Original subtitles

Austin, Texas.

High Point, High Point, North Carolina.

America.

Here it is. Here it is.

Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania.

The war between North and South,

that is Sudan,

started in 1983.

Two million people lost their lives due to that war,

civil war.

I left when I was six.

The vision, or the picture of...

...Southern Sudan is...

...kind of getting away from me.

It's going away from my mind.

This, my Mother Homeland,

was beautiful and I can compare it to nothing.

The climate was good, the life was nice.

We have a lot of food throughout the year...

...vegetables, fruits, everything.

And it was very rich soil.

My father was a farmer, cattle keeper...

...and I used to tend my cattle with my friends.

In the afternoon, we take them to the riverbank...

...so they can drink water.

But when the war came to Sudan,

we lost all those things.

So then we run away.

The Kakuma refugee camp...

...became home to thousands of orphaned young men,

known as "The Lost Boys of Sudan."

They arrived here after walking a thousand miles...

...through the wilderness of Africa

to escape their country's bloody civil war.

The Lost Boys had little idea they would spend nearly a decade...

...trapped on the border of their beloved country.

I'm proud to be a Sudanese.

It is in my mind that...

...you should be proud of who you are.

So I should be proud of being born in Sudan.

But I cannot go to Sudan if the war is still.

That's the first thing.

If the war is still, I cannot go to Sudan.

When I left Sudan,

it was a time that war broke out in our village.

People come at night with guns...

...and if you are not Muslim, they can kill you.

If there is peace in Sudan, I will come.

But if no peace, I will not come to Sudan.

I will not come to Sudan because people are being shot.

They shoot small people like us.

We don't know...

They have just killed our parents.

Like my father has died at that time...

...when I first go through Ethiopia, when we were running.

We were in cattle camp.

They came and shoot my father...

...which mean if I go now to Sudan, they can kill me again.

Like my mother now, I don't know where she is with her kids.

Maybe they have died. Imagine.

So I cannot go to Sudan again.

In the 1950s,

as the British abandoned colonization of Northern Africa,

they hastily combined two separate territories...

...into one Sudan.

Religion and oil ignited a civil war...

...pitting the Arab north against the black Christian

and animist south.

The first thing was that people were being shot.

Many people have been killed.

Women who were around there with us were being raped.

Boys like us have been enslaved,

others were brutally killed.

In the year 1987,

the government announced...

...to kill all male child in the South...

...regardless of the age.

If you are found and you are a boy,

they can just take you, maybe 12 years old,

they can just cut you.

They can even shoot you,

or they can even take a needle...

...they come and make your testes, you know...

...they just make a hole in your testes.

They want to make you sterile when you grow up.

When our village was attacked by Muslim government troops...

...at night...

...I took my own way...

...and my mom, my dad, they took their own way.

I was in a dilemma.

Have they died?

Are they still alive?

All the small boy children...

...they were putting in the house in my place...

...and they locked the houses and burned the houses.

All children burned in their houses.

So we were told by the elders that all children were burned in their houses.

All men who are living there are dead...

...except people who run to the bush.

So we can't go back...

...to the village.

After the attack on our villages we fled.

Children without parents.

The number was 27,000.

Young men...

...from 10 to five years old.

Forming a line that stretched for miles,

the Boys set a course across sub-Saharan Africa...

...towards Ethiopia in search of safety.

In order to survive,

they formed makeshift families...

...to take care of one another.

My uncle was 11 then.

He was the oldest.

He took care of three of us.

That was the family.

As the Boys travelled further from their villages,

the lush savannah landscape they grew up with along the river Nile...

...soon gave way to a harsher, desert-like terrain...

...which lacked food, water and shelter.

How long we should walk?

We can walk for 100 years.

We can walk for two years.

I don't know how long we can walk.

We ran without anything...

...anything to eat.

It was so difficult, many people were starving.

We didn't have water to drink,

so what happened is we are eating the mud...

...or somebody have to urinate so that you drink the urine.

Children are crying.

Me, I also cry too,

but when I cry there's no tears coming...

...coming out of my eyes.

The Boys had finally reached the border into Ethiopia,

barely resembling their former selves.

They had passed through a world without food or water.

They had survived attacks by lions and hyenas.

And they had survived the bombing raids...

...of the Northern Arab government who wanted to see them finished off.

A camp was formed in Ethiopia...

...that provided the boys with three years of relative calm.

But when the government of Ethiopia toppled in 1991,

the Lost Boys were forced to flee once again,

this time back through the Sudan towards Kenya.

In the summer of 1992,

international aid organizations learned...

...about a large group of Boys traveling through the desert.

They set up a relief operation on the border of Sudan...

...and waited.

Then, on the horizon,

from out of the wilderness,

thousands of Boys appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

By the time the Lost Boys crossed the border into Kenya,

their numbers had been reduced to 12,000.

Having trekked over a thousand miles on foot,

the Boys' enduring five-year exodus...

