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The majority of the boys belonged to the Dinka or Nuer tribes, and most were then between the ages of 8 and 18. (Most of the boys don't know for sure how old they are; aid workers assigned them approximate ages after they arrived in 1992.) As Red Cross and United Nations relief workers scrambled to find shelter for them, the boys -- which is how they all, regardless of age, refer to one another -- described an almost unfathomable journey.

described the Lost Boys, whom he met several times during their itinerant years, as ''among the most badly war-traumatized children ever examined.''

repatriation

becoming the largest resettled group of unaccompanied refugee children in history.

''It's a hard life here,'' Sunday whispered to the older boy, ''but it's a free life too.''

Given the magnitude of these kids' adjustment, it was hard not to wonder how it would all work out.

The words describing America had piled up without real meaning: freedom, democracy, a safe place, a land with food enough for everyone

he combination of war, famine and disease in southern Sudan has killed more than two million people and displaced another four million

They're going from an environment where you've basically been given everything at the camp to an environment where you have to work, you have to produce,'' says Steve Redding, who directs the Kenya and southern Sudan programs of International Rescue Committee. ''It's a huge leap

one new arrival scream and run in fear at the sight of an escalator

espite their numbers, the lost boys tell stories that are remarkably similar and uniformly disturbing.

While they can be strikingly unemotional describing the horrors of their pasts, they nonetheless seem eager for Americans to appreciate the plight of their country. Predictably, those who had been in the United States a month or more were the most comfortable reflecting on what they had been through, while newer arrivals often seemed overwhelmed

as many as 74 percent of the boys survived shelling or air bombardment, 85 percent saw someone die from starvation, 92 percent said they were shot at and 97 percent witnessed a killing.

Terry Walsh, vice president for a refugee program run by Catholic Social Services in Lansing, Mich. ''For most refugees, education is important. But I've never met a group more dedicated to it. Education has always been the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.''

According to psychologists who work with war victims, refugee children who have finally reached a safe and stable environment are often confronted with long-suppressed feelings of fear, guilt and grief over what they have been through.

Arguably, whether their parents are living or not, most of the Lost Boys have no choice but to move on

Five weeks after his arrival, he was finding life in America to be hard -- harder than anyone had told him it would be

Without an American host family or church organization to help buffer the expenses, the three brothers seemed to grow more despondent with each passing week.

The first three months are always the toughest. It really does get better

''When someone first comes to this country as a refugee,'' he says, ''there's a euphoria of starting anew. But when that starts to wear off, a lot of problems can surface.''

This is a stove burner. this is a can opener. This is a brush for your teeth. The new things came in a tumble. The brothers' home was a sparsely furnished two-bedroom apartment in the basement of a sterile-looking complex on Fargo's south side, for which they would pay $445 a month. It had been stocked by a resettlement agency employee, primarily with donations from area churches and businesses, and the randomness reflected as much: there were two bundt pans, six tubes of toothpaste and no towels or cutting knives. Nonetheless, it was a good start. A loaf of white bread sat on the counter alongside a bunch of ripe bananas. There were cans of beans, a jumbo box of Corn Flakes, tea bags, a modest collection of mismatched dishes and a gallon of whole milk in the refrigerator.

im. Each boy then took a turn at the sink, awkwardly shoving the faucet handle to and fro.

And so began an opening spree. We opened a bag of potato chips. We opened a can of beans and untwisted the tie on the bagged loaf of bread. We unwrapped some I Can't Believe It's Not Butter and dropped a pat to sizzle in a hot pan on the stove. We cracked eggs, each boy taking his turn, erupting into paroxysms of laughter as the shell shattered in his grasp. After the eggs were scrambled and the food laid out, Peter, Maduk and Riak sat down and ate, chewing loudly, not saying a word until most of it was gone.

