Setting of the chapter (Time, place and mood)

There are a few separate narratives with different settings.

2009

Nya thinks the big red drill looks like an iron giraffe. She watches the men, the drill, and the trucks. The women of the village gather rocks that are later pounded into gravel.

1985

Salva realizes with a sinking heart that it is not his mother, and Uncle’s words come back to him. He seems to be standing on the precipice of a giant hole; he is completely alone. He remembers them all and wonders how he can go on. Then, though, he thinks of how Uncle guided him through the desert one step at a time and he decides he can get through life in camp the same way. He only has to get through this day, then the next.

If someone had told him he’d be in Itang for six years, he would not have believed it.

1991

It has been six years and Salva is now seventeen. Rumors jump around the camp that it is going to be closed soon. Aid workers confirm this to Salva –that the Ethiopian government is close to collapse and since the refugee camps were run by foreign aid workers with the support of the government, it was unknown what would happen if the government was gone.

One morning long lines of trucks filled with soldiers carrying guns pour into camp. They start shouting that everyone has to leave Ethiopia. There is instant chaos. It is pouring rain and the people become one huge horde. Salva is carried along with them.

It becomes clear the soldiers are chasing them toward the river. Salva knows it is the Gilo River, which not only has a rough current since it is the rainy season, but is also filled with bloodthirsty crocodiles.