"A long way gone: memoirs of a boy soldier"

Simply...wow. A sobering reminder of the atrocities many of us know little about. This book details the account of the thoughts and experiences of a child solider, as well as life before and after his experience as a soldier, in Sierra Leone...

Thoughts:

Ishmael's thoughts seemed to be a haunting fear he tried to escape or avoid. Drugs, brainwashing, revengeful anger, and survival seemed to be a motivation for becoming a child soldier. After the war, the process of rehabilitation for the child soliders included violent outbreaks. They would be told that their bad post-war behavior wasn't their fault. They were treated kindly in the rehabilitation process. I am reminded of my dad, even though his situation was of course different. I thought I heard he had a hard time after coming back from Vietnam. Probably there are a lot of people who after coming back from war are traumatized in ways that their loved ones and associates know little to nothing about. When Ishmael went for an interview somewhere, he was unfamiliar with the operation of an elevator. What aspects of daily life might be hard for refugees to adjust to? What sorts of images, memories, and thoughts might haunt their minds?