Both Nya and Salva experience extreme difficulties in their life, and many of them have a connection to geography. Find a specific example from the text that shows how challenging their geography is. Cite the passage and explain how their geography impacts their lives.
Both Nya and Salva experienced extreme difficulties in their lives and many of them have a connection to geography. The geography of where Nya and Salva lived impacted their lives greatly. One of the main struggles caused by geography for Nya and Salva was the scarcity of water. They lived in South Sudan, which is a country in East Africa that is mostly semi-arid and arid. Because of this, the temperatures are very hot and water is extremely scarce. The story starts off by describing how a girl named Nya takes a very long time getting water for her family. Because water was so scarce, “it would take her half the morning if she didn’t stop on the way” (Chapter 1 page 1). Nya had to walk a very long way in extreme heat to search for the water her family needed just to survive! Since the water was becoming so scarce, Nya eventually started to dig underground to find water. The underground water was a problem because it naturally mixes with mud and clay. So this water was very dirty and could make them very sick when they drank it. Nya’s little sister got very sick from drinking dirty underground water. “She lay curled on her side, hardly moving, silent except for an occasional whimper” (Chapter 8 page 39-40). When we meet Salva, he is being forced to go to a refugee camp. On this journey, he only has a small drinking gourd that could not hold much water. He would come to a pond and then be disappointed that it was close to dried up or all dried up. “But the pond was drying up; each day it was harder to fill the gourds” (Chapter 3 page 18). In addition to the water being scarce, the separation of different people groups caused tension between them in sharing water. In South Sudan there were many small villages rather than large cities. This caused getting water to be even more difficult. Since many of the people in villages claimed the land around them to be theirs, they often fought about who could claim a source of water. This very often led to fighting and sometimes even death. “Her tribe, Nuer, often fought with the rival Dinka tribe over the land surrounding the lake. Men and boys were hurt and even killed when the two groups clashed” (chapter 5, page 26). Nya couldn’t use the sources of water closest to her home because the water was on another village’s land. This also impacted Salva’s life because this made him want to make peace between the villages. In the later part of the book Salva decided to resolve this problem by making a well for one of his village’s enemies. He did this because he understood that the fighting would stop if they had enough water “”That man, the boss of the workers,” Dep said. “You know he is Dinka””... “”Why would a Dinka bring water to us?”” (Chapter 18 page 114) There were many struggles that Salva and Nya encountered that were caused by their geography. This book shows how geography has a huge impact on people’s lives. For Nya and Salva, their very rough geography caused them to spend most of their time just trying to survive in this environment.
ReplyDeleteAva Poinsett
Geography Analysis of Northeastern Africa
ReplyDelete“Water For South Sudan,” a website created by protagonist Salva Dut, states that because of the tough geography, African women spend approximately 40 billion hours getting clean water for their families. The geography of South Sudan makes the people suffer from inadequate water. Life is a fight for survival. In the book, A Long Walk to Water, by Linda Sue Park, Nya and Salva experience extreme difficulties with the geography around them without enough water.
Nya’s family’s life revolves around the geography of South Sudan and the availability of water. In Chapter 5, page 26, “There was a big lake three days’ walk from Nya’s village. Every year when the rain stopped and the pond near the village dried up, Nya’s family moved from their home to a camp near the big lake.” Even though the lake is a dangerous place due to tribal disputes between the Dinka and Nuer tribes, Nya’s family’s struggle for survival has given them no option but to risk their lives. Nya has to dig for hours in the clay bed of the lake to find water. Once she finds water, it’s extremely muddy and scarce. This is her life for five months of the year. The geography impacts Nya’s life as the lake is a part of South Sudan’s geography. The lake has dried up due to the extremely dry climate. South Sudan has a dry season and wet season. The lake dried up because it’s the dry season. The geography of Nya’s area impacts her because the region she lives in is arid. Therefore, there is a lack of clean water. In order to survive, Nya and her family have no choice but to drink unclean, muddy water and face the risk of getting seriously sick. Nya and her community don’t have access to clean water or a medical facility they live, which is very challenging. This is still a problem in Africa today. The struggles that Nya faced are still faced by many South Sudanese currently living in the Northeastern African geography.
On Chapter 9, pages 52-56, Salva and his group face the most difficult and challenging part of their journey, which is crossing the Akobo Desert. Salva has never experienced a hot, rocky desert, and his survival depends on getting to a refugee camp. The massive, unforgiving Akobo Desert takes him three days to cross. The desert does not have a breeze for relief and the scorching heat makes walking each minute feel like an hour. Salva collapses in the middle of the desert due to extreme heat exhaustion and limited supply of food and water. His Uncle Jewiir’s encouragement helps him make progress and keeps him alive. The hope of finding his family also gives him the strength to go on in the brutal desert heat. Salva experiences traumatic events when he sees people collapsed and dead in the desert due to dehydration. The geography of Salva’s area impacts him because Akobo Desert, located in South Sudan, is vast with no water and little vegetation. It is a very hot and dry region of Sudan. Due to the civil war in his village, Salva has no choice but to cross the vast desert to get to enter the Itang refugee camp in Ethiopia. The geography of this region makes it very challenging for Salva, as he has to make a three day walk to cross the unforgiving desert.
The struggles that Nya and Salva face are unbelievable and related to the geography of Northeastern Africa. The geography and environment of South Sudan impacts the South Sudanese. Their survival depends on their ability to find water and solutions in this geographically challenging region.
Krishna Kuruvadi
I like how you keep the reader engaged and interested in the writing while also keeping the writing moving from place to place. Good job!
DeleteIn the novel, Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park, one main obstacle that both Salva and Nya must overcome is the climate of their geography. Both children although in different periods of time, live in the arid desert. In the first page of the book, Nya states that “There was only heat, the sun baking in the air, even thought it was long before noon.” This desert has a huge effect on Nya’s life because she must walk all the way to the pond twice every day for seven months. Even as a young girl, she has this huge responsibility of providing water for the family. Later in the novel, the author says “There it was, a big thorn had broken off right in the middle of her heel.” (page 8) Thorns are a large part of plant life in the desert because they can sustain with little water, however they make Nya’s life a lot harder than it already is.
ReplyDeleteThe second story of this novel is about a boy named Salva. Throughout the book he must walk to many different camps. This is where the desert has an impact on the life of young Salva. With the relentless sun and no water or food, this makes it very hard to survive. Salva states this by saying “The first day of desert felt like the longest day Salva had ever lived through. The sun was relentless and eternal: there was neither a wisp of cloud nor whiff of breeze for relief. Each minute of walking in that arid heat felt like an hour. Even breathing became an effort: every breath Salva took seemed to drain strength rather than restore it.
In conclusion both Salva and Nya face lot of challenges with the harsh environment they live in.
By: Owen Mazzola
Prompt 1: Both Nya and Salva experience extreme difficulties in their life, and many of them have a connection to geography. Find a specific example from the text that shows how challenging their geography is. Cite the passage and explain how their geography impacts their lives.
ReplyDeleteIn the book, A Long Walk to Water, by Linda Sue Park, the main obstacle that Nya and Salva must face is the geography of the desert.
In the book, both Nya and Salva live in a desert climate and must walk a long way to get water. In the middle of page 59, Salva thinks to himself, “If he were older and stronger would he have given water to those men? Or would he like most of the group, have kept his water for himself.” This part of the book shows just how scarce water is and the decisions that Salva must make in the future to save himself or to try to save others and himself. It goes on to say that some of the woman give the men who are dying some water, but most keep the water to themselves for their own survival.
The other story is of a girl named Nya. Throughout the book she faces many challenges and has to walk to get water 7 months of year. This passage on page 40 talks about one of those challenges, the dirty water. “Only two days earlier Akeer had complained noisily and at length about the pains in her stomach”. This is because the water is dirty and has lots of bacteria in it. The family now must make a difficult decision whether to walk to a medical clinic a few days away, or to wait for help and see if the stomach pains would lessen.
In conclusion, both Salva and Nya faces challenges with their desert geography and must overcome them to survive.
-Zachary Mazzola
In the book A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park, both Nya and Salva face difficulties in their day to day life and most of them are related to the demanding geography of their villages. Nya lives in Southern Sudan in 2008 and Salva lives in Southern Sudan in 1985. Although they live in different time periods they face many of the same problems because the geography is the same as a result of them living in the same place.
