WEBVTT 00:00:00.040 --> 00:00:07.207 Yeah. Yeah. Mhm. 00:00:07.240 --> 00:00:15.240 Uh huh. Mhm. Mhm. Uh huh. 00:00:15.240 --> 00:00:23.240 Mhm. Mhm. Yeah. 00:00:43.539 --> 00:00:49.287 So it's very good for you. Okay great. So I'm James by the way. James 00:00:49.320 --> 00:00:57.237 Garcia good with it. Yeah. Boat. So let's just start off with just some 00:00:57.270 --> 00:01:01.387 background about you. Um So start out first if you could just say your 00:01:01.420 --> 00:01:04.367 name and you and during the interview you can just look at me, you don't 00:01:04.400 --> 00:01:08.576 worry about the camera. Um So just say a full name and if you can spell 00:01:08.609 --> 00:01:16.609 your full name from me. Yeah well my name is needed. M. A. D. I. T. Dang E. 00:01:16.629 --> 00:01:24.007 N. G. Rain R. I. N. G. E. L. Y. L. So my full name would be dangling. 00:01:24.040 --> 00:01:30.426 Okay great and how old are you? 25. 25. Okay great. Um And where are you 00:01:30.459 --> 00:01:32.706 from? Originally? 00:01:32.739 --> 00:01:37.316 I'm from a town. It's a small town in northern part of South Sudan. It's 00:01:37.349 --> 00:01:45.349 called one rock on W. Our. Okay. Okay it's a small town. It's a small town. 00:01:46.319 --> 00:01:52.186 Yeah it's current it's currently part of treat state. So there's a state 00:01:52.219 --> 00:01:56.417 called to preach in northern part of South Sudan. It's as part of the 00:01:56.450 --> 00:02:04.036 disputed region of B. A. Okay. Yeah. Okay. And uh you were born there. I 00:02:04.069 --> 00:02:08.087 was born there. And did you grow up there? Most of your life grew up there 00:02:08.120 --> 00:02:13.087 until I was about 5 to 6 years old. Five or six years old. Six years old. 00:02:13.120 --> 00:02:18.207 And then the civil war was going on 00:02:18.240 --> 00:02:23.737 in the area around us. Eventually our village came under attack. Yeah my 00:02:23.770 --> 00:02:28.356 family and I had to from there, you have to flee from there. So so first 00:02:28.389 --> 00:02:32.267 tell me uh so you were about five or six years old, you lived there? Um 00:02:32.300 --> 00:02:37.006 And and so what was what was life like in this village that you were in? 00:02:37.039 --> 00:02:40.166 43 years? What did you guys do? What did your family do? It was a pastoral 00:02:40.199 --> 00:02:45.886 , you know agriculturalists community. So my parents are subsistence 00:02:45.919 --> 00:02:50.967 farmers, they take care of the farm, but we also have life stocks, so 00:02:51.000 --> 00:02:55.666 that's cattle and goats and sheep that family members take care of. And I 00:02:55.699 --> 00:03:01.506 remember growing up but always help with set shore's 00:03:01.539 --> 00:03:06.337 so fetch water for cattle or gold help in the farm when it's farming. 00:03:06.370 --> 00:03:12.286 Susan okay pretty much that was substance assistance and it was livestock 00:03:12.319 --> 00:03:18.506 farming and livestock. Yeah. Okay. Where did they grow? They grew corn, 00:03:18.539 --> 00:03:26.356 They grew sorghum. Mhm. We also brew pumpkin, indigenous vegetables and 00:03:26.389 --> 00:03:30.356 fruits. And was your family large? How many siblings did you have? Did you 00:03:30.389 --> 00:03:35.547 have siblings? I have four siblings, four siblings. And what? All boys, 00:03:35.580 --> 00:03:40.196 girls, three boys and one girl. Three boys and girls. And and did everyone 00:03:40.229 --> 00:03:45.386 helped with the farm and just a work that needs to be done. It's correct, 00:03:45.419 --> 00:03:50.226 correct. I mean there wasn't much focus on school because they were in 00:03:50.259 --> 00:03:53.707 schools there anyway, there was no schools. Right where you are the 00:03:53.740 --> 00:04:00.106 schools, right, where I was born, that's how kids would grow up helping 00:04:00.139 --> 00:04:04.856 parents. Did you? Was there a school nearby or was their school? I know 00:04:04.889 --> 00:04:09.307 that I heard of it wasn't really a priority for the lack of it. So I think 00:04:09.340 --> 00:04:13.226 there were schools in some other towns but you'll have to travel probably 00:04:13.259 --> 00:04:17.416 move. Okay. 00:04:17.449 --> 00:04:22.877 So it wasn't as if anyone in your village uh walk to school or travel to 00:04:22.910 --> 00:04:28.656 pretty much no one, no one now in your in terms of your home uh where you 00:04:28.689 --> 00:04:33.067 actually physically lived? Was this a house? What I mean, describe your 00:04:33.100 --> 00:04:37.457 home like where was you? Actually? It's hot. So what you would call TPS 00:04:37.490 --> 00:04:43.507 here? The native emergency. Yeah. Our hearts, they're a little bit bigger. 