Birthday Disconnect

Yesterday was my birthday. Friends in the neighborhood showed up at our door with cake and balloons in hand. They said on their walk over many of the children in the subdivision came running to ask where they were going and who the goodies were for. The rest of the day I spent receiving little visitors bearing homemade construction paper and crayoned cards, newspaper wrapped candy, and personally designed beaded bracelets. These are beautiful children ranging in age from 6 to 11 doing what children should be doing at that age--frolicking joyfully. I truly thank them for making my birthday special.

Unfortunately for King Deng, his blissful childhood where he helped his father tend animals in his village was cut short by war. The strife was not of his people's making, but they suffered greatly. He did not have the luxury of frivolity once his village was attacked. Once that happened, he and his peers were running for their lives never to see their parents again. And King Deng was no longer a-boy-who-would-be-King. He became, by the acts of horrible circumstance, a boy king, who led his People through the worst time of their lives. And continues to lead them, through their assimilation to the foreign land his father foreshadowed, and where they strive to remain true to their roots.

In the Jurbile tribe, like most of the tribes in Southern Sudan, there was no record keeping, no paper and pen, and no "apps". So when King was assigned to Group 1, Zone 1 bound for the U.S. after years of interment in a refugee camp in Kenya, he, along with the other children who were designated as "The Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan", was assigned the same date of birth January 1, 1979 by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. King does not celebrate this "birthday".

But what he and his people are preparing to celebrate is the first anniversary of Southern Sudan's separation from Northern Sudan on July 9. Last year on July 9, 2011 a referendum was passed allowing the one nation, formerly called Sudan, to divide the land theoretically in half forming 2 distinct nations. My husband and I are looking forward to sharing this day with King and his people, to dance to their tribal music, to see all their colorful vestments, and to feel their joy...