BY WENDY ELLIOTT
Kings County Advertiser/Register
Imagine being 11 years old, staying at your grandparents’ farm, when planes bring civil war to the doorstep.
Today, 22-year-old Riiny Ngot, one of 25,000 lost boys of Sudan, asks anyone who hears him speak to allow his story to become their own.
“If you can relate to myself and hear what Riiny overcomes, it will inspire your own journey,” he says.
The St. Francis Xavier University basketball player spoke at Northeast Kings school and Kings Presbyterian Church in New Minas April 28.
Riiny had been sent off to work long hours on the family cattle farm, a prime responsibility of boys in the Dinka tribe. One day, he was checking on a newborn calf in the barn when he heard planes and explosions. He looked out to see a layer of smoke and bullets flying everywhere.
When the dust settled, he ran home through dead bodies to find the village in ruins. Inside a crackling structure fire, a young girl was screaming - Riiny's eight-year-old sister, Akuol. He sprinted inside to find her burning, grabbed her and rushed out just before the home collapsed into a pile of fire and coals.
Both burn victims slept under a tree in the backyard for a week or so, waiting for some form of rescue. Eventually, UNICEF took the two children to a displaced persons camp inside Sudan. Riiny believed his parents were dead. He tried to stay strong to keep his sister hopeful. Riiny recalls his parents’ advice and values. Deeply religious, his mother would talk about keeping faith no matter what the circumstances. His father always spoke to him about strength.
Six-foot-three at age 11, Riiny was a target for military recruiters, but he was unable to operate an AK47 machine gun. He decided they had to escape, even if he had to carry his injured sister.
Not really knowing where they were going, the two children ran into many other kids - all of who wound up walking about 1,000 miles in their search for safety. Aid organizations call them all “The Lost Boys of Sudan.”
Riiny ran into a good friend from his home city of Wau, and they spent some weeks in the jungle. Wild animals ambushed kids at night. Others dropped from hunger, dehydration and infection. They walked through parts of the Sahara desert into Ethiopia and across a treacherous river, the Gilo - he figured swimming underwater was the best way across the football field-width waterway, full of crocodiles. He used his shirt to tie Akuol to his back and told her to pinch him when she needed to come up for air.
Riiny’s voice falters today as he talks about going back to help his friend who panicked, went up for air and was eaten by a crocodile. He lifts his head and slowly shakes it.
"I still hear the noises of crying and see people torn by (crocodiles). I still have nightmares of that river."
He estimates 300 to 400 kids died in the water that day. He lived to tell about it but, to this day, prefers the light turned on in a darkened bedroom.
“I don’t know how long it will last.”
Finding home
Upon reaching a refugee camp in Kenya, the vast Kakuma camp, home to thousands of Sudanese refugees; they settled in to their “home” for the next four years. School was held under trees without books.
One day, a ray of hope appeared when his father's sister, Athieng (living in Calgary), saw Riiny and Akuol's names on the internet. They spoke by phone and Athieng made plans for them to depart Kenya on a plane Sept. 24, 2002. Four days before their departure, they were told their aunt had been murdered by her ex-boyfriend.
An uncle, also in Calgary, learned of Riiny's situation while reading Athieng's papers.
Riiny and his sister did get on the plane to Canada, to live with a relative they didn't know.
Communication was hard in this new, cold country, but Riiny started school.
“Two weeks later, it started to snow. I thought was I going to die after all this.”
Four months later, a man at a weekly Sudanese gathering told Riiny he was a close friend of his dad: his parents are alive. The man dialed a number on his cell phone and, suddenly, Riiny was talking to his mother.
A new life
Riiny’s basketball coach at St. Mary's High School in Calgary, a man who talks like his father, introduced Riiny to the sport. Initially fearful of the contact game, he began to develop potential through practice and weight training.
Academics in English challenged him and a knee injury while playing for a U.S. college hampered him, but this seven-foot-two-inch ball player had become a serious athlete with a desire to improve - and win.
He hides his scars well.
These days, the 22-year-old is trying to raise enough funds to visit Uganda, where his mother and younger siblings are living. Annapolis Valley filmmaker Nance Ackerman will be chronicling that return journey in a feature length documentary.