ReplyDeleteOne difficulty that Nya faces due to the geography is the long walks that she has to take to get water for her family. The trail that she has to take to get the closest pond is very rough due to the length of it, the climate of the area, and the spiky plants. On the first page of the book Nya says that “ There was only heat, the sun already baking the air, even though it was long before noon. It would take her half the morning if she didn't stop on the way. Heat. Time. And Thorns”.
The geography challenges Salva because he has to walk for many miles every day toward the refugee camp. An example from the text that shows just how brutal the geography is, is when on page 52 it says “even breathing became an effort: Every breath Salva took seemed to drain strength rather than store it.”
Another challenge Nya and her family faces with the geography is when they walk all the way to the camp by the lake because the pond has dried up near their village. But the water is contaminated and it makes Nya’s younger sister Akeer sick. A passage that shows this challenge in the book is the one on page 45 that says “Her sickness came from the water”.
Lastly, Salva was challenged by the geography when he had to cross a river with crocodiles in it. A passage that represents this is on page 77 and 78 when a man was in the river. It says “ then Salva saw it the telltale flick of the crocodile’s tail as it flopped into the river near the young man. Moments later the man’s head jerked oddly. Then a cloud of red stained the water.”
In conclusion Nya and Salva face similar challenges due to the rugged geography in Southern Sudan. Many of these problems are due to war throughout Southern Sudan and the lack of water too.
Henry Weller
The geography of the land makes Nya and Salva’s lives a lot harder with deserts and no water. Nya and Salva both live in Sudan, where there is not a lot of water. Salva’s village is near the war, so he has to go on a long journey to find somewhere to live. The part of Salva’s journey that goes through the desert is challenging. On page 52 in the book, it says, “But here in the desert, nothing green could survive except tiny evergreen acacia bushes, which somehow endured the long winter months with hardly any water.” This quote means that even some plants can’t survive the desert. This shows that it’s going to be hard to survive in the desert because there is not a lot of water. Another quote is, “Uncle cautioned him to make the water in his gourd last as long as possible.” This also shows that there is so little water that he has to save the little water that he has. Nya also has a hard time getting water. On page 1, the book says, “It would take her half the morning if she didn’t stop on the way. Heat. Time. And thorns.” This quote shows that Nya has to walk a long way to get water and there are things along the way to make it slower, like thorns. In conclusion, Nya and Salva both have a hard time getting water to survive because of the geography of Sudan.
ReplyDeleteNoelle Yuen
Geography changes the livelihood of people in drastic ways. This is clear in the cases of Nya and Salva, who both had their own battles to face while growing up. For example, this quote explains perfectly the cruel surroundings that Salva must face on his journey to refuge in Ethiopia. “The first day in the desert felt like the longest day Salva had ever lived through. The sun was relentless and eternal: There was neither wisp of cloud nor whiff of breeze for relief.” (Chapter 9, page 52) The reason why the surroundings are cruel is because of the arid heat, which becomes a struggle for Salva as he must prevent himself from drinking his whole gourd of water so he has some left for the extent of his journey. Along with this, the desert can take a toll on someone's mental health. Trekking through what appears to be the same scene for hours on end could bore even the most creative person who can entertain themselves. In Nya’s case, this quote shows how geography affects her life. “Every year when the rains stopped and the pond near the village dried up, Nya’s family moved from their home to a camp near the big lake.” (Chapter 5, page 26) Geography affects Nya’s life because she must move away from her village just to get water. The quote also explains the lack of water in Nya’s life in general, having to worry about the pond drying up or barely having any or no clean water. In another part of the passage it states “There was a big lake three days’ walk from Nya’s village.” (Chapter 5, page 26) Nya’s voyage to collect water for her family, as compared to people living in the United States, who rarely walk more than a few steps to get water from their fridge, illustrates the dramatic effects geography can change someone’s life. In conclusion, geography affects Nya’s, and Salva’s life in multiple ways, forcing them to trek and suffer in ways most people can’t even fathom.
ReplyDelete-Maggie Krongard
In the novel, A long Walk to Water, by Linda Sue Park, both Nya and Salva go through many difficulties in their life, mostly caused by geography. They both live in Sudan. One of the biggest difficulties Nya faced was traveling eight hours every day just to go get water. For Nya going was the easiest part, there was no weight except for the sun. After her first trip Nya would have just enough time to eat then she was on her way to her second trip: “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 all together.” (Chapter four, Page 20) For seven months straight that was her routine, getting water, eating, then getting water again.
ReplyDeleteSalva had many, many challenges. One of his biggest challenges was walking in the desert. Salva had nothing but his Uncle, and a gourd of water. He didn't know where his family was, or even where he was going. “The first day in the desert felt like the longest day Salva had ever lived through”(Chapter nine, page 52) All he did was walk and walk in the desert it soon became hard for Salva to breath. “Every breath Salva took seemed to drain his strength rather than restore it.”(Chapter nine, page 52) Salva kept walking and walking in the hot desert. “There was neither a wisp of cloud nor whiff of breeze for relief.” (Chapter nine, page 52)
In conclusion both Salva and Nya went through extreme challenges but they both faced them and lived through a very hard time in their lives.
-Siriana Gallego
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ReplyDeleteIn the book, A Long Walk to Water, by Linda Sue Park, a main obstacle that Nya and Salva both face is the harsh geography.
ReplyDeleteA large impact on Nya’s life was the long walk to water. Every day for seven months she walked to a pond to fetch water for her family. It took a full eight hours. She walked to the pond and back, ate, then went back for a second trip. “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.” (Chapter Four, pg. 20) Nature seemed to want to hurt her on her walks to the pond. “She looked at the bottom of her foot. There it was, a big thorn that had broken off right in the middle of her heel. Nya pushed at the skin around the thorn. Then she picked up another thorn and used it to poke and prod at the first one. She pressed her lips together at the pain.” (Chapter Two, pg. 8)
For Salva, his challenge was too, a long walk to water. Except his, was much longer. It was not to a pond to fetch water for his family, but a search for life. “But there was no water anywhere, though they searched for miles. They kept walking, into the night and through the night.” (Chapter Six, pg. 37) He walked in three different countries looking for a place to live. For the majority of the long walk, Salva was in deserts. He soon knew the true meaning of thirst. “The sun was relentless and eternal: There was neither wisp of cloud nor whiff of breeze for relief. Each minute of walking in that arid heat felt like an hour. Even breathing became an effort.” (Chapter Nine, pg. 52) “The next day was a precise copy of the one before: the sun and the heat and, worst of all to Salva’s mind, a landscape that was utterly unchanged.” (Chapter Nine, pg. 54) In fact, only one thing could make Salva continue, Uncle. “As if by magic, Uncle was suddenly at his side. “Salva Mawien Dut Ariik!” he said, using Salva’s full name, loud and clear. Salva lifted his head the sobs interrupted by surprise. “Do you see that group of bushes?” Uncle said pointing. “You need only to walk as far as those bushes.” (Chapter Nine, pg. 53) Uncle said this repeatingly, using a different object each time, which pushed Salva forward.
In conclusion, both Nya and Salva faced challenges from the harsh Geography that surrounds them.
-Dominic Ciccimaro
The geography of South Sudan plays a major and important role in "A Long Walk to Water", by Linda Sue Park. This arid, desert type of climate and region of the world produces plenty of difficulties and ordeals for Nya and Salva's villages. The novel states that Salva's journey took place in 1985, then stretching all the way to 2008, which was the setting for Nya's story. Even though there was a full 23 years between the two stories, it seemed as though the South Sudan Nya lived in didn’t improve at all compared to Salva's version, until the miracle at the end of the story. These two young people have tons of problems and obstacles that are associated with the geography, and they both have to overcome them to survive.
ReplyDeleteA difficulty for Nya was that she had to walk to a big lake to fill up gourds of water for her family. When the dry season came, her family would have to move from the village to a camp near the lake. Nya would have to walk to the lake, gather the muddy, brown water, and walk back to the camp. In Chapter 5, page 27, the book says, “The water that filled the hole was filthy, more mud than liquid. It seeped in so slowly that it took a long time to collect even a few gourdsful.” The terrain she walked through was hot, rocky, and spiky with thorns. She would eat a meal before heading out to the lake to get even more water. The time Nya took to walk to the lake and back twice was nearly a full day. Additionally, she was required to do this daily, for seven months of the year. The dry, hot geography of South Sudan has a small water supply, and people have to travel long distances every year, only to get hot, murky water to survive.
