Salva's father was a successful man. He owned many head of cattle and
worked as their village's judge—an honored, respected position. Salva had three brothers and two sisters. As each boy reached the age of about ten years, he was sent off to school. Salva's older brothers, Ariik and Ring, had gone to school before him; last year, it had been Salva's turn. His two sisters, A kit and Agnath, did not go to school. Like the other girls in the village, they stayed home and learned from their mother how to keep house.
Most of the time, Salva was glad to be able to go to school. But some
days he wished he were still back at home herding cattle.
He and his brothers, along with the sons of his father's other wives, would
walk with the herds to the water holes, where there was good grazing. Their responsibilities depended on how old they were. Salva's younger brother, Kuol, was taking care of just one cow; like his brothers before him, he would be in charge of more cows every year. Before Salva had begun going to school, he had helped look after the entire herd, and his younger brother as well.
The boys had to keep an eye on the cows, but the cows did not really need
much care. That left plenty of time to play.
Salva and the other boys made cows out of clay. The more cows you
made, the richer you were. But they had to be fine, healthy animals. It took time to make a lump of clay look like a good cow. The boys would challenge each other to see who could make the most and best cows.
Other times they would practice with their bows and arrows, shooting at
small animals or birds. They weren't very good at this yet, but once in a while they got lucky.
Those were the best days. When one of them managed to kill a ground
squirrel or a rabbit, a guinea hen or a grouse, the boys' aimless play halted and there was suddenly a lot of work to do.
Some of them gathered wood to build a fire. Others helped clean and
dress the animal. Then they roasted it on the fire.
None of this took place quietly. Salva had his own opinion of how the fire
should be built and how long the meat needed to cook, and so did each of the others.
"The fire needs to be bigger."