Choose a representative passage from this novel that holds particular significance to you.

I was about to narrate the victorious resurrection of the Peace Child when I was interrupted by an anguished keening from Hato. The look on the one-eyed patriarch's face startled me. Stark sorrow.

Hato's son, Amio, explained. "Not long before you came my father gave a peace child to the Kayagar. THey took the baby and did not give one in return."

Amio winced as he continued, "Later we heard they killed the baby and ate it."

I drew in my breath sharply in horror. I reached out and touched Hato's hand and felt my being flow together with his in a mute sharing of anguish.

Near the edge of our cell of sorrow Amio's voice kept on explaining, "We learned then that Kayagar do not seal the peace by laying their hands on the living tarop, as we do, but by actually partaking of the tarop child's flesh. That was an accidental death of the child does not end the peace, because he is still living inside everyone!

"The people of Haenam and Yohwi chided us, saying, 'You Kamur people don't understand the Kayagar. You only understand the Auyu. If we had known you intended to give a tarop to the Kayagar, we would have warned you.'"

Someone else added, "That was the reason we almost started fighting with the Kayagar the day you arrived to build your home."

Stunned by this complex of revelations, I sat musing in silence, when Hato's voice came to me softly, "Myao Kodon nohop kahane savos kysir nide?"

My eyes swelled at his words. He had said, "Myao Kodon[God] must have been sad just like me."

To the novel, this passage is significant because it shows how the Sawi are making connections with their experiences to God. They are finally beginning to understand how much God loved us, enough to sacrifice his own son, just to have him get killed. To me, I can use this passage to kind of get a feel of what God was going through when he sent down Jesus to us. Even though I don't have a child to directly relate it to, if I had to tell my sister to go somewhere, knowing that she was going to be killed if she went, I don't think I would be able to let her go. I would have done everything to avoid my sister from going there. However, God wasn't like that. He didn't make excuses on why Jesus shouldn't go. He deliberately sent Jesus, knowing that he was going to die. At first, from churches and Bibles, I couldn't imagine the emotions of God, but now that I compare to an everyday example of sacrifice, I know how hard it would have been for God to do what he did, unless he loved us A LOT.

What reflections and connections can you make with this novel?

When I was young, I made grand plans about my future. I was going to study very hard, go to a famous college, get a magnificent job, get piles of money and change the world. However, as I got older, I realized that my plans were just going to be dreams. The reality of this world did not allow success to happen as easily as I thought it would when I was young. I lost hope in my young immature dream and just settled to achievable goals in my life. Through reading Peace Child, I got a lesson that probably was not the major lesson the author wanted the readers to get. I regained hope that one person indeed could make a difference in the world. Even though the author did not become a millionaire through his experience, he changed the traditions of hundreds of people, which had been obeyed as long as since their existence. To me, the book was saying that you do not need excessive fame, money, or intelligence to make a difference. You can just be the average typical person, with strong perseverance, faith and an attitude willing to serve others; that is all that is needed to change the world. I had lowered my plans for my future at first because I thought I would not be good enough to achieve them all, and if I didn't, I thought I would be disappointed in myself. In a way, this book inspired me to strive for as much as you can, because even the smallest person can change the outcome of the future.

What concepts in the Sawi culture intrigued/reviled/saddened/angered/surprised you?

There were many new things of the Sawi culture that I had not experienced before, and I was shocked to hear of it. First was the Sawi concept of cannibalism. Although I had heard of human-eating people before in my life, it was quite amazed (not in a good way!) at how they thought of it as a way to open the eyes to the knowledge of the world. Just the thought of eating another human being was disgusting and unacceptable to me, let alone eating someone you know! This leads me to my second point; the honour of treachery. In our world, betraying someone is considered as a huge moral crime. It makes you unreliable and disloyal, characteristics which are often frowned upon. However, in the Sawi world, the more times you betray someone, the higher up you are in your tribe. I couldn't understand how these ideas could be used to determine a person's position. The desire for power often leads the tribesmen to plot evil treacherous schemes to trick and kill enemy tribe members. To me, the traditional practice of 'fattening with friendship' seemed so cruel. I am the sensitive type of person that gets hurt easily. When I found out that my friend was only befriending me because of a certain resource I could provide, and then ditched me, at first, I refused to believe that he/she (to make the person remain anonymous...) had those kinds of bad intentions, despite my friends continuously warning me. In the end, it took me a while to find out, and when I did, I felt like an idiot, failing to recognize what his/her motives really were. In a way, although my example did not risk my life, the feelings of the betrayed tribesman must have been similar to mine. I just couldn't understand why people would want to do that to one another.