A geographical obstacle that Salva had to face was crossing the Gilo River during his journey to find his family as a refugee. While he was in an Ethiopian refugee camp, armed soldiers ordered everyone to leave the camp and Ethiopia. The soldiers had purposefully chased the people to the Gilo, a river that was famous for dangerous crocodiles. It was the rainy season, so the currents would make it nearly impossible to swim through without getting swept downstream. When the refugees were at the edge of the river, a man who was scared of the soldiers’ guns jumped into the river to try to swim across. He was swept downstream, but managed to make progress across the river. Sadly, a crocodile spotted the flailing man, and dragged the man under the water. “Then Salva saw the telltale flick of a crocodile’s tail as it flopped into the water near the young man. Moments later, the man’s head jerked oddly---once, twice. His mouth was open. Perhaps he was screaming, but Salva could not hear him over the din of the crowd and the rain…. A moment later, the man was pulled under. A cloud of red stained the water.” This passage was written in Chapter 13, pages 77-78. To make the challenge of crossing the water even more scary, the soldiers were shooting at people who were making their way across. Salva was one of the many few who made it to the other side, while over a thousand others drowned, were shot by soldiers, or killed by crocodiles. The geography of the Gilo river, with its swift, strong currents, and the crocodiles that lurk within, was a dangerous, scary, and difficult obstacle Salva and his people faced.
In conclusion, both Salva and Nya lived in South Sudan, a dry, hot region with dangerous predators. They each had a number of ordeals and problems to deal with, usually relating to the geography of the situation. But in the end, both of them were able to get what they had always wanted, all because they fought the difficulties that Mother Nature threw at them.
-Minh-Vy Nguyen
You did really well on your essay. I liked how you added quotes from the book and you were specific about the geography. I also enjoyed how you added many details from the book.
DeleteI really like how you added the quote of the crocodile from the gilo river even though it wasn't part of the geography. I could really understand and almost picture how the rough, challenging geography would look like. Great Essay.
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ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteIn the book A Long Walk To Water by Linda Sue Park, Salva and Nyla face many challenges in the difficult geography of Sudan. Salva’s life was impacted by geography because he had to go through grueling geography to try to find refuge.Salva was separated from his family because of a war, he found a group of people and they had to walk across the horrible dessert with little to no water.( Chapter 9 page 54), In fact the, only one thing could make salva continue,Uncle.”As if by magic, uncle was suddenly at his side. “Salva Mawien Dut Ariik!” he said, using Salva’s full name, loud and clear. Salva lifted his head the sobs interrupted by surprise. “Do you see that group of bushes?” Uncle said pointing. “You need only to walk as far as those bushes.” This attempt helps Salva to work harder to walk across the desert. When they get kicked of Ethiopia there is little hope as they get chased into a river full of crocodiles. This is how the geography impacts Salva's story. Nylas story it takes her eight hours to cross the desert to get water for her family. She gets blisters and bruises that makes it even harder to walk. One other thing is that she can't go to school so she can't learn anything.(chapter 4 page 20) Nya would now make her second trip back to the pond This was Nyas routine for the next seven months. Later in the book salva helps out nyas village by building a well so Nya can go to school and learn. This is how geography impacts their lives.
ReplyDelete-Ryder
Nya and Salva’s main difficulties are the heat, having enough water, and starvation. On page 54-55 Salva is trekking through the desert and observes that the geography hasn’t changed in several days. Dehydration is constantly a problem so they know they must keep moving though it feels they are making no progress. The heat means that they also have to face starvation because the geography only consists of acacias and occasional birds or shrubs. Nya also experiences some of these challenges but her main trouble is water. The geography in South Sudan heavily reflects the heat so water is scarce. “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.” (page 20) Water impacts her life so much because she spends most of it collecting water for her family. This makes it very challenging to live because Nya is forced to spend her time fetching water for her and her family. The difficulties Nya and Salva faced were both greatly impacted by their geography.
ReplyDelete~By Mina Aldous
In the book a long walk to water by Linda Sue Park the biggest and main obstacle is the geography in the desert that Nya and Salva both have to deal with.
ReplyDeleteNya and Salva both have to walk incredibly long distances just to get water for their families. On page 59 it says Salva thinks to himself “If he were older and stronger would he have given water to those men? Or would he like most of the group, have kept his water for himself.” this passage show how precious that the water is in Africa , however some of the women their gave the dying men water but kept most of it for themselves. This example shows that people will be as selfish as possible just for their own survival.
On the other side of the book a girl named Nya has to walk 7 miles just to get water because all the water was dried. But when Akeer starts to complain about her stomach aching for a very long time the family thinks that the water in bad because of all the bacterias, and they think that got her sick so they have the option to either walk a few days to reach a doctor or to wait to see if the pains would go away.
In the end Nya and Salva both have relatable problems that they can get trough and this is all because of the goegrapy. So now they have to do whatever in takes to survive this awful time.
Remember to add your name to your post, so it can be graded.
Delete‘A Long Walk to Water’ by Linda Sue Park describes how many people in the world face multiple arduous geographical challenges daily and to obtain a simple life necessity such as water takes endurance and strength. One example is Nya and her dreadful walk to the pond. “Nya would now make her second trip to the pond. 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.” (pg. 20) Nya has to walk miles on thorn-filled, hard ground while barefoot every day, all day for months just to get a pot of water while we only have to take ten steps to the kitchen. The geography has no nearby water, so the only option is to walk all the way to the pond, which is filled with dirt, enough so that her little sister grew ill from drinking. Another excerpt that displays the horrid geography is when Salva is trudging through the boiling desert sand. “Salva counted nine men, all of them collapsed on the sand. One made a small, desperate motion with his hand. As he watched, he realized that five of the men were completely motionless. One of the women in Salva’s group pushed forward and knelt down. She opened her container of water. ‘What are you doing? You cannot save them!’ A man called. ‘If you give them your water, you will not have enough for yourself! It is useless-they will die, and you will die with them!’” (pg. 55-56) Salva and his group see these half dead people whose some lives have been taken by the harsh desert heat, starvation, and lack of water. One woman tried to save one of the near-dead people, but was warned not to because she might use too much water and die with them. Their minimal water supply and the heat from the desert is incredibly brutal and many did not make it out. These are two of an array of challenges and barbarous geography that Salva and Nya faced while surviving in the war, and it has inspired me to really appreciate what I have and how lucky I am to live in America.
ReplyDelete-Keira Dunn
Great job Keira! I like how you pointed out how tedious it was for Nya to walk for miles just to bring water home to her family, while in America we don't appreciate the convenience of having water at our fingertips from the faucet. I also liked how you illustrated that the lack of water can cause many deaths as people journey to find water. We are "lucky" to live in America!
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ReplyDeleteIn the book, A Long Walk to Water, by Linda Sue Park, the primary challenge that Nya and Salva both face throughout their tough lives is the brutal geography. Nya and Salva both live in places where there is a shortage of water, Sudan. Sudan is located in northeastern Africa. Sudan's climate in the desert zones can often exceed 42- 44 degrees Celsius (about 110 degrees Fahrenheit) during the Summer. The portion of rainfall that Sudan receives is extremely low which results in the absence of the primary fluid that keeps us humans alive, water.
The main struggles of geography that Nya withstands is the endeavor it takes to procure the water, as well as the lack of water. Every day, all day, Nya has no choice but to walk 8 hours from her house to the pond in order to retrieve some water and then walk back home. On the way to the pond, Nya would mourn with blood, sweat, and tears in order to obtain a pail of water. Nya would come “Home for just long enough to eat.” (Chpt 4, pg 20.) Nya would then go back to the pond until nightfall. “This was Nyas daily routine sevens months of the year. Daily. Every single day.”Chpt 4, pg 20.) Salva faces many customary challenges like Nya. Where Slava lives there is not a drop of water in plain sight. “But there was no water anywhere, though they searched for miles. They kept walking, into the night and through the night.” (Chapter Six, pg. 37) To add on to the scarcity of water, Salva had lost his entire family in a shooting. He is now proceeding along with a group of strangers to find a safe place to stay among the whole Sudan. Within that group of people, Salva had made a friend named Marial. Marial was a very special and dear friend to Salva because he had always comforted Salva when he was feeling worried about his family. ” I can’t go to another country, so far. If I do, my family will never find me… Marial put his arm around Selva‘s shoulders. He seemed to know what’s up I was thinking, for he said, “ it doesn’t matter. Don’t you know that if you keep walking you’ll go all the way around the world and come back here to Sudan? that’s where we’ll find our families!” (Chpt 5, pgs 30-31). Shortly after, Marial was eaten by a lion during the night. Salva and his uncle had randomly found each other but shortly after, Salva loses him too. As you can tell, Salva has been through a lot of loss, losing his entire family, his only friend, and his uncle. Salva must now learn to achieve a lot of independence at a very youthful age.
