5th-graders learn life lessons from refugee

PARK CITY — Jessica DiCaprio is biting her lip, thinking. Her eyes are all scrunched up in thought and she's tapping her fingers against the wall in an unconscious, last-ditch effort to jog her memory.

But it's no use.

The sandy-haired 11-year-old can't think of a single thing she has in common with Jiel Michael Yai, the Sudanese refugee who visited her Park City elementary school Friday to teach children about current immigration issues.

"He has a big family?" she offers, hesitantly.

But even that, she realizes, doesn't really count. After all, Yai, who fled Africa as a 5-year-old, hasn't seen his mother since his village burned to the ground more than 20 years ago. His father was assassinated by the government, and two of his four brothers died fighting in the country's ongoing civil war.

"It's hard to really understand what's happened to him," the fifth-grader said finally. "I've always had everything I wanted. I've never been poor or hungry or not been with my family."

Yai came to Jeremy Ranch Elementary School, tucked in the ski-resort-rich mountains of eastern Utah, hoping to enlighten DiCaprio and her classmates. At the request of a band of Park City mothers who call themselves "The Neighborhood Homework Club," the somber, 6-foot-7-inch black man sat down with the fifth grade and talked about his journey from being a barefooted African boy with no home or future to a University of Utah graduate student working on a degree in statistics..

"We have it easy up here," said Kristin Robinson, director of the parents' club. "The children don't ever question how hard life can be. You know, it's important for them to understand the world's struggles."

Robinson asked Yai to come to Jeremy Ranch after she heard him speak at a fundraising event for The Chier Foundation, a nonprofit organization that puts Sudanese refugees known as the "Lost Boys of Sudan" through college. Students in the Neighborhood Homework Club raised the money to pay Yai's fee, which benefits The Chier Foundation.

"Eventually, these kids will grow up to be the leaders of the United States," said Yai, who doesn't know his birthday because of his traumatic childhood but guesses he's about 26 years old. "I want to share my experiences and give them a better vision of the world."

Yai addressed the children only a few minutes, his voice soft and rumbling as he described walking barefoot as a refugee with strangers from Sudan to Ethiopia — a 1,000-mile journey — and being pushed from country to country before he boarded a plane to the United States in 2004. The rest of the hour he spent patiently attending to the 10- and 11-year-olds' seemingly never-ending questions.

"Do you play basketball?"

"Do you remember your mom?"