III. The Kenyans built a very large camp for all the people who had no place to go. In the camp were Sudanese, Ethiopians, Somalis, Rwandese, Zaireans, many others.
I lived there for nine years. It was just dust and bushes. It was either wet or dry. When it rained it was mud and when it was dry it was dust. Trucks always had their headlights on.
It was a little bit normal. I played soccer every day after school. Some of the teams were the Black Eagles and the Red Stars and the Holy Babies. We had dances and fistfights and examinations and books. There was one meal a day. We never had quite enough food. We lived in large huts, fifteen boys to a hut. Our hut was one of twenty huts, so there were three hundred boys where I was. Those were how many of us were left from when there were five hundred of us. So two hundred boys were dead.
I was seventeen years old when I found out I did not have to live in the camp forever. The United States said I could apply for refugee status as one of the Lost Boys. A few other countries were taking some of us, and some boys went to Canada and Britain, and many of my friends went to Australia, but the United States said it would take thousands of us, so I applied to come here.
One day the letter came for me from the United States. It was a white envelope with a red postmark and an eagle stamped on it. I tore it open right there. It said yes, you can come here.
I still have that letter.