Saving Lives

The Conaway Center appeared half empty and cold , it was after 6:30 p.m. and not nearly as many people had arrived as the “Endless Eye Crew”, had expected . At the Columbia College 1104 building a red haired guy with ripped jeans walked up to the microphone and in a whisper said, “Testing, testing 1...2.…” Before he could finished , the drum player banged on his drums, and out of nowhere more people begin to arrive. Enjoying a new rock sound from the Chicago band Don Russian, but the new arrivals didn’t seemed to know that this night wouldn‘t be about just their sound but another sound that comes all the way from a region of Africa known as “Sudan.”
After Don Russian played for about 15 minutes, another guy by the name of Jeremiah, approached the microphone wearing a shirt with the continent Africa colored in with black , and a heart in the middle of the continent, and across the shirt the words in bold letters “Walk for Sudan.” He announced that in a few minutes or so , he would skype Machien , and get him on webcam so he could see and talk to everyone and anybody who wanted to talk to him could do the same.
Everyone looked confused for a while until Jeremiah went on to explain who exactly this Machien guy was. Justin Machien is a big guy with a small dream that can make a change for his homeland, Sudan. He was one of the lost boys, he walked to Kenya from Sudan with 27,000 other young men of but came to America at the age of 17 from a refugee camp, and it was in America where he got his education. Now Machien is almost ten years older and just wants to pass the gift of education back home to Sudan where over 4.5 million people remain homeless from the civil war that ended in 1983.Machien wants to help them to keep their hope but it’s beginning to get harder every day that a life is lost. Machien’s solution is simple he wants to build a library because he believes education is the key to living.
At about 7 p.m. after taking awhile, the endless crew had set it up and in seconds on the big screen appeared the talk of the night, “ Machien” he was wearing a bright smile but just as well as everyone could see him, Machien could see most of everything that was going on in the Wabash Center, and as quickly as his smile appeared it had faded.
With a tough accent ,but clearly understandable, He asks the crew how many people were attending the Columbia event. One of the guys by the name of Josh, looked into the webcam as if he was looking right into Machien’s eyes trying to lighten the mood replied, by not really answering Machien’s question. He gave a heart warming smile and said “More than earlier.”
But anyone , who was actually there could assume that if “this”, was more than earlier than earlier must’ve been a number that you could count of a few fingers.
Machien explained for the thirty minutes that he was on the big screen , that he was in North Dakota, and had honestly been in America for a while. “We just want to go back home.” He said referring him and the other lost Sudan boys who‘s also working on the project. “ But we can’t go home empty handed.” He continued explaining that even a little bit would help the Sudan people because for him to see his own people suffer is “hurtful.”
Even though there was barely any people at the event some got on the webcam to ask him a few questions, one man asked him what came across as an offensive question: “ Who brought you here?” Machien looked into the camera and laughed sarcastically. He threw the question back at the person replying by saying. “ No one brought me here.”
After that the rest of the night remained quiet no one asked any questions except for the Endless Eye Crew, which is the crew who was promoting the event, so they really didn’t need to ask questions. One person wanted to know what the literacy rate was in Sudan. Machien’s answer shocked everyone , he said that the literacy rate was either “1% or less.”
“ Sudan, is a nice community , it’s just that people aren’t building it back together the right way , because they haven’t got the knowledge to do so, how can you when you’re suffering from cultural struck?” Machien said. He said people are homeless and dying because they can’t do the stuff that Americans do daily, for example: eat regularly and bath regularly, go to the doctor when needed. They don’t even have the proper toiletries.
Machien ended his last words with the phrase, “Knowledge is at need,” right before one of the crew members said that they would call him back on the screen when more people arrived. Sadly , not many more people arrived until the band began to rock the stage again. The crowd appeared to be larger for the sound of the band but not for Machiene‘s theory for saving possibly hundreds of lives . Have we learned to tune out sounds that we don’t like to hear? If a library is all that is being asked for , why is it so hard to give especially if it’s going to save over hundreds of lives?