"A Journey to Discover Yourself " ( Ishmael Beah)

I have definitely been impacted by Blood Diamond, A Long Way Gone, and hearing Ishmael Beah speak. Before these three things, I never really understood the issue with child soldiers and never even thought about the fact that they fought for the government also. I always had pictured in my mind groups of children fighting against trained professional troops. I never imagined it to be child to child combat. Ishmael Beah was quite honestly one of the most interesting speakers that I have heard. Usually, I can't sit through a long talk, but I think the fact that I already read the book for class helped a lot! While everyone else was squeaking in their chairs and rustling around, I was just listening intently to every word that rolled off his tongue. He spoke about many interesting things, some of which you could gather from the book and others you couldn't. One of the first things he talked about was how he gets upset when the panels he speaks on do not give him enough time to delve into the topic of child soldiers.
To me, the most troubling issue that Ishmael spoke about was the women in the army. I completely understand why he left their story to them. They could not have done justice to his story, and he couldn't have done justice to theirs. When he talked about this, it became mind boggling because he had never spoken of women and girls in the army. Throughout the book, I never once pictured Ishmael fighting next to a woman. He never spoke of any girls in the rehabilitation center. What happened to their children? Who took care of them if Mom had to fight? The thing that really disgusted me was how the girls would have children by the commanders and have to raise them in the midst of war. That is completely unfair to both mother and child. In reality, I understand why they didn’t leave. It was either be shot by the government or by the rebels, neither of which is a very pleasant scenario. I would love to hear about the war and fighting from a womanly point of view. As Ishmael said, some of them just aren’t ready yet. Some of them had to make it out alive, but right now they are scared of what society will think of them and their children. Before I leave you, one other thing I found interesting is that Ishmael has only been back to Sierra Leone once and it was this past year. After all he has done for the cause of child soldiers, I was surprised it took him that long to go back.