A Long Way Gone Response

I could not put this book down when I started reading it and realized that it was a true story as well blew my mind. When I did my research I looked into more of the culture of Sierra Leone but not the awful details of what they would do to the soldiers to make sure that they would work and fight for their country. As a twelve year old boy as well it would be so hard to fight for something that you don’t even really believe in. To have everything that you know and love including family and friends and have it taken away from you like that in the blink of an eye. To think that a boy was just playing with his friends minding his own business and the next thing you know he is a soldier in the army, living in fear.

The fact that a twelve year old boy fears that he will be a killing machine at that age breaks my heart. I think about when I was twelve and what I was doing is a different story. And I realize that my childhood and Ishmael’s childhood were in totally different time periods but still the way he was treated. He was forced to do hard drugs such as cocaine or marijuana so that these boys pretty much would fight for something that they didn’t want to fight for nor should they be fighting for at that age. As I was reading this I kept thinking about how I would be feeling if this happened to me. The worst thing in my life so far is when I had my grandpa die and that is nothing compared to this story. Going through something even similar to that is hard to do and the fact that Ishmael survived and was able to tell his story shows what a strong person he is and what he can do to have a better life for himself.

I believe there is always an angel for you in heaven and on earth and Ishmael’s angel on earth was the nurse Esther who helped him to understand that what he has done is not his fault and that he needs to find it in himself to forgive before he can move on in his life. Without Esther I don’t believe that Ishmael would be the same person in the end. Also the fact that Ishmael’s actual family supported and welcomed him back surprised me because in other books we have read there is usually no family that is willing to accept the things that these children are forced to do and I thought it was a great change that his family was so accepting. When reading the end of the book I got so happy that he was being saved and able to tell his story. If I were him and I found out that there were other children like me that went through the same thing I would be happy because I have people to relate to who understand what Ishmael went through.

Overall I really enjoyed reading this book and loved that it was a true story. The detail of the story and the way that it was written was easy to read and full of life. I have a lot of respect for Ishmael and his story.

Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone is a country in West Africa that is bordered by Guinea to the northeast, Liberia to the southeast and the Atlantic Ocean to the southwest. There are about six million people that live in Sierra Leone. The capital is Freetown which is also the largest city in Sierra Leone. Their main language is English which I was surprised about but it is only really used in the government. However the Kiro language is usually the language that the people communicate with. This country is mainly a Muslim country with a little bit of Christian minority and is also one of the most religiously tolerant countries in the world. The word Sierra Leoa means Lioness Mountains and in 1462 a Portuguese explorer Pedro de Sintra visited the area naming it for the landscape around Freetown. It gained independence in 1961 and became a republic country in 1971.

Sierra Leone Education has a “6-3-3-4 education system” which was introduced in 1993 that consist of nine years of basic education. At the end of six years of primary education, all students sit for the National Primary School Examination (NPSE). If successful, they proceed to junior secondary education for three years and then sit for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE). Successful BECE candidates proceed to three years of senior secondary school, at the end of which they sit for the West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE). If you fail the BECE the student can either take it again or get a job. If they pass the student may go on to a university to get a four year degree. One thing I thought was interesting was that the government pays the examination fee for all students in government assisted schools who take each exam. The government does this so that all students have a chance to move onto a better or more education and takes the pressure of payment off of the parents or other people that the students live with. This way all students have an equal chance to get a good education in Sierra Leone.

The main reasons put forward by the perpetrators of the civil war were lack of social-economic opportunities overall, lack of access by many citizens to what economic life there was, and tyrannical political rule. Today, Sierra Leone enjoys a liberalized economy and relative peace. The Sierra Leone Civil War was from 1991-2002. It began on March 23 1991 as the Revolutionary United Front attempted to overthrow the government. This war involved multiple ethnic groups and throughout this ten year war over 50,000 people died. More than half a million people fled to nearby countries to get away from this war because it was so unsafe. Because of the war the government stopped paying civil servants and teachers. The war caused the government to slowly disintegrate as a result of the political class. The country had been compromised by the government and people felt that nothing in the society was going to change because of political issues happening in the country.

Revolution is Not a Dinner Party

Revolution is Not a Dinner Party was a really eye opening book that made me realize how different two worlds can be. To think all of these things happened to a nine year old girl. When I was nine I was in third grade, playing with dolls without a worry in the world. While Ling had to deal with so much like losing her hair, being alone, and watching her father be taken away from her.

For me I am such a daddy’s girl. I look up to my dad and any chance I can get I am going to be with my dad to do something or just talk and hang out. I feel like that Ling and I have that in common. She adored her father and spent lots of afternoons and nights with him to learn English and be around to talk to. If my dad was taken away from me at such a young age I would be heart broken and would never be as strong as Ling was in the book. The amount of strength that Ling has that she proves many times throughout the book is unbelievable to me.

All the nights that she spent alone because her mom worked shows how strong she is. I would never be able to do that. I was thinking as I was reading this that what she does to survive and deals with is so cool. She deals with bullying at school and comes home to a pretty much empty house and knowing that her father is gone and her country is being destroyed.

Ling loved her hair and I would too if I had long beautiful hair. Her hair was something that would always be hers and made her who she was. The part in the story that really broke my heart was when she slept in the lice invested room and she had to cut it all off because she had so much lice. If I lost something like my hair that I loved so much I would be devastated. I had lice once when I was a kid and remember my mom cleaning my sheets every night, and doing so much and not being able to sit many places because my lice would spread. My mom said that if I ever got lice again I would have to cut all of my hair off and I never wanted to do that. So I can’t imagine how heartbroken Ling must have been.

I think about what if America had something like the Cultural Revolution in China and how it would be the same and how it would be different. I think that if we had something like that in America it would not be as intense as it was in China. The fact that they couldn’t speak in English or listen to any type of English radio I found that weird. It shows how different our cultures are.

One thing that I really enjoyed about this book was that there was a happy ending in the story. Most of the stories we have read in class have had sad endings or left me wanting to read more and not being able to. This was an actual happily ever after and I was glad. This little girl went through so much and it was a good thing that she got her mother and her father back.