In conclusion, both Salva and Nya have endured a lot of pain throughout their time living in Sudan. They each had numerous hardships to handle on top of taking care of themselves in the precarious Sudan geography.
-Ria Soni
You did a really great job with explaining Salva's struggles with geography. For example, you mentioned how Salva lost his friend Marial due to a lion which is an animal which is part of the region's geography. I also liked how you added facts that weren't mentioned in the book. For example, you mentioned how hot it gets in the desert zones of Sudan. Overall, the essay was great.
DeleteGreat job Ria! You did a good job illustrating the characters struggles in their journey to make their lives better. You showed that Nya and her family relied on her to provide fresh water and that she made sacrifices for their needs. Also shown in your essay was how Salva had many adversities while he traveled many miles in search of refuge without his family and friends. You did a good job showing the characters hardships while they were trying to make a better life for themselves.
DeleteI Like How careful you were with your words. I Also like that the essay is not too long, but not to short either. overall this is a great essay
Delete-Rahul
Both Nya and Salva experience extreme difficulties in their life, and many of them have a connection to geography. Find a specific example from the text that shows how challenging their geography is. Cite the passage and explain how their geography impacts their lives.
ReplyDeleteIn the book A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park the geography has a vast impact on Salvas and Nyas journey. They both face many challenges in there life and most of them are due to geography. In general, Southern Sudan has a very arid climate and very hot seasons. Even though there journeys take place at different times many of there challenges are due to climate and geography.
Everyday Nya had to retrieve water from a pond half a days walk way. Nya noticed that each day the water in the pond was being to get dirty and the water supply was lowering. “There was only heat, the sun already baking the air, even though if was long before noon. It would take her the morning if she didn't stop on the way.” (pg 1) Everyday Nya had to walk to the pond to retrieve water for her and her family. The walk there was easy because the bucket did not contain any water however the way back was challenging and even hotter than the morning. Even though the geography and climate was hard she knew she had to do this for her family and everyday she did.
On the other hand Salva faced many geographical challenges. Salva had to travel for many days, those days would leed into months and sometimes even years. In 1985 Salva had to cross the Akobo. “The first day in the desert felt like the longest day Salva had ever lived through. The sun was relentless and eternal: There was neither a wisp of cloud nor whiff of breeze for relief. Each minute of walking in that arid heat felt like an hour. Even breathing became an effort: Every breath Salva tooked seemed to drain strength rather than restore it.” (pg 52) This passage is from when Salva had to cross the Akobo desert. In my opinion crossing the Akobo was the hardest for Salva. “The sun was relentless and eternal: There was neither a wisp of cloud nor whiff of breeze for relief.” When crossing the Akobo all Salva did was walk and walk through the arid desert. There were no clouds or even trees for shade. They had limited water and had to ration it so they would not run out. “Each minute of walking in that arid heat felt like an hour.” This quote shows how the climate was so hot and how hard it was each day for him. Through all of Salvas hardship and journey he persevered the whole time and never gave up no matter the geography or climate.
-Ashley Ruff
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ReplyDeleteIn the book A Long Walk To Water by Linda Sue Park, Nya and Salva struggle with their geography being a threat to their health and their life. Both live in the arid lands of Sudan where finding water is a challenge each day. Although Nya and Salva live in different time periods, they both face similar challenges.
ReplyDeleteNya faces many challenges in her small town with very little water in the4 book. “Home for just long enough to eat, Nya would now make her second trip to the pond.”(page 20) Nya makes her long trip to go find water that isn't even healthy on a daily basis. She is still a kid and it is very hard for her to travel in the heat. Water affects Nya’s small town because it’s not only used to drink but it is used to clean people. People can have shorter lives because they are dirty and can get very sick. “Every year when the rains stopped and the pond near the village dried up, Nya’s family moved from their home to a camp near the big lake.” (page 26) This also tells us about how Nya’s geography affects her. She has to move to go find water in very dry seasons because there is no rain. In a country like the United States, we can simply go to our fridge and get water. In Sudan, it is not that easy and people have to move to find water. When salva drills a well in for the town, it changes people's lives in a good way. Nya no longer has to walk for miles to get water.
Salva also faces many challenges on his journey to the camps away from the war that is happening in his country. Salva struggles with the heat after he lost his family and he was only a kid! ‘If you give them your water, you will not have enough for yourself! It is useless-they will die, and you will die with them!’ (page 55-56) This happened in the Akobo desert which is hot, dry, and rocky. People traveling only carried enough water for themselves but people wanted to save the men who passed out in front of them. That tells a lot about the geography because somewhere tropical would have plenty of water but in Sudan you have to keep it to yourself to survive. The hot desert and the lack of food and water made Salva miserable but his uncle who was with him helped him get through it. I also find it interesting that Salva went from almost dying from thirst in one geography but was brave and eventually made it to a geography with plenty of water, food, and plants.
Salva and Nya are two very brave people for surviving through the geography that affected their everyday lives. This book was very good at demonstrating the effects that this dry, hot, and rocky geography had on the people who lived there.
In the book A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park, the geography is a huge part of Nya and Salva’s life. On pages 26 and 27, we learn that it is very difficult to get water in their area of Sudan because the climate is really hot and dry or really rainy. When it is really hot, they have to walk for half a day just to get water that is not clean. “With her hands she would dig a hole in the damp clay of the lakebed. She kept digging, scooping out handfuls of clay until the hole was as deep as her arm was long. The clay got wetter as she dug, until, at last, water began to seep into the bottom of the hole.” Getting water takes up most of their time, it is a lot of walking and there are a lot of dangers in their path. Because there is not a stable government and the people of Sudan are having to defend themselves from war between the southern part of Sudan and the government which was based in the north. They were fighting to have an all Muslim country. Not only is the water dirty and hard to get, there is a war going on and Nya and Salva have to always be aware of their surroundings. I think it is unfair for Nya and Salva to have to walk a full day just to bring back dirty water. I believe that everyone in the world should have the ability to have clean and reliable water.
ReplyDeleteRemember to add your name to your post. Otherwise, your teacher cannot grade it.
DeleteIn the book “A Long Walk To Water” by Linda Sue Park, A girl named Nya travels long distances every day to get water for her family. She goes through many challenges as she tries to gather water. In the book there is also A man named Salva. He is caught up in the war between the rebels and the government. At a young age he is separated from his family and travels for many years. He walked all the way to Ethiopia on foot trying to find safety. But both the characters go through many challenges in the book and geography is one of the most difficult challenges in the book. An example of the geography affected Nya and her sister is chapter six page thirty three Nya and her little sister went on a long walk to gather some water. They made it to a lake with plenty of muddy water. Nya’s sister drank the muddy water. After a while, Nya's sister would refuse to move and would get pains in stomach. This shows that the muddy geography affected Nya’s sister by making her extremely sick and almost killed her. An example of the geography making Salvas journey to Ethiopia very challenging is chapter ten page fifty eight. When Salva and his uncle finally made it to Ethiopia there were men lying motionless on the beach. Salva reached to grab his gourd of water to give to the men since they were still alive but dying of thirst. Salvas uncle told him not to give the men any of his water because they cannot spare any. This shows the geography around them cannot supply any spare clean water for drinking, even if it is used to save the life of a dying man. These are two reasons that show how the geography in both Nya’s and Slavas journeys affected them and made their long journeys very challenging and showed how geography was one of the most important roles in the book “A Long Walk To Water.”
ReplyDelete-Nicholas Rorstad
In Linda Sue Park's New York Times bestseller novel "A Long Walk to Water," two young kids named Nya and Salva fight through their hardships to stay alive. They both live in Southern Sudan, which is an area known to have little water, and what is there is very difficult to get to. It also geographically is very dry, flat, hot and rugged.
ReplyDeleteNya is a young girl whose story takes place in the year of 2008. Everyday, she needs to take the long journey to find water, which was half a days journey away. On her way to the water on the first page, we learn that there is "only heat, the sun already baking in the air, even though it was long before noon. It would take her half the morning if she didn't stop on the way. Heat. Time. And Thorns." (Pg.1)
On the other hand, Salva is a boy who is living in 1985, and is fine until the war plaguing his area finds his school. He is forced into the middle of hot, dry Sudan, and finds a group that is struggling to find food and water, just like him.
