Migrating to the New World

Sudan is in the northern part of Africa, south of Egypt, west of Chad and east of Ethiopia. In 1956 Sudan was occupied by two groups. North was Muslim and the South was Animist and Christian. When the separation happened many conflicts merged. Both regions wanted superiority, with more land and more religion population. The north attacked first by invading the south and destroying Christian and animist villages. This was the beginning of the 20 year civil war in Sudan that has killed millions. Only twenty thousand boys (and some girls) escaped the massacres. The lost boys of Sudan lived their whole life orphaned when their parent were killed by the government and were all by themselves when they were religiously prosecuted by the same people who killed their parents and their tribe. The boys had to live through twenty years of civil war and were living in Sudan at the time when two million people were murdered. The lost boys of Sudan have had a very hard life dodging bullets, animals and poverty, until they finally reached Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. But still life in the refugee camp was strenuous and toilsome. They had no electricity to cook, clean or in their mud huts. They had little or no provisions and had minimal supplies. The food wasn’t very good and they had to cook it themselves over a fire. The Sudanese people had to use and reuse clothes over and over again. For example in the movies when one of the boys leaves we basically gave all his belongings to his friends and family even though they weren’t in great condition and he doesn’t have many clothes.
Some of the boys were chosen to journey to America, or heaven as many of the boys thought, to start a new and better life but also to help the Dinka people in Sudan by sending money. They had to leave all their friends and family in Sudan to leave to America to support them. The change in people culture and in the environment was shockingly huge for them. At first the two boys that the documentary focused on, Peter and Satino, lived in Houston. They had to work long hours at low wage jobs like working at factories and supermarkets. They were put to work at low pay jobs because of little to no education, their extremely dark skin color and their little experience with the English language. For instance one boy named peter was made to work outside in the supermarket parking lot because his boss said “he could withstand the heat better.” For the first four months YMC, the company that helped them migrate over to America, paid for their rent and gave them some money to help them get on their feet. A charity organization was also helpful enough to bring them old furniture that no one else needed, like bed mattresses, couches, and tables.
The ‘heaven’ that the Dinka boys were living in had turned out not to be the heaven they thought it was. Yes, they had had more food than they could eat a big house and a job that paid, but their cultures ways were all but not eliminated. For example in Sudan it was normal to hold hands with other men, but in America you were considered homosexual if you did. Another discomfort was on the bus and in the street people would stare at them, and make them feel left out and different because of their abnormally dark skin. One of the Dinka boys said “I feel too black”, which shows he feels ashamed of is skin color and being a little bit different from everyone else and that he just wants to fit in. Also the boys from Sudan have to get used to living in a big house with electricity and using electrical appliances every day. In the docudrama Satino was having trouble at his job putting on sticker onto appliances because he wasn’t used to using his hands in such am activity that required nimbleness and speed. Another trouble the lost boys of Sudan met in America was managing their time; they woke up and went to school then cooked dinner then went to their job to support their and their families’ life. Many of the boys commented on the fact that life was so differently busy for them and one boy said “times is money” and in America it is true, unlike in Sudan. One part of the documentary showed a group of the relocated Dinka boys outraged that they were robed because in Sudan no one would ever do that because everyone relied on everyone else.
Later on in the movie Peter got a standard form of high school education and slowly got better and better jobs. Pete got a job as an electrician’s apprentice and hoped to one day become an electrician and maybe even bring electricity to the refugee camp in Sudan where his family was staying. Both Peter and Santino both learned English to the state where they could use it freely and speak fluently. They both adjusted to American culture, like going to school, making friends and even going to church. They overcame the difficulties of the language barrier by using it and learning it as much as they could. They also overcame the hardship of the new American culture by trying to act like the rest of America; they ate American food whore American clothes and even tried to do like the rest did. America was very different than they expected but they worked out all their differences and lived their life in America making a living but also supporting their family and friends back in Sudan. They found out that “it is clear; there is no heaven on earth.”