The plane ride over to Ethiopia was a great start to the trip! It was a 15 hour flight, non stop (except for a fuel stop in Rome...where we didn't even get off the plane). I was wondering what I would do for 15 hours, but I was excited to have some time to journal and read. There were a lot of empty seats on the plane for some reason so a lot of us split up and enjoyed the comfort of double or triple seats to ourselves. Being short, I took a double seat to myself and was able to lay down comfortably. The guys sitting in front of me were from Sudan and were lost boys. Throughout the 15 hours I learned a lot about their lives. One in particularly was named Abraham and he shared his story with me. He was born in Sudan, but was sent to a refugee camp at a young age and separated from his mother. His sister died in war and his mom took in her two children after that. He didn't know where his mom was most of his life and his brothers were scattered among refugee camps, but he knew where they were. The first refugee camp he went to was in Kenya and then he was moved to one in Ethiopia.
In 2000 he filled out an application to come to America through one of the organizations that works with the Lost Boys of Sudan. On his application he specifically said that if he was accepted they would have to allow his 5 brothers to come as well. He was granted permission, but when he asked about his brothers they said it would take a little longer to process. He said he would wait. Then September 11 happened and the process was put on hold for a little while. Soon after they told him that his brothers would be able to come, but that he should go now...that was 4 years ago. His brothers soon joined him in America. Four of them live in Utah with him and one of them lives in Canada. All of them found out where their mom was after coming to America. She is in Kenya still caring for their niece and nephew. Now him and his brothers take turns sending money to help them go to school.
Abraham was on his way to Sudan with an organization working with the Lost Boys of Sudan along with seven other lost boys. They were going over to speak to those still there and tell them about all that they have accomplished in America and that people actually care about them and what state they are in. There is an election coming up in Sudan and they are also going over to educate the people about democracy and what that looks like. Pretty cool!
My favorite part of this story is that when Abraham's brothers found out that he was selected to go back to Sudan they wanted to make sure that he was able to reconnect with their mom. So, they bought her a plane ticket and arranged for her to meet him in Sudan for the first time in 22 years! Praise God! I was almost in tears, as was he, when we landed because I knew it was just a matter of days before he was hugging his mom after so long!
No comments:
Post a Comment