Original subtitles

The war between North and South,

that is Sudan,

started in 1983.

Two million people lost their lives due to that war--

civil war.

I left when I was six.

The vision, or the picture of

Southern Sudan is

kind of getting away from me.

It's going away from my mind.

This, my Mother Homeland,

was beautiful and I can compare it to nothing.

The climate was good, the life was nice.

We have a lot of food throughout the year--

vegetables, fruits, everything.

And it was very rich soil.

My father was a farmer, cattle keeper,

and I used to tend my cattle with my friends.

In the afternoon, we take them to the riverbank

so they can drink water.

But when the war came to Sudan,

we lost all those things.

So then we run away.

I'm proud to be a Sudanese.

It is in my mind that

you should be proud of who you are.

So I should be proud of being born in Sudan.

But I cannot go to Sudan if the war is still.

That's the first thing.

If the war is still, I cannot go to Sudan.

When I left Sudan,

it was a time that war broke out in our village.

People come at night with guns

and if you are not Muslim, they can kill you.

If there is peace in Sudan, I will come.

But if no peace, I will not come to Sudan.

I will not come to Sudan because

people are being shot.

They shoot small people like us.

We don't know--

they have just killed our parents.

Like my father has died at that time

when I first go through Ethiopia, when we were running.

We were in cattle camp.

They came and shoot my father

which mean if I go now to Sudan, they can kill me again.

Like my mother now, I don't know where she is with her kids.

Maybe they have died. Imagine.

So, I cannot go to Sudan again.

The first thing was that people were being shot.

Many people have been killed.

Women who were around there with us were being raped.

Boys like us have been enslaved,

others were brutally killed.

In the year 1987

the government announced

to kill all male child in the South

regardless of the age.

If you are found and you are a boy,

they can just take you-- maybe 12 years old--

they can just cut you.

They can even shoot you,

or they can even take a needle--

they come and make your testes, you know--

they just make a hole in your testes.

They want to make you sterile when you grow up.

When our village was attacked

by Muslim government troops

at night

I took my own way

and my mom, my dad, they took their own way.

I was in a dilemma.

Have they died?

Are they still alive?

All the small boy children

they were putting in the house in my place

and they locked the houses and burned the houses.

All children burned in their houses.

So we were told by the elders that all children were burned in their houses.

All men who are living there are dead,

except people who run to the bush.

So, we can't go back...

to the village.

After the attack on our villages we fled.

Children without parents.

The number was 27,000.

Young men...

from 10 to five years old.

My uncle was 11 then.

He was the oldest.

He took care of three of us.

That was the family.

How long we should walk?

We can walk for 100 years.

We can walk for two years.

I don't know how long we can walk.

We ran without anything--

anything to eat.

It was so difficult, many people were starving.

We didn't have water to drink,

so what happened is we are eating the mud

or somebody have to urinate

so that you drink the urine.

Children are crying.

Me, I also cry too,

but when I cry there's no tears coming--

coming out of my eyes.

My name is Daniel Abul Pach.

I've spent 10 years now in Kenya.

I've grown very skinny around because of life here.

Sometimes even more,

sometimes no food for some days.

almost sometimes months, you know.

It's a very horrible life.

My stomach is very small now.

It's very small.

I want to be like this.

You know, our tradition,

if you are found cooking like this

your friend will say, "No, I don't want you again because you are a cooker.

You know, you cook."

If you cook, a lady will say-- say,

"Ah, why should I go with a man who cook?"

That's not our tradition.

You know, cooking is for ladies,

so I'm hiding so that they will not see me and make fun of me.

You can see a fence there.

They cannot see me at all.

So when I go outside there

I pretend that I'm not cooking.

"Black Days" are those extra days

when the food is finished

and we have no fire to build.

So we call this place a White House because

when we are in these extra days with no food

and there's no fire around,

we gather here to entertain ourself

so that it should not be black everywhere

and we entertain ourself so that we laugh a bit

and make the time goes.

When I came into Kakuma

I didn't have that my time to stay for 10 years.

I was saying, "Sudan is going to be okay

maybe within one month or two weeks."

