A Long Walk to Water
Chapter 16
Southern Sudan, 2009
After the excitement of seeing the water come from the new hole that the construction workers had made, the people from Nya's village soon went back to work.
Nya watched as a group of men got together near her house. Nya saw her father and he waved to her. Nya walked over to him and said, "Papa what are you doing?"
Her father said, "Clearing the land here. Getting ready to build"
Nya asked, "To build what?"
All her father said in response was "Can't you guess??" And then he smiled.
Rochester, New York, 1996-2003
Salva had been in Rochester for nearly a month and still he had not found anything that looked familiar to him. Unlike Sudan, Salva realized all of the roads were paved and all of the houses had electricity.
Salva spent a lot of his free time studying English and this kept him focused. Salva's new family helped him. They were very kind to him and explained all of the little things to him that he did not know.
SIX YEARS LATER
Salva had been in Rochester for more than six years now. He was going to college and decided that he wanted to study business. Salva thought maybe one day he would return to Sudan and help the people who still lived there.
One day, Salva was checking his email when he saw a message from his cousin who lived in Zimbabwe. Salva learned that his cousin had seen his father at a clinic in Sudan. His father was very sick.
The problem was there was no phone or mail service where his father was so Salva could not talk to him and no one could go and help him. Salva decided to go and find his father.
It took Salva a very long time to get to Sudan and to the hospital where his father was. Salva was so nervous and excited when he finally got there. After many many hours of traveling Salva was about to see his father. Salva saw a white woman and he said, "Hello, I am looking for a patient named Mawien Dut Ariik".