chapter 11

april thursday 29th 2010
The group of boys continue walking in silence all night until Moriba, Saidu’s best friend, stops and starts to cry uncontrollably, The other boys start to cry as well. eventually Kanei breaks the silence by saying that he has a feeling that they will find their families or at least news about them. Finally, they start walking again and finally get to the village where their families are supposed to be. They come to a small banana farm and see a man who turns out to be Gasemu a man from Ishmael’s village. He recognizes the boys and asks all of them to help him carry the bundles of bananas back to the village. Along the way, he asks Ishmael if he is still a troublesome boy and then says that Ishmael does'nt have a natural glow like it had when he was a younger. He also tells him that his family talks about him everyday and that they had sent Junior to look for him. and he had obviously returned with no news, so they will all be very excited to see him.
Just as Ishmael starts down the hill, he hears gunshots and dogs barking and people screaming. They hid in the bushes and listened to the gunshots. Ishmael ran into the village as soon as the shooting stoped. It was completely on fire with bullet shells covering the ground. People were locked into their houses and the houses were set on fire. Some got out with the boys help but later died. Ishmael then keeps running through the village looking for his family. He finally came to the house where Gasemu said they were living. It was only charred from the outside. However, the flames inside have totally destroyed everything and everyone inside. The first reaction to ishmeals family’s death becomes anger at Gasemu. ishmeal feels that if they didnt stop to rest on the hill with him and carry his bananas, he might have seen his family and died with them. He began to choke the older man and then picked up a pestle and shattered the man’s nose with it. as this was all happening they heard the rebels coming around the corner, so they started running. they ran throught the forset with the rebels chasing them for hours but eventually the rebels gave up and went away.
Casemu began to cry like a child and Ishmael knew that when a grown man cries this way he has no other choice. Suddenly, Casemu begins to roll on the ground in pain. The boys then find out that he had been shot as they were running from the rebels. He has a bad wound in his side that they couldnt get to stop bleeding. They know what is going to happen to him. In between his cys of pain, he tells them there is a wahlee nearby and if they take him back to the farm he would show them where they missed the path and took the wrong turn. At first, he was able to walk with someone to hold on to, but eventually they are forced to pick him up and carry him. When they finally get at the coffee farm,and they lay him down where he eventually dies. Once again Ishmael finds himself crying softly for another loss.

chapter 10

wendsday april 28,2010

Ishmael feels that the worst thing about his journey is that he's not sure when or where it is going to end up. To survive every day is his only goal. He finds it much easier to be sad than to go back and forth between emotions. “How many more times do we have to come to terms with death before we find safety? . . . Even though I am still alive, I feel like each time I accept death, part of me dies. Very soon I will completely die and all that will be left is my empty body walking with you. It will be quieter than I am". Ishmael points out that even though their journey is difficult, every once in a while they are able to do something that is normal and makes them happy for a little. This happens when they get to a village where they are greeted and asked to go hunting with the men. later on that day, food is brought to the village and everyone eats and dances.The villagers asked the boys to dance with them, but eventually they stop as if they all know that they can only be happy for a tiny moment. aterwards, they leave moving on to the next village. The villagers even invite the boys to dance with them, but gradually they stop as if they all know that they can be happy only for a brief moment. Then, they leave, moving on to the next village. Saidu’s prediction about how he will die comes true in a bizarre way. He seems to die twice after the bad omen of the dead crow and it devastates Ishmael even as he feels happiness that his family is to be found in the next village.

