In Rochester, it was cold and snowing, and snow is not a thing that happens in the countries of Africa (especially because they're so close to the equator!), so when it was snowing, Salva was so, so, soooooo stunned! He'd never seen snow before, and the new discovery of the cold air and the beautiful pure white snowflakes was astonishing to him.
It's expected in Africa to be very hot, and it was! There have been multiple times in the book where Salva has said that it was really hot, and people were dying from dehydration and heatstroke. I've been to Nigeria (a country in Africa) before, and it was super hot when I went, but some of my family that lived there said that that was the best weather they'd had in a while!
Clothing
The way that Salva was dressed in Sudan was super different from the way that he got dressed when he arrived in America. He got a big, puffy jacket, and new clothes, shoes, and underwear. Even though to some people in America, it seems like only a little bit of stuff, Salva was amazed at the amount of clothes that he had received, and was wondering how he'd even manage to wear all of them.
Salva said that he was only wearing a pair of shorts with a super stretched out waistband, and an old shirt with a bunch of holes in it. He didn't say that he had any shoes.
Environment
Rochester
In Rochester, there were no wars going on, and no one would have to flee in the same way that Salva did from Sudan. The roads in Rochester were made out of cement, like almost all of the roads in America! When Salva arrived in New York, as I mentioned before, he was shocked about how the roads were cement.
Sudan
In Sudan, we obviously know that a really big war was going on, which caused him to flee from his home. Salva also mentioned that the roads in Sudan were made of packed down dirt, and he was very, very surprised when he arrived in America, and realised that almost all of the roads were made out of cement.
