There's No "Heaven" On Earth

The Lost Boys of Sudan are a group of over 20,000 boys and some girls, who had to flee from the civil war in their country and traveled hundreds of miles across the African desert in hope to escape the conflict going on in their home and to have a peaceful life. Many of these boys were orphans and were left to live on independently because their parent(s) have been killed or lost in the raids. Many of the boys also died during their long journey, and in desperate search of a safe "home", the Lost Boys arrived in kenya, where they were placed in the Kakuma Refugee Camp. In the camp, the boys spent some 11 years with their fellow refugees and grew up into adults. One day, 4000 Sudanese boys were chosen to migrate to the United States to find a new and better life. Peter is one of the boys in this camp that have been chosen to migrate to the United States. The boys expected America to be like "heaven on Earth" but found out that there's no heaven on Earth due to their incapability in the beginning to cope with the culture shock. While Peter was trying to assimilate to the new life, he was faced with a lot of difficulties regarding education and racism. From the beginning of his life in the United States, Peter left Texas and drove to Kansas City in order to work for himself and become more educated so that he could go back to Sudan as a successful man and help out his fellow refugees in the camp. Looking for some type of education but not knowing his actual age, Peter applied for high school. But Peter said that he always felt that he wasn't able to fit in with the rest of his peers because he was "different". As well as school, Peter also found a job in Wal-Mart, where he was able to earn enough money to pay his rent and support himself. Examples of racism and prejudice can be found in these two places where Peter spent a lot of his time in. First of all, a slight hint of prejudice can be noticed when the ESL teacher in Peter's school does not respect Peter's background culture and asks him a question which he is unable to answer: 'what would you do if you had 1 million dollars?’ This is a question that is hard to answer for even some of us. One could possibly imagine how hard it would be for a refugee to answer that question. Second of all, Peter was told by his boss in Wal-Mart that he should collect shopping carts out in the parking lot. His boss assumed since Peter was African and Africa is a hot country, he would be used to working in a hot climate and wouldn't have to worry about being "burnt" out in the sun. Lastly, in school, Peter wished to apply for an ACT testing and sought for advice from the school counselor. However, the counselor told Peter that he should just go to a "lower-rated community college". But he is soon shocked to find out that Peter has a letter proving him to be an Honor Role and that he already had his biography written up and ready for submission. Peter experienced difficulties and challenges assimilating into a whole new culture and lifestyle but was determined to successfully "embrace" the American culture. Although there may be many more challenges that Peter has to face in the future, I think that he had already begun a successful life.