A Long Way Gone- Ishmael Beah (pg 200-218)

The climax to this story is great, leaving the reader with an interesting note. After Ishmael finishes his "recovery", he finally is allowed the chance to leave for America. He receives his passport and leaves for the airport. When he finally lands in JFK airport he is relieved he has made it. When he landed he was required to go through customs and when the officer had him raise his hands for a pat down, Ishmael's pants fell to the ground. After a few giggles from on lookers, Ishmael picked up his pants and was on his way to a brand new life. Ishmael ends his story with himself and his new high school friends surrounding a camp fire. They all tell stories about certain things. Yet Ishmael just sits and remains quiet.

       What a fantastic book! I would recommend this to all. This book really highlights the raw savageness that humans create, yet underlines the importance of one's own personal world in many ways. Any person could pick this book and come from it with a better understanding of how they should conduct themselves as a human.

A Long Way Gone- Ishmael Beah (pg 153-200)

     After the UN peace keepers arrived, Ishmael and his close friend Alhaji left the government base for the newly established war refugee camp. Upon arrival the boys, along with 7 other government fighters, came in contact with a group of rebel boys. The two groups looked at each other and knew that they were about to fight.  One knife pulled led to all the knives pulled. After about 15 min. of fighting Ishmael pulled out a grenade, pulled the pin and threw into the middle of the group of boys. 4 were left dead for the rebels and only 2 for the government boys. All were wounded. After this incidence the two rival groups were separated and set apart through the use of two separate camps. The boys were living through withdrawal symptoms. And do to this, the boys attacked everything they saw. In the first couple months at their new home the boys attacked people on their way to get water and attacked their nurses, teachers and handlers. Amazingly these people would stand up and say "its not your fault". These UN workers were overwhelmingly passionate towards the boys, never showing their frustration. After a couple months Ishmael found his withdrawal symptoms subsiding and is now on his way to achieving conformity.

     This part of the book showed me that savage children could exist.

A Long Way Gone- Ishmael Beah (pg 121-153)

     Correction to my last post. Ishmael did not reside with the rebels but the government army, which was arguably the worser of the two opponents in terms of savage acts.

     The first month or so was a breeze for the boys. Ishmael even stated that he didn't mind the situation he was in. He had food and shelter daily. He woke up early and did his chores, which included gathering water, wood, and hauling farmers crops in from the fields. After a month or so in this oasis of a place, everything changed. The boys started noticing that the soldiers were coming back frequently for ammo, covered in blood. The boys heard gunshots at night. After a week the Luteniant called all the fighting capable men and boys to the town square. They were ordered that in order to stay in the town they had to fight. Obviously the boys figured that they would just guard the town limits and run security. Oh were they wrong! These boys turned to full pledged soldiers over night. For the week following the town square meeting the boys trained in the training yard, preparing for war. The boys wore there new crapes (tennis shoes) and uniforms while they held there shiny new Ak-47's. Ishmael notes the youngness of the platoon, stating that two of the boys were shorter than their Ak's were long. A week from the start of training the boys were informed that they were to ship out for an ambush the next day. Ishmael did not sleep that night. The boys geared up and learned how to pack their backpacks by watching the older soldiers. The older soldiers gave the boys "little white pills", Ishmael never tells us what they are but he says that they gave him tremendous amounts of energy. Probably ecstasy or something of that sort. They walked through the forest for a couple hours until the Commander order them all to stop and set up positions along a creek. They waited for the order, they all started firing at once. Well all but Ishmael, he sat in shock. He looked to his left, his friends was covered in blood, dead. He looked to his right and saw his friend get up for just a split second. In that split second a RPG exploded underneath him. Ishmael witnessed his friends corpse fly threw the air only to land on a nearby stump. Ishmael got up and walked to his friend. He couldn't believe what he was witnessing. After the fighting had resided they headed back to the village. That night Ishmael tried, for the first time, marijuana. The next night cocaine, and the night after that "brown-brown" a mix between cocaine and gun powder. This became his addiction through the next two years of fighting with the Army unit.

      Ismael skips right ahead to the moment he found the UN standing in front of him. My guess would be that he doesn't remember that much of what happened in those two years, or that he remembers too much. This story gets more compelling by the page. Cannot wait to see how this one plays out.

A Long Way Gone- Ishmael Beah (pg 100-121)

      After Saidu's death, the six boys traveled through the night in order to make it to the village. This village,  they had been told, was home to the families of the six boys and they were all really excited to get there. Upon arrival in the outskirts of town, the boys ran into an old friend of Ishmael's named Gasemu. Gasemu was harvesting bananas at the time and asked the boys for help. Ishmael and Gasemu had and instant reconnection moment with a nod and a pat on the back. Gasemu reassured Ishmael's desires by telling him that Ishmael's family was, in fact, residing in the village they were taking the bananas back too. They had a long walk still yet ahead. Ishmael with his newly learned knowledge was eager to get back to the village and urged his friends to hurry quickly along. With one more daunting hill to face, the boys raced up the hill. When they got to the top, turmoil.

