In South Sudan around 2 million people died and this time period was considered a genocide. Salva was one of the many people that were struggling during this period of time. “A Long Walk to Water” by Linda Sue Park, is a book about how Salva had to leave his home and family due to a war, he was joined by people along the way of his journey, but really only had himself as support and motivation to keep going and not give up despite how hard it was. Salve faced many hardships during his youth including crossing the Akobo desert, crossing rivers, and never having clean water.
Salva and almost all of Sudan had no easy access to water, people had to walk for hours on end just to get dirty water. The dirty water caused Salva and most of Southern Sudan to get ill and even die. If you needed water you would have to walk about half a day at the least. On page 112 it states, “His body cried out for huge gulps of thirst quenching water.” This shows that Salva was desperate for water when he did not have any. This caused sickness, lack of hydration, and overall tiredness and lack of strength.
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This desert is known to have almost no water, unbearably hot, and deadly animals. Due to Salva only being about 10 years old, this journey was extremely difficult to the point where he almost didn’t make it. On page 52 Salva states, “ The sun was relentless and eternal. Each minute of walking in that arid heat felt like an hour”. Salva and many others struggled and some even died while crossing the Akobo desert. One of the reasons they struggled so much is due to lack of water. As stated above the heat and harsh conditions that they had to live through for the 3 day walk was intense and challenging. Salva might not have been able to do it without his Uncle’s motivational tactics to get him through