By Tracy Overstreet
tracy.overstreet@theindependent.com

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Independent/Barrett Stinson Some Sudanese refugees now living in Grand Island answer questions during a panel discussion sponsored by the Multicultural Coalition Thursday at Trinity United Methodist Church . As Thomas Thipek (right), a pastor at the Evangelical Free Church, speaks, fellow panel members, (from left) Hoth Moyong, Evaldo Legge and John Dhol, listen. Independent/Barrett Stinson Kearney Health and Human Services worker Brenda Roetman (left) asks a question of the Sudanese panel members as her co-worker, Jacquelyn Dibbern, listens Thursday. Independent/Barrett Stinson A full house listens as Sudanese panel members, (from left) Thomas Thipek, John Dhol, Evaldo Legge and Hoth Moyong, answer questions about their journey to America after living as Christian Sudanese refugees. Click Thumbnails to View

They also spoke of alcohol use to sleep at night or forget horrors, of their cultural acceptance of beating children and even of times when a crying toddler must be killed in order to save an entire family from soldiers.

It was all part of what panel moderator Ann Sukraw-Lutz called the "long walk" of emigrating Sudanese.

"We had to flee the homeland of Sudan because of the war," Hoth Movong told an audience of more than 100 people on Thursday.

The "lunch and learn" panel discussion was hosted by the Grand Island Multicultural Coalition at Trinity United Methodist Church. Sukraw-Lutz opened the hour-and-a-half-long session by informing the audience that the Sudanese are different and separate from Somali immigrants, who have a downtown Grand Island restaurant.

Thomas Thipek, a pastor at the Evangelical Free Church, who also works at JBS Swift & Co., said the war in Sudan is between the north and the south and is largely over religion.

"They want us to be a Muslim, and we don't want to be a Muslim," Thipek said.

The fleeing of Christian Sudanese left many in refugee camps.

"Life is not life in camp," Movong said as he described food of cornmeal and powdered milk.

"It's not a life at all you just sit there," he said.

John Dhol, who grew up in Nasir, Sudan, said refugee camps often had no electricity, no plumbing, no fresh water and no telephones.

They also don't have clocks in a culture that doesn't treat time the same as Americans do.

"When the sun goes down, it means it's night. When the sun comes up, it means it's day," Movong said.

The concept of being at work or school "on time" was something foreign to the immigrants as they came legally to the United States.

Having an employer was a foreign idea, too.

Sudanese immigrants, many of whom were raised by parents who farmed or raised animals, have to learn how to be employees.

"I haven't worked for anybody before here," Dhol said.

Now he has to "put up with somebody telling you what to do. It's difficult," he said.

Language has been a barrier in many cases, too not only in speaking with native English speakers but also with other emigrants from Sudan.

"It's hard to understand why people from the same place don't speak the same language," Movong said.

In southern Sudan, there were 62 known tribes with 62 languages, said Evaldo Legge, who taught school in Sudan.

While Arabic is the common language in Sudan, English is becoming the common language among the immigrants in the United States, the panel said.

Movong said even his own children cannot speak his family's tribal language. His children speak English.

The role of parent can be difficult, too. Some of the Sudanese immigrants were raised in refugee camps with just one parent or no parents. One single Sudanese man expressed concern about becoming a father when he had no role model.

Sudanese children are considered children until age 22. Even then, they must still respect and honor the opinions and direction of parents and tribal elders, the panel said.

That's vastly different in the United States, where children challenge parents, are becoming more educated than parents and are often more connected to friends than to family.

Movong said a child in Sudan must listen to a parent in order to survive the harshness of the country. If disrespect is shown, it is common to strike a child to instruct him or her never to act that way again.

He said he didn't have children while living in Sudan, so he never struck a child. However, it would help to better understand American culture regarding how to parent.

The Central Services area administrator for the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, Yolanda Chavez Nuncio, was in the audience and offered to organize a parent training seminar for Sudanese immigrants.

Movong and the panel accepted her offer.

"I don't think anybody wants to beat on their kids," he said.

The climate in Nebraska is vastly different from Africa. Americans typically eat three times a day instead of the routine noon and 7 or 8 p.m. meals of the Sudanese, and the Sudanese social fabric is under stress. But all the panelists expressed appreciation at being in the United States.

Legge said he is in the United States for his 8-year-old son. It's a good environment, and the education is good here.

"I will never leave this place I want for him," he said.

Movong has five children, whom he encourages in school. He hopes to set an example and get a college degree before his twin 11-year-old daughters graduate from high school.

Thipek has a wife and eight children and is a proud homeowner. Schooling is of critical importance to him.

"I want my kids to be educated," he said.