Seventh Entry

12. What reflections and connections can you make with this novel?

I see myself in the Sawi people. True, I am not a big supporter of cannibalism, nor do I go hunting for human heads. But the fact that the Sawi people are humans makes the ultimate connection between us. Jealously, anger, revenge, thirst, hunger, relationship, and sin. Do we not have those same kind of emotions, civilized or uncivilized?I was quick to judge. Cannibals, headhunters; how sinful is that? But I was able to see that they still got angry, they still thirsted for relationships, and they too, searched for the reason to live. Final Destination: to discover the genuine purpose of life, this is what we have in connection.The Sawi believe in evil spirits. They have a culture of death, a culture symbolic for skull. Compares to the culture that we have today, however, the Sawi are not that different. They just have a different way of approaching sin from us. The fact is that current society puts toy guns and swords in the market for children, and play survival for sport. Skull, and gun, what difference is there but a different approach? This is why the Sawi’s transformation is so radical and fascinating, because it travels from the very end to the other end. Despair and fear is no longer a big part of them because they obtain something to hold on to, and something to place comfort in. I find beauty in the Sawi’s acceptance to transforming and find comfort in realizing that God really does love everyone unconditionally.I was humbled through reading the Peace Child. I realized that I am in no position to be judgmental, or to be skeptical about any culture. Although culture does not have a boundary to stop changing, that does not mean that we have to shun the culture into a shame. Sawi or no Sawi, people are similar in many ways because they all make mistakes, because they all have sin. God created us in his image; people CAN try to be more like Christ and through that, with a same goal, we then reach equilibrium.