I bet you can guess where this one is!
Description:
Daba was born in Ouadda, in what is now the Central African Republic. His mother often told him about the terrible dry season that year, when elephants, buffaloes and antelopes stampeded through the countryside in a frenzied search for water. Even panthers stalked the bush around the village, often carrying innocent sheep. Safe near his parents' hut, Daba listened to the story time and time again. And as he grew, loved and protected, there grew in him a strength of spirit and a deep love for his native village. But Daba was not destined to live his live in Ouadda. When he was still a young boy, he left his beloved home on the first of a series of journeys that would lead him farther and farther away--even to France. For Daba's parents wanted him to be educated, a rare and special privilege not often enjoyed by poor village children.... The life, history and tradition of the people of the Central African Republic are described with great feeling by Bambote, for Daba's Travels is a recollection of his own childhood and youth.
Reading back on the description, it doesn't seem entirely correct. Half of it is devoted to the stories his mother told him, but in the book those only cover the first couple of chapters. When he first goes off on his journeys, he thinks he's just going on a small errand. So he's going to get ready to go home and he gets a letter from his mom going "Oh, by the way, you're not coming home. You gotta go to school. Byeeee." I actually felt bad for him that it was just kind of thrown on him. But he has all these wonderful adventures and travels and works very hard at his studies.
It's two freaking years before he sees his parents again, and then only for like a couple hours. But it was really cool that, wherever he went, he became part of that village family. All of the villagers that he met took great pride in having visitors and treating them well. I liked that close community.
This was really just a quick, easy little book. Just small stories from this boy's life. I liked it well enough. To be completely honest I had really wanted to read a book about the former president/emperor Jean-Bedel Bokassa, but it was kind of expensive so this was my second choice. (I mean, buying almost 200 books I kind of need to try and get cheap stuff). But it was the first used book I've gotten in a while, and I forgot how much I really like them. There's a strange sense of not reading it alone when you know someone else has touched those pages, which was neat with the overarching camaraderie in the book. Plus there's such a good smell to them. That's not weird.
My next book is also really short, so I'm going to try and knock it out in a couple of days. We're headed off on a cruise later this week (my first) and I'm not planning on taking any of these books, so I felt like I needed to get a few out before that. (Um, why? Why do I feel pressure? It's not like any of you are beating down my door for this stuff.Oh well.) So hopefully I'll have another "review" out this week and then I'm sure I'll have cruise adventures to regale you with!
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