A Long Walk to Water

Southern Sudan, 2009

The men who selected the site of the well bring others with a giant red “giraffe” drill. They dig out ground, and the women bring quantities of gravel on their heads to place nearby. Nya and Dep still cannot imagine there could be anything related to water resulting from the turmoil.

Itang Refugee Camp, Ethiopia, 1985

Salva realizes fairly quickly that the woman is not his mother, and he also begins to admit to himself that his mother and other family members are almost certainly dead. He wonders how he will go on, but then he remembers how Uncle had gotten him across the desert by aiming at one small goal at a time. He recognizes this method, living a day at a time, to be the answer to his dilemma.

Six years later, July 1991

Rumors abound that the camps are closing because the Ethiopian government is falling apart. Salva, like everyone else, becomes afraid, and their fear rapidly turns to terror. One day, soldiers come to drive the refugees out by firing guns in the air and herding them in the direction of the swollen Gilo River.