MY AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: The Lost Boys

#LEAPOFHOPE

I remember watching a LOST BOYS movie one afternoon in Nairobi. My roommate, brother and friend Githinji Mwai​ had uploaded bunch of movies on my Laptop to keep me busy before leaving for Christmas-2014. I had no money to travel to Pokot and join my family like everyone was doing. Nairobi was starting to be vacated as people takeoff for the holiday to visit their relatives in the rural. So, instead I was dumping myself into more working hours and Githinji realized that I needed to do something different. 

My footage working at HAO Hub in Nairobi.

                                                      

I watched the lost boys of Sudan. The movie started with a village familiar in my mind. I related with the state of the shelters (they are huts not houses). I related with the children playing and herding. I related with the satisfaction of the locals despite the apparent scarcity. I related with the women going about with their chores. There was life-Until something happened that I didn't understood.

All I was watching were shootings and displacement. Children, young as 7 years of age, we trekking thousands of miles through different Countries to Kenya. I was crying profusely. I was hurting. I thanked heavens that my role at Hifadhi Africa ​is to link humanity with opportunities for progression and not destroying and subjecting innocent children to torture and unimaginable poverty condemnation. I was crying loud like I was possessed. I was possessed-by a demonic movie. A true story based movie. I promised to rededicate, like Charles, Jovenal and I had, 60% of our lives into building an Organization that will encourage community empowerment, equality and individual success. To be the reason behind smiles of joy. To father blooming careers. To quench thirst in arid lands. To cause peace and coexistence. To increase maternal healthcare access by the minority.

Fast forward into 2015, and unto our second week at Arizona State University under the Young African Leaders Initiative-YALI. I met a young, slim man from South Sudan. We briefly conversed and he mentioned to me that he was scheduled to give us a talk. We parted ways. It was a networking dinner for the Mandela Washington Fellows organized by our host university. There were many people to talk to and less time to chat about whether it was raining or not in Africa. After all, I was interested in knowing about America while he was interested to hear more about his motherland Africa. We exchanged smiles and contacts before parting ways. “I will read your book before the session with you guys”. He said something along those lines. 

Director of Lost Boys-Jany Deng and I.

Jany teaching MWF 2015 at ASU.

As fate would have it, Jany Deng was among the children I was watching on the movie in Nairobi. He survived brutal war and massacres. Over 2,000 of his countrymen did not. Jany and I would spend the rest of the next weeks together, including hiking at the Grand Canyon. I also got to meet his family and friends. 

 

Jany, John from Texas and I at Grand Canyon hike

Jany, Abba from DR Congo and I at Grand Canyon hike

He’s been in the States for 20 years now yet he’s still so young. You may be tempted to calculate his age while trekking from the horn of Africa to the further corner of Kenya. You may be tempted to calculate his robed years as a child. You may be tempted to hear how he eventually made it here and what he does. Well, ask Jany. I can just tell you for now that he is the executive Director of THE LOST BOYS. The organization named after the movie I was watching in Nairobi. He does what I do-dedicating the rest of his life to building capacity among minority communities. Keep it here for more articles.          

My American Experience.

#LEAPOFHOPE

First of all, I would wish to thank all of you-the millions following us through YALI Networks across Africa, the Kenyan Youth looking upon us to borrow a leaf on how to model themselves into civic leaders, American friends we’ve known and worked together even before this program, the good friends we’ve since come to appreciate and learn from here in U.S and at the U.S Embassy in Kenya, the two governments of U.S and Kenya through their Departments of State and Foreign Affairs respectively.

Indeed June 18^th will remain a special day for me personally and I think to most of my Fellows too. It was indeed that day you wish to experience. I had just given out money from Hifadhi Africa fund a community based organization called Pokot Education and Peace Support Organization (PEPSO). Hifadhi Africa and PEPSO program coordinator David Lomoywara had agreed to initiate a number of community projects starting with “Smile A Feet”. This is a project seeking to donate shoes to school going children in Kenya from less privileged background. Hifadhi Africa Organization had no money but we knew what such a project will impact admission intake in the Country especially among minority communities. My Directors Charles and Jovenal agreed with me that small efforts go long distances and that this partnership will transform lives bottom up. Coincidentally, Eric Legg, an Assistant Professor at Arizona State University would yesterday teach us on the importance of focus on community recreational sport and youth development.

 

My first flight would take me to Brussels airport in Belgium. I had left Nairobi at 10:45p.m only to touch ground the following morning!. I was fed, given warm sheet and head phones. Kenyan Matatu crew should have been on board with me, they would have learnt something on customer care. There were no major happenings at Brussels apart from admiring planes alighting, boarding and taking off open mouthed. I moved around classifying them according to their brand companies. I was also fascinated seeing crowd of 80% white people. In Kenya, we usually have small number of white people at any given time. I left for Washington that afternoon. I had gotten used to the security check in system and terminal gates. Peeping down from above the clouds, I saw oceans below me. (I wasn’t scared, Pokots don’t fear water. We need water for it’s the most mysterious thing after God Himself). It hit me that we’re actually crossing to the great America. It never happened in my wild dream that a son of a Pastoralist could do that?   

  

I had already made friends. Stephen, the first person to welcome me to USA (albeit 13,000 meters high!) wished me well. He was seated beside me from Belgium. The feeling when you realize that you are actually entering USA!

We landed and proceeded for the security check in. No petrifying search and scanning as I was expecting. No Marines everywhere as I was contemplating. No hard YES/NO questions as I had been told. In fact, I was addressed as a SIR. That was a shock. After claiming our bags, I wandered around to familiarize myself with the airport area-Washington Dulles International.  

It later took me 4 hours’ flight from D.C to Sky Harbor International Airport, Phoenix, Arizona State. I had gotten used to both on a plane and security check in processes, so I afforded to sleep. At the airport, a team from Arizona State University-who were to be my host were already waiting for me. 

Don’t make me describe the car I was put in. And I mean “I” because the car was exclusively to ride me alone. Among those who picked me was a girl from Nigeria while my driver was a guy originally from Somalia.  

To be continued……….