Family Book Club: A Long Walk To Water

Last week we finished reading a really powerful book called A Long Walk To Water by Linda Sue Park. It was much more serious and sad than anything that we've ever read for Family Book Club but I'm very glad we read it. The book follows the story of Salva Dut who is a real person who became one of the "Lost Boys" during the civil war in Sudan  during the 1980's. It follows him through his life walking hundreds of miles to refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya. The story alternates with little snippets about a fictional girl named Nya who is representative of all Sudanese young girls. It tells how she has to walk 8 hours a day to get water for her family, and even then the water is muddy and full of parasites. In the end Salva gets relocated to a foster family in New York and starts a foundation to dig wells in South Sudan and he goes to Nya's village to dig a well.

It was a very touching story and made you appreciate how easy life is for us. We had a good discussion with the kids during book club last night about being grateful and helping other people who are in need. Tyson lived in Africa for 4 or 5 months and was able to explain to the kids what he saw there. He said that since he had money he could pay for bottled water to drink. He saved all his liter plastic water bottles though and was able to give them to the African children.  They were so excited to have them because they could flatten them and tie them to their feet to use as shoes to protect themselves from stepping on thorns.

Then we watched several short movie clips from the nonprofit organization that Salva Dut started that has already helped dig over 200 wells in South Sudan (http://www.waterforsouthsudan.org/.)  The video clips were very good to show what life is like for the people there and I think gave the kids a visual perspective of the things we read in the book. Then we donated money to help dig a well. I really wanted the kids to see that when you see a need you try to do something to help.

After our discussion we went upstairs and ate some foods that were mentioned in the book. When Salva first has to run into the bush from school (so he wouldn't get enlisted into the rebel army) he hides in a woman's barn and when she finds him she gives him a handful of unshelled peanuts and that is all the food he has for days. Salva was 10 years old at the time so I had Zac, my 10 year old boy, hold a handful of peanuts to demonstrate how little that amount of food would be.

We also had mangoes because Salva said his dad used to go to the market and bring home a bag of mangoes and he would put them on the spokes of his bicycle to carry them home because he couldn't carry the whole bag. Salva would take one of the pits and suck on it all day long to get the last bits of fruit and juice off of it, so the kids tried chewing on the pits for a bit (and got lots of fruit fibers between their teeth!) I also set out honey to put on bread but nobody had that. In the book the Lost Boys find a beehive and have a meal of honey, after getting stung many times, and it's all the food they have for days.

I felt like book club went very well and we all learned a lot and found a greater appreciation for our own lives. It was great to show the kids that not all stories are happy and fluffy and we should think on serious things sometimes too. We are now going to move onto Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library which is a much more lighthearted story!