I thought I would be back to Sudan soon.

That was my imagination.

We are like prisoners

because since 1992 to almost 10 years in one place.

See, it's very bad.

I myself-- I don't know where I am

and where I am supposed to be in future.

We have no parents,

we have no anybody who is going to take care of us.

I can sometimes go crazy.

I can sometimes think of killing myself.

Life in Kakuma here is just

that you are waiting for your grave.

I'm going to live in Philadelphia.

Yeah. Oh, no no. Pennsylvania is a country,

so which means the capital city of it is Philadelphia.

Pittsburgh.

Yeah, Pittsburgh. I'm going to live in Pittsburgh.

I've seen that my name

is that I'm going to New York.

And I have heard that New York is

just a bit cold anyway.

Do people go to the river with containers

to draw water for themself?

For bathing. If you want to take bathing.

There is something called apartment.

I've never heard, met and I've never seen it.

Shower?

How does it look like?

Shower?

I've never used electricity,

so I imagine that it is really very hard for me to do that.

In the United States we heard that there is only one wife.

These things are going to affect us.

Today will be the end of 10 years in Kenya, actually.

I didn't sleep last night and even today.

I will not meet again with my friends

so it's kind of upsetting to me, really.

You know, a bit happy, a bit sad.

Even though we go to the United States now

I will not be comfortable when my brother

whom I have escaped from my mother homeland together with-- him

left behind.

We came in 1992 in this group

so now I want to hand it over,

my secretarial duties, to one of my colleagues

who has now become a former--

will become a new secretary

as I will be leaving on the 5th August this year.

This gift is being given by our secretary

because our Parliament is still-- will be remain the way we act already

and it will be still maintained.

So I will start to give the prize to the small children right now.

You are welcome, please.

The ones going away

and leaving the Dinka behind

are going to forget us back in the camp.

One day when we meet again

and you won't pay attention to us

I will sing this song

to remind you that we have had hardship together.

It goes like...

♪ Good night, black cow ♪

♪ Have you fallen asleep? Have you fallen asleep? ♪

♪ No, I'm still awake ♪

♪ I'm still awake and I'm waiting. ♪

If all you guys forget, we will not be happy.

Make sure your letters reach us in the camp.

You guys go with this song

and sing this wherever you are

and we will sing it here in Africa.

♪ Good night, black cow, good night, black cow. ♪

Our transit for U.S.A. will start here.

We have Kenya here.

So tomorrow very early, or not very early, we shall move here

as it has been described in my book of

cultural orientation.

So we shall just leave here,

up to Europe here.

So from here you also take a plane to--

to United States of America

then you pass here, this route,

up to New York, my place.

New York, my place, is here.

This New York...

Very tiny.

So you are going to America?

- Yes. - Why America?

The good-hearted people of America wanted us to go there

and to go to school and get a job.

That is why we are going to America. To go to school and get a job.

- That is why you are going. - Yes.

Or is it because you have no more school here?

Let's be honest, John.

Just say that life is hard in the camp, not because of school.

In America you cannot go to bed with an empty stomach.

I have seen that people who come back from America are fatter.

But here there's no food left so, okay, you can go to America.

What I've heard about America makes me have fear.

There are those who do not like to work or are lazy.

They will ask you to dig the latrine or work the farm.

There are other jobs in America besides digging latrines.

Other jobs like cleaning dog teeth.

Singing songs to old people so that they fall asleep.

If I was going to America,

I would work very hard. I would even wash dogs.

Okay, so now go to America and work very hard

so you can send money back to us.

My leaving for U.S. is also very painful.

You can even see and judge that it is not very simple

to just miss a company like this.

It is like my family now.

Very painful.

I love them so much.

I like to persevere, or share these very hardships with them.

But when chance comes,

I cannot deny.

I have to go. I have to go.

I feel confident.

The food we got in the plane

was not really as good as what we

used to be eating

at Kakuma.

It tastes like soap, you know, that small one.

I don't know if it is soap or bitter, really.

I guess it is good. People say, "It is food, you know. Eat."

