The Lost Boys of Sudan

Gun shots are heard in the distance. Your heart is beating quicker and quicker and you palms are becoming increasingly wet. All you can do is pray to god that you manage to get away. There is a high possibility that your mother, father and even your siblings are dead. You are finally taken into a refugee camp where you see unfamiliar faces. Food is scarce and the living conditions aren’t much better. All you do is hope that you will escape this hardship in Sudan and move to America or any other first world country to live the good life. You have very little knowledge of America but you believe it must be better than the hardship experienced in Sudan. This portrays exactly what happens in the documentary Lost Boys of Sudan. The documentary follows two Sudanese refugees Peter and Santino. These two individuals imagine America as a place where everything is possible. To earn money, to get an education, live in a house, eat food and most importantly help their people of Sudan. Knowing what these two men have experienced, it baffles me how positive they still remain throughout the course of the documentary. When the Lost boys arrive in Houston, Texas, they are taken in by the YMCA organization. This organization does some good for the boys by providing them with a place to stay, basic English training, and a chance at a job. While it may seem like the organization has done a lot for the boys, I feel as though they did not do nearly enough for them. Let me explain why. Firstly, it was quite evident that the boys had a very basic level of English proficiency but it merely was not enough for them to interact with employees or children in school. Why did they not help them get registered for school and put them into English classes? Secondly, it was impossible for the boys to attend school because they had to pay their rent and bills. You have to take the consideration of buying food, transportation, and the time it takes to get to the job. It really is time consuming for people in a new environment. Thirdly, neither the organization nor the government of America did little to help the boy integrate into the American society. They did not teach them the basic things in American society. Take for example when the Sudan boys figure out that it is inappropriate for men to touch other men. They were shock to find out that Americans view it as homosexuality. These organizations need to do more to help them adjust into the American society.
Overall the only person to accomplish something in America was Peter who left Houston to live in Kansas. I personally feel that Peter betrayed Santino and the rest of the boys back in Houston. He simply just vanished and left without saying goodbye or even paying the half of the rent. Now I don’t blame him that much because he obviously saw an opportunity to live better in Kansas where he obviously gets an education and eventually becomes an honour roll student. The only thing I did not like about him was the way he left Houston without telling anybody. I sympathise towards Santino because he was the only one paying the bills in Houston. I could tell on his face that he wasn’t having such a great time in Houston. He was finding it extremely hard because he was supporting everybody in the house. The only thing he had money for was food. But, yet again this brings up the point that the organization and the government do very little to help refugees settle into America. I think Santino and the rest of the people who have no job skill, experience as much of a hardship as they did in Sudan, maybe not necessarily the violence aspect but the quality of life. Organizations and governments need to plan a strategy in order to help immigrants settle into life in America. It does no good for the refugees if they are barely scrapping by with their bills. They need to get them educated and integrated into society. Once this is completed can the government feel comfortable to let them lose into the American society and into the job world.