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Benson Athiin Deng
Yolol2001@aol.com
"Our village was attacked by Islamic extremists when I was
seven years old. We fled a thousand miles across Sudan to Ethiopia
on foot. The traveling was always by night and I hated this very
much because we were not allowed to sleep and when I stepped on
unidentified things in the dark like thorns, twigs and sharps tones,
my feet were sore all the time. But I was not the only one, about
twenty-five boys my age shared the same hardships. This stopped
me from any complaints or crying. I was not wearing any shirt or
jacket, just only my underwear all the way to Ethiopia"
I learned English by writing the alphabet with a stick in the sand
in Ethiopia. Five years later when I reached safety in Kenya I began
my education again, but was soon struck with a serious illness,
River Blindness. For five years that disease that made it impossible
for me to sit and attend class so I taught myself English by lying
on my stomach in my hut and copying the essentials of grammar and
vocabulary into a composition book.
Since my arrival in America in August 2001, I worked at Ralphs Grocery
Store in Hillcrest until the strike in November of 2003. Now I run
the computer and digital photography system at Waste Management
in El Cajon.
When I arrived in America my brother and cousin and I began writing
about our experiences. Our literary agent, Joni Evans, VP of William
Morris, sold our book to Public Affairs. It is entitled "They
Poured Fire on Us from the Sky: The True Story of Three Lost Boys
of Sudan" and was released June 13th, 2005. We hope that the
book will allow us to further our education and help our family
back home who are still suffering.
Benson Deng: A "Lost
Boy" of Sudan Looks Back
Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts
2007
Composed and pleasant, the lanky young man at the podium did not
seem to be someone who could have witnessed incredible atrocities
in his early life. But as he detailed in the book that he co-authored,
They Poured Fire on Us from the Sky: the True Story of Three Lost
Boys from Sudan, Benson Deng is a survivor of genocide - one of
27,000 young boys who fled Sudan in 1987. As part of an all-school
summer reading assignment, Middlesex freshmen and sophomores read
his extraordinary account and were primed to welcome him when he
visited Middlesex with another of his co-authors, Judy Bernstein,
on October 9, 2007. continue
reading
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