Lost Boys Found In a New World

Peter Dut

The Lost Boys of Sudan have a complicated history. They have been through war and have safely lived through it all. Sudan has been through a civil war, which lasted 20 years, ending in 2005. From transferring from Sudan to various parts of America, The Lost Boys have completely changed their cultural understanding and had difficulty adapting to the average lifestyle of Americans. One of the lost boys is named Peter “Nyarol” Dut, who has seen the horrors of war and lived. He is now living safely in America, though he has had some difficulty adapting to the life of America. Through his travels he has gained education and is now ready to take on the world alone.

Though they faced many difficulties due to the change in culture, one of the hardest things to adapt to is making new friends. Peter arrived in Houston, Texas with Santino, another one of The Lost Boys, but later moved away to pursue his career and education. He moved to Kansas where he was a new senior in school trying to balance work and education into his busy schedule. In his busy life he had some time to socialize, he felt lonely and new to the American culture. He had tried out for a basketball team and joined a church group, but he still felt different. He was use to the Sudanese lifestyle and thus though he was left out of social groups. An example of this is when Peter is in church youth group, and he is the only one not singing while he is also sitting in the back row. Although many people didn’t accept Peter for what he is, the ones that did found out about his tragic past and how he is hoping for a new, wonderful life.

Culture shock is the feeling of fright and confusion when dealing with another culture which is entirely different from your own. Peter Dut dealt with culture shock well, but also gained many stereotypes from observing the American culture. He was able to use much of the technology after a while, but at first did not understand how most of the everyday items worked. An instant of this is when he did not know how the airplane food should have been eaten, eating things differently then normal. This happened just prior to arriving in America. To adjust to the American society, Peter observed the everyday life of Americans and then applied it to himself to be able to adapt to the American culture.