A Wandering Lamb of Sudan Finds a New York Sheepskin
Then war. His finger moved along the page, reflecting the circuitous path of boys moving eastward toward Ethiopia, where safe haven proved fleeting. They were forced back to Sudan in a flight that included crossing the Gilo River, where some drowned or were dragged under by crocodiles. Two relatives helped carry young Joseph across.
"I rotated around," he said, his finger stopping on places he had been: Bor, Mallek, Mongalla, Torit, others. Military attacks took their toll, as did starvation and thirst. Joseph saw boys stop walking, heard them say, "I can't go." He heard the muffled cries of boys set upon by lions and hyenas. He saw boys die; friends.
"Wandering, walking all over, not knowing where to go," he said. "But keep going. Don't give up."
Finally, Joseph's band of boys reached Lokichokio, in northern Kenya. "From here, we didn't walk anymore," he said.
Joseph spent nine years in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, where he learned to read, write and speak English. At some point an official rechristened him Joseph Malual Thuc. When he began to argue that Thuc was not his last name, the official told him to shut up or he'd never leave Africa. Like all the other boys, he was given a birth date of Jan. 1.
Through a special program established by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, thousands of Lost Boys came to the United States. Joseph arrived in Philadelphia in December 2000, shivering in a white T-shirt and a white baseball cap. He had never seen snow before.
HIS long forefinger traced the journey of his lost childhood, across a map of East Africa that detailed the rivers and mountains, but not the lions and hyenas, the gunfire and death. "My home is supposed to be here," the young man said, allowing his fingertip to linger on a spot where the Sudanese village of Wangulei would be.
posted by Whitney Tilson at 8:51 AM
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