Hornbacher's, a standard-issue Midwestern grocery store, proved to be full of wonders. The electric doors. The grocery carts. The riotous rows of brightly packaged food and the ample-bodied white people who filled their carts with whatever they wished to buy. With the eyes of nearly every shopper in the store on them, the boys wandered tentatively through the produce section, looking but not touching, until Riak discovered a bin of green mangoes, which triggered a round of excited Dinka chatter. As we made our way through the store, they recognized nothing else except a bag of rice, but each new aisle seemed to embolden them, and soon they were moving as a meticulous three-man inspection team, studying labels, squeezing boxes and quietly pronouncing the names of everything from Special K to Velveeta.

The next aisle over, Peter touched my shoulder. He was holding a can of Purina dog food. ''Excuse me, Sara, but can you tell me what this is?'' Behind him, the pet food was stacked practically floor to ceiling. ''Um, that's food for our dogs,'' I answered, cringing at what that must sound like to a man who had spent the last eight years eating porridge. ''Ah, I see,'' Peter said, replacing the can on the shelf and appearing satisfied. He pushed his grocery cart a few more steps and then turned again to face me, looking quizzical. ''Tell me,'' he said, ''what is the work of dogs in this country?''

Yuot's life depended on how fast and how far his tiny bare feet could take him every day, with hot sand prickling every step, for a thousand miles with little or no sleep, day after day, night after night, across Sudan, the largest country in Africa. So he walked. For his life.

"The physical elements of the desert were extreme. The boys had to deal with hunger and thirst issues along the way. It's hard to believe what they endured. It's certainly a group of young men who are exceptional. What really got these boys through was a reliance on each other.

During the journey, many died of starvation. Many drowned. Some were shot. Some were devoured by crocodiles.

"They were young and they went on this trek that was close to 1,000 miles. They had to endure all of the elements. Many of them saw death on their journey and in Kenya.

To survive, they walked. They marched through their war-torn country, seeking refuge, first in Ethiopia, then Kenya and, eventually, the United States.

The boys were admired for it. It was really a test of endurance to go through what they did. It's why each one of those boys is so resilient today."

Only about half of the Lost Boys who tried to escape Sudan survived the journey.

"There were some areas of the desert when we had no water at all, so we had to drink out of small creeks where animals and other people used to go to the bathroom

he does not know his exact age,

Malual said his older brother shook him awake one day and told him to run.

Malual’s gr

oup was the first to settle in that area

Every 14 days, each boy received 15 kilograms of maize flour, some cooking oil and one cup of beans,

Sharing was what kept us together, pushed us together,

If I didn’t receive my ration one day, my friend would call me when it was time to eat.”

Malual, then a teenager, found a job. Although the large bulk of his salary went toward rent for an apartment he almost never saw, Malual took on extra hours and began to save money

You’re going to go home,’” Malual said. “And they gave me a ticket. I was so happy; I couldn’t believe it.”

‘Is this the wrong family?’”

His brother, who had been the one to tell Malual to run as a child, had remained in the village.

‘When I told you to run, I didn’t mean to run forever

he described America as his second home and said he couldn’t imagine leaving it.

It's hard to distinguish what is reality and what is not.

they had left a life of terror far behind found that it had followed them to America.

Abraham felt he'd reached a dead end

if I go down there, am I going to die?

"And I wanted to tell him in the United States it's different, you need to think this way and that way. And basically on Sept. 11, I was re-educated because it wasn't a surprise to him.

There are also more than 57,000 children in the camp, about 5,000 of whom have no parents. A lack of funding means that services to them are limited.

Maker said that since he left Sudan as a little boy, he has not seen his parents. “So I don’t know where they are at this time and that’s why I am still in the camp. And camp is just like my home now, you know?” he said.

They ran excitedly across the dirt field, barefoot, clad in threadbare t-shirts. An older boy kicked a goal as a smaller child stood on the sideline, watching quietly. Looming behind them was the main gate, where a sign reminds entrants to “leave the camp better than you found it.”