Journal 5 from Lali

In chapter 17 Ishmael is in rehabilitation and his nurse Esther buys him some rap cassettes. This makes Ishmael angry at first but when the music starts playing he starts opening up to Esther about his past. He tells her about a battle he was in and he was shot three times in the foot and how a doctor performed surgery on him to take the bullets out without any medication. Ishmael fainted during the surgery because of the pain and was given cocaine. Then his lieutenant told him that he has to kill the man that had shot him in his foot. As Ishmael is telling his story Esther begins to cry and tells him that it is not his fault, this angers Ishmael and throws the Walkman at her. Esther continues to use music with Ishmael he exchanges his memories for hours listening to Bob Marley. She also gives him a notebook and tells him to write lyrics again. As time goes on Ishmael begins to look forward to their sessions but he still get migraines whenever he recalls his childhood.

The theme that I picked for this chapter is trust because Ishmael has a trouble time in trusting anyone. The only person he trusted was his lieutenant and he lost that trust when he handed him over to UNICEF. But as he starts going to the rehabilitation center his nurse Esther tries to gain Ishmaels friendship and trust but he doesn't at first. But as Esther keeps meeting with him and plays music for him while Ishmael is re-telling his past Ishmaels first sign of trust comes at the end of the chapter when he believes Esther for the first time that all the violence that he committed is not his fault.

In todays world you got to have someone you can trust either bestfiends, parents, or siblings because trust can really define your relationship with that someone. For me I really trust my dad I can go to him and talk about anything with him. I have noticed that if you try to keep everything to yourself and not have enough trust to talk to someone it can really destroy you but once you start talking to someone about your problems or anything it can really help.

Drugs. Journal 5 from Matt Stock

          I was thinking about what to write with so many themes in these chapters. I chose to write about Ishmaels struggles with the treatment. It is hard for an adult to overcome the challenges that Ishmael is facing only as a child. Ishmael wishes he could take back the part of his life where he was a child soldier. I feel like Ishmael is a hero for facing the challenge. I wish he never had to go through the pain but he does start to overcome it in later chapters. It makes me admire him.

     In chapter 16 Ishmael is still undergoing treatment after being a child soldier for two years. Ishmael has many struggles at this time. One of those main struggles is having with draws from different drugs and killing other people. Ishmael’s life for two years was being fed pills and being told to kill people. Before he killed people he looked at them in their eyes and then killed them. Withdraws is not the only thing Ishmael is dealing with he also has PTSD. Ishmael has nightmares where is wakes up yelling. Ishmael tells us in this chapter that he has migranes a lot. This is a symptom of PTSD along with the nightmares. Ishmael did cocain and took pills everyday on the frontlines. He has a lot of craving for the drugs. It makes me so mad to think about these adult leaders giving kids drugs.

            We can relate this in today’s world by looking at our own home town’s drug problem. It’s pretty bad when your local Kroger’s sells Narcan over the counter. Narcan is the drug that I carry on my ambulance that reverses overdoses. At one time Ohio State Patrol had to patrol Marion city because there wasn’t enough cops to deal with all the drug abuse going on. These are a few ways that drug abuse effects our world just like its effects Ishmaels world.

This is a chart explaining withdraws.

Journal 5 by Lucas

In chapter 16 the boys continue their rehab and it is still taking a toll on them emotionally, physically, and mentally. They are all going through their withdraw stages from the drugs so that adds to the already high levels of anger and anxiety. The boys continue their violent ways by attacking civilians trying to get water and sending Poppay to the hospital. They also start to regain their memories from the war now that they have time to think about it.

I believe the key theme in this chapter is the flashbacks. Whenever I turned on the tap water, all I could see was blood gushing out (Beah 145). It also tells about how some of the other boys would run around screaming the rebels were coming, and some would say that the rocks were their dead family members. They also ambushed the staff members thinking they were rebels and they made campfires with their school supplies. I believe the flashbacks are an important part to all the characters because they were all experiencing them. I think the flashbacks possibly made the boys have regret about the things they did, even though they never said it.

Flashbacks can still relate to our society today. Nearly everybody probably has something they have seen or done or been involved in that gives them flashbacks of it. In my own personal life I can relate to this because last year I was riding to school with my friend and he pulled out in front of a car and got us in a wreck, so now every time I'm at that same intersection I replay that same scene in my head.

I chose this to illustrate a solider having a flashback

Journal 5 Chapter 17 by Caitlin Williams

     In the book A Long Way Gone in chapter 17, Ishmael starts to become friends with the nurse, Esther. He starts to tell her stories from the war and how he got his scars. He tells her about how he got his bullet wounds when she asks him to. She also got him to talk about some of his dreams he was having. I feel like Ishmael is beginning to build a friendship with her and trust her. One of the big themes in the chapter is trust.