00:04:43.540 --> 00:04:49.426 It was hot. So it wasn't like a mud brick home or something you like. And 00:04:49.459 --> 00:04:53.767 how large was it? Because you had four siblings and you that's 567. That 00:04:53.800 --> 00:04:57.726 would be different. So basically think of it as a room itself. Okay. So I 00:04:57.759 --> 00:05:03.127 think we had about four shots in a compound. Your family, your own four 00:05:03.160 --> 00:05:08.806 hunts in the compound. Okay. I got you. And do you remember much about 00:05:08.839 --> 00:05:11.217 them because you said you were young, five or six. I mean what do you 00:05:11.250 --> 00:05:15.887 remember about your life at that time? Just your life there and in living 00:05:15.920 --> 00:05:20.476 in the huts there in that village? Remember much of it? I do I do vividly 00:05:20.509 --> 00:05:24.806 remember playing with my 00:05:24.839 --> 00:05:29.806 childhood friends in the rain because it rains a lot in South Sudan. Okay 00:05:29.839 --> 00:05:34.866 you know helping on the farm picking up fruits or the produce of the farm 00:05:34.899 --> 00:05:40.306 , it also helped me with the livestock. 00:05:40.339 --> 00:05:43.106 You know most of the people that have livestocks there were depending on 00:05:43.139 --> 00:05:47.207 the season, whether it's dry season, wet season when it's right now, 00:05:47.240 --> 00:05:51.106 Children are take care of the cattle, they take them to where the water is 00:05:51.139 --> 00:05:55.897 , where the pastor is. That's always a force. You walk a few miles away, 00:05:55.930 --> 00:05:59.257 you go spend your day and then you come back in the evening when the 00:05:59.290 --> 00:06:05.637 catalog we have had some water to drink. So I was involved in that. I 00:06:05.670 --> 00:06:09.286 wasn't old enough. So I would always be the guy who was just following, 00:06:09.319 --> 00:06:13.627 you know, I think your brother or just tagging along. Yeah, but actually 00:06:13.660 --> 00:06:17.707 it's a practice you do you know as you grow up, you take such 00:06:17.740 --> 00:06:23.767 responsibilities right now. Did your, did your family or your father or 00:06:23.800 --> 00:06:28.166 mother, did they make money from this or was it all about just literally 00:06:28.199 --> 00:06:32.676 feeding yourself, feeding ourselves? It's different now in South Sudan is 00:06:32.709 --> 00:06:35.656 an independent country. We have a national currency and a lot of people 00:06:35.689 --> 00:06:39.606 are trading but I remember back then there wasn't a lot, there were money 00:06:39.639 --> 00:06:45.137 but yeah living the village far away from the major towns ah you know it 00:06:45.170 --> 00:06:49.827 takes a while driven, see a currency or a banjo and so you can imagine 00:06:49.860 --> 00:06:53.447 most of the trade even though subsistence, most of the trade isn't, you 00:06:53.480 --> 00:06:58.327 know, it's uses border system. So if you, if you have a brain and you want 00:06:58.360 --> 00:07:03.246 to buy a goat or a cow, there's always an amount you can exchange. Okay, 00:07:03.279 --> 00:07:08.796 so so that that was kind of the routine routine. Okay, so you were there 00:07:08.829 --> 00:07:13.027 until about five or six. Oh and before I forget, what did you do for just 00:07:13.060 --> 00:07:17.556 just for fun in that village? I mean everything, everything around it was 00:07:17.589 --> 00:07:20.406 fun. It's 00:07:20.439 --> 00:07:23.197 when you're in the countryside, most of it is just outdoor activities. 00:07:23.230 --> 00:07:29.147 It's the environment and the greenery is and pretty much as a child, every 00:07:29.180 --> 00:07:33.707 Children was fun every until it was fun. 00:07:33.740 --> 00:07:38.007 You know the days when you would go after the cattle, 00:07:38.040 --> 00:07:40.967 you know, there are times when they will be grazing when they're grazing. 