NENJI YILPET | senior staff writer

John Gak shares how he was once a "lost boy" of Sudan.

Seven years old running across the border into Ethiopia, sophomore computer science major John Gak was not playing tag with friends or rushing home for a warm meal.

He was running for his safety into the unknown. He was running not realizing he would not see his family again for 17 years.

Natively from Sudan, Gak was born into the Dinka tribe, located in southern Sudan.

His family’s livelihood was based on raising cattle.

Thus, his fondest childhood memories are of being in the fields with cows and goats. Gak jokes that, in Sudan, if a man has a cow then he can make a living.

But in 1987, Gak was forced to say good-bye to being a cattle boy and became more familiar with a refugee camp in Ethiopia than his village back home.

According to Gak, the Sudanese civil war forced the boys in the villages in southern Sudan to run to Ethiopia for safety. The government learned of the young men who were leaving Sudan to train and then return to fight the Arab militia. In an effort to stop this, the government raided the villages to take the little boys.

When the boys fled to Ethiopia, their parents did not see them or know where they were.

According to Gak, the refugee camp in Ethiopia was under the care of the United Nations, yet due to the state of the country at the time, the boys barely had one small meal a day. He specifically remembers once walking barefoot for an entire month.

In the four years Gak was in Ethiopia he was able to receive education up to a 4th grade level.

“All I could do as a boy back home was to take care of cattle,” Gak said. “When I came to Ethiopia I started going to school. I transitioned from that lifestyle to a different lifestyle. Now, in studying, I had to learn history of places around the world.”

Gak was also taught about Christianity while in Ethiopia.

“When we got to Ethiopia we knew we only had two things to rely on: education and God. Back home we had heard of these things, but we were not much into it,” Gak said.

Sudanese pastors baptized Gak while in Ethiopia and in accordance with their tradition Gak was given the Biblical name John. The name his parents gave him was Chol Gak. Now, he goes by John Chol Gak.

In his tribe, the people take a goat to the water when they want to fish and the goat is pushed into the water and disappears, then fish appear and the people go fishing. John grew up seeing his uncle use supernatural powers.

“Back home growing up, sacrifices and supernatural things were done to heal people but when I came to Ethiopia, I learned that God does not demand anything. You must not kill any cow or do anything,” Gak said.

In 1991 Gak found himself running from all he knew, again.

According to Gak, the instability of Ethiopia caused the boys to have to run back into Sudan but then under the United Nation’s care they crossed the border from Sudan into a refugee camp in northern Kenya.

“Even in Kenya it was different than life in Sudan. People in the towns are a lot more westernized than the village,” Gak said.

In Kakuma, Kenya, the United Nations began the program of the “Lost Boys of Sudan” in 2000. John said the term “lost boy” was coined because since 1987 until the United Nations started processing the boys, no one knew where their parents were and the boys had no identification at all and so this gave birth to the phrase “lost boy.”

All the lost boys were given January 1st as their birthday by the United Nations.

Gak remembers wanting to become a solider before he arrived in Kenya because he wanted to go back to Sudan.

“We wanted to be soldiers so bad, so bad, so bad. We really wanted to go and fight. But when we got to Kenya our minds were actually into education, we did not think of going back to fight,” Gak said.

The boys continued schooling in Kenya before the United Nations began transporting the boys to the United States.

Gak recalled the first group being brought over on Dec. 16, 2000. Gak happened to be on the last plane flight to the United States on September 27, 2001 with 89 other lost boys who were by then young men.

Gak flew into New York and then was directed to Ohio. After feeling how cold it was in Ohio and hearing from his close friends that the weather was warmer in California, he took a bus to San Diego.

Currently, there are 96 men who were once lost boys now in the San Diego area.

The past seven years in San Diego have been years of working, adjusting and schooling for Gak.

Now Gak is an American citizen. When first asked where he is from he says San Diego, but if asked where he originally is from he will say Sudan.

Gak joined the APU community this spring as a transfer student. Karen Richard, a dear friend, had connections that enabled him to come here. He enjoys computer science and math and hopes to be involved in both areas in the future.

“I am happy with my life right now. I don’t have to wake up in the middle of the night and run like I used to and there is no fear in me.” Gak said.

Benjamin Ajak, Gak’s best friend, also has adjusted to life in America. Along with his cousins Benson and Alephonsion, he wrote the book They Poured Fire On Us From Above about the their memories and experiences as lost boys.

Ajak presently tours the United States sharing his experineces.

“I speak about the current situations of my people, but my goal is not only my people but how we can bring all of Africa to peace situations,” Ajak said.

Ajak described his experiences as a nightmare. He recalled living through the refugee camps with Gak.

“John has been my best friend forever,” Ajak said. “We need people to tell the truth and I appreciate John because he encourages me and wants to see change too.”

In 2004, Gak went back to Kenya after being in the United States for 3 years. He was able to see his parents in Kenya after 17 years. There are now locations in Kenya and Uganda that allow family members to fill out forms to try and find their sons.

“I did not recognize my mom, and I had a brother who had been born that I had never met. My mom recognized me though,” Gak said. “I have not spoken to or seen some of my brothers and sisters since I left at the age of 7.”

Gak also went back in 2007. This time he spent a month in Sudan and 2 months in Kenya. In the village, he saw snakes in the fields and cattle and after being gone for so long he said he could barely adjust to being back. He hopes to go visit again and see more of his family.

“For now, I plan to keep living in America and only go visit back home. One day, if I see changes back home later, I may see if it is safer there and go back for sometime,” Gak said.

Now life for Gak is different than his years as a refugee, yet nothing really surprises him.

“Imagine being by yourself at the age of seven,” Gak said. “We had gone through having no food, having nothing; we went through periods of longing for our parents and food, with everything we have seen and been through nothing really excites us, whether it is a good thing or bad thing.”

Gak said that if he had stayed in Sudan he would not know if he would be alive today. He described that time in his life as “hoping to see the sun tomorrow.”

Yet, due to all he has been through, Gak’s perspective on life is one of taking life as it comes, one day at time with no huge expectations or longings.

“With all the situations I have been through, I started with nothing, and now that I have something I know that what I have not accomplished I will accomplish someday. I don’t rush to my decisions,” Gak said. “If I am alive and I have something in mind that I am pursuing I know I will achieve it in time and if I don’t get it, that is fine because I never had it to begin with.”