Democratic Republic of Congo is this bigass country in the middle of Africa:
Here's the overview:
'"C'est l'arrivee,' someone said. These were the first words the boy heard when the lorry on which he and the others had been travelling at last turned into the parking lodge at Bulungu, their final destination after a two-day journey from Kinshasa. The boy was impatient to find out more about this place, which might soon become his permanent home. With his little brain he had imagined that people everywhere lived like the people at his birthplace.'The idea of clashes or differences between cultures didn't make sense to the young boy who is sent by his international parents to a country village for his social education. For him, everybody, everywhere, had the same family structures, the same moral values, the same needs-the vision of different cultures was elusive if not beyond his grasp. But the impact of this new cultural environment, this formative excursion into the heart of the African darkness, will change his life-and destiny."
This is the second book I've read from Africa where the parents send the kid away to a remote village to get life experience or something. Is this a thing that really happens? Is it like boarding school? It seems kind of mean to send off a 10 year old like that. Also these kids were very much in the seen but not heard world. Nobody asked or cared about their opinions, and they were not allowed to speak unless someone invited them or allowed them to. Kinda bullshit.
The story picked up, but the first couple of chapters read like a textbook for me. There were also a few times where Yamusangie wrote the same thing, three different ways, in three sentences. That got a little annoying. But, like I said, it did pick up. At first this kid hates where he is, but he makes some friends and really starts to like it. And then, after he's there for what seems like 2 weeks (granted, it's a really short book), something really tragic happens and his whole time in this village is basically shattered. Then there's even more tragedy; this poor little boy has to deal with way too much. (Okay, yes, I do realize it's just a fictional character...but I still felt bad.)
After all this super awful, heavy stuff happened, he couldn't stay in the village anymore. For one thing a lot of the villagers thought he had something to do with some of it. But also his dad was a big important person and after all that happened, everybody knew about it and he'd never be able to be just a regular kid anymore.
So, he's going to leave the village and go to a different school. And after all this crazy, terrible shit happens, he's just fine. He sits in the car thinking about when he arrived in the town and is just like "lol this is weird, I'm starting and leaving from the same place." And I was kind of flabbergasted. But I guess you don't know how you're going to react to bad things happening and, in a child's brain, maybe they just can't handle processing it all.
And then it was over. I wouldn't have minded it being a little longer with a little more closure. It left some loose ends and I hate stories that leave off that way. This book was 83 pages. You couldn't have added a few more to bring about a real conclusion? Rude. It's rude, sir. Alright, I'm going a little overboard. Anyway it was a cute little story but, come on, give me a proper ending!
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