For both of these kids, the geography of Sudan proves to be a problem, for the deficiency of clean water in Sudan in addition to the dry, hot weather makes it difficult to stay alive and find safety. An example of how the geography of Sudan makes water difficult to find and clean is on ch.7 pg. 39, when Nya's sister Akeer got very sick due to not enough clean water, for the water that Nya fetches cannot be easily cleaned. Before the sickness, Akeer had been complaining noisily and at length about the pains in her stomach. Nya had been annoyed by all the whining, but now she felt guilty, knowing she (Akeer) did not have the strength to complain. (pg. 39, par. 3) This sickness was caused by dirty water, and was probably Cholera, Guinea Worm Disease, Typhoid, or Dysentery. Luckily, Akeer was saved because their father knew of a medical clinic that provided them with medicine to save her life.
In the book, Nya's main geographical problem is lack of clean water, while Salva's is the same, plus the fact that he was presented with many other dangers while trying to hide from the war. One of these dangers was wildlife, for his friend Marial was attacked by a lion while sleeping. After this attack, Salva was "Shook by terror inside and out." (pg. 38) Another danger in Salva's story is the lack of food while he was crossing the desert. His group consisted of so many people with so little food to share that every bite was one that could be savored. Later in the story on pg. 66, Salva reached a refugee camp where he could stay, and living here was better because he did not have to worry as much about these hardships. But, as he got older, he was forced to leave and these challenges came up again. He trudged through the dry, barren land, leading a group of young men trying to find their way to Kenya. They had to cross a river with crocodiles, walk hundreds of miles, hide from soldiers, and find food and water until they safely made it. Nya had to keep fetching dirty water until a man installed a water pipe that provided them with fresh, clean water, eliminating any possibility that anybody would get sick. That mans name was Salva, when he got older.
In "A Long Walk to Water," both characters had to survive against their geographic problems, but luckily, they both hung in there and survived.
Dylan Brown
In the book “A Long Walk to Water,” by Linda Sue Park, Nya and Salva had many challenges because of the geography that surrounded them in South Sudan. There are many examples in the book, including the following: “One day the group began walking in the late afternoon, with hopes of reaching a water hole before settling down for the night.” (page 37) The geography of where they were was a big part of why they could not find water easily. In the desert, it is very dry and there is little water to be found. That is a big challenge along with many others that come with the desert. There are not many places to hide if another tribe or group comes. An example includes when the group encountered another tribe, and they had nowhere to hide because it was just flat desert. A man ended up killing Salva’s uncle. This example can be found on pages 62 and 63. Another reason why the geography made difficult living was because it was so dry and hot. Their water would dry out and get too warm or unsatisfying to drink. When there is minimal water, there are fewer animals. An example is on page 36, when Salva finally got food to eat meat and gobbled it down, since he had not eaten for days because there was such scarce food. There are also mountain ranges in Sudan, that can be hard to travel through. It was hard for their group to travel because there were not many roads they encountered. There was mainly just undeveloped land they had to travel through. The geography of Sudan had a big impact on Nya’s and Salva’s life, which is why when Nya finally had a well in her community, it made a big change in her life. She didn’t have to worry about coming across rugged land and could easily get clean water without having to walk miles. Geography is a big part of their life for many reasons.
ReplyDelete-Sierra Ryan
In the book A Long Walk To Water by Linda Sue Park, the desert geography really impacts both Nya and Salva’s lives. Where Nya lives water is very scarse and she has to walk to get her water. At the bottom of page 20 it show s how much walking she really does. “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 Nyas daily routine seven months of the year. Daily. Every single day.” This passage shows had geography impacted Nyas life. She lived in a desert and there was no water nearby sho she walked every day all day to get water for herself and her family.
ReplyDeleteWhen war breaks out where Slava lives he is forced to leave his family behind and walk with a group of other people from his tribe. Salva faces many challenges while he is walking all of them having to do with geography. He has to cross the NIle river and he has to cross the Akobo Desert. At the top of page 52 it shows how hard it was for salva to adapt to the new geography of the Desert. “Salva had never seen anything like the desert. Around his village, Loun-Ariik, enough grass and shrubs grow to feed the grazing cattle. There were even trees. But here in the desert, nothing could survive except tiny green evergreen acacia bushes, which somehow endured the long winter months with no water.” This passage shows how little resources and water the dessert has and how hard it was for Salva to adapt.
In conclusion the desert geography impacted Nya’s and Salva’s lives alot. For Nya it was because of scarce water ann for Salva it was how he had to adapt to the desert. Geography challenged both of their lives and they learned that they had to face the challenges to survive.
-Hannah Dean-Mcleod
Prompt: Analyze the Geography
ReplyDeleteIn the book “A Long Walk To Water”, Nya and Salva have many struggles, though they are not the same.
For Salva, once he is forced out of his village and into the desert, he and another group of men and women meet up. They all are walking towards a refugee camp in Itang, which his a very long walk. The walk has almost no food or water to make things worse. They also have to have to cross the Nile River which is not easy at all. It takes multiple days to make boats and two days to get across the river. On this journey that Salva and many others have taken up to go onto, they also have to walk through very rough geography such as the desert, which has no water that they find while crossing the desert. These challenges are very opposing for the evacuees, but they have all taken up the challenges.
On the other hand, Nya's challenge of her geography is different. While she does not have to flee, Nya has no water in her village. This makes her have to walk down two times a day, about a full day there and back and there and back to get water. To make matters worse, the water that Nya retrieving is also not clean which could cause illness as shown in the book when Nya’s little sitter gets sick. They also have to make every year for months because, in their village, they do not have a constant water source because it is very hot and rarely rains. When they move to the new area, it is very uncomfortable and does not have clean water either. Nya and her village do not have an easy life, but they survive the best they can, even with dirty water and a hot climate that rarely rains.
As you can see, both Salva and Nya have very difficult challenges in their life because of geography, but this does not stop them from living on.
Mike Smith
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ReplyDeletePrompt 1: Both Nya and Salva experience extreme difficulties in their life, and many of them have a connection to geography. Find a specific example from the text that shows how challenging their geography is. Cite the passage and explain how their geography impacts their lives.
ReplyDeleteWater is a vital necessity for all humans. Without a nearby source of water many struggles will come. We learn about these various struggles in the book A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park. At a young age Salvas home is habitat to war. After being abandoned and taken care of by a nearby Dinka Salva is brought into a pack of travelers hoping to get away from the warfare. Along the way Salva meets many friends and is reunited with his uncle. He experiences the long walk through the desert on the way. Salva experiences the struggles Nya has to deal with everyday to get water. In the beginning to Salva water was always near him and his village. As for Nya water was always a struggle to walk the thorn cover path to sometimes find dirty or no water at all. Nya and Salva have similar connections through their struggles with geography.
In the novel “A Long Walk to Water” by Linda Sue Park, the two protagonists, Nya and Salva, both have a connection to their geography, but both of them live in areas that make it extremely difficult to live in.
ReplyDeleteNya’s issue revolves around her inaccessibility to water. Nya’s village is an eight hour walk to the pond. On page 27, chapter five, the book quotes “It seeped in so slowly that it took a long time to collect even a few gourdsful. Nya would crouch by the hole, waiting...Here, for hours at a time.” Nya walks very far in order to reach the lake and she has to wait again for water to fill the hole. Her daily routine consists of a long walk to the pond, then a couple hours of waiting for the water to rise to the surface and then another walk back with a heavy jar of water. This not only impacts her life but also her family’s because the water that Nya brings from the pond to her family will fill with mud. Because of that her younger sister, Akeer is sick from the dirty water she was drinking, a potential health hazard.
Salva’s issue revolves around the war that takes place in Sudan. Southern Sudan at the time—1985—was fighting against Northern Sudan for independence. Because Northern Sudan was a muslim country, the government wanted Sudan, as a whole, to be a muslim country. Salva is from Southern Sudan. As a result, his tribe, Dinka, and family are attacked and separated by Northern Sudan soldiers. He is placed in a camp that was also from his tribe. He has to walk with his tribe everyday so that he can reach Ethiopia, where the refugee camp is . On page 52, chapter nine, the book quotes, “But here in the desert, nothing green could survive except...Uncle said it would take three days to cross the Akobo. Salva’s shoes stood no chance against the hot stony desert ground.” On their way to the refugee camp, they encounter some difficulties in the Akobo desert; the air is dry, the ground is sizzling hot and people would get injured from the thorns. The reason his life was difficult to live was besides the fact that he was separated from his family and forced out of his village but also because the long walks he would take were very hot and humid. He also was attacked by animals, an example is when he stole honey from a bee’s nest and ends up with bee stings which slow down his team. They also can’t stop to get water since they aren’t able to find any bodies of water and they had to move quickly to rest at their last location, Kakuma.
