A Long Walk to Water: Based on a True Story

by Linda Sue Park

The nurse, a white woman, was talking to Nya’s mother. “Her sickness came from the water,” the nurse explained. “She should drink only good clean water. If the water is dirty, you should boil it for a count of two hundred before she drinks it.” Nya’s mother nodded that she understood, but Nya could see the worry in her eyes. The water from the holes in the lakebed could be collected only in tiny amounts. If her mother tried to boil such a small amount, the pot would be dry long before they could count to two hundred. It was a good thing, then, that they would soon be returning to the village. The water that Nya fetched from the pond in the plastic jug could be boiled before they drank it. But what about next year at camp? And the year after that? And even at home, whenever Nya made the long hot walk to the pond, she had to drink as soon as she got there. She would never be able to stop Akeer from doing the same.