a long way gone

"A long way gone, memoirs of a boy soldier" by Ishmael Beah, was by far the most humbling book I have ever read. With everything that happened recently with Kony, I wanted to learn some real facts about what is actually going on over in Africa. I never expected to learn some of the things I read in this book.
This book was told by Ishmael, about his experiences being a boy soldier. He was actually lucky and escaped before it was too late. But, there are millions of children out there who aren't as lucky as him. At the age of 11, Ishmael was separated from his family and forced to live on his own. For almost a year, he ran from village to village, barely escaping the Rebels. Eventually he became part of the army, which is supposed to fight against the Rebels and protect the citizens. The army is supposed to be the good guy, but they're not. That is one of the main problems with this country--evil fighting against evil.
After reading this book, I realize how ungrateful and selfish I can be at times. I am so grateful for this free country we live in and all the rights we get. At many times while reading this book I had to stop and remind myself that what I was reading was someone's true story, not fiction. Many parts of this book were almost incomprehensible. They took my breath away, and not in a good way. For example, Ishmael recalls a time when him and some of his soldier buddies took over a village. They found a pregnant lady in her house and cut her belly open. They removed her baby, chopped the head off of it and made the mother watch. And then they left the mom there to bleed to death. Gruesome right? This is only half as bad as some of the things written in this book. The really sad part is all of the boys are so high off of so many drugs that they don't even realize what they are doing. They have lost all sense of feeling; only years later do they realize what they have done.
Ishmael ended up being one of the luckier ones. He was removed from the war and put into a rehabilitation center with hundreds of other boys. For months, the boys would have horrible nightmares of incidents that happened while they fought in the war. I cannot imagine living life with the knowledge that you had killed so many people. Ishmael now lives in New York City, working as a motivational speaker. He graduated from college and lives his life to inspires others.
If you like to believe that we live in a perfect world, then this is not the book for you. If you want to know what is actually happening in other countries, then I hope you will read this book and appreciate it as much as I did!