GOD GREW TIRED OF US A National Geographic Film

Pre-Viewing Questions  After seeing the film posters…  What are you thinking this will be about?  What does the statement, “God grew tired of us” bring to mind? How does it make you feel? What inferences can you make about the film?

Key Terms & Ideas  Civil war: conflict between groups in the same country or nation.  Culture: learned behavior of people, including their languages, belief systems, social structures, institutions, and material goods.  Cultural identity: the way a person views themselves in relation to the learned characteristics and behaviors of a group or community.

Key Terms & Ideas  Human migration: the movement of people from one place to another.  Refugee: person who flees their home, usually due to natural disaster or political upheaval.  Resettlement: transportation of people to a new residential area, usually following a natural or man- made disaster.

Peter Pan’s Lost Boys  Peter Pan and his friends formed a family and took care of each other in Never-Never Land.  There was a group of over 25,000 young men who ran away from a civil war. These young men trekked across sub-Saharan Africa in search of safety, and eventually found homes in the United States.  Relief workers called them the “Lost Boys” after the characters in the Barrie novel; the group is now known collectively as “The Lost Boys of Sudan.”

Clip/Day #1  Sudan and the War  Who are the lost boys?  Refugee Camp  Coming to America  “Lost Boys” Government Letter

Clip/Day #2  Adjusting and Adapting to America  Culture and Identity  What does it mean to “lose your culture”?  How/Why was this an important idea in the film?  How can you connect these ideas with those we discussed with “Fish Cheeks” by Amy Tan?  How can you connect these ideas with your own life?

Day #3: Current Status and Issues “Hope is never lost.” --John Dau  The John Dau Foundation is fulfilling the dream of the former “Lost Boy” and genocide survivor John Dau to provide healthcare in the war-torn region of South Sudan by building and sustaining medical clinics and training community health workers.

Would you pass the test?  Look over the 100 citizenship questions on the handout provided:  How many would you get correct?  What difficulties might a potential citizen have with this exam?