The Lost Boys of Sudan
Wednesday Jul 19, 2006
Here's Abraham, a part of our family, and the only Lost Boy of Sudan who has ever beaten me at chess...
Yes, few have beaten me at chess and fewer still of them, grew up in the harsh reality of Southern Sudan. I met Abraham at a Christmas party for the Lost Boys in San Diego two Christmas's ago. [A hundred Lost Boys and my family - what a great party.] He came to Christmas dinner at our home a few days later and when he came in to the house he saw my chess board and asked if I played. I said yes (but didn't say how much), and after dinner I sat down to play. I am extremely competitive if I think someone can beat me, but extremely non-competitive if I think I can win. Well, I thought this would be a nice game and I could show Abraham some components of Chess.
Within 4 minutes I was in trouble and I lost the match within ten. Warm around the ears I of course wanted to play again. But this time I realized who I was playing and within ten minutes I had struggled to be in fair control of the board...but it was then my wife Debra announced that Pie was ready and Pie always trumps chess. This was my first exposure to the brilliance of these individuals.
Now at least 50 Lost Boys are our family's friends. Last year I had an exciting time teaching several boys to drive and helping to pass our rigourous california driving test. Right now, Abraham is deep into Java programming and Calculus. Debra has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for educational grants - and many are completing GED's, undergrad or gradute courses. Below is Michael my son and Benson, who was a GAP model (turned it down - too boring) and was an extra in Master and Commander and an author of "The Poured Fire on Us From the Sky". Benson says Michael is his "House Counsel"
A few of the boys I know are attending Point Loma in PreMed, another boy I know is very gifted in mathematics. He just finished his undergrad in mathematics at UCSD. (Needs a job, hint hint.) One of his instructors told me he was one of the most gifted students he had ever had. They say that "Education is their Mother and Father" [they all lost their parents in the genocide of their youth], but I believe there is something else. The struggles of their youth and the fact that they joined together to overcome their adversity, sort of a Lord of the Flies in reverse, has made their minds particularly sharp. They survived the bombing, the refugee camps, the travels, the starvation, the dehydration, the attacks by Lions, together, led by themselves, their leaders no more than 10 years old. William Golding was wrong.
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I am interested in working with this group if immi...