I’ve heard about this documentary for a while now but only last week got the DVD from our library and began to watch it (and still watching it in short bursts.)
I took it home and my daughter asked me about the title. I had a hard time explaining it to her since I hadn’t watched the movie. I guess I was partly afraid that these boys – who had been through so much – thought God got tired of them personally and that is why they went through all their hardships. That they thought He just gave up on them.
I’m not finished watching it but I think I understand the title better. One of the young men is describing how bad things were, how hard they were and in general how messed up the world must be. He uses the phrase “God must have gotten tired of us.” In that context now I have a new meaning. In his mind he might have said the same thing when God told Noah to build the ark. “I’m tired of all these people and what they are doing.” The “Us” is all of us, not just a few people and certainly not them.
If you haven’t seen this – get it. Not many movies make me laugh out loud. But some scenes are priceless. Most of these are as these young Africans – who have lived in a refugee camp for most of the lives – encounter American culture. Not in a slapstick Crocodile Dundee kind of way but more innocent.
One scene has a young man taking shaving crème and spreading it on his hands and then he proceeds to spread it on his arms, his face, his head – but he doesn’t shave. He simply walks out of the room.
The boys are in Pittsburgh (but it seems at other times they were in NYC or Syracuse) and it must be around Christmas. One of them asks about Santa. “Is it in the Bible?” He proceeds to tell about celebrating Christmas in Kakuma – the refugee camp in Kenya – how they simply celebrate the birth of Jesus. And it is accompanied by a scene of hundreds of people in the camp, dancing and singing.
Somehow in the midst of their suffering, they can still understand a more simple idea of Christmas without needing all the material trappings we think are necessary.
But this movie will also make you cry. I can’t imagine living in a country where the government decides that all the young males should be killed so they have to escape – leave families – everything just to survive. It took the U.S. a long time to just decide that we could call what is happening in Darfur, genocide. I don’t care what semantics you have to play – this is simply tragic.
And I guess to keep things straight, what happened in southern Sudan is not exactly the same as in Darfur although I’d be hard-pressed to explain the difference politically or geographically. Simply put the Lost Boys were displaced, fled, escaped southern Sudan etc. during the 2nd Sudanese Civil War which was mostly a religious conflict (Muslim v. Christian) over a period from the mid 90s until 2005 or so. The “genocide” in Darfur is more tribal in nature with the Sudanese Govt. or their militias, the “janjaweed”, ravaging villages in western Sudan.
In a separate blog entry I mention my initial lack of support for the war in Iraq. With what little I know, if anyone needs to be bombed back into the Stone Age, it is the Sudanese government. Imagine how far the billions of dollars we have and are still spending in Iraq would go to improve things in Sudan. But we don’t have any long-term oil or other economic interests in Sudan that I know of so …
I am so impressed with the attitudes and wisdom the young men being interviewed – possess. If I’d been through 1/10th of their troubles I’d be complaining, and would probably be a basket case emotionally. But some of these boys work 2 or 3 jobs just so they can send money back to their families in Sudan, or Uganda or wherever the might be. I was also amazed that they can even communicate with them or even find out where their families are. Must be some network.
At any rate – enough rambling. Go watch the movie. My library has it on DVD – your probably does too.
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