A Long Walk to Water

Chapters 1-2

READING CHECK

1. Of the two protagonists we follow in Chapters 1 and 2, whose story takes place in 2008?

Answer: Nya’s

Discussion Suggestion: Use this question to introduce discussion on the concept of a dual narrative. What differences exist in the reading experience with a dual narrative compared to a single narrative? What early takeaways can we discern from the narratives’ comparative lengths and voices in these first chapters?

2. What injury does Nya sustain while walking?

Answer: a thorn in her heel

QUIZ

1. Why does Salva take Arabic classes?

A) It is the language of the local tribes.

B) It is the ancient language of former generations.

C) It is the language the government wants them to learn.

D) It is a language common to Nuer and Dinka tribes.

2. Before he flees as a refugee, how does Salva spend his days?

A) He attends school, helps keep watch over his family’s herd, and practices shooting arrows.

B) He walks for water twice daily for his family at a nearby pond, which takes many hours.

C) He trains to someday join the local tribes’ combined rebel group, despite his age.

D) He attends classes in the morning, but he must leave school to walk for water in the afternoons.

3. What is the cause of the war between the government in the north and the rebels in the south?

4. When Salva wakes in the barn, what new conflict does he face?

QUIZ ANSWERS

1. C. Arabic is the language of the Sudanese government.

2. A. Salva goes to school, helps his father by guarding the cows, and practices bow and arrow with friends. He and friends also build clay cows in a game of cow “ownership.”

3. The Sudanese government is attempting to require conversion to Islam. Those in the south represent many religions and want to resist converting.

4. The other refugees from his village left him behind; he is alone.

Chapters 3-4

READING CHECK

1. After Nya spends her morning gathering water, how does she spend the afternoon?

Answer: making a second trip for more water, this time with her sister

2. What does the Jur-chol boy, Buksa, find for the refugee group?

Answer: honey

Discussion Suggestion: Use this question to discuss irony. How are Buksa’s skill and knowledge ironic, considering Salva’s thoughts just before Buksa’s discovery? What type of irony best explains this moment: verbal, situational, or dramatic? What ironies can you find in Nya’s story so far?

QUIZ

1. Approximately how long does Salva stay at the woman’s house before she tells him she is leaving?

A) the morning and afternoon

B) a few days

C) a few months

D) a few weeks

2. How does the refugee man justify his decision to take Salva into their group when the other refugees think Salva will slow their progress?

A) Salva will not make it on his own.

B) The man has a son Salva’s age.

C) Salva can help with chores.

D) Salva is from the same tribe as them.

3. Why don’t Salva and the old farm woman travel together?

4. Which two tribes have fought over land and water for many years?

QUIZ ANSWERS

1. B. Salva stays in the woman’s barn a few days helping with chores. After the fourth day, she says she is leaving.

2. D. Salva is Dinka, and so are the refugees.

3. The woman says Salva’s presence will make her travel more dangerous.

4. Nuer and Dinka

Chapters 5-7

READING CHECK

1. Who is the family member that discovers Salva and takes care of him?

Answer: Uncle Jewiir

2. How does Salva’s friend Marial perish?

Answer: a lion attack

QUIZ

1. Why do the refugees get sick when they eat the antelope?

A) It was cooked at a temperature that was too low.

B) The carcass had rotted too many days in the sun.

C) They ate too much for their starving bodies to handle.

D) An enemy tribe poisoned the animal before it was shot.

2. When Nya’s sister Akeer becomes ill, what choice is the family faced with?

A) send Akeer with strangers to a city hospital or take her home

B) sell their water for money for medicine or use a home remedy

C) appeal to a doctor of an enemy tribe or do nothing

D) walk two days to a clinic or wait and hope for the best

3. Why is Nya’s mother nervous when her husband and son go out hunting while the family stays near the muddy lake?

A) She fears lion and other predator attacks.

B) She worries Dinka tribesmen will hurt them.

C) She knows they have little to no water with them.

D) She thinks they might leave for the city and not return.

4. Where does Marial tell Salva the refugee group is most likely going?

5. Why do the refugees seem to have an inherent respect for Jewiir?

Discussion Suggestion: What does the refugees’ opinion of Jewiir and their reasons for it suggest about the times in which they live? What traits and beliefs does Jewiir demonstrate along the journey that would support their opinion?

6. How do the refugees plan to cross the widest part of the Nile?

QUIZ ANSWERS

1. C. The freshly cooked meat is very tempting and everyone eats their fill, but their starving stomachs reject the rich meal.

2. D. The nearest medical clinic is a two-day walk. The alternative is to wait and see if Akeer improves.

3. B. Other families have lost loved ones to enemy Dinka warriors.

4. Ethiopia

5. his military background and rifle

6. Local inhabitants teach them how to build rafts from reeds.

Chapters 8-9

READING CHECK

1. Who receives food without having to beg on the island in the middle of the river?

Answer: Uncle Jewiir

2. What injury does Salva experience in the desert?

Answer: He hits his toe so badly that the nail comes off.

QUIZ

1. On the river island at dusk, the refugees must contend with what?

A) mosquitoes

B) snakes

C) crocodiles

D) lions

2. What do the strange men ask about just before Nya’s family and tribe return to the camp?

A) government officials

B) the local water source

C) available medical treatments

D) cures for pests on crops

3. What is the reason for Akeer’s illness, and how can the family prevent it in the future?

Discussion Question: Use this question to discuss as a group the ways such a simple solution is actually very problematic for Nya’s family. How can setting, economic status, and education impact a person’s or a family’s notion of “conflict”?