But when I try a taste, it is like soap, actually.

And even now, I cannot tell.

Is that meat?

Is that milk?

Is that cheese?

I cannot tell.

You push it like this.

It's ready.

For clothes?

Whatever you use in the kitchen, is it green?

It depends how much you...

You clean yourself.

After all.

You wash your hands first.

In this room is four people?

All right.

Is this edible?

We eat it?

Without being cooked?

- What about this one? - What about this one?

Do you make this out of maize, corn?

- Hoagie bun? - Hoagie buns?

- Hoagie buns. - Yeah, hoagie buns.

Oh, yeah, hoagie bun, yeah.

Hoagie bun. Hoagie bun.

Is this a food?

Thank you.

Excuse me, it looks like beans.

Is this also for sale?

It is there in our country.

Really, we are surviving.

What about these things, have you for sale?

I was told that

the place that we are here is New York State

and the place area is Syracuse.

Somebody told me when I was in Kakuma that

America is a very strange place.

If you happen to be walking on the way,

on the road, you will meet an accident

or somebody may come

and he will kill you.

But all in all, I'm now seven days old in America

and I have never seen such a thing.

Maybe it will happen, but not now.

As I am talking to you,

America is okay.

The place that I am now is very good.

But those whom I left in Kakuma,

I left them in a very bad place.

If I get good place, why not them?

That's my first question.

I don't know what I can tell them,

rather than to say "Thank you" to them.

I really love them.

I don't know...

those guys.

Anyway, I also pray very hard that God keep them.

Also, keep me alive.

And I have to do what is expected of me.

That's my duty. People have hope in me.

When we run away from Sudan,

despite me being 13,

I was taller than the others

so I had to be select out, that please,

"You are big now, so please go and--

and do this job."

So I had to take care of them.

I was in charge of one group.

1,200 and something person.

That was the time I learned how to

bury the dead bodies.

That was part of my job.

I have to go and bury my fellow brothers.

Imagine, at the age of 13, can bury.

It was so difficult.

It was so bad.

But because of the situation...

and our time, what do we do? We have to do that.

It was as if

the last day, as people say in the Bible

that there will be a last day

that Jesus Christ will come,

whatever on Earth will be judged.

That was my imagination.

I thought that God felt tired of...

of people on Earth here,

felt tired of the bad deeds

the bad thing that we are doing, yet God is watching on us.

I thought God got tired of us

and he want to finish us.

When I think of it back...

it was so bad anyway.

You can even think of--

you can even regret why you were born.

Now I wonder, I'm now again wearing clothes

feeling very happy, and so anyway, everything has an end.

Has an end.

Even if there's problem in Sudan still

maybe one time, one day, one minute

it will come to an end.

We really suffer.

People have hope in me.

So it will be bad for me to fail them.

I was wonder,

how come I came to this place?

So when I sleep,

- it seem as a dream actually. - I found myself

sleeping in six mattress inches, eh?

- Imagine this. - So, it was very comfortable.

And at Kakuma

we used to sleep just on the ground.

You see, you open, you put it.

After it got full,

you take it out.

This is a cupboard.

Now, it's comprised of different things.

Here you can see.

these are meat. This is meat.

This is a chicken.

It's now in the very cold. It's being refrigerated.

So you can see a lot of things.

This is meat of... different things.

This is-- we call it...

Franks! This is frank.

This is Pepsi and we call it-- in Africa we call it

Coca-Cola.

No, it's written "Pepsi." Imagine.

It tastes very nice, you know.

Even though we are now in United States,

we are eating well, we are sleeping well.

We think a lot of our own brothers, mothers and fathers.

And even now, we don't feel comfortable.

So, I'm worried about them.

But they are very happy

if I will be self-reliant, self-sufficient,

to support myself

and to stand on my own feet,

then I will see.

I will even send them something so that they can survive with it.

I am very happy if they give me job,

I can support myself.

And if I work on my own,

I can buy whatever I like.

So I'm very happy if they employ me

within the interval of three months.

I will be very happy.

It will surprise many people.