...out of Sudan was over.

But a new chapter of survival was just beginning.

My name is Daniel Abul Pach.

I've spent 10 years now in Kenya.

I've grown very skinny around because of life here.

Sometimes even more, sometimes no food for some days.

almost sometimes months, you know.

It's a very horrible life.

My stomach is very small now.

It's very small. I want to be like this.

You know, our tradition, if you are found cooking like this...

...your friend will say, "No, I don't want you again because you are a cooker.

You know, you cook."

If you cook, a lady will say, say,

"Ah, why should I go with a man who cook?"

That's not our tradition.

You know, cooking is for ladies...

..so I'm hiding so that they will not see me and make fun of me.

You can see a fence there.

They cannot see me at all.

So when I go outside there I pretend that I'm not cooking.

"Black Days" are those extra days...

...when the food is finished and we have no fire to build.

So we call this place a White House because...

...when we are in these extra days with no food...

...and there's no fire around,

so we gather here to entertain ourselves...

...so that it should not be black everywhere..

...and we entertain ourselves so that we laugh a bit...

...and make the time goes.

Kakuma refugee camp offered the Boys some security,

survival food rations and donated clothing.

The United Nations provided them a basic education...

...where they learned math, science and English.

Lizards, crocodiles and parrots?

Yes.

But once the Boys finished the school program,

there was little left for them to do with their days in the camp...

...except wait and hope for a better future.

When I came into Kakuma...

...I didn't have that my time to stay for 10 years.

I was saying, "Sudan is going to be okay...

...maybe within one month or two weeks."

I thought I would be back to Sudan soon.

That was my imagination.

We are like prisoners...

...because since 1992 to almost 10 years in one place.

See, it's very bad.

I myself, I don't know where I am...

...and where I am supposed to be in future.

We have no parents...

...we have no anybody who is going to take care of us.

I can sometimes go crazy.

I can sometimes think of killing myself.

Life in Kakuma here is just...

...that you are waiting for your grave.

With little hope of finding their parents or families alive...

...and the impossibility of returning to war-ridden Sudan,

the United States agreed to resettle some of the Lost Boys to America.

What city are you going to go and live in?

I'm going to live in Philadelphia.

Is it Philadelphia or Pittsburgh?

Yeah. Oh, no, no. Pennsylvania is a country,

so which means the capital city of it is Philadelphia.

There's Philadelphia and there's Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh.

Yeah, Pittsburgh. I'm going to live in Pittsburgh.

I've seen that my name...

...is that I'm going to New York.

And I have heard that New York is just a bit cold anyway.

Do people go to the river with containers...

-...to draw water for themselves? -For?

For bathing. If you want to take bathing.

There is something called apartment.

I've never heard, met and I've never seen it.

Shower?

How does it look like? Shower?

I've never used electricity...

...so I imagine that it is really very hard for me to do that.

In the United States we heard that there is only one wife.

These things are going to affect us.

Today will be the end of 10 years in Kenya, actually.

I didn't sleep last night and even today.

I will not meet again with my friends so it's kind of upsetting to me, really.

You know, a bit happy, a bit sad.

Daniel will travel with his best friend Panther,

who was also chosen to relocate to Pittsburgh.

Even though we go to the United States now...

...I will not be comfortable when my brother...

...whom I have escaped from my mother homeland together with him...

...left behind.

We came in 1992 in this group...

...so now I want to hand it over,

my secretarial duties, to one of my colleagues...

...who has now become a former,

will become a new secretary...

...as I will be leaving on the 5th August this year.

Daniel says good-bye to the group he lived...

...and struggled with since he was a small child.

He sold his remaining corn rations to buy sweets...

...for some of the children in the camp.

This gift is being given by our secretary...

...because our Parliament is still will be remain the way we act already...

...and it will be still maintained.

So I will start to give the prize to the small children right now.

You are welcome, please.

The ones going away...

...and leaving the Dinka behind...

...are going to forget us back in the camp.

One day when we meet again...

...and you won't pay attention to us...

...I will sing this song...

...to remind you that we have had hardship together.

It goes like...

Good night, black cow

Have you fallen asleep? Have you fallen asleep?

No, I'm still awake

I'm still awake and I'm waiting

If all you guys forget, we will not be happy.

Make sure your letters reach us in the camp.

You guys go with this song...

...and sing this wherever you are...

...and we will sing it here in Africa.

Good night, black cow, good night, black cow

John Bul was among those chosen to relocate to America.

He will be resettled to Syracuse, New York.

Our transit for U.S.A. will start here.

We have Kenya here.

So tomorrow very early, or not very early, we shall move here...

...as it has been described in my book of cultural orientation.

So we shall just leave here...

...up to Europe here.

So from here you also take a plane to...

...to United States of America,

then you pass here, this route,

up to New York, my place.

New York, my place, is here.

This New York...

Very tiny.

So you are going to America?

-Yes. -Why America?

The good-hearted people of America wanted us to go there...