     Gasemu and the boys peered down the large hill only to look upon utter chaos. Gunshots, screaming, and the ignition of gasoline soaked huts littered the audio of the air. I must admit, at this part I almost cried. Imagine reading 100 pages of chaos, wanting to see the reunification of this guys family only to be 500 meters away and then boom the chance is gone, forever. After the fighting had resided and the rebels had left, the group left the hill and went down into the village. The verisimilitude (like that word usage?) of Ishmael's writing in this upcoming section is absolutely gut wrenching. Ishmael walks down into a "hell on earth" image. The village was completely on fire and he watched a mother and son run out of there hut on fire, screaming. The too ran around hitting practically anything that was in there linear path only to fall to the ground in the fetal position and die before Ismael, or anyone else, could do anything. Ismael was horrified by this scene. Gasemu waved Ismael over to where he was standing, what he came to see was absolutely horrifying. A line of freshly bleeding villagers. Lined up one after the other, all were executed. There were maybe 20 or so people and it seemed every one Gasemu flipped over, some body new. Gasemu eventually pointed Ismael to the hut of his family. Ismael looked once and fell to his knees and covered his head in absolute panic mode. What Ismael saw was a hut burning to the ground, doors locked. Ishmael in a rush of adrenaline broke into the house and found no bodies. He, in and outrage of anger, started punching and kicking the hut to the ground, he felt nothing for his nerves had burnt off his appendages. He raced out of the hut, frothing at the mouth, and jumped on Gasemu and tried to choke him to death. Gasemu threw Ishmael off of him and Ishmael came back with a pestle, which he picked up on his way down, and threw it at Gasemu's face breaking his nose. According to Ishmael it was Gasemu's fault that he didn't get to see his family. All this fighting soon ended when they heard voices at the edge of the village. The rebels had returned, 10 of them to be precise. The pack of boys hid in the cassava fields so close that they could hear the conversation of the rebels. The rebels celebrated the fact that they had let no villagers escape. There command to execute all was accomplished in its entirety. After a couple hours the boys tried to move, this set of the rebels. They all got up and ran for the forest, bullets flew behind them. Ishmael claims he ran for hours into the night, until the moon was shining and the bullets were glowing red as they flew past him. 

     By day break the boys had found refuge. They heard screams, it was Gasemu behind a hut, he was rolling on the ground in pain. To bullets had penetrated him, one in his right leg and the other in his side. By night fall Gasemu had passed and the remaining six boys kept walking. Ishmael doesn't remember how but somewhere along the walking two young rebels ambushed the boys and held them at gun point and made them walk back to the village Yele, the head quarters of the rebel operations. There they were safe ironically. This was probably Ishmael best living he had had up till that point. He did chores till noon and the rest of the day he relaxed. 

     This was the end of my reading. Ishmael safely residing in the home of the people who put him through so much turmoil. The people who killed his family and murdered his friend. I still find my self in shock every time i   pick up this book to read it. The things Ishmael describes and depicts I can not even begin to imagine, let alone comprehend. Absolutely captivating is this book, every word makes me cherish my life as it is. 

The Ministry of Silly Walks

Sorry to be late sir, my walk has become rather silly lately.

A Long Way Gone- Ishmael Beah

Completely captivating is this book. Great read!

A Long Way Gone- Ishmael Beah (pg 69-100)

     In continuance to the previous post. The benevolent man who took care of the 7 boys accidentally lets out the rumor of him taking care of the boys. The neighboring village in an outrage confronts the boys at the fishing hut. They tied them up and and stripped them naked and placed them, once again, in front of a chief and council. Once again Ishmael saved his own and his friends skin because the chief saw the Run DMC tape. I never thought that a cassette tape could save someones life literally, this one did twice. The chief did order Ishmael to dance to the cassette tape, naked in the sand, to prove his ownership. What a pervert, I thought. The chief had the boys cut free, they were given back their clothes and set on their way. Also, maybe a sorry of sorts, the chief gave the boys a gallon of water and some smoked meat to take on their journey.