Oh, look at these people are eating even using their hands.

But this is look traditional.

This will make us to look more Dinka.

Make us look more African.

Because as you know,

a person without culture is like

a human being without land.

So it is good to keep our tradition.

Would you mind to explain a bit what is Santa mean?

And why do you set up this,

a Christmas tree?

Yes, a bit beautiful,

but what is the meaning?

That's all we are asking

to any American to tell us what's the meaning of this.

Is it in the Bible?

Is Santa also in the Bible?

I've never.

That is Santa Claus, it's Santa Claus.

And how does it connected with

with the birth of Jesus Christ?

I think many of us have so many questions to ask

but I think we have few,

few people to answer them.

The force of gravity will act on me and

since I'm very tall.

I don't know if I can do it.

Is it easy to make it?

Can I-- can I make it?

Oh, I fear it!

This is very dangerous. I cannot do it.

I cannot do it.

I want to try it now. I want to try it.

Andrew is like

a soldier wounded in the war.

You have so many things

to use

to celebrate the Christmas.

What we have in Africa is also good,

but ours is mainly

celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ,

that Jesus Christ is going to be born

in our heart.

So we have to prepare ourselves spiritually.

Christmas Eve in Kakuma camp

people have to march around the streets,

dancing and singing.

We are missing them.

We are missing friends.

We are missing our fellow countrymen.

We want not to be late for work.

Sometimes they drop us there at 5:00

and we begin at 7:00,

so we have to be outside sleeping somewhere.

Now this is part of my work.

It's gaskets.

Me and Margaret, we make them look good and arrange them.

I think it's so simple.

The work is very very very good.

Anything that is generating money,

is generating income,

so that I get money and help my people back.

Is it wonderful?

It's very wonderful.

If my African fellow brothers

or...

people in Africa hear that

we are serving people in a restaurant,

McDonald's,

they can laugh at me.

But no problem. That's struggle.

It's difficult here in America.

Everybody goes to work.

You have different schedules,

you have different work.

No time even for family to be together.

Why is it tough like that?

I usually go home late at night.

I usually start work at 4:00 and finish at 12:00,

then take bus at 12:15,

but sometimes you miss the bus like I miss it today.

So I may wait until 1:00

and reach home at 2:00

and wake up in the morning time at 7:00.

You know, that's hard.

Everything is different.

It's kind of irritating because

people know you're from Africa. They say, Where are you from, Africa?" "Yes."

Some people, they say, "Do they live in the forest?"

Nobody's born in the forest, you can't live in the forest.

You have to live in a house.

In the United States,

people are not friendly.

You can find someone that's walking in the street by himself, you know,

don't even talk, you know.

You cannot go to the house of somebody you don't know,

though you are all Americans.

They call the police and say, "Why did this guy come to my house?

I don't know him."

But in Sudan, they can ask you, "Have you got lost?

Are you new to this place?" They can ask you that.

You say, "I'm new to this place," they can show you where you are.

You can even talk with them.

It is important we ask them, how do people walk in this area?

How do people feel when you ask somebody,

"How can you show me a way?"

How do you feel, you know?

That's difficult. You cannot even ask them because these are different people.

That's really difficult. I don't know.

How are we going to be acquainted with this life here?

It's a great shame, actually.

S-U-D-A-N.

Yeah, Sudan.

It's a country where I came from.

So it's a country of black people, you know.

They look black, all of them.

You go there, you cannot find white man.

When I lived in Kakuma

we were living as a group.

People are together every day.

But now, here, it's just only four of us.

Four of us are not enough, so

it is difficult.

Imagine I left my parents

at the age of 13.

That was long long time ago.

I've been looking for them,

sending many letters through Red Cross

and through many agencies

but nothing-- nothing replied my messages.

This is my workplace.

This is beautiful. You see people working with me.

This is good atmosphere.

People are so friendly.

People say the hard time you take now maybe will pay off.

So I have that hope.

Hard times to do those things--

like going to work, going to school

establish a new life in a new place

without parents.

You don't have a choice to be together like in the camp,

like in Kakuma.

