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CNN Sunday Morning
Sudanese Expatriates Acclimate to America
Aired May 06, 2001 - 08:20 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Remember the saga of the lost boys of Sudan? They were just children, thousands of them, when they were forced by civil war and dire circumstances to walk from Sudan to Ethiopia a decade ago.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now, many of them did not survive the ordeal and those who did found only the bleak refugee camps in Kenya at the end of their journey.
O'BRIEN: Well, now these boys are teenagers and some are being given a chance at a fresh start in the U.S.
PHILLIPS: And in some ways adjusting to life in America is as challenging as the African desert.
CNN's John Vause caught up with a small group of them now relocated in Louisville, Kentucky.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In so many ways, this is a strange new world.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, these aren't flavors, OK, but these are.
VAUSE: Where even ordinary canned beans seem extraordinary.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Perch.
WIEU GARANG: Oh, fish.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Perch.
GARANG: Oh, perch.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have you ever had perch? Do you have perch in the Sudan?
GARANG: No.
VAUSE: A place so very different from a Kenyan refugee camp.
GARANG: And I'm happy to see all these foods. It's not... VAUSE (on camera): You're happy?
GARANG: I'm happy.
VAUSE: It must be confusing, though. I mean all these different kinds of cheese and...
GARANG: Yeah, I'm confused. I'm confused. I don't even know which I should take because I don't even know what it is.
VAUSE (voice-over): At first, Wieu thought it was soy.
(on camera): Cheese.
WIEU: Cheese.
VAUSE (voice-over): This is only their second time in a grocery store. They're amazed there is so much choice, so much abundance. These 10 Sudanese boys now live in Louisville, Kentucky, a mid-size city home to the Kentucky Derby. But these young men have never heard of the famous horse race. Right now, there are too many other wonders.
GARANG: I've seen a lot of cars that I've not seen. This is one of the confusions I've seen. I've never lived in a tall building that I haven't seen. That is one of the confusions. I've not been to where there is electronic houses that when you get into the house the house opens itself alone.
VAUSE: Wieu is talking about the automatic doors at the local grocery store. Becky Jordan (ph) works with the Catholic Refugee Service in Louisville. For the next few months, she'll help with the adjustment.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This bit of the group has some special needs as far as being oriented to the American lifestyle. Then we do a little more orientation. We take them to their home, how to operate this, you know, a gas stove, how to operate, you know, the shower, faucets. I think the other day they were taken out to, we showed them how to take the trash out.
VAUSE: To help settle in, they take orientation classes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don't deactivate the smoke detector.
VAUSE: Along with other refugees, they're taught the basics and also the American Dream.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This country is great about that. You have to work awfully hard, but eventually you can have the things that you want to have if you're willing to work hard enough.
VAUSE: There are English classes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello, Imian (ph), it's nice, it is nice to meet you. Please sit down. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thanks. My feet are killing me.
VAUSE: And the older ones are taught how to use computers. They live together in the old section of town in a grand three story home donated by a local businessman. They sleep three to a room, do their own cooking and cleaning. They have three months to find a job and then must start repaying the U.S. government the $900 air fare it cost to fly from Kenya.
RING CHUOM: And the best thing I like here, I'm free, I learn.
VAUSE: At 22, Ring is the eldest. He remembers well what life was like in the refugee camp.
CHUOM: Some time people are killed at night. Somebody can come and say come out all of you and then kill you and take your properties, the little that you are. So the life in the camp was completely, you had no knowledge are you going to be alive tomorrow.
VAUSE: For almost 10 years, thousands of young men and boys like Ring and Wieu lived in a sprawling camp in north Kenya. They made an incredible journey from southern Sudan. It began in the late 1980s when their villages were bombed during a civil war, their parents killed or missing. In time, their number grew to more than 20,000. They became known as the lost boys and for five years they've walked hundreds of kilometers from Sudan to Ethiopia and finally to Kenya. By then, about half had died.
GARANG: We encountered so many problems, the same thing, starvation, thirsty, wild animals killing people. The enemy attack us. Some other local people come and rape some people. They take these nighttime young boys, take them, they own them.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Children who experience trauma when they're in the presence of their parents or known adults do not suffer nearly as much from the same incident as a child who is alone when experiencing trauma. And these kids were all alone when they had to cross the Gilou River (ph) or when they were bombed or when somebody in their group was eaten by wild animals.
So we see that most of these children and young men continue to have bad dreams and nightmares, sometimes as often as two or three times a week.
VAUSE: It was Julianne Duncan's (ph) job to help decide who would be chosen for relocation. There were strict conditions -- no known relatives or dependents and they had to be in reasonable health.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Some of the young men and children who were possibly going to be part of the resettlement group actually did die of such diseases as diabetes, which are very treatable in the United States. And they died before they had an opportunity to be interviewed and considered for resettlement.
VAUSE: The U.S. State Department and the U.N. High Commission on Refugees have been working with 10 religious and charitable organizations to resettle more than 3,500 young men and boys and some girls in more than 40 cities. So far, 70 have been sent to Philadelphia. Some, like James, Jacob and Archangelo (ph) are in foster care. They live with Nicole Williamson (ph). She's not wealthy. Her home is already crowded with three other foster children.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It has changed my life tremendously. It has opened up my eyes in a lot of different ways. It has made me appreciate things more.
VAUSE: Since arriving a few months ago, they've gained weight and Nicole says they're adjusting well. But she worries about Jacob.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jacob is very shy at times. He is very quiet. He will, in other words, he tends to be to hisself whereas James and Archangelo is like very in tuned with American lifestyle. They're very in tune with everything.
VAUSE: The three have enrolled in Roxboro High (ph) and are determined to get a good education. James wants to be an engineer.
JAMES AKER: Here in America if you don't have training, you have nothing. But that was what brought us here. When we came here we had much to learn.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I had many children tell me that they saw people die of diseases or they saw people die because they drank bad water and as children they couldn't help, they didn't know what to do to help. They didn't have the resources to help. Their desire in life is to learn how to be medical providers or their desire is to learn how to be the people who make clean water, they say. So in the kinds of civil engineering and so on.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm going to mark this off for you.
VAUSE: Everyone they meet, teachers, fellow students, counselors, all make the same observations, these refugees are well mannered, respectful and even in donated clothes carry themselves with pride.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're very quiet, very well reserved. They, it just, it takes time for them to adjust to our language and once they do they get along very well with the other students and they're very bright.
VAUSE: Still, American schools can be a shock to the system.
AKER: Here there is no respect. If teacher is teaching, students are making noise, putting the earphones. They don't want to listen to the teacher.
VAUSE: These boys and young men have left behind a desperate situation and the future looks promising.
(on camera): Right now there is a mood of optimism, even euphoria. But counselors warn in the coming months all that may change as this group of refugees try to turn hopes and dreams into reality.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But I think that they may no have the realistic idea about the kind of work it's going to take to have an education because they're going to have to work, as well. They just can't be a student, because they need to be able to provide for themselves. And when that happens, usually there's -- a depression sets in or a realization sets in that OK, now I'm here and I'm here for the long haul.
VAUSE: After everything they've been through, they say the most important thing is to stay together. That's how they survived their long trek across the African desert and that, they say, is how they'll survive America.
GARANG: They love me and I love them. There is no difference between them and my family.
VAUSE: But now is time to celebrate, to enjoy this new life in this strange new land, time to enjoy being young men and to look forward to a new day.
John Vause, CNN, Louisville, Kentucky.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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