17-18

Luke Beckman
Blog 17-18



This bit of reading was the full recovery of Ishmael Beah. At the beginning of chapter 17, he is still calling some of the people there sissies, but he has started opening up to the nurse, Esther. He comes back regularly. Sometimes he talks, sometimes he just comes to listen to the walkman. Also Leslie came from time to time to check in on his rehabilitation process. Ishmael would tell Esther stories of his past, and she would always say none of these things were your fault. She started taking him places, like out to dinner, or just on walks, to get to know him better and to learn about his childhood and his life before where he was now.
Chapter 18 was a lot of the same. This time, however, Ishmael opened up a lot more and was unafraid to cry or to show feelings in front of Esther. He would tell her how he had no family to talk to and was sad about it. He would tell her things he hadn’t told anyone in many years. Then Esther asked Ishmael to perform at a talent show for at Benin home for some visitors. He wanted to do a monologue of Shakespeare like when he was a child, but she also wanted him t sing some. He agreed, and preformed at the show. At the end of the show one of the people asked him he would like to be the spokesmen of the center. At first Ishmael was reluctant, but then he accepted. He later met up with a childhood friend Mohamed, who he hadn’t seen since they left for Matru Jong. He had a connection with him because they had been through similar situations but they hadn’t seen each other do the killings, which made it so the only memories they had of each other were good ones. After that Leslie found a relative of Ishmaels. It was his uncle who he had never seen before, and he was chosen to be his foster parent. He started by going to visit his uncle every now and then, and he would play soccer with the kids and go around the city and walk with his uncle.