Towering more than six feet tall, three muscular Sudanese men eat lunch at Bali Satay House with their English instructor on Wednesday. The men and their contrasting teacher smile, as the colorful Indonesian food piled high on plates is served to them.

Two of the men shake their heads in disagreement, as their colleague uses sharp, demonstrative hand gestures to explain his point. The three discuss light-heartedly whether polygamy — the practice of having multiple wives — is modern and appropriate.

With booming voices, the men joke and laugh alongside their American counterpart.

These enthusiastic men, all Sudanese political leaders, are fighting desperately for an end to a 20 year civil war in their African country — in Ames. The men came to Ames through the recommendation of Brian D’Silva, a Sudanese alumnus of Iowa State who received his Ph.D. in 1978.

The Sudan People’s Liberation Army, a military wing, and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, a political organization, are heading the effort to gain independence and free southern Sudan from the north’s attempts to gain control.

Oyay Deng Ajak, Sudan People’s Liberation Army deputy chief of general staff for operations, James Kok, Sudan People’s Liberation Army director general of national peace area reconciliation and Bior Ajang Duot, Sudan People’s Liberation Army director of military intelligence, will be in Ames until the end of the week, improving their English and public speaking skills.

For the past eight weeks, these military leaders made it their goal to learn as much as they could about the English language and the American democratic system.

“[Our goal was] to learn about democracy, to learn about public demonstration, public management and also to improve our command of English,” Ajak said.

“With the knowledge [we gain] here,” Ajak said, “it will help us in organizing our civic population.”

The leaders hope to instill democracy in their country when they return to Sudan.

“[We want] to extend a democratic system in our country and also help in organizing and preparing our people for their future,” Ajak said.

He said there is currently a democratic system in Sudan, but it is still in its early stages.

“We actually now have a kind of democracy which is already being practiced,” Ajak said. “People vote. We are trying to look at the organization and the structure of the United States government, and then take what we can take from here and put into our organization.”

Ajak, Kok and Duot, who have known each other for 20 years, won’t be the only southern Sudanese leaders to visit Ames. Five more groups of five men are scheduled to visit Ames and other cities in the United States over the next year. The next group plans to arrive in Ames in September.

John House, ISU intensive English instructor, will be coordinating and teaching the future groups’ visits to Ames.

“This is the beginning of a year-long program,” House said.

House said he is unsure if groups will continue to come after the year is over.

“As far as in the future, long-term — unknown,” House said.

House was informed of the program to teach Sudanese leaders and became the sole instructor for men involved in it after he received a good recommendation from Ajak, Kok and Duot.

House said the southern leaders have improved their English ability and speaking skills.

“We’ve made progress,” House said. “They’re great guys.”

House said the men will have their work cut out for them when they return to Sudan.

“Part of their job is to talk to the local people and tell them what’s happening back home and give them hope and keep them involved in what’s going on,” House said.

The Sudanese men said they agree the most important things they’ve learned deal with the English language and the American government.

“We have learned of two things which are very important,” Kok said. “One, to improve our command of English. Two is to get exposed to some of the system of American government.”

Before coming to Ames, Ajak, Kok and Duot traveled to Rochester, Minn. and Dallas. The three men may travel back to Texas this weekend to visit Houston, before heading to Washington, D.C. for a week-long workshop.

The workshop, organized by World Bank, will attract leaders from developing countries and focus on public finance and management.

After their stop in Washington, D.C., Ajak, Kok and Duot will travel back to their home country.

“We will go back to Sudan the first week of August,” Ajak said.

He said the men were brought together by their common goal.

“Our coming here was organized by our movement,” Ajak said. “We came at different times, but we knew we were coming for one cause.”

During their eight week stay in Ames, Ajka, Kok and Duot have attended city council meetings, visited government buildings and were honored by Des Moines Mayor Preston A. Daniels and Ames Mayor Ted Tedesco. House said he also instructs the men in English for at least four or five hours each day.

Kok said the Sudanese civil war began in 1983, and to date has resulted in the deaths of around 2.5 million people.

Ajak said the civil war, which used to be based on politics, is actually getting worse.

“This is terribly affecting the civilian population and the people of Sudan,” Ajak said. “The war is kind of African-Christian against the African-Muslim north. It’s like a religious war.”

Ajak also said he doesn’t know when the war will end.

“We do not have a timetable,” he said. “The war is still going on.”

Ajak said an end to the civil war depends on northern Sudan’s willingness to accept southern Sudan’s demands for independence.

“We have failed to defeat [the Muslim Sudanese] militarily,” Ajak said. “And of course, we will continue to fight and fight until we defeat them militarily. If we don’t defeat them militarily, then we will continue to ask for our brothers from the international community to continue to support us.”

The Sudanese people feel as if their civil war has been ignored, he said.

“We call it a forgotten, long war,” Kok said.

“It’s amazing, because American people don’t know anything about it,” House said. “People see all these dark people walking around, and they wonder where do they come from? What are they doing here?”

Kok said negotiations have begun to take place.

“The Sudan leaders said negotiations are taking place in Kenya to help bring the civil war to an end. In these negotiations, we are looking for ways and means to put to an end a conflict of 20 years,” Kok said.

The men said the northern Sudanese have been trying to ruin the negotiations and keep pushing back the meeting dates to avoid a resolution. Ajak said the northerners want to take southern Sudan by force.

“The government in power has not been very forthright in these negotiations,” House said. “They’ve been trying to sabotage them.”

Ajak said he has hopes for the future of his country, using the knowledge he has gained.

“With what we have learned, we want to go and impart this knowledge to improve on our system,” Ajak said. “Try to come up with new ideas on how democracy works. How to improve our system of governance. And how to make use of powers, not to abuse powers.”