Refugee
Our latest book in class was Refugee by Alan Gratz. With its three separate narrators, in three different times and places, I thought it had a unique setup, and I loved how they tied together. Josef, Isabel, and Mahmoud each had their own difficulties, even though they were in similar situations, and with the same goal: to escape.
Mahmoud's story takes place in 2015, a mere three years ago. And now, people are still trying to escape their situations. All over the news right now is the Honduran caravan. They started as 160, and their numbers have only grown in the last few weeks, with the United Nations estimating 7,000. Their path has not been easy, crossing rivers and mountains.
Google estimates their current progress as over 8 solid days of walking, and doesn't include breaks for sleep or eating. Personally, I think the fact that they have covered that much distance in 16 days is admirable; I know I wouldn't be able to keep pace with them.
Google also told me that the caravan of refugees is around 1,000 miles away from the border (I picked McAllen, TX and got ~1017 miles from Pijijiapan, Mexico). If they were to continue at their current pace of ~13 miles/day, it will take them over 2.5 months to get to the Mexico-Texas border.
Mahmoud's story takes place in 2015, a mere three years ago. And now, people are still trying to escape their situations. All over the news right now is the Honduran caravan. They started as 160, and their numbers have only grown in the last few weeks, with the United Nations estimating 7,000. Their path has not been easy, crossing rivers and mountains.
Google estimates their current progress as over 8 solid days of walking, and doesn't include breaks for sleep or eating. Personally, I think the fact that they have covered that much distance in 16 days is admirable; I know I wouldn't be able to keep pace with them.
Google also told me that the caravan of refugees is around 1,000 miles away from the border (I picked McAllen, TX and got ~1017 miles from Pijijiapan, Mexico). If they were to continue at their current pace of ~13 miles/day, it will take them over 2.5 months to get to the Mexico-Texas border.
Wow, thank you for including that map! I hadn't really thought about just how far the caravan has actually come so far. It's crazy to think that it will still be over 2 months before the immigrants will even reach the border! There will be a whole news cycle passed before then, forgotten until they are knocking on the border. Great post!!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Amy that the map is fascinating. I traveled through Guatemala by bus and by foot and I know how rugged that country is.
ReplyDeleteThat map is incredibly informative. Amy makes a really good point with how the news cycle will be moved onto another topic by the time they arrive. So many Americans are stressed out and building hate in their hearts about this and they are going to forget about it in a week. Until these people show up begging for help will we even give them a second thought?
ReplyDelete