Lost Boys of Sudan

This week we watched Lost Boys of Sudan, which is a documentary about two Sudanese refugees on a mission to negotiate with people in America to help put an end to the pour conditions and violence that’s occurring in Africa, and learn how to adapt to a whole new culture. The way people go about life in Africa is so much different than it is here, and it was neat seeing Peter and Santino come to America and familiarize themselves to a whole new way of living.

In my opinion, I feel people in America take the resources we have available to us for granted sometimes since we've grown up in a country where it’s always been there for us and we don’t really know how else to live. When the boys first pictured how their life would be like living in America, they imagined it to be easy and they would be able to get whatever they wanted when they wanted it, but what they discovered was that living in America was just as hard as it was living back in Africa. Peter and Santino were able to do things they’ve only dreamt about doing like getting an education, eating as much food as they wanted, sleep in a bed, live in a house with a roof over their heads, and make money, but learned pretty fast that just because they have access to those things doesn’t mean it isn’t a struggle to survive. All the money they would make from working would go towards all the things that they used to think was just “handed” to them. Even though it was challenging for the boys to get use too the American culture, they never took anything for granted, they worked their butts off, and they appreciated being an American citizen more than anything, no matter what the situation may be.

Watching Lost Boys of Sudan, I noticed how the boys would do as much as they could to seem like a normal U.S. citizen and to try and fit in since people would instantly judge them from the color of their skin.  This documentary shows many ways how Santino and Peter did as much as they could to seem like a normal American teenager by going to school and getting an education, going to work to make money, driving a car, making friends, playing sports, etc. One of the major things I saw the boys change to fit in more was stopping the way they would interact with one another because if they touched a “man” in America like they would back in Africa, people would think that they’re homosexuals.

When Peter was talking on the phone with his sister, I noticed how pressured he felt when she asked him to send money to his family back in Africa because whatever money he would make went straight to the things he needs to survive. After seeing Peter and Santino realize that nothing was handed to them like they originally thought, made me think that people in Africa must assume that we can get money whenever we want because all they hear is how great America is and how it’s the best country to live in.