What the Lost Boys of Sudan Found in America

Fly bites transmitted parasitic worms to Benson's bloodstream and they quickly spread through his body, causing large cysts on his arms and legs and a painful inflammation of the eyes known as "river blindness." Camp doctors lanced his eyes without anesthetics, relieving the symptoms but not curing the disease. After suffering for five years, Benson took a couple of tablets of diethylcarbamazine citrate--common dog worm medicine--and rid himself of the parasites.

Eventually, he connected with cousins Benjamin and Lino, and in 1992 the three of them made their way to the town of Kidepo, in southern Sudan near the Kenyan border. There, Benson found a half-brother, Yier Deng. Though food was in short supply, conditions were much better. "One day, about two weeks after I arrived, we were in the hut singing hymns when my half-brother came to the door and said, 'Come on out and see if you can recognize this little boy.' "

Benson and the others stepped into the sunlight and blinked at four thin, dusty boys. One seemed vaguely familiar, the one with stringy muscles and intelligent but melancholy eyes. Then he smiled, and Benson noticed a familiar gap in his front teeth. "I asked him his name," Benson says. "He told me 'Alepho,' and then we knew. We threw our arms around each other and cried."

Alepho said the family had spent months looking for Benson, but finally had given him up for dead. Three years later, Muslim troops attacked the family's village and Alepho fled into the forest without looking back. Eventually, after moving among refugee camps at the southern tip of Sudan, he too made his way to Kidepo to find Yier Deng.

Soon after the boys' reunion, the Muslims attacked Kidepo, and the Deng brothers and their cousins fled to Kenya, where they spent the next nine years in the massive refugee camp of Kakuma. They later learned that their father was dead. They heard rumors that they've never been able to verify that their mother and youngest brother were still alive somewhere in Sudan.

As the 100 lost boys arrived in San Diego in 2001, each was assigned to one of three charitable organizations to help with their adjustment. For the first 90 days, the U.S. government agreed to pay rent for apartments they shared and issue them food stamps and bus passes. During that period, rescue committee workers would instruct them on everything from language to American customs and social manners to office skills and applying for work. After three months, they were to be self-supporting.