65 pages • 2 hours read
A Long Walk to Water
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 12-13Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 12 Summary
Southern Sudan, 2009
The men who selected the site of the well bring others with a giant red “giraffe” drill. They dig out the ground, and the women bring quantities of gravel on their heads to place nearby. Nya and Dep still cannot imagine there could be anything related to water resulting from the turmoil.
Itang Refugee Camp, Ethiopia, 1985
Salva realizes quickly that the woman is not his mother, and he also begins to admit to himself that his mother and other family members are almost certainly dead. He wonders how he will go on, but then he remembers how Uncle had gotten him across the desert by aiming at one small goal at a time. He recognizes this method, living a day at a time, to be the answer to his dilemma.
Six years later, July 1991
Rumors abound that the camps are closing because the Ethiopian government is falling apart. Salva, like everyone else, becomes afraid, and their fear rapidly turns to terror. One day, soldiers come to drive the refugees out by firing guns in the air and herding them in the direction of the swollen Gilo River. They are being sent back to Sudan and the crocodiles inhabiting the area near the Gilo.
Chapter 13 Summary
Southern Sudan, 2009
Nya observes the drilling process and marvels that the men must use water to find water. The women travel to the pond every day bringing a big plastic bag filled with water, but the men become discouraged because the bag leaks—even the patches leak. The leader of the crew, the man who had originally come to visit the chief, is very talented at keeping the men working.
Ethiopia—Sudan—Kenya, 1991-92
After the soldiers force hundreds of people into the water, crocodiles immediately attack many. Salva barely escapes when a crocodile victim pulls him under the water, nearly drowning him. When he finally struggles free, he realizes that being pulled under the water probably saved his life.
Salva swims valiantly, as hard as he can, to the other side of the river, where he discovers that over 1,000 people were killed, and, after wondering why he is one of the lucky ones, he once again sets out walking south to Kenya where more refugee camps are said to be. Young boys begin to follow him until he leads about 1,500. The boys take care of one another, the older boys carrying the younger boys when they become too weak to continue.
Salva and his company meet other bands of boys, and they all decide to travel during the night to avoid the bullets and bombs that are all around them. Countless times, the group finds itself having gone in circles. Still, Salva leads on, remembering his family and how his uncle had taught him to take things one step at a time.
After a year and a half, 1,200 boys reach Kenya.
Chapters 12-13 Analysis
In this section of the novel, Salva is coming into his own. The episode with the woman with the orange scarf helps him finally accept what his uncle has told him, that his family must certainly be dead. Believing that he has no family left, Salva briefly loses all hope—evidence of The Importance of Family. When Salva miraculously escapes the crocodiles while 1,000 others die, he gains a renewed sense of purpose in his life: His role—like that of his uncle—is to be a leader, in this case of the lost boys. Salva’s newfound confidence leads others to follow him, and soon some 1,500 boys are depending on him. His sense of responsibility for these lives motivates him to keep going toward the refugee camps in Kenya. By now, he has become experienced at wandering through harsh terrain to get to a refugee camp. Even though he sometimes leads the boys in circles, they do not lose faith or abandon him. He uses the lesson of taking difficult endeavors one step at a time to lead the boys to safety.
Unlock all 65 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features:
Related Titles
By Linda Sue Park
Featured Collections
7th-8th Grade Historical Fiction
View Collection
African History
View Collection
Audio Study Guides
View Collection
Family
View Collection
Juvenile Literature
View Collection
Memorial Day Reads
View Collection
Military Reads
View Collection
Realistic Fiction (Middle Grade)
View Collection