Lost Boys

The other night on "60 Minutes," they featured a segment on the Lost Boys of the Sudan.  Apparently, the news show had been tracking several of the "boys" since their arrival in the U.S. years before.

The Lost Boys are a group of now grown men whose parents were killed, sisters taken for the sex slave trade, and the boys left behind when Islamists destroyed their Christian villages.  The boys made a trek through hostile places finally to arrive in Kenya.  No one wanted them; they had already been kicked out of a couple of places, and Kenya wasn't keen on them staying either.

The U.S. State Department decided to fly the boys to the U.S. and paired them with willing guardians.  A number of them came to Cleveland and were supported by a Catholic nun, with a charity called "Sudanese Lost Boys of Cleveland."  As you might imagine, given the fact that there were probably well over 1,000 of them, some did much better than others.  Some of them have degrees; a few are in prison.  One is an ordained Bishop in the Anglican Church.

My encounter with one of the Lost Boys was when I was helping the School of Accountancy at UA in 2009.  Their administrative assistant had been out ill for a period of time, and they had just learned she wouldn't be returning.  When I walked into the office that first day, the front door was already open, the coffee was on, and one of the Lost Boys was sitting at a desk in the reception area of the office.

At first, it was hard for me to understand him.  He spoke very softly and his accent was unfamiliar to me.  As time when by, though, I learned about this young man and his brother who was getting a Masters Degree in Cleveland.  He was also obviously bright; he was on track to graduate. 

I knew that something bad had happened to their home, but didn't ask about that.  I asked about his life in the village.  He said that they were an agrarian people.  When there was work to do with the crops, they worked.  When harvest time passed, they relaxed and played.  The men had their area to talk and such; the women had their area, and the kids were all over.  They swam in crocodile-infested waters, and somehow survived that.  It was perhaps that simple upbringing, that happiness in life, that prepared them for th worst and gave them a winning, positive attitude.  He certainly had that attitude.  He always had a smile on his face.

One morning I got to work before he did.  He looked surprised, and he commented, "Good morning.  You are here even before me!!"  Wide awake and facing the start of another day.

The Sudan has been liberated, and there are those who believe that the plight of the Lost Boys is one of the reasons.  A few of the Lost Boys have returned; most have stayed here.  At least one has fought in Iraq, three tours in fact.  He wanted to give something back to the country that took him in, that gave him his first identification.   And one of the State Department employees who helped them make the transition said it has been one of the most successful programs of its kind.  Maybe THE most.

The kindness, gentleness, and steadfastness of these young men is rather astounding.  Only through God does this kind of thing happen.