Daniel Pach is my best friend.

He's going to work different place,

I go to work different place,

we come home late,

we don't see one another for even two, three weeks.

So...

it's kind of lonely.

But this is the life of America.

We learn them.

We're getting used to them.

You see now, my...

apartment is look nice.

Little by little, we're learning the culture over here.

- What's your name? - My name's John.

What are you studying?

I'm studying it all.

Sweet.

All of the guys who are now in the United States,

we can do something much better than

just going to a factory job, working.

So, right now I'm going to school to be

something higher than that.

It's really a very crucial and

very important day for me today

because I'm starting my future.

"Dear Brother John Bul Dau,

it is

very very long time

for us without

hearing each other

since you have escaped

the attack.

We are

very happy

that you are alive.

We thank God for

helping you in the--

in all these crises."

I just received a mail.

When I got the news

I jumped up. I jumped up.

I don't believe my ears.

I completely don't believe my eyes.

My dad and my mom,

my three brothers, my three sisters

are living--

are living in Uganda.

This my father

and this is my mom.

This is my mom.

So this is my family.

These are my sisters.

This is my sister

and those are relatives.

This is my brother.

He look like me.

Maybe he's taller than me or I'm taller than him.

I don't know.

"If really you are

in United States of America,

please learn that

all your sisters,

mother, brothers are

suffering from disease in Uganda refugee camp

and they are naked.

Our uncle Leck Deng

was killed by government troops.

And uncle Anderia Ayuel

also killed, and

their five children

were also killed.

The rest of our clan, all...

also killed and

our home was destroyed."

Right now

I'm feeling a weight.

I now know they are there.

So I think it is my time to help them.

I'm strong enough to do that.

The discovery of my family

changed some plans I had already planned.

I was about to go to school

this month.

But...

when I discovered they are there,

I had to work two jobs

and even three jobs.

I decided personally

not to go to school

until...

I change their situation...

by sending money to them.

I am hoping to bring my family here.

So that I know they are well,

and I know they are secure.

Yeah, they know they have to go to Darshir.

You see, do you know why I'm worried?

The amount of money is--

the amount of money that I sent,

this is a huge amount of money.

Imagine 1,000

U.S. dollars.

I thought when I come to America

then I have to make myself, okay, try to help my people,

try to help my country.

But now it's really difficult.

I want these people to use the money right away.

If I confirm that

money have not been received,

then I will call you tomorrow.

Okay, bye.

We have been called from Africa so many times.

Like one day we have to find

28 messages

in our answering machine.

And it's so painful to say, "No, I don't have money.

No, I don't have money."

So we continue sending money, sending money, sending money like that

and we shall end up with nothing.

But what can I do?

Can I run away from work?

If I do so, then I will be a failure in life, so I don't want to do that.

And that's why I'm saying

it's not what I was thinking.

I thought we shall go further than this.

He always go to work and come back

as time goes by

but when he left here on the 2nd

he never came back, and his phone is shut off.

So we worry about him. That's why we reported it to police.

So that they will look about.

The Lost Boys all over the United States,

they still have that image of war.

They lose mind easily.

They put everything that they have seen into their mind.

Now they're mixed up.

They become confused.

The human mind is complex.

It's not easy to go inside and take away the bad thing. No, not easy.

We see other people are walk with their girlfriends. We can't.

We see other kids are walk with their parents. We can't.

But what can we do?

Can I cry?

Can I say I want my father?

There's nothing I can do.

They kill my father. I see with my eyes.

I can remember.

So he was down. I thought he would wake up, because--

I was learning that

people die, you know, straight away, and they don't come back.

It's something that I cannot even forget.

I even sometimes dream that there's airplanes bombing people

like the way it was in the Sahara.

The airplanes come, called Antonov,

come "wooo" at night.

I do sometimes get scared, but then when I wake up

I see I'm in America.

When we run away from Sudan,

people lose their mother, their brother, sister,

so they feel hopeless.

Some even feel like to kill themselves.

When I see that

I come up with different ideas, to help them,

so they forget easily what they are thinking...

and not feel lonely.

