Meet the Team...pictures soon!

I've mentioned in earlier posts the names of team members I'm working with on this refugee scholarship project, but I wanted to introduce them properly, because theyare phenomenally capable people whose dedication astounds me as much as the hardship they have survived and continue to overcome every day.

It is approprate to start with Mario, as he is the first of the so-called Lost Boys we came to know back in California. Mario is a graduate of University of San Francisco, and my mom was introduced to him by a Christian missionary, Ursula. My mom traveled to Somalia and Haiti with Ursula before realizing that she could accomplish more on humanitarian trips if she ventured out on her own, unfettered by organized religious/bureaucratic organizations. She continued to keep in touch with Mario and his Sudanese friends-Deng, Mamer, and a lot of others who knew each other either from refugee camps or after coming to the US. They were almost all involved in NGO work for Sudan, so my mom and I got involved through them. Last year, she went to Kenya with my dad to meet some of the students who she was introduced to by Mario and who she now sponsors. As I wrote before, this year, our aim is to expand the program, God willing. We haven't gotten any outside funding yet (grants, etc) but to continue to see the project grow (and there is a desperate need for that!), we plan to actively pursue other sources of funding.

Anyway, another member of the team is Deng, also studying in the US. Deng is a softspoken but adamantly just man who plans to get his masters in public health at Touro Univ. in Vallejo, CA. He is a college graduate. He is with us in Kenya right now, but just returned from his marriage in Sudan to a young woman he met in Kakuma refugee camp. They have two kids. He is forever arguing for us to make the most fair decisions regarding students: for instance, not discriminating against Ugandan applicants just because they are in Uganda (and thus harder to keep track of), and not discriminating against students who seem to look better off (what, do we need them to look dirty and bad to sponsor them? he asked last Sunday).

Kwai is another member, but I think I devoted plenty of time to him in my last post. A blessing to the project and more importantly, to SUdanese refugees in Kenya, period.

Then there's Mayen. He's also a refugee who was kidnapped by the SPLA but escaped with Chol, another one in Sudan right now for a school project (Chol did a lot of the organizational work for the project here in Nairobi while me and my mom were in Mexico and at home in CA, respectively). Mayen has two brothers, both of whom are in the US/Canada. They won the lottery like Mario did. He should have gone too, but his paperwork was lost. He's studying catering in college. He's a loyal, hardworking, resourceful, honest, accountable guy, always ready to help his people and their cause. As he told us in Nakuru: I don't care if I have to sleep under a tree, as long as the work gets done. I am learning from his example. He also likes rap music, so I'm going to make him some CD's once I have access to my laptop again.

And finally, there’s Agou Jon. He goes by Agou but I’ve only known him as Jon. I met him over email last year when he wrote to me, telling me about his studies. He had gotten admission to Moi University to study medicine. Moi is a prestigious public university here in Kenya. It’s even harder to get into med school here than in the US, which is saying a LOT (trust me). But he had no money to pay (like everywhere else in the world, studying to be an MD is extremely costly). So he gave it up, and decided to study communications instead. Of course, he excels at it, and USAID is doing creative projects using the radio to bring education to Sudanese, but I can’t help thinking that he would be of much greater service to his people as a doctor. And at least equally as importantly, I believe he’d get more satisfaction from it. Just my .02. Personally, I hope he finishes his current degree and then pursues funding (maybe a Universal Unity scholarship?) next year for medicine. The cost is $7,000 per year for four years. Anyone have any ideas? He is just so capable and dedicated. For instance, on Sunday in Nakuru, we divided up the labor of drawing up cost estimates for each candidate we’d narrowed the list down to. He took university students and I did high school boys and girls. He had class on Monday, but still came at 6pm with a neat Excel spreadsheet detailing everything. Knowing how prepared he would be, I did the same by hand (no laptop), calling all the schools I could in order to find out term costs in each school (each term is priced differently, and there are four forms in high school, three terms per form). I am inspired by his work ethic, as I am by Chol’s, Mayen’s, Kwai’s and Deng’s.

As I mentioned before, some of these students knew each other long before we got to know them as individuals. Mayen told us about how they all knew each other before this, back in Ethiopia and Sudan. Apparently, Chol snuck Mayen out of the SPLA camp at one point, and then himself escaped. In Kenya, Mayen met Mario. They were refugees trying to survive. Mario would bring food, Mayen and others would search for water, and still others would bring firewood back to the bush. Everyone knew Mario because he would bring the food and then distribute it, first to the little ones (like Mayen, back then) and then to the adults. Hearing this made me realize that there’s a whole history I know nothing about, and I have to be humble and keep my eyes, ears and brain wide open to learn as much as possible as I insert myself into this social network.