     Ishmael doesn't open up to his friends or other staff members in the book, only Esther. I think that because she is so kind to him and has taken care of him when he has fainted that he is forming a bond with her. She gives him presents such as a cassette player and a Walkman cassette. This is the first personalized present that he has gotten since he has been out of the war and possibly even before the war. Esther also takes him into the city and schedules for a check-up at the main hospital for him. I believe all of these things she is doing for him makes him feel like he can connect with her and that she is really trying to form a bond/friendship with him.

     I believe Ishmael feels that she is the only one who has truly shown concern specifically for him and that makes him feel better and more human than a like a soldier. He had a dream about his family for the first time and it was really bothering him. After the dream the next day he went to see Esther and he felt comfortable enough to tell her about it. When she said, "This is not your fault," for the first time he actually started to believe it whereas before he hated it when the staff members would say that. He began to feel like he wasn't being judged by her and she really made him feel like he was only a child.

     In my own life recently I came into a conflict at work. Needless to say I vented to the wrong person about my job and it got back to my manager. We hadn't really connected before and I thought I was for sure done for but she was kind about it and related it to the fact that she has a daughter the same age as me and her daughter has said similar things that I have. She treated it with such a kind and motherly nature and made me feel like I could trust her with anything if I were to ever have any problems again. It was comforting to know that she really cared for me as an employee and I wasn't just another worker who burdened her by my venting about how hard my job can be.

The cheerleader trusts her squad not to drop her. 

Journal 4 Weapons of common use

AK-47

Made in Russia by Mikhail Kalashinov. it started as the AK-46 but was rejected and revised into the AK-47 which eventually Debuted in 1947 and to this day is still in production. When the AK-47 was originally tested it had great durability and speed but accuracy was lack luster but due to its classification it was put to use anyway as an assault rifle.

http://www.militaryfactory.com/smallarms/detail.asp?smallarms_id=19

RPG

Rpg 7 was adopted by the soviet army in 1961 and known as one of the most successfull anti tank Grenade launchers. The RPG 7 is a shoulder fired and single shot rocket propelled grenade able to fly for a disatnce of 500+m with a penatration of atleast 10 inches up to 5 ft depending on the ammunition 

http://world.guns.ru/grenade/rus/rpg-7-e.html

G3

Origionally the CETMA Mod a until CETMA was bought out and the rights were given to Heckler and Kutch and modified to make the G3 in 1959. reason being Germany needed to resupply their forces with the new NATO ammunition. G3 was manufactured by Heckler and Kutch until 2000-2001 but instead started manufacturing weapons based off of its design such as HK 33 Assault rifles, 9mm MP-5 submachine guns, HK23, and HK21 Machine guns.

http://world.guns.ru/assault/de/hk-g3-e.html

Journal 4 from Lali

At Sierra Leone The food culture is deep and very rich its nickname is "sweet salone." Most of the food served at Sierra Leone are very spicy and use a lot of maggi which is stock cubes high in salt. Stews are one of the biggest dishes of Sierra Leone, groundnut stew has been called the country's national dish it has chicken and vegetables that are flavored with ground nuts which are cashews and peanuts, this dish is often served to families as a large meal. One of their famous ingredients that they use is cassava leaves which they either mix or put on everything like onions, pepper, fish, meat, and vegetables. One of their most famous beverage is the ginger beer which is a home-made non-alcoholic drink that is made purely out of ginger but they add a little bit of sugar to sweeten the taste. The only one negative thing about eating out in Sierra Leone is that some places have poor hygiene practices and this could cause some upset stomachs.





Groundnut Stew one of Sierras Leones famous dish





http://eatyourworld.com/destinations/africa/general_sierra_leone

Journal 4 from Charles

The Ivory trade in Africa has been on a steady decline ever since they started taking credible studies in the late to mid 1990's. Before then the studies were not done through enough to have been done through-out the country. That being said it was noted that during the 1970's and 1980's most of Africa lost 70-80% of their elephant herds due to the ivory poachers. With Africa and most of its country being in poverty it drove most males to poaching, With prices being around .50$ per kg,To make that into laments terms it is about $100-$150 for a simple walking stick. Each tusk on a grown Elephant can weigh anywhere from 200-275 pounds.With one full-grown elephant the poachers can make around $1,500. However as I stated earlier the overall amount of Ivory brought in by poachers are steadily decreasing starting in the late 1990's. In the biggest poaching town called Bikeko in the state of Kinshasa had decreased 92% from 1995-1997. It had been around 1,300 kg/month to around 280 kg/month.With the ivory from the tusks they make anywhere from bracelets ,necklaces  all the way to figureiens, busts and animals.
http://danstiles.org/publications/ivory/01.2000%20Africa.pdf