That's why I started Parliament, little Parliament.

I came up with that idea that I bring people together

and give each other a chance to talk and say whatever you say.

I used to sit under the tree and tell them stories.

So everyone come always to hear what I'm saying.

They forget about war,

they forget about what is going on with them

and they come together like a family.

That's the way I helped them in the camp.

They say they miss that.

They say, "Daniel, you know, no Parliament there?"

Is there no Parliament there in the United States?"

I said, "No no, we are working. There's no time."

Now I feel bad because

we have been suffering all these days

and we come to the United States,

we have opportunity of helping them.

But what can we do?

It's something really hard.

I believe as a person

people have different talents

and all those talents are serving the community.

God does not create me

as very tall person

for nothing.

I have a role to play.

I had a duty to do.

I was not just born like that.

But I was born to do something.

I can help to apply for

the coming of my mother and my sister

Those are very important things that I need to do.

But they are not-- they are not going to be--

that is not my limit.

Do you know what we are doing today?

we are going to show the society-- or the community-- of Syracuse that

that there is war in Sudan

and there is something that needs to be done.

We are now remembering

those who have died

on all those journeys.

From Sudan to Ethiopia,

from Ethiopia to Kenya,

we have to remember.

To me, I know I cannot forsake my culture.

American people do not know about Africa,

but they will know when we show it.

So we are here like ambassadors

in this country.

I feel like I'm in Africa.

It's like a camp, like Kakuma camp,

where all of us meet together and we chat and we talk

on all those issues.

what we are doing today is

the guys came together

to have a common strategy

on the betterment of our future.

Then we can be able to help ourselves in the United States

and our people back home.

Being a Dinka man, it requires you to help.

That's very important.

But I'm worried with the young guys,

the Sudanese young guys,

those who can easily give up

whatever they have.

What if they forsake culture?

How is this people going to be?

Check out what's going on here.

Everything went great and it's still going on.

Where are you from?

From KC-- Kansas City.

Can you film the inside?

What are you doing there? The way you are dressing,

the way you are doing your hair,

the way you are conducting yourself--

you are away from our culture. Please come back.

Direct confrontation.

Even if he don't want,

tell him

"Change from there."

There is great changes.

But now we are learning them.

This is totally weird.

When we first came, if you get like 200 bucks,

that was big.

But now...

there's a lot, lot of bills.

I have to pay my car bills,

I have to buy gas

and you know that gas is--

sucks. It's--

it's expensive!

So, it's hard to get something,

but if you can manage,

it's a land of opportunity.

This is the first step.

I want to go to the camp,

marry my girlfriend.

I want to move her here

to make life a little bit easy.

I graduated with my high school diploma.

I graduated with my Associate degree.

I'm going to Pitt University, get my--

my Bachelor's.

My country's rich, got a lot of oil,

got a lot of gold.

But our people don't know how to exploit them.

So I have to come there, build a school,

tell people the direction.

And I can tell there's--

there's improvement I'm bringing in the world.

Up to this point, I have to admit

that I was so so stressful.

But today

I'm okay.

I talked to my mom on the phone.

I talk in Dinka, "Oh, my mom, how are you?"

She said, "You are not.

Please tell John Bul to come."

I told her, "Mom, my mom...

I'm not...

the 14-year-old boy you knew.

I'm changed, I'm a...

a big man--

a tall man, changed voice."

When I brought her around,

she just shed the tears.

So I have to resist.

How can I cry?

Let my cry and tears turn to

love or happiness.

So it was good for me.

I wish I was having...

a plane.

Then I could have gone already.

I want to see them.

Most of the Lost Boys and Girls are living now

in 23 states in the United States.

So we need to have a united body, one,

to encourage unity among us.

We are like more than family,

because we know each other when we are just in childhood age

and so it's like more than family.

We can take care of our education here in the United States.

We're trying to raise some money for the Lost Boys and Girls to go to school.

That's one thing.

Number two is that we need to have a united delegation

to represent our problem in Sudan to the White House.

I would like to thank my team and I would like everybody

to clap for them for the incredible job that they have done.

