in the right direction. Sometimes the boys traveled for days only to realize that they had gone in a huge circle. This happened so many times that Salva lost count. They met other groups of boys, all walking south. Every group had stories of terrible peril: boys who had been hurt or killed by bullets or bombs, attacked by wild animals, or left behind because they were too weak or sick to keep up. When Salva heard the stories, he thought of Marial. He felt his determination growing, as it had in the days after Uncle’s death. I will get us safely to Kenya, he thought. No matter how hard it is. He ...
...more
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
I wonder how I would have been able to learn about this when I learned about the children’s crusades... this is current, not something from the Middle Ages.
