Lost Boys of Sudan, my long journal, education is my mother and father - Essay Example

They traveled through the Saharan Desert in Sudan searching for the United Nations camps. Many lost their lives during this journey, but those who made it actually recollect this event in their lives as a highly maturing experience that has shaped them in to extremely resilient individuals. Life for these young children before the outbreak of war was nothing out of the ordinary; the villages that these children belonged to largely consisted of cattle farmers, therefore from a young age, the boys had been grazing cattle.

With the outbreak of war, many young girls and boy were raped, killed or taken to the north to be sold as slaves. Coming from ordinary villages, there did have small schools in the village but even so, literacy was not that common and many children largely help their parent graze the cattle. After the war, their ordinary lives were completely toppled over and devastated by the violence. Santino Atem Deng was one of the boy who survived the post-independence massacre; one can even refer to him as ‘one of the Lost Boys’.

Since his agonizing journey through his war-ravaged country ended, he was rehabilitated by the SPLP (Sudan People’s Liberation Party). . Deng epitomizes a man who was reformed by education and by becoming a literate and learned man, he was able to cast the demons of his past aside and turn a new leaf. Deng was able to bring this change in his life by getting proper education that truly delivered him from suffering and gave him a new life. (Deng 71-71) He has become a model for Sudanese youth to strive hard to get proper education, because education is the only thing that saves them and their countrymen from the destruction of war and pave way for a more civilized society.

The lost boys of Sudan had come a long way from their home country and often their journey is nothing short of time travel, as they all suffered a massive cultural shock and faced many hardships to get themselves accustomed to the modern society. The documentary film titled “The Lost Boys of Sudan” highlights the struggles of these men and their views of this new land where they were taking refuge in. They all had high hopes out of America, when they were coming here to seek asylum. America has indeed come a long way when it comes to the establishment of stable and modern social structures.

Compared to the people living in other countries, who may experience a cultural-shock or in other words, the individuals may experience a significant amount distress or anxiety, when it comes to acclimatizing oneself to that culture, since the values are too different and modern from their own. Therefore, this anxiety was one of the biggest hurdles in the path of the Lost Boys. They often thought that they were coming to a country where the ‘streets are paved with gold’; however after arriving in the United States, they realized it wasn’t a country