Jacob's Lucky Day

            In the book “A Hare in The Elephant’s Trunk” we have read about Jacob’s amazing journey of survival, friends, family and knowledge. Jacob at this point now has enough money to go to school, but his only problem is he needs a living parent or guardian to sign for him so he can attend. While Jacob has been in Nairobi he has met a boy named Jabari that so far has acted as his guide through the city. On page 260-261 Jacob was told that he needs a parent, uncle, brother or some other family member to be able to attend school. Jacob’s response was “I will try”. I think at this point I wouldn’t have wanted to be the headmaster because to break news like that to someone who has gone through so much wouldn’t make yourself or anyone else feel too good. The headmaster then draws Jacob a map to a homeless shelter, then Jacob heads out to hopefully find some family. Upon leaving the school Jabari jumped up from where he was waiting. On page 263 Jacob says “I must find someone from my family, someone from Southern Sudan. A very tall Dinka person.” “Follow me,” Jabari said. Jabari then leads Jacob back into the city of Nairobi to where he lives, Mathare Valley. Jabari takes Jacob to the part populated with Dinka people. While searching for family, Jacob finds his Uncle Daniel, now that Jacob has found a family member he can now get a form signed by his Uncle to take to the headmaster. Jacob Deng is now finally able to attend school.

Reading the last part of the book I realize how lucky and fortunate Jacob is, he is able to find someone who is able to guide him around the city, he finds a school which has enough room for him and he finds his Uncle Daniel who can act as a guardian for him, thus allowing Jacob to attend school. Throughout the book you read about all the hard times he has had to go through and knowing it works out for him makes you feel better, you also realize how lucky he is for this to work out so good in the end. If I were in Jacob’s position I wouldn’t have had a clue of what to do from the start, but at the end of the day Jacob deserves all the luck he has received at the end of the book and throughout his entire story. It could have ended many times but Jacob and his friends always found a way to make it work not matter how tough it got.