Salva's Struggle In A Long Walk To Water

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A Long Walk to Water is an engrossing true story about an African boy named Salva. It takes place in a war ravaged country named South Sudan. Soldiers scour the country, snatching children to join their ranks and burning villages in spite of the government. Salva manages to escape and join a herd of frightened people from his tribe. He encounters his uncle who quickly becomes leader of the group for having a gun and being related to the chief. Salva's uncle teaches him important lessons but meets his demise at the end of a soldier's gun. Later on in the book Salva has to become leader of a group of boys. Then a group of men. Salva shows many characteristics of being a good leader in these situations.

He is very calm and tolerant when difficulty
He gets through the day one step at a time, focusing on one matter and encouraging other's to do the same. In the desert, Salva was having a horrible day. He was parched, chapped, tired, hot, and his foot was in a lot of pain. He didn't want to move, but his uncle helped him get through the desert. He pointed to a couple of shrubs and asked Salva if he could walk there. Salva did, and his uncle pointed to another thing for Salva to trudge to. That's how Salva got through the desert, and every day of his life. He told himself all he had to do was make it to one point and repeat.

Salva is great at coaxing people into doing good things. During the book Salva and his crew were creating a well in Nya's village. There was a giant bag on the back of the truck that sprang a leak. At first the crew just patched it up as usual. The patch sprung a leak again and again despite their efforts. The crew started to feel discouraged but Salva began to persaude them to try. They continued working thanks to Salva who kept encouraging them.

I really thought that A Long Walk to Water has a great main character who is a natural leader. It's implied throughout the book that Salva is fit for leading. Salva was very forbearing when he helped the boys in his group. He showed perseverance when he got through the desert and each day in camp. He was very persausive too when he convinced his crew to carry on working. These are all charactersitics of what I would say makes a perfect

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