The Lost Boys of Sudan

The title seems random, I know. But, has anyone seen this movie? If so, you might recall some of the Lost Boys ended up in Kansas City. Well, one of my students is from Sudan and she invited me to a Sudanese party on Saturday night. As a rule of thumb I ALWAYS try to attend anything my students invite me to, especially if it is something highlighting their culture. Very rarely do they invite mainstream Americans in, more because they don't think we will like it, rather than because they feel uncomfortable. I have often times been the only "white" person (as they say) at many of these events and Saturday night was no exception. I took a friend of mine who also likes this sort of stuff and when I saw my student she gave us a huge smile. She was so proud that we came.

The party was a nationwide reunion for all of the Lost Boys to come in and reunite. There were hundreds of people there, the men all dressed in suits and the women in beautiful African or mainstream dresses. There was tribal music, tribal dancing, lots of smiles, and lots of hugs. I felt so blessed to be part of something so powerful! Many of the people came up to me and introduced themselves and explained the significance of this reunion to my friend and me. We even got a direct translation from a kind women who explained to us what the speaker was saying, since NOTHING was in English. It went something like this. "The man is blessing the Lost Boys and congratulating them for how far they have come. He reminds the boys how they had to drink each others pee to survive while they were in Sudan. Now he tells the boys they don't drink pee anymore." Although I smile at the translation, the message of survival is powerful. These boys did everything they could to survive, in a time of war. It gives the word survivor a whole new meaning to me. Yes, I will be a survivor as well, but these boys, now men, have my full respect and admiration for what they had to survive through.

Anyhow, it was a great way to spend my Saturday night. I felt like I was right back in Africa again. So, this whole no flying thing is easy when there really is culture all around us. It is everywhere. We just have to be willing to see it.

If you haven't seen the movie, I highly recommend it! Especially since Sudan is just now coming out of war.

If I feel okay this Saturday, my Iranian student invited me to a Persian picnic. I really hope I'm up for it!