      The boys started walking again. For whatever reason, maybe their 2 weeks in the hut, the boys became closer and shared stories with one another. One story told was the Mende (a tribe in the Sierra Leone) version of why the spider was so skinny at the waist. The jokes all ended when one morning the boys awoke to find their meat stolen. Stolen by something. A dog in fact that the boys found feasting behind the hut. Alhaji chased off the dog but found no eatable meat. The boys continued somberly due to their imposing hunger. As they walked they saw a crow fall from the sky. The boys were split on whether or not to eat it, some thought it to be a curse others to be a blessing from God. In the end they all ate the bird. This though would come to be the end of one of the boys. As they walked through the night Saidu, only thirteen years old, dropped to the dirt as he fainted. He awoke hours later coughing. The next village they came too was very populous. They bedded in the veranda of a sleeping families home. When the awoke the owner of the house helped the boys out, they tried to wake Saidu but found he was stone dead. The held a funeral service and the remaining boys headed for the next village sobbing. The next village supposedly contained many families from Mattru Jong.

      Saidu's death came shockingly too me. I found myself puzzled. How could a 13 year old die just like that. This was the world Ishmael lived in. Something completely foreign to a pampered 16 year old American boy. I couldn't imagin living in this world.

A Long Way Gone- Ishmael Beah (pg 18-68)

     This bulk of Beah's A Long Way Gone goes through most of the struggles Ishmael faces before his time as a boy soldier. After reading chapter 2 (which is a page and a half) I had to put down my book and stop and think. Many questions came to me after reading this short section of the book. How lucky am I? Really! how lucky am I? The last sentence Ishmael leaves us, which post scripts a  brutal, vivid dream he has back in the states where he carries his own dead body to the grave, is "These days I live in three worlds: my dreams, and the experiences of my new my life, which trigger memories from the past.". After reading this I had to sit back and just wonder what this guy must have gone through and what is he leaving out of this short 226 page book. Well, the next bulk of the book gave me a short description of what he did go through, before becoming a boy soldier.

     Chapter 3 was, in many ways, the event that changed it all. In this section of the book Ishmael and his brother along with 4 other friends escape Mattru Jong after the rebels attacked the village unexpectingly. They ran through the village, through a swamp until they had to cross the last section of land before the forest. Whilst crossing this last patch of land, the boys were shot at with automatic weapons. This was just the first time that Ismael should have died, yet he and his friends made it to the forest without a scratch. After this the boys walked in a single file line through the forest, on a foot wide trail, for several days. They slept in abandoned villages and ate what they could find. In one instance they were so hungry that they jumped a 5 year old kid just for his two cobs of corn. People, at this time felt bad for the young boys, and the mother of the 5 year old even came and gave the boys all a cob of their own despite the thievery they committed. The next incident came when the 6 boys were running through a field. They themselves were jumped by two hiding  rebels. They were marched into a village and lined up with a dozen or more people who also had been captured. After the rebels toyed with their prisoners they finally selected the people they wanted which excluded Ishmael and 2 of the boys. His brother was selected and they were forced to stare each other in the eyes as they both new the destiny of Ishmael and the others not selected. They would be murdered as they were deemed useless by the hands of two 20 year old rebels. Had a fire fight not broke out in the neighboring village, which allowed the boys and the other dozen or so people to scatter in to the surrounding forest, Ishmael and the others would have in fact been murdered. The two rebels turned to shoot at Ishmael as he ran. I guess they weren't good shots, that or Ishmael was one lucky kid because this was the second time he had been shot at and he made it to the forest unscaved.

     This theme, Ishmael running with automatic rifles firing at his back, reoccurs many times in the next couple chapters. Until his lucky 3 months of safety. Ishmael and the six others found themselves in an oasis of sort at Kamator. While the boys were on the trail into Kamator they were jumped by three men with their hunting rifles who swore to protect the village in this time of war. You may wonder why they were jumped, this was because of the "boy soldier" who had become the hell hounds of the RUF, the rebel force. The RUF would drug groups of young boys, groups of about 6-20, the sole purpose of these dispatched boys was to loot the villages. As you could imagine, people don't like to be killed by 12 year olds and then have all their stuff taken. These groups of boys were literally drugged nuts, in one instance two different groups came across each other in the middle of a town and proceeded to shoot and kill one another. The wining group of these boys sat and ate their lunch atop the bleeding bodies of the defeated group. So when these 6 boys just decided to waltz right in to this village, it didn't go well. The boys were stripped naked, cuffed, and placed in front of the chief who would of killed them had it not been for another young boy of the village and a Run DMC cassette tape. Ishmael carried his favorite dance music in his front pocket and when his pants were searched the chief found the tape and was puzzled by it. A young boy from the surrounding crowd stepped forward to state that he knew the boys. He apparently attended school in the adjacent Mattru Jong. The boys were then released, re-clothed, fed, and given farmhand duty for the next three months. This was just one more of Ishmael's lucky incidents.

     Kamator couldn't escape the RUF's plan forever. The RUF came in one day, just like that, the boys had all been separated amidst the town when the first shots were fired. They ran to the forest as always. Only Kaloko and Ishmael made it to the forest together, Ishmael never saw any of them again, not even his brother. Kaloko hide in the forest for three weeks with an adopted family until one day Ishmael decided to go out on his own.

