The visitors have returned to Nya’s village with an “iron giraffe”—a huge drill designed to
create a well. The two men are joined by ten more men, two trucks, and equipment, as well as
plastic pipes. Clearing of the land continues. The women collect rocks and tied them into
bundles. They balanced it on their heads to move. Others break the rock to form gravel. Nya
observes the drilling, the piling of rocks, and the pounding into gravel, but she cannot
understand the connection of these events with water. Nya still doesn’t know what the
visitors hope to accomplish.
In 1985 in the Ethiopian refugee camp, Salva calls after the tall woman, praying that she’s his
mother. But as Salva chases after the woman, he realizes she is not his mother. He suddenly
realizes what Uncle had been hinting at: that his family is dead and he’s all alone. His family
might have been killed by bomb, starvation or sickness. He wonders how he could possibly
live without his family. His family memories keep appearing in his mind: his father brought
him treats with mangos, his mother took care of him, his brother herding cattle and playing
with him…..
Though it hard to go on, he is beginning to accept the reality that his family is likely dead. He
remembers his uncle’s advice and again chooses hope and survival as he knows this is what
his family would want him to do. Just as Uncle had encouraged him to cross the desert
despite difficulty, concentrating on moving forward one step at a time,bit by bit, Salva
resolves to get through the camp day by day. Eventually, he does so for six years.
A lot of time passed, the Ethiopian refugee camp is about to shut down. Salva is nearly
seventeen years old now. He heard from the camp’s rumours that Ethiopia’s government is
on the verge of collapse, and the new government may not be so welcoming to foreign aid
workers. They can able to run the camps because they permitted to live and work here by the
old government. But now, they get expelled by the new one. Salva’s life is being threatened
again and force him to wander across the continent in search of a new home.
One morning, soldiers show up at the camp and order everyone inside to leave the camp and
Ethiopia itself. Salva is stuck in the crowd of thousands of people running and screaming.
The soldiers fire their guns in the air, forcing the people to run toward the nearby Gilo River,
which separates Sudan and Ethiopia. Salva knows that in the rainy season, the Gilo is famous
for crocodiles and powerful current.
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