Alepho also auditioned. "The people I work with at Ralphs were so happy when they hear I got the part," Alepho says. "I realized to Americans this is something very exciting. To me it was a way to make money. But my boss say all Americans want to be movie stars."
Bernstein had mixed feelings. She worried how five months among a company of hard-partying American actors in wide-open Rosarito would affect the two young Sudanese, particularly Alepho. Benjamin is a highly social extrovert; Alepho is a deep thinker, voracious reader and sensitive writer, shy and prone to bouts of depression.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Saturday January 18, 2003 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 12 inches; 431 words Type of Material: Correction
Sudanese refugees -- In the Jan. 5 Magazine article "What the 'Lost Boys' of Sudan Found in America," it was incorrectly stated that one of the Sudanese refugees, Buay Tang, will be shifting from premed studies to a career in acting. He is continuing with his premed studies while also pursuing an acting career.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Sunday February 02, 2003 Home Edition Los Angeles Times Magazine Part I Page 6 Lat Magazine Desk 1 inches; 49 words Type of Material: Correction
In "What the 'Lost Boys' of Sudan Found in America" (Jan. 5), it was incorrectly stated that one of the Sudanese refugees, Buay Tang, will be shifting from premed studies to a career in acting. He is continuing with his premed studies while also pursuing an acting career.
She also knew how the desire for celebrity, however remote the prospects, can toy with priorities, as it has with Buay Tang, a refugee who saw his parents killed in Sudan. Tang, who arrived in the U.S. before the Lost Boys, has worked hard to earn high academic marks as a premed student at Point Loma Nazarene University. His mission in life, however, is shifting. He now wants to be an actor.
On the other hand, Alepho and Benjamin could make more money to save for college. Besides, the experience would force them to leave their Sudanese social circle and mingle with Americans. So Bernstein drove Alepho to Rosarito to join his cousin, who at that point had been rehearsing for two weeks.
On the car ride south, Alepho asks, "What does it mean when someone says you are 'hot?' "
"It means you are handsome," Bernstein says. "Why?"
"One of the girls at Ralphs. She call me hot."
"Oh," Bernstein laughs. "She's telling you you're sexy."
Alepho broods for a moment. "I think it means something else."
He's confused, as many Lost Boys are as they try to decode the language of dating and its bewildering contradictions. "They have a hard time figuring out the social codes," says one person who works closely with the refugees. "How do you know someone's your girlfriend and not just your friend? They don't know how to flirt in a western way." Or, as Benson once explained: "The girls can talk about sex, but if you talk to a girl about sex, they get angry."
Some Lost Boys have dates, but none in Bernstein's orbit have formed a serious relationship. "There are a lot of girls who are very pretty," Benson says, "but we hear that if you make them pregnant, you must take care of the child for 18 years. You have to do something good with your life before you can think of getting married."
