Mission Ministries in the Local News
Lost Boys Find Manhood, Hope in U. S.
BILL
HUTCHENS of the The News Tribune filed this story on Sept. 27th:
Super-size any value meal at any fast-food restaurant around town, and you'll
likely see more food than the Lost Boys sometimes saw in a month at a refugee
camp in Kenya. So it's no wonder that James Tong, Lino Lual and Nhial Diing
at first overestimated the customer base of Tacoma Grocery Outlet on Pacific
Highway near Lakewood. "Their eyes were kind of wide open," said
owner/operator Greg Philips, who last year hired three of the five Sudanese
refugees. "James said, 'Is this the store for the whole United States?'"
While internal strife and allegations of genocide continue to mar their
African homeland, Tong, Lual and Diing - along with lifelong friends Anthony
Anei and Augustino Jor - are finding new lives in the Tacoma area. They
were sponsored by University Place Presbyterian Church in 2001. Like many
of the 100 or so young Sudanese refugees in Western Washington, they went
through hell and back to get here. And they face a sometimes overwhelming
American culture as well as the adift-at-sea feeling shared by many 20-somethings
still exploring education, career and family options. But while this wave
of refugees was dubbed "The Lost Boys of Sudan" by the media,
these five friends of uncertain age have gotten a different nickname from
a local sponsor: Found Men.
A harrowing journey
In the mid 1980s, thousands of children in southern Sudan fled their homes when soldiers in the Muslim militia attacked and burned their villages. Tong, Lual, Diing, Anei and Jor grew up together in the village of Marielbai. They were separated from their parents when they fled into the bush together. With an estimated 20,000 other children, mostly boys, they walked and ran hundreds of miles across the country. Many, including the five friends, lost family members and other loved ones to wild animals and starvation along a treacherous route to a refugee camp in Ethiopia. Soldiers chased them back into Sudan, and some children drowned or were killed by crocodiles while attempting to cross the infested Gilo River. Others were captured or shot by soldiers or killed in jet bombings. An estimated 11,000 children made it back through Sudan to a refugee camp in Kenya. "It was very hard," Tong said. "There were lions and hyenas. Some people died. And there was starvation."
During a break in the stockroom at Tacoma Grocery Outlet, Lual started to mention a relative who died. Then he looked at the ground and very quietly said, "I don't want to talk about it." Store owner Phillips said that Lual, Tong and Diing are excellent employees and "outstanding young men." They're punctual, polite and eager to learn, he said. The three love football - "soccer" to Americans - and sometimes play pickup basketball at their apartment complex near Tacoma Community College. Jor lives with a church family, and Anei lives in another apartment. Both men are looking for jobs.
Starting over in the Northwest
More than 100 displaced Sudanese children arrived in Western Washington in 2000 and early 2001 as part of a nationwide effort by several large relief organizations to get about 3,500 young refugees out of the Kenyan camp. Betsy Higley, international foster care program manager for Catholic Community Services in Tacoma, had friends working in the camp in 2000 and was able to arrange local foster homes for 30 Sudanese children. "I would hear all about the horror that they went through. I knew when the camp ran out of food," she said. "I started preparing for taking in these kinds of kids." In her experience, the Lost Boys are "very, very hard working, very focused," she said. "Most want to study and be professionals and go back and help their country." Today, she'd like to do more. "I know there are unaccompanied children there," she said. "I'd love to help them. I have licensed families ready to take kids tomorrow."
The Rev. Lyn Corazin of University Place Presbyterian connected with World Relief in 2000, and the church sponsored the five friends. Church member Bob Mohr later became an adviser and contact person for the "Found Men," as he now calls them. All of the young men are trying to decide about school and career options and are concerned about their families, he said. "My heart goes out to them," Mohr said. "If these are the people (Sudan capital) Khartoum doesn't want, we're the lucky ones to have them here. You just fall in love with these guys."
Atrocities bedevil homeland
Several days ago the United Nations resolved to investigate more recent allegations of war crimes in Sudan. Human rights groups say soldiers in a Muslim militia supported by the government have raped and murdered innocent civilians and burned villages to the ground. Nineteen months of conflict have killed 50,000 people and displaced 2 million. Tong quietly states that he has little hope for resolution. "There is no solution," he said. "The fighting is going to continue."
Last year, through an uncle in Kenya, he was able to contact his mother, who still lives in Sudan. He visited her in December and now sends money when he can. He'd like to get his high-school equivalency degree and go to college, but his budget is tight. "I would like to study agriculture," he said. "I have a big clan. I could help." Diing bundles up in a large coat before entering the walk-in cooler at the grocery story. Inside, a much-too-cold environment awaits a person who grew up in Africa and had never seen snow until he came to Washington. Still, he's all smiles as he talks about work and school. He's a student at Bates Technical College and enjoys dental hygiene courses.
Like the others, Lual is good at his job. His friends and family nicknamed him "Motor" at a young age because he was always running. The other young men still call him that often. He said he would like to go to college and take business classes. "I could start good business between this country and Sudan," he said. He also has made contact with his mother, but only by mail. He wants to visit but can't afford it now. "I miss my mother very much," he said. Anei recently located his younger brother, Abram, and discovered that he'd been imprisoned for a year after refusing to join the military in Sudan. In July, Anei flew to Cairo to bring his brother, his brother's wife Cristina and their three young children to Tacoma. Abram and Cristina are taking English As a Second Language classes and looking for work. Mohr said anything that can give the young Sudanese a sense of community here in America would be beneficial.
"They need some type of community," he said. "I think if we can provide that, it will help them, and it will lift their spirits." And in the process, the spirits of their American helpers already have been lifted. "I never had any sons," Mohr said. "They're like sons to me now."
Bill Hutchens: 253-597-8460bill.hutchens@mail.tribnet.com