Salva's Journey
The year Salva’s story begins when gunfire erupts near his school, forcing him to flee into the bush.
What is 1985?
The main daily chore that occupies almost all of Nya’s time for seven months out of the year.
What is fetching water?
The modern African country where the majority of the story takes place.
What is South Sudan?
The primary water-borne illness contracted by drinking dirty water, causing severe stomach pain and diarrhea.
What is cholera (or dysentery / waterborne parasite)?
The non-profit organization founded by the real-life Salva Dut to drill clean water wells in South Sudan.
What is Water for South Sudan?
The country Salva escapes to first after walking across the desert with a group of refugees.
What is Ethiopia? (Itang refugee camp)
The container Nya uses to carry water back to her family, which gets heavy and hurts her hands and head.
What is a plastic container (or heavy plastic jug)?
Salva belongs to this ethnic tribe, which is historically locked in a rival conflict with Nya's tribe.
What is the Dinka tribe?
The animal that attacks and carries off Salva’s friend Marial during the night in the Atuot region.
What is the lion?
The unexpected news Salva receives via email years after living in America, leading him back to a hospital in Sudan.
What is that his father (Mawien Dut) is alive?
Salva’s uncle who protects him on the journey, carries a gun, and serves as a leader to the walking group.
Who is Uncle Jewiir?
During the dry season, Nya’s family moves near a dried-up lake bed where she must dig in the dirt to find this.
What is muddy water?
Nya belongs to this ethnic tribe, distinguishable by traditional scar patterns and rivalries over land and water.
What is the Nuer tribe?
The plant material used by the group to build makeshift canoes so they could cross the Nile River.
What are reeds (papyrus)?
The illness Salva’s father suffers from in the hospital, caused by years of drinking dirty water.
What is a guinea worm infection (or stomach parasites from dirty water)?
Salva leads over 1,200 young boys, known by this famous nickname, across the desert to safety in Kenya.
What are The Lost Boys?
Nya’s younger sister who falls dangerously ill from drinking contaminated water.
Who is Akeer?
The dangerous river infested with crocodiles that Salva and other refugees are forced to swim across by armed soldiers.
What is the Gilo River?
The primary cause of the Second Sudanese Civil War that drove Salva away from his family.
What is religious conflict (the Northern government trying to force Islam on the South) and control over land/resources?
The color of the vehicle and drilling rig equipment that arrives in Nya’s village, symbolizing hope and change.
What is blue?
The American city and state where Salva is sent when he is chosen for the resettlement program.
What is Rochester, NY?
The transformation that happens in Nya’s village at the end of the book, allowing her and other girls to finally go to school.
What is the drilling/building of a clean water well?
The vast, scorching region that takes three grueling days to cross, testing the strength and endurance of Salva’s group.
What is the Akobo Desert?
The strategy Uncle Jewiir uses to help Salva keep walking when he feels completely overwhelmed by the desert heat.
What is setting tiny goals (telling him to walk to a specific landmark, like a bush or rock, one step at a time)?
The powerful moment at the end of the novel when Nya walks up to the leader of the drilling crew and introduces herself to him, revealing his identity as this character.
Who is Salva?