MEETING MR. JOK
To get a father’s perspective on the family, I met Jok at his three-bedroom condo in Edmonton. He was wearing glasses, blue jeans and a grey sweater. The TV was tuned to Larry King Live and spread out on the table in front of him was The Art of Happiness and other books by the Dalai Lama. He was waiting for his visa for Sudan to come through. It would be the first time he’d been home since the war. He was reflecting on how far they’d come and the differences between Canada and Cuba and Sudan. He tries to pinpoint where things went wrong.
Life in Canada hasn’t worked out the way he anticipated. Sometimes he compares the three countries they’ve lived in: Canada, Sudan and Cuba. “Cuba is almost like any country in Africa,” he tells me. “People live in a kind of communal life.” Life in Canada has challenged them in ways they never could have imagined. “The children were immediately infected by this sense of freedom that they got from peers,” Jok says. “Back home, children are looked after by the society.” Here, Jok kids were home alone while Jok and Mary worked nights. In the morning, the children went to school while their parents slept.
Jok thinks that outside influences were too strong to keep the family together. He takes a long pause before talking about “the boys,” as he calls Pac and Apiu, as if he is trying to make sense of how they missed pursuing their own Canadian dream. Of all the Jok children, Achol, who is in her third year at the University of Alberta, is the only one who will likely graduate from post-secondary school in Canada, and therefore have more of an opportunity for a rewarding career in Canada. “I thought these kids would go to school and finish their education. That was my hope,” Jok says. “But those hopes were dashed. Every time I keep on reminding them [that] they have not achieved anything until now.” U
Category: First Job, Profiles, Work
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