As I read the book, I kept on wondering what had made the Sawi so cruel in their ways of living. With my experience with my friend, I could partially understand his/her reasons for doing what he/she did; for his/her own benefit. But, for the Sawi, although the concepts of cannibalism and betrayal were partly because of their desire for power, it was mostly done because it was a traditional practice that had been passed down. It made me question what kind of ancestors the Sawis had, and if our ancestors were same, whether deep down, we were as mean as them.

How different is your modern culture from the Sawi tenants?

When I first started to read Peace Child, I was alarmed at how gruesome and inhumane these Sawi tribes were. To critically put it, I was thinking how the same human being could differ this much. However, as I kept on reading it, what surprised me more was to find out how alike we actually were. As I discussed this book with my English class, many treated the people of the Sawi as if they were poor people who needed rescuing, and that we, as a modern and "better" society, should be the rescuers. Yes, it is true that the Sawi culture's traditional methods are quite unlike ours, but deep down, their motives for the acting out of the methods are as same as ours. Outward appearance wise, the Sawi are as different from us as possible; they do not clothe themselves completely, they cut off fingers for every loss in the family and they use bones of their victims as decoration for their body. However, by examining the Sawi world and our world, I came to the conclusion that there are some things instinctive about human nature that even time cannot change.

Betrayal and selfishness are two of them. Although we don't openly state it like the Sawi, we have a tendency to fight for what we want, and this selfishness can lead to betrayal. Everyday around us, I see people willing to hurt others to go the full way and be the best. In reality shows, such as America's Next Top Model, the competitors can be friends one minute, and the next, when they're in front of judges, they are willing to criticize the very same people that they called "friends." Then, in a way, aren't we 'fattening our friends for the slaughter,' too? Also, another similarity between the Sawi and us is the desire for power and control. In the Sawi tribe, the various tribes always fought against one another because of, first; revenge, or second; power. It was important to be the dominant tribe with the most territory, most people, etc. Meanwhile, in our modern world, we live to gain power too. In the America's Next Top Model example, the girls in the show are willing to betray and be selfish in order to gain what they want; the power of being America's next top model. On a broader level, there are wars in the Middle East for gains of oil, minerals, land, etc. Although there have been no huge wars since World War II, small wars still break out. This is because of each country's want for more power and control in the world. Lastly, deceit is also common in both the modern world and the Sawi world. The Sawi feel no guilt upon lying to their victims to come to a feast or a party, and then kill them brutally. They believe that more betrayal is more honour and pride. Although we don't believe that lying against another human being is the best thing that one can do, like the Sawi, we still lie. We cannot even live a day without lying. Sometimes, we lie unconsciously. Lies jump out of our mouths, and we don't even realize it. Human nature tells us that we cannot not lie.

At first glance, the Sawi tribe and the modern world seem like nothing is similar. We do not dress like the Sawi, we do not talk like the Sawi, we do not act like the Sawi, and we do not think like the Sawi. However, the Sawi and the modern world people are both people, humans living in the same planet. Therefore, we share similarities in human nature that time cannot change. Unfortunately, these natures are not "nice." The few similarities that we share are ideas of betrayal, selfishness, the desire for power, control, and deceit. Although we, as a "better" society people, want to believe that we are superior to the Sawi, by reading the characteristics of both groups, it can be said that deep down, we are not that much different.