Things can always be worse

We watched God Grew Tired of Us tonight and it's one of those documentaries that you pick up for the novelty of it and it ends up grabbing you and making a real impact. This would be exactly the opposite of Reversal of Fortune which was essentially a homeless circus and left me feeling somewhat dirty after I saw it.

The quick rundown on God Grew Tired of Us is that the filmmakers followed three young men who were part of the Sudanese "Lost Boys" who fled Sudan during their civil war and wandered Africa without help for years until they settled in a Kenyan refugee camp.

From there, three of the young men are given their tickets out and to the United States, where the next few years are documented as they try to find jobs and build new lives for themselves in New York and Pennsylvania.

Keep in mind that these are guys who have never seen electricity, running water or any of the thousands of little things that we take at face value. Early in the film, the new Americans are being shown around their apartment by an aid worker in the United States and are told not to throw trash out the windows and are given short instructional talks on how to operate the lamps.

Honestly, this is why I picked the film out of the lineup on Netflix (and also how it's billed there); the whole fish out of water story about how strange the United States is seemed pretty interesting.

While there is plenty of this storyline throughout the film, it also focuses on how inhospitable the United States truly is, how much these men had to go through as children and their amazing sense of community and what is owed to their other brothers who were left behind.

One of the three young men, Daniel, took it upon himself to form a parliament in the the refugee camp to make sure everyone had a voice and to give them things to do during the long, boring hours spent behind the camp's fences.

As the lost boys in America worked two and three jobs and tried to get an education, they lost touch with each other, even while sleeping under the same roof. After spending years relying on each other for safety as they crossed Africa to escape the civil war and then spending every hour together in the camps, this turned out to be a major problem for those who made it to the U.S.

In all, the movie is one that shouldn't be missed, especially when you consider what an underplayed piece of world history their exodus was. It's also interesting to contrast their experience in the U.S. with what most of us are accustomed to in terms of the American Dream on living just beyond your means, stretching that credit limit and robbing Peter to pay Paul at times.

When you're willing to work two jobs and squirrel away every extra cent to send it to others, it's amazing what you can accomplish.

Go add this movie to your Netflix queue or bug the local Blockbuster to stock it, it's worth the trouble. At the very least, you'll start to see just how isolated Americans are. I'm still stunned at how myopic I've been about that point.

(Image from: IMDB.com)