Ben's Story

Ben is from Nuba in southern Sudan. When he was 19, he went to Syria, hoping to earn enough money to start studying at university. In Syria, he stayed at a friend’s place. After three weeks, another man came to stay with them. It turned out that he knew one of Ben’s relatives who had been living in Lebanon since 1975. It was one of his mother’s cousins who no one really mentioned. The man, James, told him that if he still wanted to earn money, he should come to Lebanon and work for a couple months. Painting a “beautiful image” of Lebanon, James said Ben would easily be able to find a cleaning job that would pay good money. It would be “a way out” for him.

Ben asked about getting a visa, and was told that Sudanese could not get visas to Lebanon. But by knowing the right people, they could get a person in. Back then, there was a Syrian military presence in Lebanon. They had a military route. By paying a military intelligence officer $200, a person could pass through without being checked.

They dropped him off in Beirut with James, who he stayed with for a while, and he immediately started looking for a job. Lebanon, however, didn’t turn out to be the “beautiful” picture that James had painted. It took him four months to find a job. It was waiting tables and cleaning at a fast food restaurant. It started at $200 a month. Then he started working double shifts, making $350. After a while, it became $450, with bonuses and tips. So the money turned out to be all right. He wasn’t able to save money, however. Instead he sent money back to Sudan so he could support his brothers with their studies.

Prison

After one year, Ben was arrested by the Lebanese authorities for not having legal papers. They put him in prison, and he stayed there for one year in Halba in Tripoli. No one knew where he was. He was in the Roumieh Prison for two weeks, which is where he was supposed to be. Because there were too many illegal immigrants, however, they transferred them to other prisons in Lebanon. When they transferred Ben, they didn’t write down his name. “They lost track of me. They didn’t know where I was.” There was no lawyer following it. “It was just a catastrophe, and I was unlucky, unfortunately, to be there for a year. Eventually they realized where I was and they released me.”

Losing Time

When they released Ben, the government gave him 15 days to fix his papers, or he would have to go back the same way he came. So he left and went back to Syria. That was in 1998. He stayed in Syria for three years. He found work as a translator, but he didn’t want to stay there with a low-paying job. He still wanted to find an opportunity to study again. Sometimes he would send money home; sometimes he wouldn’t. His family wasn’t depending on him for money. But it wasn’t enough for him to save any for himself. It was just enough to live. In that situation, there was no future.

He had contacts with a Lebanese man who had been living in Saudi Arabia, who had moved back to Lebanon and had opened a small shop. He asked Ben to go back to Lebanon to help him with his new business. He told him he’d be able to save some money. Since Ben was still looking for ways to pursue a degree, he decided to take the opportunity. There was a customer in the shop who invited him to church. In getting to know the pastor, he expressed his desire to study. The pastor worked out a deal with a local seminary, managing to secure him a full scholarship. For four years, Ben studied full time in Beirut and completed his undergraduate degree. In the fall, he will start graduate work at a seminary in the US.