Nothing Like Heaven on Earth

The Lost Boys of Sudan - Journey Across the Desert

The Lost Boys of Sudan are a group of over 20,000 boys and some girls, who traveled hundreds of miles across the desert to escape the war going on. Many of the boys and girls parents were killed in the raids, orphaning many of the children who made the journey. Unfortunately, there were many difficulties over the journey. The people crossed the river Gilo to seek asylum in Ethiopia, and lived there for a while. But sadly, the government of Ethiopia fell apart as well, and the newly formed government chased the Lost Boys out of Ethiopia. The people that escaped were taken to Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya, where the children grew up for the next 11 years. Later, U.S.A. decided to take in 4,000 of the refugee boys, giving them a chance to get a better education and a job to help support their friends, and the family they had left. The boys believed America would be like 'heaven on Earth'. Unfortunately, the chosen boys found it was anything like a heaven on Earth once they were there, and the culture shock was hard to handle.
Many of the boys have told their life stories, and one example is the story of Peter's journey. Peter first started out with a group of friends, all living in the same neighborhood. He and the others received help from the YMCA, but after the first 5 months of living with his friends, he decided he needed to move on. By being with all of his friends, he found it hard to concentrate on why he was really in America. He decided to move away from Houston, Texas, and moved to Kansas. By being away from all his friends, he could make more independent decisions, basing them on what was best for him, and not best for everyone. Another culture shock was schooling. When Peter was growing up, he didn't have a huge school with many classes. But when he finally got into school, he found it difficult to adjust to the size of the school and the amount of homework. While explaining his difficulties to his sister, who is back at the refugee camp, that "I goes to school at 7:00am and comes home at 3:30pm. I prepare and eat my food from 3:30pm to 5:00pm. I go to work at 5:00pm, and come home at 10:00pm. I then do my homework from 10:00pm to 1:00am, then go to bed. Then my day starts all over again." This shows he was also having difficulty with getting a job. This is for two reasons - not fluent in English, and racism. Peter wasn't fluent in English when he first came to America, and most bosses want people to speak English. So Peter ended up doing things like gathering carts from parking lots at Walmart. Not only was this job low pay and not enjoyable, but also came with racism. The lady in charge claimed "since you are from Africa, you can take the heat, and work in the afternoon." This shows how prejudice people were towards the Lost Boys of Sudan. Another way racism was showed, was when Peter was talking to his high school counselor. When asking if he should take the ACT, the counselor replied that people only really take that test if they are going into a 4 year college program. He instead suggested that Peter goes to the community college for 2 years instead, implying that Peter isn't smart enough. But Peter was on the National Honors list, which surprised the counselor a lot. Peter had even written his biography already, giving the counselor a shock. But Peter still kept on dreaming and continuing his life in America, despite the challenges.
All of the Lost Boys of Sudan experienced many difficulties assimilating into American culture, and they all had to find ways to continue on in their journey. Peter coped by moving Kansas, meeting new people, making new friends, receiving schooling and getting a better job. Peter made the best out of his situation, and was able to get through the culture shock and continue on with his life.