“There is a convoy of government soldiers coming our way.” Lizard snapped his cellphone shut and rammed it in his pocket. The phone was a badge of authority, proof that he was in command. “Who will volunteer to fight?” Once again, hands shot up. Jacob, Paul, and Norman just sat on their haunches, secure in the knowledge that they would be passed over. “You - do you fight today?” Lizard looked down at the three and grinned. Startled, Jacob and Paul leapt up. Yes! Food, they wanted food. Lizard laughed and nodded. “Give them pangas,” he yelled. Both boys took the long knives. Norman looked on. He was not given a panga. Preparation for battle began. The soldiers knelt down, facing east. Lizard retrieved a damaged prayer book from a pocket. Egocentrically, many Canadian and American adolescents may assume that adolescents living elsewhere in …show more content…
The first six chapters effectively establish the geographic and social setting while introducing the five juvenile males, with 14-year-old Jacob being the book’s central character. Three of the boys, Jacob, Tony and Paul, already know each other because they have previously attended George Jones Seminary for Boys, a Catholic boarding school some distance from Gulu, the city of residence for Jacob, the son of a wealthy family, and Tony, who lives in the community’s slums but attends the school on scholarship. Paul is from Kampala, Uganda’s capital city. Oteka, 15, who lives in a displacement camp, is someone Jacob initially meets briefly at a church in Gulu, and, in an act of charity, Jacob gives Oteka money intended for the collection plate. A tutor at George Jones Seminary for Boys assigns Jacob, Tony and Paul to befriend a new boy, Norman, who is ostensibly 12 but turns out to be only 10. This portion of the story concludes with the four schoolmates bedding down in their locked dorm room which contains 40