Author Visit
They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky:
The True Story of Three Lost Boys from Sudan
Benjamin Ajak, Co-Author, visited the Middle and Senior
Schools on November 29 and 30, 2007.
Benjamin Ajak, one of the authors of the Lost Boys of Sudan memoir, They Poured Fire on Us from the Sky, spent Friday, November 30th at the Middle School. Forms I and II had an assembly in which they heard Benjamin speak about the importance of education. He also autographed copies of his book for Form I students.
 |
 |
Benjamin spent most of the day in Form II English classes speaking to students about his experiences fleeing his home as a five year old orphan, living in refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya, and finally being accepted as a refugee by the United States. Benjamin was scheduled to fly into John F. Kennedy International airport on September 11, 2001, and saw the World Trade Center buildings aflame from the airplane window. Diverted to Canada for two weeks, he commented that his experience, that of arriving in the United States by bus, was not the usual one for a modern refugee.
 |
 |
Benjamin spoke about his views about the United States and of his passion to help bring peace to his homeland. He shared stories about life as a trucker, a movie extra, and a spokesman on the road with students. Benjamin currently lives in San Diego with two cousins and dreams of visiting Sudan when peace returns. Students asked questions of him, and he asked them questions as well. Form II students had their books autographed in class.
 |
 |
Benjamin with Senior School Librarian Reed Williams
Below is his bio from the website http://www.theypouredfire.com/.
Benjamin Ajak
" I stayed in the Kakuma camp for many years and started my education.
I soon learned how it goes in the refugee camp. Education is fine, but the
food is not enough, only one half cup of corn meal a day. So you must choose.
If you don't want an education you can have a business for your survival.
If you want education you must live on the little bit of food that is given
and eat only once a day. It is your choice whether you eat in the morning
and stay hungry for the whole day or eat in the afternoon. My cousins and
I managed this. We went to school and ate once a day in the evening. But reading
was really difficult because there was a certain cloud because of hunger.
It's black when you look at the words in the book. The black covers the words
and you can't see because of that color in your eyes from the hunger ."
Benjamin Ajak was born in 1982 in a village in Southern Sudan. His parents
were pastoralists and subsistence farmers who raised cattle until a civil
war broke out between Northern and Southern Sudan. In 1987 Benjamin's village
was attacked. To escape death or induction into the Muslim army, at the age
of five years, Benjamin fled alone into the night. Several days later he found
his cousins, Benson and Lino, seven years old, and they joined the exodus
that became twenty thousand boys fleeing a thousand miles across Africa's
largest country. Facing lions, crocodiles and starvation, only a half survived,
made it into Ethiopia, and became known to the world as The Lost Boys.
The Lost Boys remained in Ethiopia for three years. In a fall from a tree,
Benjamin sustained a serious leg wound and a piece of wood remained lodged
in the bone, causing an infection that refused to heal. When a civil war broke
out in Ethiopia they were run out of the country at gunpoint and forced to
swim the Gilo River where two thousand lives were claimed by shooting, drowning
or crocodiles.
The boys began the trek back across Sudan scavenging for food and dodging
bombings, and all the other hazards they'd faced before. Benjamin, his leg
even more seriously infected now, and his cousins Alepho, Benson and Lino
were captured by the rebel army and taken to a training camp in the Natinga
Mountains. Benjamin escaped, was captured and jailed. Each day he was caned
in the morning and evening until five months later he escaped again, this
time successfully.
Another long walk through deserts and mountains led him to Kakuma Refugee
Camp, a barren wasteland in northern Kenya, but the safest place he'd been
in years. The education in Kakuma was excellent. Benjamin studied English,
math, science and history, but food was scarce, about one half cup of ground
corn a day and the supply was often exhausted or stolen before the next ration.
Benjamin remained in Kakuma from 1992 until 2001.
On September 11, 2001 Benjamin's first glimpse of America outside his plane
window was the World Trade Towers on fire. His plane was diverted to Canada
and he arrived two weeks later in San Diego. Since then Benjamin has explored
many opportunities in America, from a wrapper at the Hillcrest Ralphs Grocery
Store to a part in the Russell Crowe/Peter Weir movie, "Master and Commander."
Holding a Class A licnese, from behind the wheel of an 18 wheeler, Benjamin
has seen all 48 states. He now resides in San Diego and speaks full time to
organizations and schools, sharing his amazing life and insights into surviving
as a child of war and a newcomer to the U.S.
