In Laramie, Jonathan was introduced to that comfortable, peaceful silence. The staff cared, and the team cared, and complete strangers seemed to care as well.

"Really what got me here is how friendly the people are," Jonathan says. "Coming from a big city, no one is really friendly. But coming here, people would say hi to you when you’re walking down the street.”

Whereas Wyoming was once a mystery to Jonathan, suddenly it had earned a new definition:

Home.

A new paradise

Jonathan Kongbo basks in the silence, because he remembers the horrible noise.

At four years old, he saw and heard things no child ever should. In the last two decades, as many as 5.4 million people have been killed in the Congo -- the result of war and poverty that continues to fester and destroy.

Sure, he made it out. But what about the countless others just like him?

"It was just normal life," Kongbo says. "The sad thing is, it’s normal life for a lot of kids nowadays.”