Salva & Nya's search for water

 

The book “A long Walk to Water” is a story about two young children in hope of finding the future that they have long hoped for. One of the characters is Salva, he has to flee from his village where there is a war going on. Soon with no family he becomes a “lost boy” refugee.  Salva has to travel Africa by foot searching for safety and his family. He encounters many obstacles that he learns to soon overcome. The second character is Nya; she has to walk to a pond to fetch water to bring back for her family. In order to do so she walks eight hours a day. Salva hopes that she will one day not have to do that anymore and be able to attend school.  Something that comes up in the story is the need for water in order to survive.

In the book for both Salva and Nya water is a very important need to survive. For example ‘” you have seen that the pond is only a puddle now. Winter is coming and the dry season……..”  “I will go to a different village near water. You cannot stay with me any longer”. The women tells Salva that soon there  will not be any water that she has to leave and find a village that does have enough water. In this sentence water is the symbol of survival. In order for Salva to continue his way to safety he will need water to keep himself going and not die of dehydration.  For Nya water is the reason she has to get up early and make trips that take up almost her whole day.  She has to fetch water for her family every day. “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”.  For Nya water can almost tell everything she does. She cannot attend school because it is far and she has to fetch water for her family.

In both stories the need for water gives them hopes and ideas of how to change the place they live in. For example later on in the story Salva has continued with his studies and starts and organization to help people. He goes back to Sudan and he starts to build wells so that families would have water. Salva became a “lost boy” on his journey to find the better future that he hoped for. Through his journey he had to look for water and take from it carefully so that it, would last him for another few days on his journey. Nya also finds the better future that she was hoping for. Nya’s village is one of the places in Sudan where Salva goes to biuld a well so that people do not have to walk a long way in order to fetch water. The need for water and survival encouraged them to keep on going.  That motivated them to find the better future that they were hoping for.

This connects to the real world in a sense that, something an object or a dream motivates and encourages people to find that better future they hope for. Many people in the world are in situations where they want to help themselves and others. They want to improve their lifestyle so they go on their own journeys searching for a way out of the situation they’re in.