As some of you know, after I finished college I was fortunate enough to have no clue what I wanted to be or do when I grew up so I headed off on what became almost five years of travelling around the world.
Because I mostly travelled alone I needed and sought interaction with the local people. I quickly realized that my connection with the people, not the seeing of the sights, was the reason I travelled. I was humbled over and over by the generosity of people I met along the way, and I found that the pooer the people the more open to and inviting they were of a stanger in their midst. Nowhere was this more apparent on my journey than with the tribal people of the Nuba Mountains in southern Sudan. I have many memories and stories of my days with the Dinkas, in their wonderful huts, out watching their cattle, at their westling matches, and just hanging with the teenagers trying to answer some of their questions about the world beyond ( My favorites questions were “How many cows does a wife cost in your country?” and “Did your country really send someone to the moon and how long does it take to get there?”)
As the turmoil of the last decades overtook these wonderfully gente, tall people, I have never quiet known how to help them until I heard a public radio article on the Lost Boys” of Sudan. I quickly realized that some of those bright, inquistive minds that I had sat with for days in the bush could well be amoung the estimated 25,000 young men and boys who fled in fear from everything they knew and walked 1,000 miles into their future, very different lives.
While relative peace has come to the southern Sudan, decades of civil war has left the region without the basic infrastructure for programs such as education and healthcare.
As the feature film God Grew Tired of Us has raised awareness of the issues of southern Sudan and of the plight of the Lost Boys of Sudan, John Dau (one of Lost Boys featured in the film) created this project to both educate the public on how they can have an impact AND to provide direct financial assistance to improve the delivery of healthcare and education in the southern Sudan as well as provide education to the Lost Boys in Africa.
So please take a moment out of your very blessed life to read a bit about this direct effort to help these less fortunate, wonderful people. My hope is that if your soul is touched as mine was you will join me in helping in any way you can.
Thanks for listening,
All the best,
Matt
