The long and winding road
Sudanese refugees trade homeland strife for Bellevue life
By Debbie Grayson
Bellevue Leader - June 20, 2001
The biggest thing most 9- year-old boys have to worry about is striking out at their next baseball game or wiping out on their skateboards.
When Majok Angok was 9, he had to worry about not crying or showing any sign of the horrible pain he was experiencing while the elders of his Dinka tribe ripped the bottom row of teeth from his mouth during a tribal ritual.
At 12, most American boys are beginning to take notice of their appearance, and hoping that adolescent plague called acne skips them.
When Mangong Akech was 12, an elder of his Dinka tribe used sharp knives to chisel intricate, permanent patterns on Akechs head, drawing blood and causing excruciating pain.
When American men find the woman of their dreams, they get down on bended knee and ask for her hand in marriage.
In Sudan, where Angok and Akech hail from, a wife is purchased with cattle.. A man pays the womans family a dowry consisting of a certain number of cattle, depending on her beauty or stature in the community.
And now Angok and Akech are in the United States, in Bellevue to be exact, and experiencing nothing short of a culture shock.
As part of a refugee resettlement program, Angok, Akech and four other Sudanese young men, traveled 23 hours by plane, finally arriving at Eppley Airfield around midnight on June 5.
"When the plane was getting ready to land, and I saw all the lights of the city, I knew I was in America," James Akol said of his first impression of this country.
An entourage of Thanksgiving Lutheran Church members, mentors and friends were on hand to greet the young men at the airport. But none thought to caution them as they moved through the terminal about the different things they might encounter, Arlis Scanlan, one of the driving forces behind the project, said.
"When we got to those things that lift you up and down, I didnt know what to do," Akol said of his first ride on an escalator.
"And the airport was big and confusing. I didnt know which way to go. It made me nervous," he said in nearly perfect English broken only by a strong Sudanese accent.
The six refugees, hosted by Thanksgiving Lutheran Church in Bellevue and Lutheran Family Services, share a history that is unimaginable to most people in this country, and a future in this country that is most likely unimaginable to the young refugees.
The men have spent the last eight or 10 years in a refugee camp, separated from their families, void of food often for days at a time. Today, these young men suddenly find themselves light years ahead in America, eating American food, watching American television and adjusting to American culture.
"There are so many cars here," Angok said, "At first I was confused and frightened about crossing the street."
Fear and uncertainty are no strangers to these men. Of the six, three are uncertain as to the whereabouts of their parents or even if their parents are still alive. Akech hasnt seen his parents in 14 years. Emmanuel Gar last heard from his parents through a letter in 1998.
Gabriel Dut knows for certain that his father was killed, and Emmanuel Achuil knows also that both of his parents were killed.
The tragic past that unites these men dates back centuries, but still affects northern and southern Sudan today.
Basically, as Tex Teixeira, a member of TLC and mentor to the young men, explains it, the northern two-thirds of Sudan is Muslim, while the southern third of the country is Christian. The Muslim people continue pushing to the south in order to secure more land, people and converts, and as they push to the south, the older members of the southern Sudanese villages, unable to run, are caught and murdered.
Young children are captured and kept as slaves. Oftentimes the only faction of the population able to outrun the advancing Muslim armies are the young men of the tribes - like Akech, Angok, Akol, Dut, Gar and Achuil. After running for months, the young men are sometimes fortunate enough to find their way to a refugee camp, in this case, Kakuma.
The camp, while funded by the United Nations, is primitive at best, according to reports compiled by teachers, caretakers and social workers who have been there.
"But there are good things, too," Angok said. "There is religion and there is school."
Angok said their Christian religious services consisted of songs of worship on Saturday and preaching of the Word on Sunday.
"We had fellowship under the trees," he said.
It was also "under the trees" that the young men had their meals, slept and attended school four hours a day becoming proficient in basic math skills and gaining a command of the English language, all with the eventual goal of coming to America.
Dut passed the test and interview process two years ago and has been on a waiting list for coming to this country since then.
"There is nothing left for me in Sudan," Dut said. "No family, no education, no future, no peace."
So what lies ahead for Dut?
"First I would like to get a job. Any job. I will work anywhere," he said. "And then I want to go to school to become a doctor. I can do that here."
Even though they appear undernourished from years of inadequate nutrition, Teixeira said all of the Sudanese men are strong and are anxious to work.
"Its their goal to become independent, American Christians," Teixeira said of the Sudanese men. "They arent looking for a handout. They are looking for work."
All of the young men hope to get their American citizenship within the next five years, with only one planning a return trip to Sudan.
Akol said he will return to Sudan as an American preacher.
"When someone is lucky enough to live in this country they must take advantage of what theyve learned and share it with others," Akol said. "I will return to Sudan and teach the importance of democracy and share the Word of God."