The thing that struck me over and over again was how much joy Dut had. He was a very upbeat person. He smiled, joked, and enjoyed a good laugh. He was warm and engaging. I would have expected someone who had lived through Dut's circumstances to be downcast, bitter and angry. Dut did not show hint of bitterness or resentment.
Dut continued telling his story.
After a year of being cloistered in the Ethiopian countryside, the lost boys were found by the U.N. The U.N. set up camps for them. Dut recalls some American congressman being among the early group of westerners to visit the U.N. camps. Dut laughed as he recalled memorizing a song in English … he had no idea what he was singing at the time … he learned to sing "Welcome, welcome, American congressman." We enjoyed a good laugh.
Dut learned his A-B-Cs in a makeshift school sitting under a tree with hundreds of other Sudanese children. He took his deceased brother's advice to heart. He was respectful, and he listened intently to those who were older. He knew he needed to learn to read to have "a good life."
Dut paused to eat. I seized upon the silence. "Dut, are you a Christian?", I asked.
His face lit up. "Yes. I became a Christian when I was in the camp. I saw a picture of Jesus on a cross. I did not understand it. I began asking around. Finally, I met a boy who explained to me who Jesus was. He explained why he was dying in the picture. I prayed and became a Christian that day."
Dut continued his story. They had to flee Ethiopia because war began to break out there. Dut fled to Kenya, and new camps were set up. These camps were better supplied. Catholic and Lutheran groups played a huge role in caring for the lost boys.
Dut grew up in Kenya, basically. As some of the other lost boys grew up, they returned to Sudan to fight in the war. Dut chose not to do this. He wanted to try and live as good a life as he could, and eventually find his mother and father one day.
As an interesting aside, Dut witnessed the Al Qaeda bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi. It was carnage as he described it.
"How did you get to the U.S.?", I asked.
Dut explained how the Catholic and Luthern ministries led an effort to resettle as many of the lost boys into the U.S. as they could. Five thousand of the ten thousand remaining lost boys were accepted … though as Dut describes it, there was a lot of corruption on the part of the Kenyan authorities who were overseeing this. Some boys were left behind on false technicalities.
Dut arrived in the U.S. just a few years ago. He was resettled, and continues to live, in Richmond. There were several locations besides Richmond that the lost boys were placed into.
His story then took an amazing twist. He met another Sudanese man while playing soccer at a park in Richmond. It was a providential meeting.