...and to go to school and get a job.

That is why we are going to America. To go to school and get a job.

-That is why you are going. -Yes.

Or is it because you have no more school here?

Let's be honest, John.

Just say that life is hard in the camp, not because of school.

In America you cannot go to bed with an empty stomach.

I have seen that people who come back from America are fatter.

But here there's no food left so, okay, you can go to America.

What I've heard about America makes me have fear.

There are those who do not like to work or are lazy.

They will ask you to dig the latrine or work the farm.

There are other jobs in America besides digging latrines.

Other jobs like cleaning dog teeth.

Singing songs to old people so that they fall asleep.

If I was going to America,

I would work very hard. I would even wash dogs.

Okay, so now go to America and work very hard...

...so you can send money back to us.

My leaving for U.S. is also very painful.

You can even see and judge that it is not very simple...

...to just miss a company like this.

It is like my family now.

Very painful.

I love them so much.

Bye-bye.

-Bye. -Bye.

I like to persevere, or share these very hardships with them.

But when chance comes,

I cannot deny.

I have to go.

I have to go.

John, Daniel and Panther will leave behind their fellow Lost Boys

for the first time since they left Sudan nearly 15 years earlier.

How are you feeling?

I feel confident.

I'm scared.

-Newspaper? -Newspaper?

Ladies and gentlemen, may we have your attention please?

Where is the man talking from?

There you go, sir.

The food we got in the plane...

...was not really as good as what we...

...used to be eating...

...at Kakuma.

It tastes like soap, you know, that small one.

I don't know if it is soap or bitter, really.

I guess it is good. People say, "It is food, you know. Eat."

But when I try a taste, it is like soap, actually.

And even now, I cannot tell.

Is that meat?

Is that milk?

Is that cheese?

I cannot tell.

You shut the door and then you move this switch, okay?

You push it like this.

Yeah, but once we shut the door, you move this switch.

-Okay. -To lock, okay?

Yes.

23 is your apartment, okay?

So all this for you.

Before I forget, each of you should have a set of key...

-...for your house. -Okay.

Okay?

The first thing you have to learn here is the switch...

...to turn light on and off.

Come and see how it's done.

Okay?

And I want one of you...

...you have to learn how to turn it.

On, off, on, off.

This is your refrigerator.

Your food, refrigerator for you.

Okay, you have chicken...

Somebody turned off the light. All right.

You know, your good hand is your right hand,

so, right hand...

-...right hand, cold. -Yeah.

You know, so you don't get burned.

-Okay. -Okay.

Potatoes.

In Africa you used to cook it,

you know, and boil it, okay?

Here they make a different kind.

They make it in a different way.

They call this chips. You know, they slice it, they fry it

and they put it in a bag, okay?

It's ready.

It's already cooked, yes.

Try it, it's yours.

Everything here has belong to you.

We do not throw things away through the window.

We put here. You press this, push.

-You put it this way? -It goes down, right.

-In Africa, you use the bar, right? -Yeah.

Here, yes, here they usually use liquid.

Yes.

-For clothes? -Yes.

No, this not for clothes.

Whatever you use in the kitchen, is it green?

No, no, no, it doesn't become green.

No, green is just the colour.

You see, how you take your shower.

Right, now that's cold water.

So, before even you get in, taking a shower,

you have to check to see if the temperature is good for you.

It's closed, right?

You come and take this up.

Just this, and then take clothes off, okay?

And you sit down, right.

When you are done, you take the toilet papers,

I don't know how many.

It depends how much you...

Right, depending on how much...

-Okay. -...you clean up.

-You clean yourselves. -Yeah, you clean yourselves.

-After all... You close it. -After all.

Okay, before you go there, shake my hand,

-you wash your hands. -You wash your hands first.

-This time you turn it off... -The same way?

No, there you push, here you turn.

In this room is four people?

No, no. There are two beds.

-You have your own bed. -Your own bed.

Good, you don't share the bed.

You share the room with your friend.

You don't share the bed.

-All right. -Okay.

Okay, this is one of the most important things.

This is an alarm clock.

-A radio alarm clock. -Okay.

-Okay, we'll set it up tomorrow. -Okay.

Because as I say, in America, time is money.

-Yes. -Okay.

-Is this edible? -Yes...

-We eat it? -...what you do is you peel,

slice the skin off, cut them up and you can use them for salads.

-Put them on top of a salad. -Without being cooked?

Without being cooked?

-What about this one? -What about this one?

Broccoli, you can do a couple of things.

You can steam it and eat it hot.

You can eat it cold. You can dip it.

You got to make sure you have a good grip on it,

because if you lose it it goes up into the sky...

...and you'll never get it back.

Yeah, you always got to have a good grip on it.

Do you make this out of maize, corn?

We make them all out of scratch. "Bread" is a general term.

They all have different, there's different kinds.

These are just hoagie buns.

-Hoagie bun? -Yeah, hoagie buns.

