Sudan has been in a civil war for more than 20 years, affecting the lives of many innocent people. The Lost Boys of Sudan documentary follows two young boys from the Dinka tribe who were forcefully kicked out of their villages. After having to cross the capricious desert, with other orphaned children and growing up in an underdeveloped refugee camp, they become one of the 3800 Sudanese people who get resettled to different cities in the US by the International Rescue Committee. They are sent there so that they can get the opportunity to make something out of their lives, get jobs and become more educated. However, what they expect to be "heaven on earth", turns out to be a very hard and exhausting lifestyle. Peter Dut, one of the transferred lost boys, is faced with many challenges when he enters into the unfamiliar, new world of America.
One of the biggest conflicts Peter was faced with, was adapting to the new lifestyle and trying to earn enough money to make a living. Peter came from a refugee camp that was very under developed. People lived in straw huts and there was not a lot of food supply. But even though conditions were very poor, the refugees in the camp still kept their traditions and culture alive, dancing and singing to traditional songs. So moving to Texas, Houston was a unreal yet scary experience. Peter has never lived in real house before. He never had a large variety of food in giant supermarkets to choose from, and never really had full-on English conversations with people. But like any other person, Peter adapted quickly. He improves on his English, not only practicing in his class but also speaking regularly with his Sudanese friends in the neighborhood. He also learns how to cook on a stove and keep a good hygiene.
But even though Peter developed tremendously in the first 2 months, he still found it very hard to maintain enough money for things such as rent and food. Since he is a refugee he doesn't really get offered such a good start in a city, he works in factories, making little money per hour. But Peter came to the United States to learn and get educated to help his people back in Sudan. So he takes a big step and decides to leave his friends in Houston and drive to Kansas, where he believes he will find a better and easier life.
Once he enters a high school and has a part-time job at Wall mart, Peter becomes more social and absorbs the American culture. Because he befriends himself with a lot of friends from his basketball-camp, he starts to dress differently, kind of forgetting his original traditions and culture. When Peter gets complaining calls from home he feels torn between two situations. He wants to take care of himself, getting good jobs and working hard, however he also wants to care for his family back home and send them money. And because Peter is so busy with things such as basketball camp, school, homework and his part-time jobs he loses himself and forgets about his homeland, his people and his culture. When his family calls, Peter realizes his mistakes and even though he might not have as much money for himself as he wanted, he promises them that he will send some as soon as possible.
Peter overcomes the new city-life in many different ways. He makes decisions based on what is in front of him, he never stops giving his best and working hard to get some money and even though life may be hard for him, he still does things that makes him happy and does the best out of the things that are given.
Another conflict Peter faces when he goes to the U.S is the prejudice and racist behavior and culture of the American People. Because Peter is from Sudan, he has a different skin color than the majority of the people living in the US. Even African Americans think of him differently because he has a darker skin color than they do. People in general are very stereotypical and think of black toned people as bad and stupid people who steal, hurt, commit crimes and don't have a lot of education. Peter, who is foreign to this type of behavior, really struggles with the prejudice actions towards him.
When Peter does his part-time job in wall mart, taking away shopping-carts and pushing them into storage, his boss tells him that it should be alright for him to work outside in the sun, since they are "used to doing this in Africa for long hours in a day." This upsets Peter a lot not only because he is unfamiliar to people treating him like this but also because he is angry that people think of black people in the way that they do because he never did anything wrong. He was just a poor refugee trying to rebuild his life in America.
Another example of racist behavior is when the student counselor advises Peter to go to a community collage instead of taking 4 years in another collage because you "only have to take an assessment and not a final exam". Peter surprises him by having thought about everything already and having written up a whole biography about himself that was required for the application and having a GPA above 3.5. When he reads his biography the counselor is surprised because he thought Peter would be a student who slacked and did not try hard and was stupid because he came from Africa.
Even though the prejudice behavior was hard to overcome, Peter managed to work through the problem and still move on without hesitation. He knew what he was doing and was not going to let anyone keep him from striving for his goal.
Peter Dut may be regarded as just a young refugee with a terrible past, but he proves those wrong who under-estimate him. he is a courageous and gifted young man who strives to do his best.
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