They Poured Fire on us from the Sky

I've just finished reading the book "They Poured Fire on us from the Sky". It was written by three of the "Lost Boys" from Sudan. They were three of the thousands of very young children who were forced to walk to Kenya from their villages after being forced out by Arab Muslims and the government during their country's civil war.

They walked for five years and over 1000km to get to the UN Refugee camp at Kakuma Kenya. One of the three started the trip two years after the first two. All encountered the horrific effects of the war including bombings, death, beatings, mutilation, starvation, rape and any other sort of human suffering you can imagine. On top of it wild animals attacked and ate many of the children. Hundreds if not thousands died along the way. Adults were occasionally sympathetic to them but more often than not were untrustworthy and dangerous. Thirst and hunger were their biggest threat but somehow they stayed focused and survived. It took over 5 years and the three at the beginning ranged in age from 5 to 7 years old.

This has got to be one of the most amazing books I have ever read. It is a tribute to the human spirit and man's (boy's) determination to survive. At times I had to put the book down finding it difficult to read what they went through. It was heartbreaking at times. I had to keep reminding myself they were all less than 10 years old facing death and devastation that would have destroyed a grown adult let along a child. I suppose their youth helped them through it to some extent. They didn't comprehend the political events and perhaps feared things less for the sake of their innocence. However that innocence didn't last long as they kicked into survival mode. They clung on to the things that mattered to them namely their kinship and their desperate hope to reunite.

It was probably written as a means to cleanse oneself of the anger and bitterness all three of them must feel as adults now living in California. Yes they actually managed to survive and get to the USA. Two of them went from one of those stereotypical "Bi-African children with sticks for limbs and a big ball belly and head" to healthy 25-year-old men living in San Diego. The manner in which they wrote the book was both raw and from their hearts. Each one told their story individually linking all the tales together as one long arduous journey. Two were seperated brothers who longed to reunite. In fact the family tie between them all is so powerful it is overwhelming throughout the book.

Too often we hear of horror stories from Africa. We see images on TV of these very same types of nameless children clinging to life in a disease infected area with no food or water. This is the first time I've ever heard the story from their perspective. It was the first time one of the children had a name, a face and a tale. It was amazing to see it from such a young perspective. I've read General Dallaire's book on Rwanda (Shake Hands with the Devil) which in itself is a powerhouse of a book and one everyone should read... but so is this one. At one point one of the boys was starving, quite sick, emaciated, weak and frail and all alone and seperated from the other two. He had a badly infected leg, owned only a pair of shorts and a blanket and nothing else.. he was beaten and tired and felt lonley and so very alone. Even at that low point someone wanted to steal his blanket from him. He sat down, fought and pleaded with the thief to the point where he had to struggled to produce enough energy for tears and through sheer determination managed to save his one possession.

I'll never forget this book. It has that sort of impact. It makes one look at our own lives and realize we take so much for granted. I'll have to remember it the next time I complain about something because believe me I have so much and such a good life in comparison to these boys back then and many Africans today. The same brutal attacks still goes on in Darfur to this day. The refugee camps still exist. Meanwhile North America is pretty much selectively blind to it all and eats itself into oblivion. We put more effort into seeking ways to diet and lose weight than to make sure everyone on the planet has something to eat. The book kinda put things into perspective for me even though after reading about Rwanda and Liberia and seeing documentaries on Ethiopia and Sierra Leone I was well aware of it. It's just so much more powerful when it comes from someone who lived it and survived.