chapter 6,7,8

mondaynapril 26,2010 blog
The attack on Kamator happens unexpectedly one night. There had been no rumors that the rebels were even close so they walk into the village unopposed. During the attack, Ishmael is separated from Junior and the other boys, and he has to run into the bush alone. Later, he hooks up with Kaloko, and they go to look for their friends. Unfortunately, they are nowhere to be found. So, the two boys stay in the swamp with a family they know for two weeks.Every three days, Ishmael and Kaloko visit Kamator to see if any people have returned, but each visit is in vain. The village remains empty with no sounds or even footprints, and Ishmael makes sure to sweep his own prints every time he leaves. Ishmael becomes frustrated with living in fear and decides to leave in search of peace. Kaloko is too afraid to go along, so Ishmael loads his pockets with oranges and walks away. It feels to him like he has been wrapped in a blanket of saddness.On the sixth day, he comes across with other people, a group of four young boys, two girls, a man, and a woman. They are swimming in the river, so Ishmael approached them. The man acted like he doesn’t understand the language Ishmael is speaking, but Ishmael knows he does.Ishmael is now really alone,and no one trusts him. There are no names for the places he passes through, and the people have all disappeared. chapter 8 Ishmael spends a month in the forest before he sees anyone again. This time he arrives at the same junction as six other boys, three of which lived in his village. They had known each other even though they weren’t friends.They tell him they are heading for a village called Yele in Bonthe that they have heard is safe.They travel for more than six days when they come in contact with a very old man who can barely walk. He explains that everyone in his village had run away when they heard they a group of seven boys were on their way. Because of the rumor about the “seven boys,” Ishmael and his new group of friends find themselves in numerous situations where they have to prove they are not dangerous to the people.

chapter 9 and 10

well all the boys kept walking and they came upon a tent place so they went in. they were walking and running barefoot for so long that their feet became shredded and torn up. they were in the tent examining their feet when the owner of the tent walked in, he seen the their sad terrified faces. he brought them food and let them have a place to stay and heal. they never exchanged names because the man felt it was not important and safer for them to not know. eventually their time passed and their feet healed and they moved on. a woman brought hem food to take with them and she told them to hurry. they were not fast enough because people caught them tied them up and brought them to a place. once they were there they were undressed and asked of whom they were. the main boss guy found a cassette in Ishmeals clothes and played it. Ishmeal was frightened he'd be disgusted or angry about it but he seemed very interested. he made Ishmeal and his friends perform their dance to that song. Ishmeal always felt happy dancing, letting the beat run through him but this time was not a pleasant experience.

The zoo!

i went to the zoo and i seen lots of animals. it was really fun. i got to feed the giraffes and some ducks. i was in a group with Becca, Caleb, Mrs.grant and Tristin. we rode the Skyride. the zoo showed the habitats that the certain animals have. there were many different animals. some lived in just sand and trees others lived in wet and moist areas depending on the animal.

The second day of reading

i am half way through chapter 6. i just read chapters 4 and 5. so far what has happened is, the six boys have been trying to hide and move along from village to village and they got caught by the rebels while walking through a Field of high grass, and all six boys were chosen to start being rebels but the rebels got distracted by threatening to kill an old man and the six boys managed to escape. they kept traveling on and stole corn from a little boy because they were sooo hungry and then as they were walking these muscular men came out of the bushes and tied the boy's arms around their back and tied their feet, the men were the village security and had to make sure that the boys were not rebels. and the men search Ishmael and found his rap cassette and that helped the men see that they are not rebels because some boy remembered a performance of dance they did. they were offered a place to stay in the village but they just kept moving along, walking in such a large group brings a greater chance of being seen. i feel scared for the boys in having to deal with all of the killing and sadness of seeing the people they once knew being killed right in front of them....

the first day of reading a long way gone

there is a a few boys and two of them are brothers and like they live in this place in africa and there is a war and the boy ishmeal is the main boy and he lives with his stepmom and his dad. he does not go to school because his dad refuses to pay and his mom can not afford to pay for it. he is going through these citys and alot of people are all laying around dead and bleeding to death and ishmeal see's all this and he is okay about it because thats how his life has always been and he had a dream that he was carring a body to the cemetary and he looked in the sheet and it was his body then he woke up. and he is much older now. and they are just haunting memorys of his dreams, present life, and the things that happen and trigger memorys from the past.its sad.