When we introduce someone to the podcast, we make episode recommendations to them. We recommend episodes that we think will interest the person we’re talking to, but there is one that we tell people about no matter who they are. It is Episode #62 … John Dau.

John Dau is one of the Lost Boys of Sudan. There have been books, movies and documentaries about the Lost Boys of Sudan. It is an amazing story about all of them and John’s individual story of survival is incredible. John starts off by telling us about the simple and typical life he had as a child in his African village. A detail that jumped out at me was how he told Paul that every child had responsibilities from the time they were 4-5 years old. That responsibility’s level of importance grew as each child got older. The amenities that we take for granted were what we would view as a chore or work. John said how they had to walk and travel for wood and water and how they viewed that as part of their schooling.

John then told the story of survival that still blows me away every time I listen to it. John was twelve years old when the war came to his village. He was immediately separated from his family and had to hide in the tall grass to avoid being found by the people invading and attacking his village. He was with a group of about 25 of his fellow villagers and they went without food for days, dealt with very cold weather. By the time they got to a refugee camp, only 4 of the approximate 25 had survived and John was one of them. He then discussed life at the refugee camp and how they came together and grew as a group and as a family. He discussed his leadership role even though he was only a teenager and how the Ethiopian government was good to them. Then the government that had been good to them was overthrown and another journey of survival began for John and the group that had become the Lost Boys and Girls. This group had grown to approximately twenty-seven thousand over the years at the refugee camp. Now the camp was being attacked by an army and they had to flee for their lives. By the time the group made it to Kenya (it was 1992 and John was 17 years old) the group known as the Lost Boys and Girls was down to 12,000. For the first time in his life, John started to get some formal education and was learning his ABC’s and how to count.

In 2000, John’s life would dramatically change when a group of Americans came to Kenya as part of a refugee program. John was selected to come to the United States of America and after a stop in Europe, he settled in Syracuse, New York. He had heard a great many stories about the USA and he found some were true and some not. His greatest surprise was the grocery store. His first surprise was seeing an automatic door or as he called it, a “magic door”. Next he was surprised and taken back by the incredible amount of food. He had never seen such a place and to celebrate, he and his roommates bought six gallons of milk! The big revelation John had outside the grocery store was snow as when it snowed, it was the first time that John had ever seen snow.

Paul and John talked about his first jobs, how he reconnected with some of his family and how many of the Lost Boys and Girls ended up in the U.S.A. In 2016, John, his wife Martha and their children moved south to the Richmond, Virginia area. John runs the John Dau Foundation (www.johndaufoundation.org) which is the largest employer in South Sudan. The medical and food help that John’s foundation has provided is incredible and he and his foundation are doing great things to help people in South Sudan.

This is why we tell anyone and everyone to listen to John’s episode when we are making recommendations. Please listen to John’s episode and any other Stories from the Center of the Universe episodes that may interest you. Have a great day!