4. Why does a man reprimand a woman in their refugee group as they cross the Akobo desert?

QUIZ ANSWERS

1. A. The inhabitants retreat behind mosquito netting, as mosquitos attack the refugees, and they cannot rest.

2. B. The strangers want to know about the villagers’ water source; it is a few hours’ walk away.

3. Germs in the dirty water made Akeer sick. They should boil the water before drinking but boiling a small amount of water means there’s none left for drinking.

4. The woman gave a dying man some water to wet his lips.

Chapters 10-11

READING CHECK

1. To what Ethiopian refugee camp does Salva eventually arrive?

Answer: Itang

2. What does Salva see at the refugee camp that makes him hope his mother is there?

Answer: a woman wearing a bright orange scarf

QUIZ

1. How does Uncle Jewiir reply when Salva asks if his family might be at the camp?

A) Salva should remain hopeful and spend his time searching for them.

B) His brothers and cousins might be there, but not his parents.

C) It is not likely that his family survived, but Salva will gain new friends.

D) He learned that the village was burned and had no survivors.

2. Of these events, which one occurs just after the refugees attempt to roast the dead stork?

A) They become ill with stomach pains and vomiting.

B) Enemy Nuer rob them and kill Uncle Jewiir.

C) A woman tries to give food and water to a dying man.

D) A man digs for water and finds enough for the group.

3. When the strangers choose a site and clear the land, what is Nya’s opinion of the operation?

4. How does Uncle respond when Salva mentions they’ll have each other as family at the refugee camp?

QUIZ ANSWERS

1. C. Uncle tells Salva there is little chance they survived the attack and burning of their village, but that new friends would form a kind of family for Salva.

2. B. Six Nuer men with guns and machetes take possessions and clothing from the refugees; they tie Uncle to a tree and shoot him.

3. She and her brother Dep are both full of doubt that water can be found in that location.

4. Uncle tells Salva he will not stay at the camp but return to war.

Chapters 12-13

READING CHECK

1. How many years pass while Salva is in the Ethiopian camp?

Answer: 6

2. When the Ethiopian camp closes, where are the refugees forced to go?

Answer: Back to Sudan (by way of the Gilo River).

QUIZ

1. When Salva decides to walk to Kenya, what occurs as a result?

A) He is almost shot by Ethiopian militia.

B) A band of refugees asks him to join them.

C) He spends weeks gathering supplies.

D) Many other boys decide to walk with him.

2. What advice from his Uncle helps Salva the most on his way to Kenya?

A) Turn the other cheek when enemies challenge you.

B) Take challenges and hardship one step at a time.

C) Do not trust strangers who ask for help.

D) Meditation and hope will lead to good things.

3. How do the women in the village help as the “iron giraffe” begins to drill?

4. How do over a thousand people die in the river crossing?

QUIZ ANSWERS

1. D. Over 1500 boys and young men join Salva to walk to Kenya; he organizes jobs for them and encourages them along the way.

2. B. Salva recalls his Uncle’s encouragement in the desert to set small goals and get through one day at a time.

3. They carry rocks to pound into gravel.

4. They are shot, drown, or are attacked by crocodiles.

Chapters 14-15

READING CHECK

1. Why is Nya surprised by the condition of the water when the drill strikes it?

Answer: It is muddy, not clear.

2. Who teaches Salva English?

Answer: Michael (an Irish aid worker in the Kenyan camp Ifo).

Discussion Question: Use this question to springboard class discussion on Salva’s traits and personality as he grows up. How does the author indirectly depict Salva in the scenes with Michael? What traits of young Salva are reflected in teenage and young man Salva? How has Salva changed from when he was a boy?

QUIZ

1. At the Kenyan refugee camps, what does Salva wish he could do?

A) He could work to earn money for some kind of future.

B) He could help the lost boys who became ill on the long walk.

C) He could learn how to farm and manage crops.

D) He could teach others how cooperation leads to survival.

2. Where in America does Salva’s sponsoring family live?

A) Pittsburgh, PA

B) Jacksonville, FL

C) Rochester, NY

D) Hampton, VA

3. Why are so many in Salva’s group called “The Lost Boys” by Americans?

4. Why is Salva worried and embarrassed over the clothing he receives at the airport from his new family?

QUIZ ANSWERS

1. A. The Kenyan camps are almost prison-like; Salva waits and wishes he could earn money for his future.

2. C. Salva is the only Lost Boy going to Rochester at that time.

3. They lost their homes and families and had to travel to find refugee camps.

4. Salva’s new family gives him a puffy, warm coat because the temperature is very cold outside in Rochester. Salva thinks the coat is awkward and worries how silly he must look with his thin legs. He feels better once he sees the family members have puffy coats as well.

Chapters 16-18

READING CHECK

1. What major does Salva study in college?

Answer: business

2. Where must Salva travel to visit his father?

Answer: Southern Sudan

QUIZ

1. With help from others, Salva plans to help his people in Sudan. What part of the process takes three years?

A) designing a well that will work

B) requesting aid from charities

C) finding a teacher for the school

D) petitioning governments to work together

2. Through Nya’s perspective, readers learn that which of these is true?

A) Salva is responsible for many well construction projects.

B) Salva’s first well is for the Nuer people.

C) Salva is now wealthy enough to fund the well himself.

D) Salva dedicates each well to his Uncle and Marial.

3. What does Salva eventually learn about the fate of his family members?

4. Why is Nya excited by the new construction project near the well?

QUIZ ANSWERS

1. B. Salva does not like asking for funding, but he works at it dutifully.

2. A. Nya learns that her village’s new well was made possible by a Dinka man who is now helping the Nuer (Salva). Dep tells Nya that Salva has dug “many wells for his own people. This year he decided to drill for the Nuer as well” (115).

3. Two brothers died, but the others survived.

4. It will be a school for both boys and girls.