-Hoagie buns. -Yeah, hoagie buns.

Oh, yeah, hoagie bun, yeah.

Hoagie bun. Hoagie bun.

Is this a food?

These are donuts.

These are coloured sprinkles that we decorate them with.

You want to try one?

Want to taste it?

-Thank you. -Go ahead.

Excuse me, it looks like beans.

They seem like they're fascinated.

Is this also for sale?

Yeah, this is for sale.

You put it in your yard.

It is there in our country.

Yes.

Really, we are surviving.

What about these things, have you for sale?

I was told that...

...the place that we are here is New York State...

...and the place area is Syracuse.

Somebody told me when I was in Kakuma that...

...America is a very strange place.

If you happen to be walking on the way,

on the road, you will meet an accident...

...or somebody may come...

...and he will kill you.

But all in all, I'm now seven days old in America...

...and I have never seen such a thing.

Maybe it will happen, but not now.

As I am talking to you,

America is okay.

That you don't need weights or springs to adjust.

Build that lean, sculpted, sexy look that you want for your body.

Now you add the lower body...

The place that I am now is very good.

But those whom I left in Kakuma,

I left them in a very bad place.

So if I get good place, why not them?

That's my first question.

I don't know what I can tell them,

rather than to say "Thank you" to them.

I really love them.

I don't know...

...those guys.

Anyway, I also pray very hard that God keep them.

Also, keep me alive.

And I have to do what is expected of me.

That's my duty. People have hope in me.

When we run away from Sudan...

...despite me being 13...

...I was taller than the others...

...so I had to be select out, that please,

"You are big now, so please go and,

and do this job."

So I had to take care of them.

I was in charge of one group.

1,200 and something person.

That was the time I learned how to bury the dead bodies.

That was part of my job.

I have to go and bury my fellow brothers.

Imagine, at the age of 13, can bury.

It was so difficult.

It was so bad.

But because of the situation...

...and our time, what do we do? We have to do that.

It was as if...

...the last day, as people say in the Bible...

...that there will be a last day...

...that Jesus Christ will come...

...whatever on Earth will be judged.

That was my imagination.

I thought that God felt tired of...

...of people on Earth here,

felt tired of the bad deeds...

the bad thing that we are doing, yet God is watching on us.

I think God...

I thought God got tired of us...

...and he want to finish us.

When I think of it back...

...it was so bad anyway.

You can even think of,

you can even regret why you were born.

Why you were born.

Now, I wonder, I'm now again wearing clothes,

feeling very happy, and so anyway, everything has an end.

Has an end.

Even if there's problem in Sudan still...

...maybe one time, one day, one minute,

it will come to an end.

We really suffer.

People have hope in me.

So it will be bad for me to fail them.

I was wonder, how come I came to this place?

So when I sleep,

-it seem as a dream actually. -I found myself...

...sleeping in six mattress inches, eh?

-Imagine this. -So it was very comfortable.

And at Kakuma we used to sleep just on the ground.

You see, you open, you put it.

After it got full, you take it out.

This is a cupboard.

Now, it's comprised of different things.

Here you can see...

...these are meat. This is meat.

This is a chicken.

It's now in the very cold. It's being refrigerated.

-So you can see a lot of things. -This is meat of different things.

This is, we call it...

Franks! This is frank.

This is Pepsi and we call it, in Africa we call it Coca-Cola.

No, it's written "Pepsi." Imagine.

It tastes very nice, you know.

Even though we are now in United States,

we are eating well, we are sleeping well.

We think a lot of our own brothers, mothers and fathers.

And even now, we don't feel comfortable.

So I'm worried about them.

But they are very happy...

...if I will be self-reliant, self-sufficient,

to support myself...

...and to stand on my own feet,

then I will see.

I will even send them something so that they can survive with it.

Okay, here is Catholic Charities.

I will introduce everybody.

What is a Social Security card?

Everybody to work, to do something,

even if you are a baby born today,

you have a Social Security card.

We don't show it to somebody.

It's private, you keep it for you.

-Okay. -Okay?

And you have to sign your application yourselves.

First name, middle name, and last name.

The Lost Boys are not allowed to work...

...until their Social Security cards and work visas are processed.

Until then, the government will give them three months of federal assistance.

After that time,

they will be expected to work and provide for themselves.

They also must begin to repay the U.S. government...

...for their air travel to America.

I am very happy if they give me job,

I can support myself.

And if I work on my own, I can buy whatever I like.

So I'm very happy if they employ me within the interval of three months.

I will be very happy.

It will surprise many people.

Oh, look at these people are eating even using their hands.

But this is look traditional.

This will make us to look more Dinka.

Make us look more African.

Because as you know,

a person without culture is like a human being without land.

So it is good to keep our tradition.

Oh, God. I wish I were dead.

I said I wished I were dead.

-Hello? -Tracey, it's Jake.

Oh, hi, where are you?

I'm in the middle of nowhere, dressed like Santa Claus,

being attacked by a killer tumbleweed.