Both Salva and Nya had difficulties in their life because Nya didn’t have a local pond to retrieve fresh water to her family and Salva had to walk in the hot temperatures where many animals & plants like lions or thorns could harm him.
By; Samee Kwak
DeleteIn the book, A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park, the two main characters, Nya and Salva, experience many geographical challenges because of their extremely dry climate. Salva’s primary geographic challenge is surviving the heat on his journey to the refugee camps. The desert landscape of Sudan impacts Salva because it makes the journey difficult. The arid climate leads to a scarcity of water, which makes the walk to Ethiopia hard to survive. During the walk, everyone in Salva’s group is careful to ration their water. They save it for themselves because they don’t know the next time when they can refill their bottles. “‘If you give them your water, you will not have enough for yourself!’ the same voice shouted”(pg 56). Because it is very difficult to find food in the desert, Salva and the other refugees are hungry and don’t know when they will eat next. Although Nya and Salva do not share the same experiences, their stories overlap when Salva starts a volunteer group to build a well in Nya’s village.“With the water balanced on her head, and her foot still sore from the thorn, Nya knew that going home would take longer than coming had.” (Page 14-15) the narrator explains. The dry climate of Sudan affects Nya because there is very little water and she has to spend every day walking in heat and through thorns to get water for her family. For Salva and Nya, the dry climate and desert terrain make it difficult for them to access water, stay healthy and survive.
ReplyDelete- By Madeleine Schwab
DeleteIn the book Salva and Nya both live a rough and very dry part of south sudan. “Nya could see the worry in her eyes. The water from the holes in the lakebed could only be collected 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.” (pg. 45) Salva’s route went through the Akobo Desert and ended at a refugee camp in Ethiopia. He went through the Nile river in which the amount of water might have astonished him. He also might have been amazed by the amount of food they had after the long journey. Both Nya and Salva have a problem of contaminated drinking water: “She lay curled on her side, hardly moving, silent except for an occasional whimper.” (pg.39.) “Years of drinking contaminated water had left Mawien Dut’s entire digestive system riddled with guinea worms.” When Salva crosses the desert his entire toenail comes off because of the hard landscape it shows how rocky and rough the land is. “The worst moment of the day happened near the end. Salva stubbed his bare toe on a rock and the whole toenail came off.” It was not only Salva that had a long rough walk. Nya also had to make a long hot journey. “There was little weight going. There was only heat, the sun baking the air, even though it was long before noon. It would take her half the morning if she didn’t stop on the way. Heat. Time. And thorns.”
ReplyDelete-Rahul
Salva and Nia from the book, “A Long Walk to Water” are greatly impacted by the physical and political geography of South Sudan. In each of their stories the same geography was shown, although conveyed in different ways.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the book, Salva is escaping war while also trying to find his family. Rebels attack his area, which forces him to abandon not only his village, but his family as well. On his journey toward safety, he joins a group of refugees that he would travel with to a refugee camp in Ethiopia. The migrants were reluctant to take Salva with them because he would be another strain on their already limited supplies. The group’s walk to the refugee camp was especially grueling due to the heat, limited amount of food, jagged terrain, and the vicious wildlife of the Middle East. The migrants get to the camp and stay there for six years. However, after the Ethiopian government falls, the new government orders all the immigrants inside the camp to leave. Ethiopian soldiers brutally forced them to cross the Gilo River, a particularly dangerous endeavour, back to South Sudan. The journey across the river was full of obstacles as shown in chapter thirteen, “The rain, the mad current, the bullets, the crocodiles, the welter of arms and legs, the screams, the blood” (pg 79) that made Salva’s life just a tad bit harder.
One of Nia’s tasks in the book is to walk long distances to get water for her family. Her task is often made difficult due to thorns cutting her feet, heat exhaustion, and the considerable length of the journey. She does this multiple times a day until dry season comes during which, she and her family must go to a camp where there is still water. There she must dig to get water, regardless of how unsafe the water is to drink. Actually, Nia’s sister Akeer became sick in chapter eight when it is stated that,“Her sickness came from the water” (pg 45).
In the book, “A Long Walk to Water”, the geography in South Sudan impacted Nia and Salva by serving as obstacles to their goals.
–Tori Tran
In the book A ”Long Walk to Water”, Salva and Nya both have their own challenges with the geography that they encounter.
ReplyDeleteOne of the greatest challenges for Salva was to face the desert and the Nile river. He also had to face the challenge of making it to the refugee camp alive, so that he could have the possibility to see his family again. He didn’t have any food or water in the dessert. As well as having scorching heat, made it an impossible task. He also has to cross the Nile river. With the water being so rough he and his group made small boats to row across. It took him a few days to get across the rough water, but they made it and kept on going. In the end he makes it through the desert and across the river to make it to the refugee camp.
Nya lives in a village with her family. She has to walk eight hours every day. She must walk all day to retrieve water for her and her family. But the water that she works so hard for is dirty. Because the water is dirty her little sister got sick, which can be very dangerous because the hospital isn’t close to home. Also, to make things worse, it's very hot and dry and doesn’t rain often, so they don’t have a steady water source. Which means that they must move around every so often. This makes her life very difficult and uncomfortable, but she ends up happy.
Salva and Nya have very different problems to overcome when it come to the geography but they both can live on.
The book “A Long Walk To Water” by Linda Sue Parks shows how many cruel and horrible things happen to completely innocent people. In the book there are two main characters Salva and Nya, they must overcome many obstacles such as climate, war, and dehydration. Salva’s life was hugely impacted by the war in the mid-1990s. Salva got dragged away from his family because of the liberation army soldiers were fighting at his school in Sudan. He had to run away and go to several refugee camps going through harsh conditions such as deserts and lakes and he was suffering from dehydration. It took him many years to get to America. Nya’s life was mainly impacted by water. In Nya’s town, they started to run out of the water from a faraway lake. In chapter 5, page 27 the book says “The water that filled the hole was filthy more mud then liquid. It seeped in so slowly that it took a long time to get even a few gourds full.” This caused Nya’s sister to get sick. Around that time, Sudan was suffering from a drought so many families had to move near water and usually the girls would get water and prepare food. That's what Nya’s job was, to get water. On page 20 the book says “Nya would now make her second trip to the pond. To the pond and back nearly a whole day of walking altogether. This was Nya ‘s daily routine Seven months of the year. Daily. every single day.” The pond was miles away and took a very long time to get to. Later in the book, Salva gets adopted and starts a program to make wells for waterless towns which ended up being Nyas, and then with the water, the town had time to make a school. Since Nya did not have to go far to get water anymore she was able to go to school. The geography of Sudan had no mercy on any people. It was very harsh, dry, rocky and had barely any water. This book really opened my eyes to be more cautious with my water.
ReplyDeleteIn the book “A Long Walk to Water”, Salva and Nya had to face difficult challenges. Almost all of those challenges were connected to geography. In Nya’s story, the hardest part was when she went to the lake camp (pg 33). The reasons it was hard for her was she had to sit on the lakebed, dig down arms length and wait there for hours until the water seeped in and she could collect it. In page 33, she says that “They had no house and had to sleep in makeshift shelters. They could not bring most of their things, so they had to make do with whatever what was at hand”. The water was also extremely muddy and because of that Nya’s sister, Akeer got sick after drinking it. That sickness could have been fatal but luckily she was near a medical clinic.
ReplyDeleteIn Salva’s story, the hardest part was the Akobo desert (pg 52). In that desert, Salva’s feet were pierced by thorns and his shoes broke. Not only that, but he stubbed his toe, the nail peeled off, and he could barely walk. When he was walking, he saw nine men on the side of the road dying or dead. Salva’s group was attacked and his uncle was killed a few days later. They buried Salva’s uncle in a hole two feet deep that an animal dug. In page 65, Salva says “Now that Salva was without Uncle’s care and protection, the groups attitude toward him changed. Once again they grumbled that he was too young and small”. Eventually, they made it out of the Akobo desert. Those were Salva and Nya’s most difficult experiences because of the geography that in which they lived.
