A "Lost Boy" finds America

Sometime on this Fourth of July, William Deng will touch the tribal markings on his forehead, and he will remember.

He will remember the day in 1987 when he returned from caring for his family's cattle to find his Sudanese village torched and pillaged, victim of a decadeslong civil war. There were no signs of life and nothing left of his family's village but smoking ruins. He touched the marks he'd received in a ceremony only months before, and considered their meaning.

"It means I am a man," he thought.

William Deng was only 10 years old.

He began walking alone through the 100-degree heat. Three hours later he met up with three other boys. By midnight the group had reached 50. Three weeks later it numbered over 300.

Within a year, close to 20,000 "Lost Boys" of Sudan, ages 5 to 15, would undertake a treacherous exodus in search of freedom, crossing more than a thousand miles of desolate land populated by lions and crocodiles. After ending up in Ethiopia, they would survive yet another dangerous journey, leaving behind another war in search of safety in Kenya.

In 2001, the United Nations stepped in and tried to help the boys.

One of 34 "Lost Boys" resettled to the Seattle area, Deng will join more than 500 people from 70 countries for the 22nd Annual Naturalization Ceremony at Seattle Center on Tuesday. The ceremony, hosted by the Ethnic Heritage Council, begins at noon at Fisher Pavilion.

As a boy in Sudan, Deng knew nothing about America. It was in Kenya that he first learned about the United States, in the Kakuma refugee camp.

"I thought, if I can get to America, I will be OK ," Deng recalls from the comfort of his Renton townhome.

Deng, who's 29 now, holds a job with a window company and attends Bellevue Community College. His ultimate goal is to become a minister.

He sees his citizenship as another step in his journey, not an end.

"Because I never had paperwork in the Sudan, I have never had citizenship anywhere," he says, a small smile emerging. "Now I will be a citizen of the United States, and I will help and bring change to Sudan."