-Cool! -Get me Dad.

When did I become your slave?

-The day you were born. -The day you were born.

Oh, right.

Oh, Dad!

Would you mind to explain a bit what is Santa mean?

And why do you set up this...

...a Christmas tree?

Yes, a bit beautiful,

but what is the meaning?

That's all we are asking...

...to any American to tell us what's the meaning of this.

Is it in the Bible?

Is Santa also in the Bible?

I've never.

That is Santa Claus, it's Santa Claus.

And how does it connected with the birth of Jesus Christ?

I think many of us have so many questions to ask...

...but I think we have few, few people to answer them.

The force of gravity will act on me and since I'm very tall.

I don't know if I can do it.

Is it easy to make it?

Yes, it's easy.

-Can I, can I make it? -Yes, you can make it.

-Oh, I fear it! -It's great.

This is very dangerous. I cannot do it.

I cannot do it.

I want to try it now. I want to try it.

Andrew is like a soldier wounded in the war.

You have so many things to use...

...to celebrate the Christmas.

What we have in Africa is also good,

but ours is mainly celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ,

that Jesus Christ is going to be born in our heart.

So we have to prepare ourselves spiritually.

Christmas Eve in Kakuma camp...

...people have to march around the streets,

dancing and singing.

We are missing them.

We are missing friends.

We are missing our fellow countrymen.

Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, guy.

We want not to be late for work.

Sometimes they drop us there at 5:00 and we begin at 7:00,

so we have to be outside sleeping somewhere.

Assisted by both church organizations and refugee services,

John gets a job in a factory packing gaskets.

Volunteers drive John to work before dawn.

So John must wait outside for two hours...

...before the factory doors open.

Now this is part of my work.

It's gaskets.

Me and Margaret, we make them look good and arrange them.

I think it's so simple.

The work is very very very good.

Anything that is generating money,

is generating income,

so that I get money and help my people back.

Okay, thank you very much.

-You're welcome. Have a good night. -Yeah, thank you.

After working a full shift at the factory,

John starts his second job,

grilling burgers at McDonald's.

Is it wonderful?

It's very wonderful.

If my African fellow brothers or...

...people in Africa hear that...

...we are serving people in a restaurant,

McDonald's,

they can laugh at me.

But no problem. That's struggle.

Daniel works in downtown Pittsburgh processing checks at Mellon Bank.

He earns $6.50 an hour.

It's difficult here in America.

Everybody goes to work.

You have different schedules, you have different work.

No time even for family to be together.

Why is it tough like that?

I usually go home late at night.

I usually start work at 4:00 and finish at 12:00,

then take bus at 12:15,

but sometimes you miss the bus like I miss it today.

So I may wait until 1:00

and reach home at 2:00

and wake up in the morning time at 7:00.

You know, that's hard.

Everything is different.

It's kind of irritating because people know you're from Africa.

They say, "Where are you from, Africa?" "Yes."

Some people, they say, "Do they live in the forest?"

Nobody's born in the forest, you can't live in the forest.

You have to live in a house.

In the United States, people are not friendly.

You can find someone that's walking in the street by himself, you know,

don't even talk, you know.

You cannot go to the house of somebody you don't know,

though you are all Americans.

They call the police and say, "Why did this guy come to my house?

I don't know him."

But in Sudan, they can ask you, "Have you got lost?

Are you new to this place?" They can ask you that.

You say, "I'm new to this place," they can show you where you are.

You can even talk with them.

It is important we ask them, how do people walk in this area?

How do people feel when you ask somebody,

"Now, can you show me a way?"

How do you feel, you know?

That's difficult. You cannot even ask them because these are different people.

That's really difficult. I don't know.

How are we going to be acquainted with this life here?

It's a great shame, actually.

Merchants in Daniel and Panther's neighbourhood...

...have filed complaints with the local police in Pittsburgh.

They feel intimidated by the Boys entering their stores in large numbers.

So a meeting was called to advise the Boys...

...not to travel in groups.

Do you find everything really new and different here?

-Yes. -A lot of...

Do you have a lot of freedom here that you didn't have?

-Yeah. -Yeah.

S-U-D-A-N.

What does that mean?

Yeah, Sudan.

What does it mean?

It's a country where I came from.

So it's a country of black people, you know.

They look black, all of them.

You go there, you cannot find white man.

-Now I'm getting you. -Okay.

When I lived in Kakuma, we were living as a group.

People are together every day.

But now, here, it's just only four of us.

Four of us are not enough, so...

...it is difficult.

One year in America...

...and separated from their friends back in Africa,

the Lost Boys are faced with an increasing sense of loneliness.

Many turn to local agencies...

...in hope of finding the families they lost during the war.

Imagine I left my parents at the age of 13.

That was long long time ago.

I've been looking for them,

sending many letters through Red Cross and through many agencies...

...but nothing, nothing replied my messages.

This is my workplace.