00:07:41.000 --> 00:07:47.027 It's time that's time for boys. But just play along. Oh because you have 00:07:47.060 --> 00:07:50.647 some time because you have to time and you don't have to worry about 00:07:50.680 --> 00:07:55.246 cattle straying away because you found some green pasture and you know 00:07:55.279 --> 00:07:59.246 they're going to be raising their four hours. There's specific games that 00:07:59.279 --> 00:08:03.957 you remember we did, we played some type of what you would call baseball 00:08:03.990 --> 00:08:08.736 here. So we didn't play, it's a form of baseball. Yeah, it was more of 00:08:08.769 --> 00:08:15.437 like flat, we would carve it out of of tires and plastic type and we had 00:08:15.470 --> 00:08:20.096 steaks carved out and we would just play along, hit it and if you were 00:08:20.129 --> 00:08:24.306 near a river, you know, you go swimming. Uh, 00:08:24.339 --> 00:08:30.916 what was this game called with, with tire car, we call it, we call it, you 00:08:30.949 --> 00:08:34.356 know, that was like a local name for dealing, dealing. Yeah. How do you 00:08:34.389 --> 00:08:41.506 spell that doing now? No, L I N. G. Been hearing and, and it was, it was 00:08:41.539 --> 00:08:44.907 played with a stick and play with the state and there was a bullet was a 00:08:44.940 --> 00:08:49.687 curve. There was flat, it was a round bowl, but flat. Okay. Almost like a 00:08:49.720 --> 00:08:53.276 hockey puck. More like a hockey, yep. Almost like a hug. Yeah, just hit it 00:08:53.309 --> 00:08:58.976 around. Okay. And how did you score? How did you win the object of the 00:08:59.009 --> 00:09:03.396 game? I think there were like born Aries and if you fail to response, if 00:09:03.429 --> 00:09:07.616 somebody throws it or hit it towards you, If you fail, if you fail to 00:09:07.649 --> 00:09:14.307 respond, then that's a loss. So you're pitching and there's a guy. 00:09:14.340 --> 00:09:19.846 Yeah. And you played it even that young. Yeah. Yeah. Did you watch older 00:09:19.879 --> 00:09:24.106 Children play at home? I did. Yeah, measures for two was wrestling, 00:09:24.139 --> 00:09:28.726 wrestling, wrestling. Okay. Now with these sports that only the boys 00:09:28.759 --> 00:09:32.837 played or did girls play some of the girls played? It was mostly boys. 00:09:32.870 --> 00:09:39.636 Boys, boys primarily boys sports. Yeah. Did, uh, just out of curiosity 00:09:39.669 --> 00:09:44.596 villages play other villages or was it all just local? I've heard of the 00:09:44.629 --> 00:09:48.687 stores were like, it wasn't more about an organized sports. It's something 00:09:48.720 --> 00:09:53.077 that you guys getting together, we do, it wasn't like championships or 00:09:53.110 --> 00:09:55.557 something like that, but they might play someone from another, it might 00:09:55.590 --> 00:10:02.526 play. Yeah. Do you just do you miss that sport? It was a I do, I do, but 00:10:02.559 --> 00:10:06.667 you know, I've, it's been a while. I was young and I've had some other 00:10:06.700 --> 00:10:14.157 sports to do whatever yourself. Yeah, it's like a fun substitutes. Like I 00:10:14.190 --> 00:10:20.957 remember reading history of uh, I don't know if it was the Mayan indians 00:10:20.990 --> 00:10:26.217 had a sport that was a little bit like basketball and they were concrete 00:10:26.250 --> 00:10:33.096 rings that came out of the walls and, and you would have a ball that was, 00:10:33.129 --> 00:10:38.876 I think made of heavy rubber or wood, but it was heavy, heavy and the 00:10:38.909 --> 00:10:44.496 object was to somehow get it through the ring. Um, but it strikes me that 00:10:44.529 --> 00:10:48.697 it must have been a dangerous sport because the ball was so heavy, it must 00:10:48.730 --> 00:10:52.437 have injured. It 00:10:52.470 --> 00:10:58.187 wasn't a net, it was a concrete ring. So somehow you were supposed to get 00:10:58.220 --> 00:11:01.376 it through that, you know, and, and you know, this is only scant 00:11:01.409 --> 00:11:06.427 historical references to the archaeologist kind of surmising that this is 00:11:06.460 --> 00:11:11.256 because obviously no one has any record, you know, visual record. So no 00:11:11.289 --> 00:11:14.606 one knows what they actually did, but they surmised that it was a game. 00:11:14.639 --> 00:11:19.096 And so I wonder if it's like that sport be popular now, you know, it could 00:11:19.129 --> 00:11:25.376 be brought back. I don't know. I don't know maybe. But so so anyway so 00:11:25.409 --> 00:11:30.047 then you you were five or six or something and so what made you leave then 00:11:30.080 --> 00:11:34.817 ? That village? What happened? It would have been 20 years ago because 00:11:34.850 --> 00:11:38.797 you're 25. Yeah. Yeah. Civil War was going on somewhere else but 00:11:38.830 --> 00:11:44.187 eventually came to where we were okay. Village was attacked and everyone 00:11:44.220 --> 00:11:50.440 else had including my family and I uh. Mhm.