What is the What #6

Quote #1:
"Hello friends,
I am writing to inform you that I have been recently assaulted by two dangerous persons in my apartment. The attackers asked me to let them use my phone and when I opened the door, they held me at gunpoint, kicked me in the cheek, forehead, and back, until I lost consciousness. They took my cell phone, digital camera, checkbooks, and over five hundred dollars in cash. Thank God they didn't shoot me. For some time, I was guarded by a boy who I believe to be their son, Michael.
As I write yo you, I do not have a cell phone and do not have your contact information. Please send me your numbers and I will call you tomorrow. I need to get all my information back.
Have a blessed day.
Sincerely,
Valentino Achak
P.S Please remind me of your birthday" Valentino pg 505 third paragraph

This is Valentino sending an email to his friends email addresses that he still remembers. Since he got robbed he doesn't have his friends contact information and can't call or email them. But Valentino is emailing the ones that he remembered and asked them to tell Valentino his friends email addresses and phone numbers that he remembers. I was really surprised on how good his grammar and spelling is. I knew he wasn't dumb, but I didn't know he was that smart to write that well with no grammar and spelling errors.

I think that this quote relates to the fifth question, What hardships do the characters endure as they make a new life. I think it relates because he was assaulted and robbed by two people. He was deceived by them because Tonya, the lady who was at the front door at the beginning, said that her car broke down and she had to use Valentino's phone. Then Powder comes in, the big guy who helps Tonya with the robbery, and tells him to sit down while Tonya gets all the things. Then Valentino gets Powder angry and Powder hits him and beats him until he is unconscious. This is a very difficult situation and I think that this is one of the hardships Valentino faces as he makes a new life.

I can connect to this because he is typing this letter because he got robbed, only because he was deceived by a lie. I have been lied to alot before. Sometimes when I was young my parents would tell me to finish my food or brush my teeth or take a shower, and then they said they would take me somewhere. Of course since I was small I wanted to go everywhere. So I did that they said and they tell me we will go later. We didn't go most of the times but sometimes we went.

Have you ever been deceived before? If so, how did you feel?

Quote #2:
"Whatever I do, however I find a way to live, I will tell these stories. I have spoken to every person I have encountered these last difficult days, and every person who has entered this club during these awful morning hours, because to do anything else would be something less than human. It gives me strength, almost unbelievable strength, to know that you are there. I covet your eyes, your ears, the collapsible space between us. How blessed are we to have each other? I am alive and you are alive so we must fill the air with our words. I will fill today, tomorrow, everyday until I am taken back to God. I will tell stories to people who will listen and to people who don't want to listen. to people who seek me out and to those who run. All the while I will know that you are there. How can I pretend that you do not exist? It would be almost as impossible as you pretending that I do not exist" Valentino pg 535 last paragraph.

This is Valentino talking about what he will do in his life. In this page he plans on leaving the apartment. He wants to leave the U.S and go back to his huge family back at Marial Bai. He wanted to go back home but not until he finishes college education. He saw himself stepping of a plane with a suit, a suitcase and his diploma inside the suitcase and back to Marial Bai.

This relates to the second question, what was their journey like coming to America. I think it relates because Valentino's journey to America is the story that he tells. How he survived the lion attacks and the murahaleen. How he survived and waited to be interviewed so he can go to America. How he got robbed and assaulted to make his life even harder. I think that Valentino's life is very sad and happy at times. But I think its sad most of the time. He has lost Tabitha, the girl he likes, William K., his friend, and he has gotten beaten and robbed.

Have you ever been so determined to do something that you will do what it says in the quote? If so, what is it?