W is the W- Chapter 17

(pg. 256-257)So the boys finally made it to Ethiopia! All is happy with the world! There is food, water, candy, hygienic materials, medication, huge houses for all the boys, and there is rainbow in the clear blue sky everyday! What? Oh, I'm sorry I was day dreaming for a moment. Let my mind come back to the truth.

"The wails came from everywhere. In the quiet of the night, over the hum of the crickets and frogs, there were the screams and moans, spreading over the camp like a storm. It was as if so many of the boys had been waiting to rest, and now that they had settled at Pinyudo, their bodies gave out. Boys died of malaria, of dysentery, of snake bites, of scorpion stings. Other illnesses were never named." (Eggers 257) There we go. It's awful when you travel so far, battling death every minute, and you finally get to the sanctuary that is Ethiopia and you die. Not that Ethiopia is a sanctuary, at least not yet.

(pg. 258) Finally Achor Achor enters the story! He actually had a different introduction than other characters. The entrence of Deng of the return of William K started with the story of how they survived and came to that point. We do not hear Achor Achor's story. It was a great introduction of him though. Achak is trying to fish and Achor Achor informs him that his twisted stick and piece of wire will never work. "His voice was strangely high, melodic, too pleasing to be trusted. Who was he, anyway, and why did he think he could speak to me that way? He was named Achor Achor, and he helped me that afternoon to find an appropriate stick and piece of string... Achor Achor became my closest friend in Ethiopia." (Egger 258)

(pg. 260) Eventually boys are starting to want to go home to Sudan, to find their families and return to their lives. Even Achak is longing to go back to Marial Bai, to be with his family. Luckily others at the camp in Pinyudo, Ethiopia warned them of the dangers still very much alive in southern Sudan. "... we were made to understand that there was nothing left in southern Sudan, and to return would mean certain death. The images they painted for us were stark, the destruction complete." (Eggers 260) A little harsh, but necessary. It's appropriate to do this for such young boys. They are just trying to protect them.

(pg. 266) Inevitably people started dying at Pinyudo. There isn't enough food around, the conditions still aren't good, and there is basically no medical care. Achak gets the very unlucky job of basically being a grave digger. "This was the beginning of the cemetery at Pinyudo, and the first of many burials in which I participated. Boys and adults were still dying, for our diet was too limited and the dangers too many." (Eggers 266) Isn't that a good way to catch disease? Like the Black Death? Monty Python and The Holy Grail? One of the first scenes is a grave person picking up dead bodies that were plagued! And one not so dead body...

(pg. 276-277) It's really hard to believe that there is still slavery out there in the world. I think of slavery as a settled thing. Civil War happened, everything was resolved, yet it only counts in America. Here Moses is, being forced to eat anything that told him to, "Animal fat, tea bags, rotten vegetables." (Eggers 276) Then just like in Southern states back in Civil War times Moses is sent to a town where slaves were traded. It's just despicable.

(pg. 278) White folk! The whole camp is in a frenzy because a white man has arrived at the camp. People had never seen a white person before and they pondered how he was made so. "I followed their stares and saw what seemed to be a man who had been turned inside out. He was the absence of a man. He had been erased. And involuntary shudder went through my body, the same reaction I had when I saw a burn, a missing limb- a perversion or ruination of nature." (Eggers 279) Perhaps this was the reaction with the Natives when Christopher Columbus arrived in America. He was the first white man they say. Unfortunately all the white folk did was give them disease and take all their land.

(pg. 284) Boys in the Eleven are planning to go back to Sudan despite all of the warnings. They are talking of the possibility that the war may be over, and since they know the way they can go back themselves without an adult. Unfortunately for this plans, the elders heard this, and Dut made an unexpected visit to their shelter. "-The war is not over! he barked. -Have you lost your minds? Do you know what awaits in Sudan? It's worse than ever before, you fools!... If any of you are thinking of leaving, leave, because you're too stupid to remain here. I don't want you. I want only boys with brains." (Eggers 284) Perhaps another reason why he's upset is because he basically saved all of their lives with his hard work and now they are willingly going to throw their lives away.