a long way gone post dos

To pass the time one night, Musa tells the story of Bra Spider who also struggled for food and survival. Listening to Musa's story reminds Ishmael of similar evenings listening to stories around his grandmother's campfire. Oral storytelling also plays a key role in the ceremonies and traditions of the village they had come from, and Ishmael is reminded of the tales told the night of his name-giving ceremony. the descriptions of the ceremony reveal a traditional culture with obvious male and female roles. The women prepare the food and dress to show off to each other. The men lead the ceremonies and smoke together (sounds kind of like native Americans prior to English settlement.). The gender roles are tested in these times of war as women have to learn to defend themselves and boys like Ishmael have to cook to survive. Even in desperate times, the burial customs are enforced. When Saidu dies, his body must be wrapped in white linen and placed in a wooden coffin. An elder man helps the boys have a funeral service and leads them to a burial ground. Saidu's body must be buried before nightfall or they must take the body from the village. The burial ground has row after row of mounds of freshly dug graves, many of them anonymous. Ishmael's grief and uncertainty overwhelm him. All of the boys are sad when they leave the village. Though he feels like he his abandoning his friend by leaving Saidu's body, he knows that they must continue travelling if they hope to live. This is kind of like in world war one how the soldiers would stop fighting to gather the dead from the battle field, I think that the burial customs that these boys held onto were the only thing that kept them glued together and moving as a unit.