I totally agree with Heather – I want to hear more of Beah’s story!

And Blood Diamonds sounds great. I am learning so much about my very own continent here – it’s great!

His perspective on revenge is also so good. Having lived a life of revenge and seeing really what it leads to. It really shows how bitterness and not forgiving just leads one down a path or more heartache.

I also really enjoyed his first trip to NYC. The uncle WAS hilarious. He really didn’t believe it!! I can’t believe the sponsor didn’t buy them some winter clothes knowing where they were going. That was kind of funny to me. Because didn’t they take them out to buy clothing for the trip? I thought I remembered that happening. Silly.

I need to look back I think it was in the chapters before this but and if so sorry but the elevator thing cracked me up!!!!!!!

Michelle, I too was pretty ignorant about Sierra Leone at the time. I met some kids from there in Russia when I was there in 92. I also went to college with several and remember them in the foreign students group (I participated with)…but like you I had no idea and never even thought to ask. It is pretty shameful. Our media is partly to blame giving more air time to Brittany’s latest then what is REALLY going on in the world.

I would love to read the next book with you…Blood Diamonds.

When he talked about the children at school being afraid of him because they’d found out they were child soldiers, it made me think about my prejudice toward those who have served time. I know you can’t be totally naive and you need to protect your family, but I can definitely have an arms-length mentality which is not very Christlike. Ishmael is so eager to leave the past behind, but it haunts him: “We had not only lost our childhood in the war but our lives had been tainted by the same experiences that still caused us great pain and sadness.”

Can you imagine living in a country where coups like this are the norm? Where prisoners are released and the new government arms them on their way out the door? I admire Ishmael’s resolve to leave Sierra Leone so that he’s not drawn back into the war. It seems like it would have been so easy for him to jump back into his old life when the fighting began in the city.

I wasn’t ready for this book to end when it did! I wanted to hear the story of how he finally made it to America and came to live with Laura. I felt like it ended before I really knew he was safe, even though we know he’s safe because he was able to write this book! Still, I would have liked to have heard the rest of the story. He is an amazingly resilient young man. He’s a year older than my youngest brother, but what a completely different life experience he’s had, compared to the typical young American man. It’s great to see how he’s using his testimony to work for children’s rights around the world.

It was comical that Ishmael’s uncle didn’t believe he was really going to NYC, even when he was standing there with his suitcase in hand! I was a bit miffed that Dr. Tamba didn’t see to it that Ishmael had a winter coat for his trip to NY. What’s up with that? It wasn’t HIS first time in the city, so you’d think he would have known to provide coats for those boys!!

It was funny to see things Americans take for granted through the eyes of these boys… the huge video billboards in Times Square — “One of the screens had a woman and a man in their underwear; I guess they were showing it off.” … the ice skating at Rockefeller Plaze — “They kept going around and around, and Madoka and I couldn’t understand why they enjoyed this.”

What a grown-up perspective he has on the evils of revenge: “What I have learned from my experiences is that revenge is not good. I joined the army to avenge the deaths of my family and to survive, but I’ve come to learn that if I am going to take revenge, in that process I will kill another person whose family will want revenge; then revenge and revenge and revenge will never come to an end…”

What a fun trip he had, and yet what a bittersweet ending: “I was sad to leave, but I was also pleased to have met people outside of Sierra Leone. Because if I was to get killed upon my return, I knew that a memory of my existence was alive somewhere in the world.”

It’s wonderful how receptive Ishmael’s uncle is. I love how optimistic and forward-looking he is: “Like I said, we cannot go back. But we can start from here. I am your family and that is enough for us to begin liking each other.” p. 172 I did think it a little strange, though, that only his aunt and uncle know about his past life as a soldier. There seems to be so much disparity between what is happening out in the villages and what at this point in time seems to be “normal life” in the city. The fact that his new siblings never even guess at why he is now living with them seems odd to me. Are they, as children, just not even aware of what is happening in other parts of their own country?

Michelle, I’m glad you pointed out how the RUF rebels were receiving the same sort of propaganda as the soldiers, just with the word “army” in place of “rebels.” That was eye-opening. The UNICEF workers did seem pretty naive, as you mentioned. Why in the world did they immediately mix the army child soldiers with the RUF child soldiers? These kids were killing one another out in the forest just a few days prior, and now they expect them to rehabilitate side by side like friends? It’s no wonder a fight errupted and resulted in bloodshed!

I was in college at this time, running track with a guy from Sierra Leone. I had no idea. Shamefully ignorant. This book provokes me to keep track of the world news today so that I’m not being ‘educated’ by a book or movie 5 years after the fact.

If you haven’t already, I’d encourage all of you to do some research on the Darfur Conflict and the genocide that is presently going on in Sudan.

I’ve been planing to read Blood Diamonds by Greg Campbell if anyone is interested on joining me. It may be a good followup to A Long Way Gone as many of the smuggled diamonds originate in Sierra Leone. It should fill in some of the political reasons for the rebellion.

On a lighter note, I’m also affected by the number of people that loved on, believed in, and card for Ishmael. He surely wouldn’t have gotten to where he is today without each of them. I’m so glad he is still in touch with some of his childhood friends.

Ishmael is so cute in his trip to NYC. His first experience with the snow, cold, food, radiators are adorable.
My brother and I grew up in Japan. We’d seen snow on TV and were always asking my dad to make it snow. The first time we flew back to the states in happened to be in the middle of a blizzard in Michigan. We stepped off the plane into the snow – Ecstatic! Until we touched it that is. My brother, with a shocked expression on his face, told my mom “It’s cold?!”. I suppose they forgot to tell us that part. We both immediately wanted to go back to Japan. hehe.

I also thought Ishmael’s uncles reaction to the NY trip was fun. He seems so light hearted, even in his response to finding that that Ishmael really did go to NY.