This is beautiful. You see people working with me.

This is good atmosphere.

People are so friendly.

People say the hard time you take now maybe will pay off.

So I have that hope.

Hard times to do those things,

like going to work, going to school

establish a new life in a new place without parents.

You don't have a choice to be together like in the camp,

like in Kakuma.

Hello, this is Panther. How can I assist you?

Daniel Pach is my best friend.

He's going to work different place,

I go to work different place, we come home late,

we don't see one another for even two, three weeks.

So it's kind of lonely.

But this is the life of America.

We learn them.

We're getting used to them.

You see now, my apartment is look nice.

Little by little, we're learning the culture over here.

Daniel has found it increasingly difficult to afford college,

so he has enrolled in the Pittsburgh Job Corps.

Job Corps will help pay for school and find him work,

but the program requires him to live in their dormitories.

So Daniel is forced to move out of the apartment...

...he's been sharing with Panther.

John enrolls at a local community college,

finally realizing the dream he had back in the camp in Kenya.

Now let's see, one of the very first things about coming to college at all,

it's the social deal, right? You want to meet new people.

So here's how it's gonna work. I'm going to give you 30 seconds,

and in that 30 seconds I want you to meet somebody...

...that's to the left, the right, the front, behind you.

So I'm going to give you literally 30 seconds, okay?

Three, two, one.

30 seconds, go.

-What's your name? -My name's John.

What are you studying?

I'm studying it all.

Sweet.

All of the guys who are now in the United States,

we can do something much better than just going to a factory job, working.

Your last name begins with a "D"?

So, right now I'm going to school to be something higher than that.

It's really a very crucial and very important day for me today...

...because I'm starting my future.

Dear Brother John Bul Dau,

it is very very long time...

...for us without hearing each other...

...since you have escaped the attack.

We are very happy...

...that you are alive.

We thank God for helping you in the...

...in all these crises.

I just received a mail.

When I got the news...

...I jumped up. I jumped up.

I don't believe my ears.

I completely don't believe my eyes.

My dad and my mom,

my three brothers, my three sisters are living...

...are living in Uganda.

This my father and this is my mom.

This is my mom.

So this is my family.

These are my sisters.

This is my sister...

...and those are relatives.

This is my brother.

He look like me.

Maybe he's taller than me or I'm taller than him.

I don't know.

If really you are in United States of America,

please learn that all your sisters,

mother, brothers are...

...suffering from disease in Uganda refugee camp...

...and they are naked.

Our uncle Leck Deng...

...was killed by government troops.

And uncle Anderia Ayuel...

...also killed, and...

...their five children...

...were also killed.

The rest of our clan, all...

also killed and...

...our home was destroyed.

Right now...

...I'm feeling a weight.

I now know they are there.

So I think it is my time to help them.

I'm strong enough to do that.

The discovery of my family...

...changed some plans I had already planned.

Where's the razor blade? Knife?

I was about to go to school this month.

But when I discovered they are there,

I had to work two jobs and even three jobs.

I decided personally...

...not to go to school...

...until...

...I change their situation...

...by sending money to them.

I am hoping to bring my family here.

So that I know they are well,

and I know they are secure.

John has been juggling three jobs,

wiring nearly every dollar saved to his parents in Africa...

...to clothe and feed them.

He also continues to support his friends back in the refugee camp in Kenya.

Yeah, they know they have to go to Darshir.

You see, do you know why I'm worried?

The amount of money is...

the amount of money that I sent,

this is a huge amount of money.

Imagine 1,000 U.S. dollars.

I thought when I come to America...

...then I have to make myself, okay, try to help my people,

try to help my country.

But now it's really difficult.

I want these people to use the money right away.

If I confirm that...

...money have not been received,

then I will call you tomorrow.

Okay, bye.

We have been called from Africa so many times.

Like one day we have to find...

...like 28 messages...

...in our answering machine.

And it's so painful to say, "No, I don't have money.

No, I don't have money."

So we continue sending money, sending money, sending money like that...

...and we shall end up with nothing.

But what can I do?

Can I run away from work?

If I do so, then I will be a failure in life, so I don't want to do that.

And that's why I'm saying...

...it's not what I was thinking.

I thought we shall go further than this.

All right, well, he can talk to Officer Newell until 3:00.

Just check in and see if that guy checked back in.

-Okay. -Okay.

One of the Lost Boys who travelled to America...

...with Daniel and Panther has been reported missing by the other Boys.

He hasn't returned home for two days.

-All right. -Thank you for coming.

All right, take it easy, guys.

He always go to work and come back as time goes by,

but when he left here on the 2nd,

he never came back, and his phone is shut off.

So we worry about him. That's why we reported it to police.

So that they will look about.

The missing Lost Boy in Pittsburgh was eventually found a few days later,

despondent and mentally unstable.

The police arrested him for erratic behaviour on a public bus.

He was later admitted to a psychiatric hospital for observation.

