Exercises and experiences in diversity continued at North Haven Community School as three members of the “Lost Boys” of Sudan visited the school during the week prior to February vacation.
The “Lost Boys” are so called after the story of Peter Pan, whose troop of boys managed, without adults, to survive on their own adaptability and inventiveness. Scores of thousands of orphaned Sudanese boys, some aged three and four, left their besieged villages, banded together and walked thousands of miles to attempt to find some degree of acceptance and stability in various countries. Lost Boy stories have been recounted in the media, but cannot be understood in any depth without hearing their stories from their mouths.
Once again thanks to the determination and connections of Becky Bartovics, North Haven had the opportunity to hear some of these stories directly from Malith, Gabriel and Isaac. Eighth grade through 12th grade students watched a 60-Minute segment about the Lost Boys several days prior to their arrival. Empathy and excitement mounted, and the Student Council, led by Molly Hopkins, started making plans for sledding parties, suppers, lunches and a variety of social events. The boys would also attend school and talk to the various age groups about their experiences and/or their culture. The degree of excitement over their visit became evident when two, then three, then five high school students volunteered to meet the trio in Rockland. They, accompanied by Becky Bartovics, had taken the bus from Boston and arrived in Rockland to wait three hours for the next ferry. Meanwhile, students remaining on the island helped to set up for the get-acquainted potluck supper at the Grange, organized and executed by the student council and high school students.
Isaac, Gabriel and Malith attended classes on Tuesday, Feb. 11, before giving a presentation to the high school students. Malith began by describing how his day began on the date his life changed so drastically. He and his brother, members of the Dinka tribe of Southern Sudan, were tending their family’s cattle and learning to hunt with spears and bow and arrows. They saw smoke, and returned to their village where the horror of strewn bodies and people being thrown into burning huts met them. He and his mother and brother escaped, and the ensuing six to eight years were tainted with more oppression, horrific walks across the desert, and a river where many of his peers died when they were caught between gunfire, crocodiles, and an inability to swim.
For years, the boys have lived in a refugee camp in Kenya. Some 3,500 have been welcomed in America, where more challenges face them. For many, the cultural change is so drastic that it is hard to imagine. One article, written by a refugee organization volunteer, described settling newly arrived Lost Boys in an apartment with a supply of food. When he checked on them the following morning, they expressed the fact that they were hungry – but a box of cereal, a carton of milk, and a loaf of bread remained untouched. The Boys had no idea how to open any of the containers, nor what was in them. Beyond that, some are settled in areas far beyond their ken. Cold was a foreign concept. Malith, Gabriel and Isaac, all of whom have been in the U.S. for almost two years, have adapted somewhat to the cold. However, living in Roxbury (Malith and Gabriel) is fraught with its own perils. They do not go out at night. From personal experiences, they do not feel safe.
The Boys shared their experiences with the seventh and eighth graders, but focused more on cultural differences and the Dinka language when talking to younger students. One third grader was astonished that cows were used like money in the part of Sudan where Gabriel, Malith and Isaac lived. When asked how old they were, none could answer with any certain knowledge. As they explained, their time was measured not in years, but as in “you were born the year that the black bull died.”
A multi-cultural concept that is not unfamiliar, but also rarely understood by many students, was one that the Lost Boys repeated and repeated and repeated. “Education is everything. Education must be valued. We can get nowhere without an education.”
The Boys arrive in the United States as refugees. As such, they must reimburse the U.S. government for their airfare. As it is assumed that they are beyond the age when schools are obligated to educate them, they must be established in apartments or housing and then find work. Many of them work at jobs at the lowest pay scale. Many of them desperately want to finish their education, but are in a spiral that is difficult to escape.
Malith explained that he tried to go to night school, but his job prevented him from being able to attend to his studies. Many understand English far better than they speak it, which makes communication difficult. Since most of the Lost Boys are orphans, they have adopted a saying that “Education is our mother and our father.”
The concept of valuing education, while often repeated by educators, is obviously better heard when coming from the mouths of those who have been denied it.
The warmth between the students and the visitors overcame the differences between two diverse cultures, and between two groups of people with experiences so vastly different that any kind of common understanding would seem unattainable. While Malith, Gabriel and Isaac have survived unimaginable horrors, their perspective on life remains optimistic, and the friendships forged during their brief stay on the island have already had a profound impact on our students. Three of the students (Molly Hopkins, Mina Bartovics, and Jacqueline Curtis) wrote about the visit. Regarding the first encounter, the students wrote: “The Grange door opened and a calm but nervous feeling filled the room as our three Sudanese visitors joined the high schoolers for dinner. No one knew what to expect, but as the three smiling boys came in, everyone greeted them with a warm welcome. As we sat down for dinner, Isaac, Gabriel and Malith fit right in.”
Indeed they did. In fact, a committee has been formed to investigate the possibility of asking the three boys to join the community in order to graduate from NHCS.