A Long Walk to Water Chapters 15–16 Summary & Analysis

Summary: Chapter 15, Nya: Southern Sudan, 2009

Mothers warn their children not to drink the muddy water as the men continue working with the drill. Their leader and Nya’s father talk. Dep later tells Nya that the water is muddy because it is still mixed with the pond water they had been pouring into the hole. Once they drill deeper, the water will be clear and fresh. They will install pipe, build a foundation, and pour cement around it. When the cement is dry, they can drink the water. It will take several days. Resigned to yet another walk to the pond, Nya picks up the plastic container and sets out.

Summary: Chapter 15, Salva: Nairobi, Kenya—Rochester, New York, 1996

Salva learns that he is one of the Lost Boys, those who have lost their families and homes in the war. He and eight others travel to Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. They fill out paperwork, have their photos taken, undergo medical exams, and receive new clothes, which Salva will wear all at the same time because it is winter in America.

Salva travels on three different planes to arrive in Rochester, where his new family waits for him. On the first leg of his trip, Salva asks for a Coca Cola. He remembers the bottles his father had brought home long ago, what a treat it was, and how his family shared and laughed as they drank. As he travels, he thinks about his family while he watches the families on the planes.

Salva’s new family greets him upon his arrival in Rochester. He meets Chris and Louise, the father and mother, and their four children. Many hellos and thank you’s later, he dons yet more clothes, a jacket, gloves, scarf, and hat. As Salva leaves the airport, his eyes fill with tears. He senses the finality of leaving his country, village, and family. He steps through the doors, to where his new family and new life waits.

Summary: Chapter 16, Nya: Southern Sudan, 2009

The excitement dies down. The villagers return to work, but some men converge in front of Nya’s house. They carry tools. Nya’s father walks with them to an area near the second big tree. They begin clearing the land using their hoes, spades, and scythes. Nya’s father sees her watching and waves her over. He tells her that they are preparing the land to build. Nya asks what for. Her father smiles.

Summary: Chapter 16, Salva: Rochester, New York, 1996–2003

Rochester is different than any place Salva has ever been. This new life leaves Salva dazed. He retreats into his study of English, as hard and confusing as that is. He joins a volleyball team, a sport where language barriers disappear.

Salva has been in Rochester for six years now, going to college, studying business. He toys with the idea of returning to Sudan, to help the people there. He wonders what he can do to help.

One evening, Salva opens an email from his cousin. He discovers that his father is alive, in a United Nations clinic in Southern Sudan recovering from stomach surgery. His cousin works for an aid agency and had discovered Salva’s father’s name on a list.

Months later, plans are in place for Salva to travel to Sudan to find his father. After several plane flights and delays, he lands in Juba, in southern Sudan, and rides a Jeep into the bush. Everything is familiar yet unfamiliar. Memories are far away yet very close. Salva finally arrives, exhausted, at the hospital. He tells the woman who greets him that he is looking for Mawien Dut Ariik.

Analysis: Chapters 15–16

Clean water will have a life-changing effect on Nya’s village, and Nya understands that drastic change is coming. Though Nya will stay in her village, education will soon open a world of possibilities for her. Salva’s life is also about to change; however, he is far from his village. Before, Salva’s journey took him across rivers, but this time he crosses an ocean into a new world and life in America. He has taken enumerable steps, one at a time, and now his tears represent the significance of this step. At the beginning of his story, Salva had to flee his family and village without looking back in order to escape danger. Every day since, he has had to keep moving to stay safe and survive. Now, finally safe, he must still keep looking forward to discover what is in store for him in America.

Neither Nya nor Salva are likely able to envision the changes coming in their lives. Clean water will bring changes to Nya’s life that are of a magnitude she cannot imagine. All she has ever known, in fact, all her family and villagers have ever known, is the structure of a life focused almost solely around procuring water. Nya and her people have lived a nomadic existence, moving to be near water. They have fought other tribes over water. Children have carried the responsibility of collecting water. Unclean water has made them sick, some gravely. There is hardly an aspect of Nya’s and the villagers’ lives that having access to clean water will not affect—health, family roles and responsibilities, agriculture, tribal relations, survival. The well will bring many changes, beyond the water.

Salva’s life changes remarkably in the six years in Rochester as he slowly adjusts to a new life with a new family and welcomes the opportunity to learn English and to study business. Perhaps this is change enough that Salva no longer has to spend his day-to-day life just trying to survive. But what is evolving in him is the desire to help others and a dream of returning to Sudan. Hope rises, once again, as a driving force in Salva’s life. When he opens the letter from his cousin, he must make a choice whether to hope or not. Years ago in the refugee camp, he had hoped that the woman in the orange scarf was his mother, and when he discovered that she wasn’t, he nearly surrendered to despair. Now, though, Salva is older, wiser, and realistic, but his hope still guides his choices. Once again, he chooses hope and travels to Sudan to find his father.

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