RES 5535: Race, Class, and Gender in Literacy Research (summer 2009)

Wow! These "Lost Boys of Sudan" are so inspirational. I am amazed that they could go through all they went through and be able to come out stronger and living safe and comfortably in the United States. This article provided so much information on the culture and history that the Lost Boys came from. I was very interested to find out more about their traditional ways of story telling and if they still incorporate it into their lives in America. These boys came to America and the way that they coped with the new situation was to share their experiences through oral story telling. They were able to give others in this country insight into the life they came from.

It was very interesting to learn about how these boys used story telling and how they viewed it. The boys viewed story telling in the US as different from their home country. In their home country story telling was used to pass down history and customs. The elders were the ones that told the stories and enlightened the children of the tribes. In the US the boys viewed story telling as just telling stories. It wasn't used here for historical or cultural purposes.

The African culture from Sudan was so rich in oral culture and very little writing took place. The boys however were exposed to writing in the refugee camp in Kenya. I thought that the story from Ezra about the Red Cross message board was a very interesting way to show how he saw literacy in hiw early life. He shared how important this message board became and that these letters became peoples lives that were searching for others. This is only one way that literacy was in his life. The boys were taught at the refugee camps and they had been introduced to literature and writing and other forms of literacy before they came to the US. Some of the boys also went to church to learn their tribal language, this was the only place it was spoken since they were in Kenya. The boys expressed how important it was to rememeber their culture and be able to speak the language and pass it down to younger children that might not have ever heard it. These boys used their story telling as a way to enrich their community and keep memories from their home land alive. The boys depended on their story telling so that they could keep their memories and help their community. I was so glad to see how these boys turned out and how respected they are in the community. This article really opened my eyes to some of the unfair actions that are going on in our world.

These boys helped their community stay close and they also brought the important aspects of literacy into their lives and their communities. These boys showed how if you listen and learn what you are being taught that you can succeed and really make something of yourself. The boys expressed how important it was to them to reach these goals and I think that they were on their way to accomplishing just what they set out to do. This article gave great examples of how using story telling can help studentschildren express themselves and become comfortable using literacy.