The Lost Boys all over the United States,

they still have that image of war.

They lose mind easily.

They put everything that they have seen into their mind.

Now they're mixed up.

They become confused.

The human mind is complex.

It's not easy to go inside and take away the bad thing. No, not easy.

We see other people are walk with their girlfriends. We can't.

We see other kids are walk with their parents. We can't.

But what can we do?

Can I cry?

Can I say I want my father?

There's nothing I can do.

They kill my father. I see with my eyes.

I can remember.

So he was down. I thought he would wake up, because...

...I was learning that people die, you know, straight away,

and they don't come back.

It's something that I cannot even forget.

I even sometimes dream that there's airplanes bombing people...

...like the way it was in the Sahara.

The airplanes come, called Antonov,

come "wooo" at night.

I do sometimes get scared, but then when I wake up

I see I'm in America.

When we run away from Sudan,

people lose their mother, their brother, sister,

so they feel hopeless.

Some even feel like to kill themselves.

When I see that,

I come up with different ideas, to help them,

so they forget easily what they are thinking...

...and not feel lonely.

That's why I started Parliament, little Parliament.

I came up with that idea that I bring people together...

...and give each other a chance to talk and say whatever you say.

I used to sit under the tree and tell them stories.

So everyone come always to hear what I'm saying.

They forget about war,

they forget about what is going on with them...

and they come together like a family.

That's the way I helped them in the camp.

They say they miss that.

They say, "Daniel, you know, no Parliament there?"

Is there no Parliament there in the United States?"

I said, "No no, we are working. There's no time."

Now I feel bad because...

...we have been suffering all these days...

...and we come to the United States,

we have opportunity of helping them.

But what can we do?

It's something really hard.

I believe as a person...

...people have different talents...

...and all those talents are serving the community.

God does not create me...

...as very tall person for nothing.

I have a role to play.

I had a duty to do.

I was not just born like that.

But I was born to do something.

I can help to apply for the coming of my mother and my sister.

Those are very important things that I need to do.

But they are not, they are not going to be,

that is not my limit.

Do you know what we are doing today?

we are going to show the society, or the community, of Syracuse that...

...that there is war in Sudan...

...and there is something that needs to be done.

We are now remembering those who have died...

...on all those journeys.

From Sudan to Ethiopia,

from Ethiopia to Kenya,

we have to remember.

To me, I know I cannot forsake my culture.

American people do not know about Africa,

but they will know when we show it.

The Dinka is a very small group in southern Sudan.

-Yes? -And Dinka...

So we are here like ambassadors in this country.

I feel like I'm in Africa.

It's like a camp, like Kakuma camp,

where all of us meet together and we chat and we talk...

...on all those issues.

What we are doing today is the guys came together...

...to have a common strategy on the betterment of our future.

Then we can be able to help ourselves in the United States...

...and our people back home.

Being a Dinka man, it requires you to help.

That's very important.

But I'm worried with the young guys,

the Sudanese young guys,

those who can easily give up whatever they have.

What if they forsake culture?

How is this people going to be?

-What's up, man? -You seen my car?

Let me show you my car.

Check out what's going on here.

Everything went great and it's still going on.

Where are you from?

From KC, Kansas City.

Can you film the inside?

What are you doing there? The way you are dressing,

the way you are doing your hair,

the way you are conducting yourselves,

you are away from our culture. Please come back.

Direct confrontation.

Even if he don't want,

tell him "Change from there."

There is great changes.

But now we are learning them.

This is totally weird.

When we first came, if you get like 200 bucks,

that was big.

But now, there's a lot, lot of bills.

I have to pay my car bills,

I have to buy gas and you know that gas is...

...sucks. It's, it's expensive!

So, it's hard to get something,

but if you can manage,

it's a land of opportunity.

This is the first step.

I want to go to the camp,

marry my girlfriend.

I want to move her here...

...to make life a little bit easy.

I graduated with my high school diploma.

I graduated with my Associate degree.

I'm going to Pitt University, get my...

...my Bachelor's.

My country's rich, got a lot of oil,

got a lot of gold.

But our people don't know how to exploit them.

So I have to come there, build a school,

tell people the direction.

And I can tell there's...

...there's improvement I'm bringing in the world.

Up to this point, I have to admit...

...that I was so so stressful.

But today I'm okay.

I talked to my mom on the phone.

I talk in Dinka, "Oh, my mom, how are you?"

She said, "You are not.

Please tell John Bul to come."

I told her, "Mom, my mom...

"I'm not the 14-year-old boy you knew.

"I'm changed, I'm a big man,

"a tall man, changed voice."

When I brought her around,

she just shed the tears.

So I have to resist.

How can I cry?

Let my cry and tears turn to...

...love or happiness.

So it was good for me.

I wish I was having...

...a plane.

Then I could have gone already.

I want to see them.

John travels to Phoenix, Arizona,

to meet with Lost boy delegates from 23 different states...

...at the National Lost Boys Conference.

