08/10/12
USC 101
It Happened on the Way to War
“There’s a lot of pain in the world, and it’s good to help when you can.” (pg. 54) Whether it is a novel, a memoir, a biography, or great literature, every book has themes and values. In Rye Barcott’s It Happened on the Way to War, several values are revealed through the lessons learned by the narrator. Barcott mainly uses his experiences with those who changed his life to explain how his endeavors in Kibera reinforced these values or, in some cases, challenged or altered their priorities.
They are consistently explored and amplified throughout the memoir. The three that stood out the most to me are the charity, mentorship, and the value of life. I compared these values to my own when I created my pyramid of values and took note of any differences and related decisions I could recall from my own life and Barcott’s.
One of the most obvious values that Barcott portrays is charity. His establishment of Carolina for Kibera is enough evidence to suggest this but he has specific experiences throughout his life that exemplify the value. As a child, Barcott recalls an experience starting at page 21 where he witnesses a poor, infant child on the back of a small girl searching through a burning pile of trash and fuel.
After an initial reaction of disgust, he suggests giving the child money he had earned from mowing lawns, going as far as removing his cash and wallet that attracted the attention of local teenage boys. Barcott shows his attempts to help those in need with charity money even at a young age even if he realizes the dangers of doing such later in life. During his college years in Kibera, there is an incident on page 53 where he is faced with the predicament of supplying money to Baba Chris for malaria medication.
The cheap price of only about seven dollars in U.S currency and direness of his health makes doing so very tempting to Barcott despite his desire keep his financial status as low-key as possible. It clearly frustrates him and leaves him to a point of self doubt and shameful introspection, saying on page 54 “How was it possible that a father might die of a disease that could be treated for seven dollars? I paid more for my haircuts.” He then compares it to his previous attempts of charity with the little girl.
After his college graduation, Barcott lends fifteen-hundred dollars to Oluoch for his busing business under the assumption that he would repay in a month. While this causes conflict later in the book, it shows how willing Barcott is to lend charity to those he trusts.
Another explored value is mentorship. On page 110 Barcott says “I viewed mentorship as the most important factor in my journey.” He often recalls his experiences with his father as a boy and how his marine friends coached him on masculinity. He praises his parents with appreciation and acknowledgement for their immense support in school leading up to his enrollment in college.
In college he sees his professors such as Professor Peacock and Kohn as mentors in his language and culture classes. They serve to teach him of the importance of different issues in Kibera such as ethnic development and violence. After his college graduation, he finds himself in a position of significant responsibility as lieutenant. He claims to be a mentor in equal regards to viewing others as mentors saying “My Marines were older professionals, and I believed I could learn as much or more from them as they could learn from me.” (pg. 225) He finds value in learning from others along his journey but also sees the importance in distributing this knowledge as a mentor.
Perhaps the most thoroughly explored value in the memoir is that of life. He demonstrates his will to live in his story on page 27 about falling through the ice as a young boy, almost drowning in the frigid water, and finding his way to the top using a ray of light. The incident completely changes his view of the value of life regarding death. He realizes that he can die at any moment and must make the most of his time in this world, believing he’s alive for a larger reason than he may even know yet.
He values life as he, in correlation with his faith in God, believes he must be alive for a purpose. Barcott later suffers from the effects of malaria on his college trip in Kibera and realizes how easily he could fall fatally ill if not for the proper medication. He values his life enough to survive however he can as others die around him due to the same disease.
After his college years, Barcott recollects being attacked by thieves and narrowly surviving through the help of some Good Samaritans. The group grabs one of the thieves and Barcott imagines he may be killed through mob justice. He decides to help the boy, save his life, and give him the opportunity for redemption in CFK’s war on trash. This incident shows that his value of life extends to not only himself and those he cares about but also anyone who can help cause a difference in their community through kindness and rehabilitation.
It is completely required in order to treat yourself and others decently. Confidence is hugely important to me as I feel most of my abilities come from believing in myself. I am much more willing to apply and strengthen myself when I feel confident that I will eventually succeed or learn something if I don’t. Aspects of my life such as being accepted into college, meeting friends and partners, and realizing what I want to pursue as a major are all results of being a outgoing, optimistic, confident person.
I find modesty to also be an important value. I chose it after confidence as there is a line, however fine, between that and what some may call “cockiness”. Being modest and humble not only makes it easier for others to find praise in my accomplishments but also creates far more room for learning from my mistakes. Perception is near the top as I find perception to be important not just in the manner of physical senses but also in how I view our world and see from other perspectives.
It shows how much I care about my friends and family, what I would do and sacrifice to help them, and how I treat others. Logic tops the Pyramid of Life as my least important value (though still very much so) as it helps me succeed academically and socially. Being thoughtful and logical cause me to be an understanding person who can find reason in many situations and issues.
After considering the values of the Sexy Six, I decided that respect relates most closely to Barcott’s value of mentorship. I respect those I’m close to and those of higher authority or age than me. My value of respect is centered on creating strong and friendly bonds with others and understanding my place in society. Similarly, Barcott’s value of mentorship includes the way he treats his mentors as he learns from them.
Barcott is forced to make a number of decisions throughout his experiences in the book, most of which make a significant impact in his experiences later on. I found his decision to go back to Africa to study ethnic problems such as poverty and violence to be the most significant. It not only led to most of his experiences in the book but also showed how willing he was to persevere for the trip.
He claimed to search for the “5 percent who give a damn”, recalling the advice he received from a speaker at a Swahili class he took at UNC. While it took a lot of time and dedication, his encounter with Dan paid off. He considered not even trying to apply himself in that way and waiting for the opportunity to present itself but instead he, as he worded it at the convocation, attacked the “wolf at the door”.
I remember prior to entering Apex High School, I had heard a lot about the Academy of Information Technology (AOIT) program. My brother who was two years ahead of me had already enrolled in it and strongly recommended that I did as well. While not normally one to follow in his footsteps, I did consider my interest in computer technology and presentation skills as enough of a reason to apply for a position in the popular but competitive program.
I consider my values of logic and confidence as the most important in my decision. I knew it would help me enter a math and science university later in life and was confident that my enthusiasm and academic potential would be up to standards. I was overjoyed to be accepted and didn’t know what to expect but to this day am very glad I did. It taught me many things regarding computer hardware, presentation skills, and programming languages.
This book didn’t serve to teach me that there are problems in Africa. It didn’t teach me that memoirs are super interesting and fun to read in three hundred page quantities. It didn’t usefully inform me that Rye Barcott cofounded Carolina for Kibera and helped make a real difference in the world. What it really did was teach me something I’ll never forget: success is measured in how well we fulfill our own aspirations and is completely based on what we find important and valuable to ourselves.
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