Walking in Nya’s Shoes: Briarwood 6th Graders Reflect on “A Long Walk to Water”
Erin Gregg on January 30, 2025
Walking in Nya's Shoes: Briarwood 6th Graders Reflect on "A Long Walk to Water"
In January, Briarwood 6th Grade English students finished reading the novel A Long Walk to Water, based on the true story of Salva Dut, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan. He became a leader among the boys and was later a refugee moving to New York to live with a family which loved and mentored him. While in New York Salva learned that his father was alive, but very ill with a waterborne illness. He committed to figuring out how to help his father, family, and others in South Sudan have clean water, eventually establishing the non-profit Water for South Sudan. Hundreds of wells have been drilled through this non-profit. One of the characters in the book is eleven-year-old Nya. Seven months of the year, she walks 8 hours a day gathering water from a lake for her family. The 6th graders had the opportunity to walk around our track carrying a gallon of water for approximately 1 mile to get an idea of what it may be like to walk carrying a jug of water. They wrote about their experiences.
Period 1
“The experience was fun and you would have to push yourself…”
“If I was Nya, I would get at least a few blisters every week.”
“The experience was not hard but not easy. I walked a mile and a quarter. The [gallon of] water did not weigh that much. It was fun because I got to talk with a classmate, but it would have been harder if I had to walk seven to eight miles twice a day.”
Period 2
“It was hard for Nya, and even after [she walked each day] she couldn’t go to school. The experience was hard. My fingers are feeling like they’re going to fall off and my legs are burning. How did she do it?”
“I would not want to be Nya and walk that far with water. I would think it would be dreadful and you could get very bored. The water in a gourd on your head is so annoying.”
“I could not imagine walking 24 miles in 75-120 degree weather every day.”
“Today in class we went outside and walked a mile while holding a gallon of water. I hadn’t done anything like it before. It was pretty easy but I wasn’t doing it with 5 gallons of water and walking 24 miles. This experience helped me understand how Nya did this tiring chore. I couldn’t imagine walking in the different weather conditions.”
“If I was like Nya, I would have been so tired and exhausted.”
Period 5
“I’d die because I cannot walk for that long.”
“It was probably hard for Nya to do that.”
“It was very hard to walk and very tiring.”
“If I was Nya, I would cry and push myself at the same time.”
“It’s impressive that Nya walks 8 hours a day.”
Period 6
“My feet were burning.”
“When I was walking, the [water] jugs were heavy. My fingers were burning. I kept dropping my jugs.”
“The water bottles are very heavy. At first I thought it [would] be fine, but for three laps, it was HARD.”
“It feels really trying. It makes your hands hurt and you get tired of holding it. You keep wanting to drop it on the floor but you can’t. You can’t run fast at all without breaking it. Your arms get numb, and your hands are shaking.”
“It was hard and my hands started to hurt. I now definitely know that it was insanely hard walking 24 miles or more daily.”
Period 7
“The mile was exhausting. Nya carried way more than I was. I am so lucky to have water whenever I want.”
“My arms hurt and it was fun and not fun…I would not want to do it everyday.”
“It was really hard and I walked only one mile. I had sweat on my hands and held [the gallon of water] on my head/arms. I could not imagine doing that all day and that’s 96 laps [around the track].”
“It was super duper fun, but doing it every single day for 24 miles (I only did one mile)…would be painful. How did she do it? She must be crazy strong. It’s honestly remarkable as anything.”