-Tyler Del Gaizo
DeleteA long walk to water by Linda sue park shows us how people suffer and survive in other parts of the world. In a Long Walk to Water there was two characters nya, Salva who had to face these challenges. Challenges like climate, dehydration, battle, and hunger. This all started when Salva was at school and the heard shots in the distance. Salva was forced to run away from school and run as far away from the shots as possible. From there he walk in the hot rocks and desert to seek lots of refuge camps. From refuge camp to refuge camp, he finally got nominated to get adopted to the USA. He made a new family who cared about him. Salva lived a life where walking was needed water was needed. In page 22 it say The days became a never ending walk. The geography made it difficult for Salva or anyone else to walk like nya walking for water. The hot days made them tired and hungry the rocks made it hard to walk and the lack of water dehydrated everyone. The geography is un like here. No rain, hardly any water, no clean water, food was scarce. The geography makes southern Sudan what it is and makes life their difficult.
ReplyDeleteDavid Jordan
Danny Blanchard
ReplyDelete9/1/19
History
How the geography affects Salva and Nya’s lives
The geography of South Sudan greatly affects Salva and Nya’s lives. For them the lack of water greatly affects their lives. In South Sudan, a country in eastern Africa the climate is tropical which still has room for greater temperatures. Before the rainy season starts, temperatures can rise to 100-104 degrees. In the rainy season the maximum and minimum temperatures lower but because of how humid it is it feels even hotter. South Sudan’s winter is super dry and has almost zero rain. Because of all of this there is almost no water. Two times every day Nya containers of water at a small pond that is almost two. Miles away from her village instead of going to school or anything else. Salva was able to go to school but only for a small period of time during the rainy season. For the rest of the year he moves to a different village by foot and herds cattle or does chores. Also because of how little water there is and because things the government is doing the are wars with real guns because of the rebels against the government. Because of these wars many villages are destroyed and burned in the chaos. Also there are other people who steal from and kill the people who fled their village from the wars. There also aren’t many buildings and all of the roads are dirt. Most if not all of this is because of the economy and how poor South Sudan really is.
Long Walk to Water | Prompt Answer
ReplyDeleteJake Mills
In the book A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park, there are two characters, Nya and Salva, who both are similar in different ways. Nya is a girl growing up in 2008 in Southern Sudan. She was the water fetcher in a way because she went and got water every day. She walked almost the whole day to get water to provide for her family. Later in her life the town made a well which made it easier to get water for her and her family. Salva is a young boy in 1985 in Southern Sudan. He is a little better off then Nya since his family had lots of cattle which were luxuries back then. He went to school and was middle child in his family. He was at school when the war in Southern Sudan reached him. Salva had to run into the bush to hide, but could not see through the really tall grass. He walked for years going from refugee camp to refugee camp. The geography of Southern Sudan made it difficult for both Nya and Salva to do daily tasks like getting water or looking for refugee camps since it is a desert and it almost never got to moderate temperatures since it is super hot in the day and freezing cold at night. An example from the text can be found on p. 22 and 23 when Salva says, “The terrain changed from scrub to woodland; they walked among stands of stunted trees” which is mentioning that some terrain was easy like scrublands or raised and rooted like woodlands. This shows how hard it might be for Nya as well because she might have to walk through that sort of terrain on her way to get water.
This summer I read a book called A Long Walk to Water, by Linda Sue Park. A long walk to water is about two kids in different time periods that live in Southern Sudan. They both have to walk a long way to get water. Nya, an eleven year old girl living in Southern Sudan in 2008, has two walk eight hours a day to get water. Salva, an eleven year old boy living in Southern Sudan in 1985, has to run away to Ethiopia and from his family that is living near the war. Nya and Salva both experience rough climate and geography while they walk to find water. Nya has tough terrain when walking to water all together, but sometimes her mother makes it harder by making Nya take her sister, Akeer, with her to get water. Akeer is always sick because of the dirty water so it always slows Nya down. Nya has to walk eight hours a day in the very hot desert. In Southern Sudan in 1985, Salva is at school when the war in his village started. He had to run into the bush and away from his family and life as he knew it. Salva had to walk all day every day in a bunch of different areas of Southern Sudan. He had to walk in the jungle with people in his village, but they left him so he was by himself in the jungle. He found some people to walk with and he even found his uncle. Salva met a kid his age named Marial who was walking with them. Marial died in lion country in the middle of the night. Salva also had to cross the Nile River to get to Ethiopia. After they got across the Nile they had to cross the Akobo desert. In the desert uncle died from three bullet wounds from thieves. In conclusion, both Nya and Salva had difficult lives when trying to find water.
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DeleteJake Danzo
DeleteIn the book, “A Long Walk to Water,” by Linda Sue Park, the geography impacts the lives of the two protagonists. Both Nya and Salva experience many difficulties due to their surrounding geography. For Nya, one of her struggles is the fact that the nearest water is miles away, and she has to walk their, collect water, and walk all the way back. The path also had many spiky plants and she was in pain every day. “She looked at the bottom of her feet. There it was, a big thorn that had broken off right in the middle of her heel.” (Chapter 2, pg.8). Another struggle for Nya is the fact that her sister was sick once. They lived far away from the medical clinic, a few day’s walk away to be exact. Because of this, she was forced to make a tough decision. Stay at home and hope that Akeer would soon feel better, or risk the trip and get help for her sickness. “Should they stay at camp and let her rest so she might heal on her own? Or should they begin the long hard walk-- and hope they reached help in time? (Chapter 7, pg.40)
ReplyDeleteOne of Salva’s struggles is also the scarcity of water. After he is alone, there is no water anywhere except the water he already had with him and the extreme rarity of a pond. “About a hundred paces in front of him, he could see a small pond.” Later on in the book, Salva is faced with a river to cross from the refugee camp. There were thousands of people hesitant to go because of the strong current and the crocodiles lurking in the water. Salva knew he had to cross it eventually, so he picked the correct moment and jumped in, hoping he would be able to make it. “It was the rainy season. Swollen by rains, the Gilo’s current would be merciless. The Gilo was well known for something else, too. Crocodiles.” (Chapter 12, pg.75) These struggles made Nya’s and Salva’s lives very difficult and proved that geography can play a big role in someone’s lives.
-Brij Bharadwaj
Analyze the Geography
ReplyDeleteBoth Nya and Salva experience extreme difficulties in their life, and many of them have a connection to geography. Find a specific example from the text that shows how challenging their geography is. Cite the passage and explain how their geography impacts their lives.
In the book, “A Long Walk to Water” written by Linda Sue Park, I believe both Nya and Salva suffer due to the harsh geographical conditions of Southern Sudan. The geography of the desert negatively impacted them in multiple ways. For example, the weather was extremely hot and dry which contributed to the scarce supply of water and sources of food. Due to these high temperatures, Nya, a young girl had to walk for hours every day in the baking heat just to get one single jug of water for her whole family. This is shown in chapter One, when Nya says “There was only heat, the sun already baking the air, even though it was long before noon. It would take her half the morning if she didn’t stop on the way. Heat. Time. And Thorns.” Additionally, this paragraph demonstrates the amount of severe disadvantages Nya had to face every day. She had to walk barefoot in the dry desert for miles in the intense heat causing her to become so desperate for thirst, she was willing to drink muddy water in order to stay hydrated and cool herself down. In Chapter Three page 14, the book states “Nya took the hollowed gourd that was tied to the handle of the plastic container. She untied it, scooped up the brown muddy water, and drank. It took two gourdfuls before she felt a little cooler inside.” This paragraph reveals how large of an impact the cruel conditions of Southern Sudan had on Nya and her family. However, this not only affected Nya, but this also affected Salva and his journey to surviving the war between the two African tribes, the Dinka and Nuer. Salva had to walk barefoot, without water, without food, and without much sleep for days. The extremely high temperatures and rocky, dry terrain didn’t help Salva either. The ground consisted of rocks and thorns as sharp as knives that would cut into his welted skin and dirt as rough as sandpaper. In addition, the sun was slowly melting away his skin. Because of this, Salva’s energy was drained with each step. His difficulties were shown in Chapter Eight page 53, “Thorns gored his feet. His lips became cracked and parched. Uncle cautioned him to make the water in his gourd last as long as possible. It was the hardest thing Salva had ever done, taking only tiny sips when his body cried out for huge gulps of thirst-quenching, life-giving water.” Soon after this, Salva was slowly trailing behind the group of people he was walking with, including his Uncle. His Uncle noticed this, “Do you see that group of bushes?” Uncle said, pointing. “You need only to walk as far as those bushes. Can you do that Salva Mawien Ariik?”. This encouraged Salva to push through to those bushes, and once he did that, his uncle came up with a new destination goal for Salva. This cycle continued until they finally reached their final destination. This proved how much Salva had to go through just to find a lake as a source of water. In conclusion, Salva and Nya both went through a lot due to the harsh conditions of the geography in Southern Sudan.