     "I walked for two days straight without sleeping. I stopped only at streams to drink water. I felt as if somebody was after me. Often, my shadow would scare me and cause me to run for miles" This is how Beah starts the 8th chapter. This is the first thing he stated after noting he was leaving Kaloko. I paused after reading this, I questioned what the heck he was thinking. Anyways it was all for the better. Ishmael came across another group of six boys after walking for a couple weeks alone. Like it was meant to be, he knew 3 or 4 of the boys. He came to be part of their group. They walked for weeks doing the abandoned village thing. Until they found themselves walking on the beach with the Atlantic Ocean to their west. They walked for a while and saw a cluster of huts. They raced each other towards them to find it was abandoned, they thought. A good number of men with machetes, fishing spears, and nets sprung from behind the huts. They grouped them up again. They questioned them all and for unknown reasons believed their plea as not being rebels. Instead of killing them they just took their crapes (tennis shoes) and chased them out of their village. Now note that these boys were on sand, without shoes or socks, with the hot African sun beating over head.  They walked all day until sunset and half of the next day until coming across a solitary fishing hut. The seven of them ran into it. They cried themselves to sleep as the bottom of their feet looked as Beah describes, like someone took a blade and cut the flesh from heel to toe. They awoke to find a young adult man standing in his fishing hut. I thought, NO, Ishmael has to escape somehow obviously! But to my surprise their is at least one good man in Sierra Leone. In fact this was an extremely benevolent man. He tended to them and took care of each one's feet for the next 2 weeks.

     This is where I stopped reading. This book has put me in a state of reflexion. Reflexion of myself, and our country. How lucky I am and how lucky we all  our to have a civilized, rather courtly nation. I couldn't imagine being separated from my lavish home and family running around the Indiana as an orphan having to watch my back at every turn because everybody thinks i'm going to kill them and steal their possessions. Heck, i hate being separated from my vehicle or phone for a week.

    

A Long Way Gone- Ishmael Beah (pg 1-17)

     The first chapter of this book has captured my attention. It starts with two young sons of a man who has divorced their birth mother and is now with a horrid step mother. The two young boys, for living in the Sierra Leone, are well set off; listening to american music and have possession of a large amount of western clothing. The younger son, Ismael Beah (the author), narrates a journey that the boys take through the Sierra Leone. The two boys, Ismael the younger, and Jounior the eldest, set off on a journey destination of Mattru Jong but stopping in their grandmothers village Kabati on the way. They depart and reach Kabati to rest and visit with their grandmother and then head out to Mattru Jong, doing all this in one day. Once arriving and spending the night at a friends house in Mattru Jong, the two boys hear news that the rebel uprising had reached their home village, Mogbwemo, on the previous day. The boys immediately decide to head back to Mogbbwemo to try and find their father and birth mother(who also lived their). On their way back they stopped back in Kabati only to find chaos. This is the part of the story that captured my attention.

     Upon arrival at Kabati, the two young boys find utter chaos. Witnesses to a world unknown in the western world. People fleeing into the jungle in every direction yelling "God save me!" and "Run they will be in Kabati next!". The boys ignored all this determined to reach their home town of Magbwemo. This thought changed when the boys were haunted when reaching their grandmothers house. No grandmother to be seen the boys sat and did not know what to do. As they sat they watched a VW van come flying over the hill into the town. They fled into their grandmother's hut. The person in the van was not a rebel but in fact the opposite. The injured man fell out of the driver side riddled with bullet holes but not dead, he vommited blood like a flood in the streets. Everyone fled except a young woman who comforted the wounded man and the two young brothers. The wounded man gestured to the sliding van door. The woman comforting him opened the door and the wounded mans wife dropped to the floor, hitting with a thump. Two others lay dead in the back seats. The van was filled with a family trying to escape Magbwemo. The rebels shot through the van hundreds of times as the fled the village. This was one of two scenes that haunted the young boys. The next was another woman who walked through Kabati with her baby strapped to her back, dead. The baby in a sense acted as a sort of body armor while she fled the scene at Magbwemo. She stopped in front of the two boys and took the baby and placed it in front of them, the baby was already starting to bloat. The young boys stood in awe of what they just saw. 

     This first chapter definitely opened my eyes to the world we live in today. The fact that these, western influenced, young boys all of a sudden had their lives flipped upside down makes me think what could happen to America if we were to rebel against our theoretical "dictoral" government. Also i liked that Ismael captures your attention and uses the nature around the villages to portray and make parallels with what was happening to him and his brother during his journey. I really enjoyed this about his writing style because he sets the setting while using the setting to parallel his journey. 

The Ministry of Silly Walks

Yes, I shall have you practice an Anglo-French City Walk!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b558kjihQQg