"A Long Way Gone" pages 1-14

The beginning of "A Long Way Gone" by Ishmael Beah, involves a few young boys who live in Mogbwemo and are very interested in the American rap culture. They started listening to American rap music and were blown away by it. They couldn’t believe that people could speak English so fast. Still amazed by it, they started trying to learn raps and sing them. Eventually they started dressing like the people who rap and talking like them too. They would say things like "Peace, son" or "I’m out," things they had heard the rappers say. One morning the four boys left for Mattu Jong, they packed their bags expecting to return the next day. The author adds foreshadowing that implies that they will never return back to their homeland. When they arrived in Mattu Jong, they met up with their friends who lived there. The next day the four boys waited for their friends to get home from school, when they heard the news that the rebels had attacked the mining areas, and an outburst of gunfire broke out. People were running around frantically looking for their loved ones and eventually running for their lives. They saw horrifying images of people covered in blood running scared for their lives. The four boys contemplated if they wanted to go back to their home to check on their families, or if it was too late.
I was very interested about the boys from Mogbwemo being so amazed by American rap. I thought that was interesting that they tried so hard to be like the people that are common here in the U.S. I was also interested in the fact that these young boys were allowed to walk sixteen miles by themselves to go visit their friends. People in this town don’t have a lot of material things, which helps them focus on the things that are really important, like family. They care so much about each other and don’t get caught up in material items. The foreshadowing that the author uses really interreges me to want to keep reading and figure out why the four boys won’t return to their home or ever get to see their families again.