He has been elected secretary...

...of the Foundation for the Unity of Lost Boys in America.

Most of the Lost Boys and Girls are living now...

...in 23 states in the United States.

So we need to have a united body, one,

to encourage unity among us.

We are like more than family,

because we know each other when we are just in childhood age...

...and so it's like more than family.

We can take care of our education here in the United States.

We're trying to raise some money for the Lost Boys and Girls to go to school.

That's one thing.

Number two is that we need to have a united delegation...

...to represent our problem in Sudan to the White House.

I would like to thank my team and I would like everybody...

...to clap for them for the incredible job that they have done.

America is a superpower.

I think it is advisable for the American government...

...to look into our problem.

John has been traveling to other cities and towns...

...urging for support to put an end to the war and genocide in Sudan.

I can't go to Sudan, my country.

Yeah, otherwise you can't come back.

Not only you can't come back, but you'll be persecuted.

If the government look into the problem in Kosovo,

why not in Sudan?

Are we not human beings like other human beings?

Can we not be helped?

Our people are being killed every day...

...and face persecution.

Some of us have never seen their families...

...since they were seven, six, five years old.

Please talk to your government...

...so that the problem in southern Sudan will be solved...

...and there will be no more Lost Boys...

...and there will be no more Lost Girls.

Thank you. God bless you.

We are in Whole Foods Market.

This is Whole Foods Market. You can see here my sign.

It's Whole Foods Market.

And this is produce, so I'm working in produce.

So the good thing here is you must have to be born...

...with good personality to work with customers,

to work with everybody.

You must have to have knowledge of people.

I'm just working here with this young lady.

She's so nice, you know, when I first came.

People are like, "What's this?"

And I'm like, "This is a good fruit, you can taste it."

And I have to go and cut it, you know, so that they taste how it tastes like.

I'm going to mess up whatever you're doing.

No problem, it's no problem. There is no problem there.

Because I have to pick.

I was going to work, the Whole Foods Market where I work.

Then I found one lady, she was crying.

People walked by. Nobody talked to her.

Nobody comforted her.

And me, I had that image, like what I know in the camp.

I know when someone is in pain, the best way...

...is to go and involve in his problem.

So I go to her and ask her, "What is your problem?"

I thought she would not accept what I say,

but she look at me and she feel a little bit at home.

You can help people in so many ways, the way I see it.

Like the war in Sudan, it seems like there's no answer...

...but the answer for it is there,

because if you have good leaders in Africa,

they would know how to treat people.

But they don't know how to treat people.

They think of their own and they neglect others.

Like in Sudan, how long war been in Sudan?

It is a shame for that country to be in war.

It is a shame to have people that doesn't take care of their own people.

I'm sure my mom is alive...

...because I heard some of the Lost Boys found their mothers, you know.

Someone say, "I found my sister or my brother."

So I wish there is an opportunity of having that, you know,

going back to Africa.

An opportunity of finding them where they are.

I can do that, because I'd like to see my mother...

...and my small brothers and sisters.

I miss them, really.

In 1987, when he was 13,

John Dau became separated from his parents and siblings...

...as he fled an outbreak of violence near their home in Southern Sudan.

He wandered hundreds of miles...

...across Sudan and neighbouring East African countries...

...for several years,

before settling as a refugee in Syracuse.

During that time,

he believed his family had been killed.

Today, Dau will be reunited with his mother Anonde.

Ooh, man.

That's good.

Man, I can't wait to see my mother.

What I really remember about her when I was young,

I used to see her up.

You know, look her up and,

and I don't know whether that would be the case today.

She was so tall, and...

...I don't know now.

I think she is now maybe way down.

I will look her down.

They said U.S...

...3736.

That's the flight number.

Are you nervous?

Yeah, you know, it's not easy.

17 years of separation without seeing them.

It's very...

It's very amazing.

I'm scared.

You know, she used to tell me that...

..."You have to work." She was very hardworking.

"You have to work. Otherwise,

"you will not live."

I don't know what that,

what that means when I was at home,

but I knew now what she was telling me.

It's a good day.

A very good day in my life.

It's a very good day. I'm just...

I'm just happy.

Anyway, I'm so sorry for the other Lost Boys...

...that are not getting reunited with their family today,

like what I'm doing.

Hey, hey, mama.

Ma.

In 20 minutes,

I'm going to the airport.

I'm going to Africa.

So I'm very excited about it.

The purpose of going there is to see my homeland.

Plus I'm going back and I'm getting my wife.

This is the girl I'm going to wed in a week.

So this is my girl right here.

It's so beautiful there, I can say.

I was swimming along the Nile.

My mother home is just like a couple of minutes,

like five, 10 minutes from the riverbank.

It's evergreen throughout.

There's a lot of animals...

...in the forest.

A lot of cattle.

It's fun.

I hope you can come there and see our mother homeland.

It's so nice. I love it.

Thank you.

This is the best.

I'm going to Africa.