Fifth Post: Vocabulary:

1)Turmoil - A state of great disturbance, confusion or uncertainty

2)Verandah - A roofed opened gallery or porch

3)Conjure - To make something appear from no where

4)Scuttle - A deep bucket for caring coal

5)Latrine - A communal toilet often used in camps or barracks

6)Cassava - A shrubby tropical perennial plant often grown in the tropic zones

7)Dilapidated - In a state of disrepair or ruined as a results of age or neglect

8)Vehemetn - Showing a string feeling

9) Auspices - Support or Guidance

10) Adage - A Latin memorable saying

11)Reggamorphy - A type of reggae song

!2)Compelling - Persuade by forcefulness in an argument

13)Kule - Open aired shower

14)Delve - Dig up

15)Rastafarianism - A religion that emerged from Jamaca in the 1930s

16) Amiss - Wrong or in faulty

17)Cringe - Bend one's head towards body in fear or servile manner

18)Disconsolate - Unhappy or uncomfortable

19)Spirogyra - A genius of filamentous green algae named for it's spiral arangements

20)Flotsam - A Wreckage of cargo that stays afloat after ship has sunk

-lnh

Blog 6: Child Soldiers

Around the globe today, in 25 countries, there are thousands of children under the age of 16 who have been in/fought in a war. Sadly, the RUF (Revolutionary United Front) invades villages across Sierra Leone and other regions to loot houses, murder innocent civilians, and recruit more children to fight as child soldiers. Children were also part of AFRC (Armed Forces Revolutionary Council) and the pro-government Civil Defense Force. Their purposes were to patrol certain areas, guard workers in diamond fields, and also attack villages. Personally, as long as the child himself wanted to become a child soldier, feel free to! But forcefully recruiting members is horrifying. As I said before, they, as in the rebels, provided food and shelter, so what would you do if you were hungry and had no one to take care of you?

blog #5 personal thoughts

Tragic. That is the word that comes to my mind every single time i read about a village getting invaded, or reading about the struggles for survival in that time and place. Africa would seem like a peaceful and eventful place. With it's varieties of wildlife and even hosting 2010's Soccer World Cup! It's a tragedy that people have to suffer through these hectic atmospheres. At least with all the violence, it should balance out by having a full stomach instead of starving and eating wild things you've never seen before. Even that is a high risk. Should never have to eat things you don't know just to survive.

Book Review -hjc- # 10

This book has opened my eyes to the bigger problems that is happening all around the world. I did not know that there are still child soldiers all over the world fighting for freedom. I constantly had sympathy towards Ishmael while reading the book. It made me really appreciate the things I have right now. Some of the events which occurred felt unreal to me such as the mass killings, burials and using children as shield during war. However, the adventure seems to become more redundant and became hard to keep my focus. Overall, it is a great book that made me realize the problems of war.

Theme -hjc- #7

Out of many outstanding themes in the book a long way gone, most clearly seen theme is that war is horrible. Through out the story us readers experienced, the gruesome journey Ishmael had to go through.

To start with, thousands of civilians were being killed. The R.U.F killed thousands of civilians by cutting their throats, shooting, burning and even burying them alive. These people were innocent and must not have been damaged. Due to the civilian deaths, thousands of children such as Ishmael became orphans and had to go through horrible childhood.

Thousands of children were forced to join the R.U.F and fight against the government. These children were scarred for life by killing people. By reading Ishmael's journey, the effect of him being a child soldier was clearly seen. He became more emotionally fragile and didn't think of killing others as serious deal.

Sierra Leone -hjc- #6

Sierra Leone is one of the poorest country in the world despite the fact that it is extremely resource-rich, with large deposits of diamonds and gold. However, because of corruption, all of the diamonds and gold is being shared by handful of people. More than 50 percent of diamonds that are being mined in Sierra Leone is unlicensed. The civil war was started in March 1991, because RUF decided to overthrow the corrupt government.

Due to this war over 50,000 people have been killed so far and over million people lost their homes. As Ishmael stated, during this war, RUF has done horrible actions against their own people such as rape and mass killings. RUF's main target is the civilians and anyone who went against their idea is being threatened to be killed. Also, countless numbers of children under the age of 15 years were forced into armed forces.

Irony -hjc- #5

The tragic journey of a young child soldier Ishmael consists of many ironies.

Due to the civil war, Ishamel and his family has been separated for a long period of time. During Ishmael’s journey, he learns where he could find his family and becomes ecstatic. However, they stopped at a banana farm before they approached the village. When he finally approaches near the village, he hears the gunshots go off, dogs barking and people screaming. When he finally enters the village everyone was dead and he couldn’t find his family. If Ishmael did not stop to pick bananas, his life would have ended.

Ishmael had to go through arduous journey with many obstacles however Ishmael did not learn much from his horrifying experience. When Ishmael finally reaches the capital city of Sierra Leone, Freetown, he smiled and was positive that his situation will not become worse then the current situation. From his experience of watching the R.U.F forces attacking village to village, he should have seen that army to eventually end up in the capital city.