“We are alive, but we have no life...”

Up before dawn to catch the UN flight to the camp. A couple of hours later, we were pleasantly surprised by a sunny but mild day with a lovely breeze. (I heard it’s 100 degrees in Denver so perhaps I’m the lucky one!)Staying in the UN Humanitarian Compound, we had a safety briefing about scorpions and cobras. Basically — don’t stick your fingers in any holes in the ground. Our first visit: the home of a recent graduate. Her whole family came out to talk with us. They brought out bottles of soda pop and served it to us in beautiful cobalt blue glasses — a rare possession that survived their flight from Sudan. I want to resist taking a sweet commodity from people who clearly have nothing, but they are proud people and follow their traditions. Their culture requires that they serve their best drink with us, even if it means they go without. I drink half a glass of grape NeHi. The father has been in the camp since 1992, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan. He encouraged all eight of his daughters to go to school, which is rare here. He knows it is the only way out for them. “We are alive here,” he says, “but we have no life.” Our graduate tells us she walked two hours each way on the dusty roads to get to the school. “It doesn’t matter where you learn; it’s about how badly you want to learn,” she told us. On to a computer class, where students are learning the fundamental skills to start their diplomas. They ask me to speak. “What you learn can’t be taken from you; you may lose everything but you will never lose your education. Persist!” I try to encourage them. With at least one student, it took. He stopped me afterward. “I have lost my family, my home, and all my possessions, but you are right, they won’t ever take this from me.” Yes, my friends, it is worth the trip. Stay tuned.