America is a superpower.

I think it is advisable for the American government

to look into our problem.

I can't go to Sudan, my country.

Yeah, otherwise

you can't come back.

Not only you can't come back, but

you'll be persecuted.

If the government look into

the problem in Kosovo,

why not in Sudan?

Are we not human beings like other human beings?

Can we not be helped?

Our people are being killed every day

and face persecution.

Some of us have never seen their families

since they were seven, six, five years old.

Please talk to your government

so that the problem in southern Sudan

will be solved

and there will be no more Lost Boys

and there will be no more Lost Girls.

Thank you. God bless you.

We are in Whole Foods Market.

This is Whole Foods Market. You can see here my sign.

It's Whole Foods Market.

And this is produce, so I'm working in produce.

So the good thing here is

you must have to be born

with good personality

to work with customers,

to work with everybody.

You must have to have knowledge of people.

I'm just working here with this young lady.

She's so nice, you know, when I first came.

People are like, "What's this?"

And I'm like, "This is a good fruit, you can taste it."

And I have to go and cut it, you know,

so that they taste how it tastes like.

No problem, it's no problem.

I was going to work, the Whole Foods Market where I work.

Then I found one lady, she was crying.

People walked by. Nobody talked to her.

Nobody comforted her.

And me, I had that image, like what I know in the camp.

I know when someone is in pain, the best way

is to go and involve in his problem.

So I go to her and ask her, "What is your problem?"

I thought she would not accept what I say,

but she look at me and she feel a little bit at home.

You can help people in so many ways,

the way I see it.

Like the war in Sudan, it seems like there's no answer

but the answer for it is there,

because if you have good leaders in Africa,

they would know how to treat people.

But they don't know how to treat people.

They think of their own and they neglect others.

Like in Sudan, how long war been in Sudan?

It is a shame for that country to be in war.

It is a shame to have people that doesn't take care of their own people.

I'm sure my mom is--

is alive...

because I heard some of the Lost Boys found their mothers, you know.

Someone say, "I found my sister or my brother."

So I wish there is an opportunity of

having that, you know, going back to Africa.

An opportunity of finding them where they are.

I can do that,

because I'd like to see my mother

and my small brothers and sisters.

I miss them, really.

"In 1987,

when he was 13,

John Dau became separated from

his parents and siblings as he

fled an outbreak of violence

near their home in Southern Sudan.

He wandered

hundreds of miles

across

Sudan and neighboring East African countries

for several years,

before settling as a refugee in Syracuse.

During that time,

he believed his family had been killed.

Today,

Dau will be reunited

with his mother Anonde."

That's good.

Man, I can't wait to see my mother.

What I really remember about her

when I was young,

I used to see her up.

You know, look her up and--

and I don't know whether that would be the case today.

She was so tall, and--

I don't know now.

I think she is now

maybe way down.

I will look her down.

They said U.S.

3736.

That's the flight number.

Are you nervous?

Yeah, you know,

it's not easy.

17 years of separation

without seeing them.

It's very...

It's very amazing.

I'm scared.

You know, she used to tell me that

"You have to work." She was very hardworking.

"You have to work.

Otherwise,

you will not live."

I don't know what that--

what that means when I was at home,

but I knew now

what she was telling me.

A very good day in my life.

It's a very good day. I'm just--

I'm just happy.

Anyway, I'm so sorry for the other Lost Boys

that are not getting reunited with their family today,

like what I'm doing.

In 20 minutes

I'm going to the airport.

I'm going to Africa.

So I'm very excited about it.

The purpose of going there is to see my homeland.

Plus I'm going back

and I'm getting my wife.

This is the girl I'm going to wed in a week.

So this is my girl right here.

It's so beautiful there,

I can say.

I was swimming along the Nile.

My mother home

is just like a couple of minutes,

like five, 10 minutes from the riverbank.

It's evergreen throughout.

There's a lot of animals

in the forest.

A lot of cattle.

It's fun.

I hope you can come there and see our mother homeland.

It's so nice. I love it.

This is the best.

I'm going to Africa.