-Isabella Wu
Nya and Salva live in a very dry place called South Sudan. This makes agriculture a lot harder and with little food and water South Sudan is a very hard place to live. For example on page 103 it said that the closest school was a half a days walk away because it had to be near a water source and the closest water was along way away. South Sudan is also a very violent country with wars over who owns what and what religion they should be. Many people are forced to evacuate their villages and homes because of the battles. Salva is forced to run away into the forest when a battle breaks out in his village. For example on page 6 gunfire breaks out in his village and his teacher tells him to run into the forest where he’ll be safe. As Salva makes his way to the refuge camp he passes threw many different terrains and seasons. He experiences hunger dehydration and rebel forces who rob them of their cloths and water and shoot Salvas uncle in the face. Once salva reaches the camp the conditions get better but are still not great so he goes to another refuge camp. The conditions there are about the same but then he moves to America. He does not know how to speak English but he is still the happiest he’s ever been with indoor plumbing and Coca Cola. Soon he goes off to college and studies business. When he comes back he gets an email that his dad is alive an d gets reunited with his dad.
ReplyDeleteRyan Berlage
Class of 2025
I read “A Long Walk To Water” by: Linda Sue Park
ReplyDeleteSalva and the group came across nine men on the ground collapsed on the sand one made and small hand movement but it fell back down again. None of them made a sound, and five of them were motionless. (Page 55) this shows the challenge of the geography Salva went through because the hot sun and the lack of water had killed five men and almost killed four other men that were with them too. Salva and the others in the group also went through this but three women gave some of their water to the men and it helped him Salva was going to as well but another in the group told him not to because he was smaller and wouldn’t survive the trip without more water than the others the others could last a little bit longer without water. Salva wondered if he was older and could last without water for longer if he would give it to the men or if he would be like the others and keep it for himself, so that he can survive longer than the others. This impacts their lives because it makes it harder to survive in the heat of the desert if they have no water or are giving their water to others.
Devon Martin
Class of 2025
In the book, “A Long Walk to Water,” written by Linda Sue Park, the two main characters, Nya and Salva experience extreme difficulties in their lives, and many of them have a connection to the geography around them. Where Nya and Salva had lived, their lives had been impacted greatly, particularly, by the geography. Nya and Salva have both experienced two big geography impacted problems: a lack of water, and the harsh, dry, and arid climates. Water is a simple, basic life necessity. You need it to survive. But, for Nya, (according to page 1,) “it would take her half of the morning,” to reach the nearest pond to be able to fill up her gourd with water. The climate also made this trip tough. “The sun already baking the air, even though it was long before noon.” (Page 1.) Nya had to make this trip to the pond twice daily, (page 20.) This is an example of how scarce the water is around them, they have to walk for half of the morning just to reach the nearest water source. Salva also experiences water shortages and harsh climates. For example, on page 52, Salva, and his Uncle Jewiir, are crossing the Akobo desert with other people and groups as well. Salva’s shoes, only lasted a few minutes on the stony, hot, and hard ground, before he had “to kick off the flapping shreds and continue barefoot!” According to Salva, he says, “The first day in the desert felt like the longest day Salva had ever lived through. The sun was relentless and eternal: There was neither wisp of cloud nor whiff of breeze for relief.” (Also from page 52.) This is an example of the dry, and arid climate. Salva also faced some water shortage problems as well. Salva had refilled his gourd that the old woman had given to him as the fishermen’s from the river had warned them to do. But Salva’s uncle had told him that he needs to ration his water because there isn’t that much, or sometimes no water in the desert. They eventually do pass a pond but the water there is way to unsanitary, to be able to be drinking water. Climate and the lack of water, are two geography driven challenges that impacted, and made the lives of Nya, and Salva Dut more challenging for them.
ReplyDeleteBy: Sofia White
This summer I read a book called A Long Walk to Water, by Linda Sue Park. A long walk to water is about two kids in different time periods that live in Southern Sudan. They both have to walk a long way to get water. Nya, an eleven year old girl living in Southern Sudan in 2008, has two walk eight hours a day to get water. Salva, an eleven year old boy living in Southern Sudan in 1985, has to run away to Ethiopia and from his family that is living near the war. Nya and Salva both experience rough climate and geography while they walk to find water. Nya has tough terrain when walking to water all together, but sometimes her mother makes it harder by making Nya take her sister, Akeer, with her to get water. Akeer is always sick because of the dirty water so it always slows Nya down. Nya has to walk eight hours a day in the very hot desert. In Southern Sudan in 1985, Salva is at school when the war in his village started. He had to run into the bush and away from his family and life as he knew it. Salva had to walk all day every day in a bunch of different areas of Southern Sudan. He had to walk in the jungle with people in his village, but they left him so he was by himself in the jungle. He found some people to walk with and he even found his uncle. Salva met a kid his age named Marial who was walking with them. Marial died in lion country in the middle of the night. Salva also had to cross the Nile River to get to Ethiopia. After they got across the Nile they had to cross the Akobo desert. In the desert uncle died from three bullet wounds from thieves. In conclusion, both Nya and Salva had difficult lives when trying to find water.
ReplyDeleteBy: Zach Musicant
To begin, Africa is a generally dry location with desert as far as the eye can see. This causes many difficulties for the people of Africa and Southern Sudan specifically to thrive and have a normal life. Most of Sudan is desert however in the Southern region there are more grasslands and mountains. However it is still very hot and there are barely any lakes and rivers. Nya for example has to walk 8 hours every single day to get just a bucket full of water due to the dry and hot climate of Southern Sudan. In that lake water is full of bacteria and is very dirty. On the other hand, we just grab a cup and have filtered and clean water at our disposal. “... Scooped up the brown muddy water, and drank. It took two gourdfuls before she felt a little cooler inside.” (pg. 26) Southern sudan is landlocked which means it is drier and hotter. However there is a huge swampland and they have the Nile River, but that doesn’t stop any diseases or sicknesses. For example,Nya’s sister got ill by the drinking was due to the terrible levels of bacteria, and the family had to make a life decision. Whether they walk to a medical treatment facility or walk hours longer to get cleaner water. However, this was saved when the people of her town started to build a well. Where Slava lived there were forests and plentiful of food and water, but when the war broke out in Salvas home town, he traveled through the dry desert. During that period of time he had barely enough water and food for someone to survive let alone a child. During the traveling period, Slava made a friend along the way named Marial, and he unfortunately was attacked by a lion. Lions are native to Africa in general, so it is not a surprise to Salva’s uncle, that joined him in his travels. “I am sorry, Salva,” Uncle said quietly. “You friend…” (pg 38). For Salva, he walked miles and miles with just sips of water and nibbles of food. He also had to swim across a river bed full of crocodiles with thousands of other people. This was difficult due to the fact that there were men with guns shooting at the people swimming across the lake and deadly crudités chomping on people next to him. He thankfully survived along with others but more people died than making it across the river. Those were extreme difficulties which is so sad to think about and unfortunately happened to Salva, Nya, and many others during that time period.
ReplyDelete-By Sofia B.
A long walk to water
ReplyDeleteGeography prompt
Nya and Salva have challenges in their life related to geography, one such as the water shortages. I chose the following passage because water shortages can lead to conflict between tribes, and it is a challenge for them to walk to go get water. “There was a big lake three days’ walk from Nya’s village. Every year when the rains stopped and the pond near the village dried up, Nya’s family moved from their home to a camp near the big lake.” (pg. 26) I also chose this passage because it hints to the extreme heat in this part of the world by saying, “the pond near the village dried up,” I think this is important because the heat in this part of the world can lead to water shortages (as I mentioned), and also death caused from exhaustion and dehydration. Geography has a pretty big impact on Nya and Salva in this book, and those were the reasons that I thought so. But this part of the world also has a good side.
The Nile River is the most important feature to life in this part of the world, because of mostly two reasons, water and fertile soil. This sentence did a great job explaining my thoughts on the Nile River. “The Nile: the longest river in the world, the mother of all life in Sudan.” (pg. 42) So I think The Nile river acts kind of like the Ganges river in India. I think this because all along the nile river civilizations, or just small tribes thrive because of the water and the fertile soil. The Ganges river is also like this. Water and fertile soil are the two most important reasons why the Nile River is the most important feature in this part of the world.
By: Griffith Manse