I just finished watching the documentary, God Grew Tired of Us, for the third time since it came out quite a number of years back. It's about a group of Sudanese boys who had walked the breadth of Sudan during the war and the relocation of some of them to the US. There were, if I remember right, 20 000 when they set off, and 12000 when they arrived: others had starved to death, been eaten by hyenas, or shot. One of the so called 'Lost Boys,' Dau, said that the situation around them in Sudan seemed too dystopian not to be the end of the world, that he thought that god had grown tired of them. It sounds lovely and poetic but when he says it in the doci, you can see that was actually what he believed, that it was really that bad.
Here is a very short description of those 12 years. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/explorers/bios/john-bul-dau/
When they relocated to America, they didn't know how to use electricity, turn on a tap, cope with western cooking or, worst of all, cope with the loneliness of western life after having lived so communally and intimately back in Sudan.
The reason I'm writing is because one particular 'boy' took my interest on this viewing--a man named John Bul Dau, because we have been speaking a lot about disabilities and overcoming obstacles here on the forum lately. So I Googled him and see that, despite the fact that he could barely read when he arrived in the US, even after three years, he's gone on to study at university level, become a human rights activist, motivational speaker, and social entrepreneur with about three separate nonprofits. He's achieved massive things for Sudan.
When he was 13, he was the tallest in the group, so he was responsible for burying the dead bodies of those in his community while they were trying to escape the war; something that he found incredibly traumatic. He also didn't know whether his mother and family were alive or dead and hadn't seen them in over a decade. The trauma of the Sudanese experience had some of the group becoming mentally unstable and admitted to psychiatric wards in the US. The sheer scale of what this man, Dau, has achieved despite his circumstances is inspirational, but more importantly, it reminds me of the things that really matter when we are overcoming. It's very difficult to explain what I 'got' from the doci without shrinking it, but Dau arrived in the USA with the aim of getting a job that would allow him to send money back to his people. He realised that he couldn't earn enough. He started addressing congress and began a nonprofit organisation to raise money instead. He had the intellect to study and become anything, to earn top dollars as a lawyer or a doctor or a CFO, but he held on to his original aim to take care of his people instead. As a result, it seems that his life is as he would choose it. Of course he would change the Sudanese situation but his entire journey has been a humanitarian one in every sense of the word. National Geo named him one of their 'explorers' for exploring the depth of human suffering. It's difficult to understand the humanitarian aspect of it without seeing the documentary. I highly recommend watching it.
Here is the most recent piece I could find on Dau.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/01/140108-john-bul-dau-south-sudan-war-world-lost-boy/
Here is a very short description of those 12 years. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/explorers/bios/john-bul-dau/
When they relocated to America, they didn't know how to use electricity, turn on a tap, cope with western cooking or, worst of all, cope with the loneliness of western life after having lived so communally and intimately back in Sudan.
The reason I'm writing is because one particular 'boy' took my interest on this viewing--a man named John Bul Dau, because we have been speaking a lot about disabilities and overcoming obstacles here on the forum lately. So I Googled him and see that, despite the fact that he could barely read when he arrived in the US, even after three years, he's gone on to study at university level, become a human rights activist, motivational speaker, and social entrepreneur with about three separate nonprofits. He's achieved massive things for Sudan.
When he was 13, he was the tallest in the group, so he was responsible for burying the dead bodies of those in his community while they were trying to escape the war; something that he found incredibly traumatic. He also didn't know whether his mother and family were alive or dead and hadn't seen them in over a decade. The trauma of the Sudanese experience had some of the group becoming mentally unstable and admitted to psychiatric wards in the US. The sheer scale of what this man, Dau, has achieved despite his circumstances is inspirational, but more importantly, it reminds me of the things that really matter when we are overcoming. It's very difficult to explain what I 'got' from the doci without shrinking it, but Dau arrived in the USA with the aim of getting a job that would allow him to send money back to his people. He realised that he couldn't earn enough. He started addressing congress and began a nonprofit organisation to raise money instead. He had the intellect to study and become anything, to earn top dollars as a lawyer or a doctor or a CFO, but he held on to his original aim to take care of his people instead. As a result, it seems that his life is as he would choose it. Of course he would change the Sudanese situation but his entire journey has been a humanitarian one in every sense of the word. National Geo named him one of their 'explorers' for exploring the depth of human suffering. It's difficult to understand the humanitarian aspect of it without seeing the documentary. I highly recommend watching it.
Here is the most recent piece I could find on Dau.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/01/140108-john-bul-dau-south-sudan-war-world-lost-boy/
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