Journal #3 - Jose

In the beginning of this section, the book gets happier. The boy is taken out of the war and brought to a rehabilitation centre called the Benin Home. The Benin Home is part of a project from UNICEF (United Nations Children Fund) who help children all over the world who are involved in war. At first, he didn’t want to go there, we wanted to keep fighting. As he said, he was ready to die for his country. Because of this feeling, he and the other boys, were protesting against the rehabilitation.


I think it is a wonderful thing, what they did for those children. I wouldn’t have enough courage to work on a hostile environment surrounded by dangerous kids as the volunteers did. Also, when the boys did something wrong, the workers wouldn’t get mad at all and they would say: "It’s not your fault". I would have probably given up them.


When Leslie found the boy’s uncle, I guess it was the best part of the book so far. It was very nice to see something good happening with Ishmael after all the bad luck he had. After many years he was reunited with a family member. The only bad part it that his friends hadn't found any relatives.

In my opinion, the most important character of this sections was the nurse, Esther. At the beginning, the boy was very rude with her, although, she was always very nice to the boy. After many attempts, she awaked the boy’s sense of humanity and they became very close to each other. Maybe, if she have given up, the boy wouldn’t have been reinstructed to live in society and never had a family again.