Now or Then? (17)

I like to live now and wouldn’t want to travel back in time. The reason I don’t wanna do that is I believe it was harder to live then. You couldn’t get food as easy, education was not as usual, they didn’t have any medicine for some usual diseases and it was harder to contact people. Back then they didn’t have any computers, televisions or mobile phones, all you could do to get in touch with other people was to write a letter or use a telephone booth. 

I think that a good life means for most people today a good job/education, family and friends. For me the most important thing is my family. They help me if I need help, I help them if they need help and so on.

Parvana’s Journey – Chapter ELEVEN: pages 101-111

When they had been crying for a while Parvana suddenly saw something. It was moving towards them. Asif said it looed like a girl and Parvana agreed. It looked like the girl was younger than Asif. When the girl was there she hugged them and asked if anyone died. Parvana was all stunned but managed to tell her what happened. When she was done the girl told them to follow her to her house. The house was just a simple mud shack which was falling apart, the door was a piece of cloth with lots of holes and inside it wasn’t much better. It was all dark but it had a tall cupboard, some shabby mats against the walls and a pile of cloth in a corner. Inside the pile of cloth the girl’s grandmother sat who seemed to have given up all her hope. After some time Parvana asked the girl what her name was and she answered Leila. When they were going to eat Parvana saw Leila put some of her food in the ground, but Parvana was too tired to ask why.

Parvana’s Journey – Chapter NINE & TEN: pages 90-100

After som days of walking, the food was eaten and the children were very tired. They rested and Parvana started writing letter to her friend Shauzia. Since she didn’t know what to write she dreamed about a valley with food and water. She called it the Green Valley. She started writing the letter like they were there and were having a very good time, even if they didn’t. Then Asif asked her if she was writing a letter to her friend and Parvana said yes and started to read it to Asif. When she was done Asif asked her why she made that place up. Parvana didn’t really know why so she started thinking it was a bad idea. She then threw her letter away and started throwing rocks at it. Asif started saying she was a lousy rockthrower and so the rockthrowing competition began. It was going well in the beginning but when Parvana threw a big stone, the ground rose up in front of them. They were in a mine field! Asif was really angry at Parvana for leading them into a mine field but Parvana just put her arms around Asif and Hassan and they started crying together.

Parvana’s Journey – Chapter EIGHT: pages 78-89

After Parvana, Asif and Hassan left the cave, they walked for four days and then they got ta a village. It was a small village but they found a place where Parvana could work and get food and water. The work Parvana was given was to clean the hen house. While cleaning she saw some eggs. She was so hungry she almost stole the eggs, but she remembered her fathers words inside of her: “Our bellies would be full tonight, but could we live with ourselves in the morning?” She decided to not take the eggs. When she was finished she went over to the man and asked for the food. All she got was a small bowl of rice that almost wasn’t enough for one person. When they were eating Parvana told Asif about the eggs and after that they decided to steal the eggs during the night. After stealing the eggs, Parvana said that if you cheat children, you deserve to have bad things happening to you. I think this is true because if you do bad things to others then should bad things happen to you.

Parvana’s Journey – Chapter SEVEN: pages 71-77

When they got up the next morning, Parvana told Asif that she had decided to leave and keep looking for her family. Asif started convincing her it’s better to stay because her mother might come to the cave after she has left. Parvana was a little influenced by this but still thought that leaving would be best. Then Asif said: “It would probably really annoy you if I came with you, wouldn’t it?” and after that he chooses to follow her. He said it was only to annoy her, but he probably wanted to come with her. Even Parvana felt a relief inside of her.

Parvana’s Journey – Chapter FIVE & SIX: pages 55-70

After a night of sleeping in the cave, Parvana told Asif he needed a bath. He refused so Parvana gave Hassan a bath, but he just cried. Asif began complaining on how she washed him, so she handed Hassan over to Asif and, unbelievably, Hassan stopped crying. Asif then told Parvana to go because he wanted to wash himself in private. But it didn’t go so well so Parvana had to help anyway.The next day, Parvana started cleaning the cave and Asif started asking why. He thought it’s nothing special with a cave while she thought a cave could be very useful. They started arguing and then Parvana mentioned treasure caves. She told him that a treasure cave is a cave with a treasure in it, possibly buried. The more she tell her about it, the more excited they get because they started to think the cave they sleep in could be a treasure cave. Then they made up their mind and started digging. After a while of digging, Parvana felt something hard. It was a box! Parvana and Asif took the box out of the cave and opened it up. But instead of finding what they thought they would find, gold, silver and so on, they found bullets. Lots of bullets.

Parvana’s Journey – Chapter FOUR: pages 45-54

Parvana realized she had to rest. She found a cave and made sure there was nothing inside it. When she thought it was clear, she went in and thought it seemed to be a good resting place. Then she heard someone who said: “Get out of my cave!” She was very scared for a moments, but realized that it was a child’s voice she heard. After some talking with thekid, she found out that his name was Asif, he only had one leg, he was smelly and very cranky.

Parvana’s Journey – Chapter THREE: pages 30-44

Parvana kept going until she got to an abandoned village. In the village, she found a baby and a dead woman who she assumed was the baby’s mother. She began taking care of the baby, who she called Hassan. She walked from house to house and started to take the useful things inside. This was something she didn’t like to do but she thought it was necessary enough. After spending some time in the village with Hassan she saw the Talibans and in the next second she ran to the house were she kept her things, took the things and ran away from the village. When she thought she was in a safe spot, she realized she had to abandon some of her things. She abandoned three of her father’s books.

Parvana’s Journey – Chapter TWO: pages 23-29

When Parvana had been walking away from the village for some days she saw a woman. Parvana went up to the woman and started to ask her some questions. It was questions like “How are you?”, “What’s your name?” and “Do you have any food?” The woman didn’t say anything and Parvana got angry.Then she saw in the woman’s eyes that they were dead, her eyes were dead. Parvana’s father once told her that some people can die before their body dies.

Parvana’s Journey – Chapter ONE: pages 9-22

When Parvana’s father is dead, she has to find the rest of her family but she stays in the village instead. She does that because she gets invited to a very kind family that takes care of her and treats her very nice. It might also be because she’s not ready to cross Afghanistan and be all alone.The main reason she is leaving the village is probably because the oldest girl told her she had heard the other talking about handing Parvana over to the Taliban. She probably thought herself that it was time to leave the village and start her big jourey across Afghanistan.