WEBVTT 00:00:03.240 --> 00:00:05.240 Thank you. 00:00:10.240 --> 00:00:15.207 Mhm. 00:00:15.240 --> 00:00:21.456 Okay. Great. So um so now uh again so you were in Cairo and you get to 00:00:21.489 --> 00:00:28.306 Cairo and you're there. You sit for about a year. No I 00:00:28.339 --> 00:00:32.457 I stayed in Egypt for about 10 years ago. Oh you stayed in Egypt 10 years. 00:00:32.490 --> 00:00:37.146 10 years. Yeah. But you went to school for? I went to school. Okay. You 00:00:37.179 --> 00:00:40.207 went to school there? Okay. 00:00:40.240 --> 00:00:44.857 So I finished great one in Khartoum Sudan. Okay. Great cartoon. And then 00:00:44.890 --> 00:00:49.586 and then I continue my education inherited. You're nervous? OK. So 3rd 00:00:49.619 --> 00:00:56.307 grade. Okay. And then in 2004 that's when I joined a refugee school. Mhm 00:00:56.340 --> 00:01:01.506 belong to ensure that it was funded United Nations office. 00:01:01.539 --> 00:01:05.766 They instructed the neighbors who are you living with until you join the 00:01:05.799 --> 00:01:09.637 refugee school. Like in that period where you went to, I was with my 00:01:09.670 --> 00:01:15.507 relatives. Your relatives and my sister came along to myself with mankind. 00:01:15.540 --> 00:01:21.576 Okay. Okay. And then the school. Uh I mean let me ask this first. So 00:01:21.609 --> 00:01:25.326 you're there without your parents. Right. And what was that like for you 00:01:25.359 --> 00:01:28.816 and your sister? I mean living without your parents living with. Did you 00:01:28.849 --> 00:01:32.906 understand that? It was necessarily where you we understood it was mainly 00:01:32.939 --> 00:01:37.406 for education Reason why my current 70 to go to in the first place was for 00:01:37.439 --> 00:01:43.686 school. They trust our relatives that we could stay within the protectors 00:01:43.719 --> 00:01:47.507 supporters. So it was the same 00:01:47.540 --> 00:01:52.016 realization and mindset. My sister and I go into Skype we're still with 00:01:52.049 --> 00:01:57.206 relatives. But the main objective was for us to find safety impossible. 00:01:57.239 --> 00:02:04.206 High school. So yeah there were much and relatives were nice. 00:02:04.239 --> 00:02:09.087 Get intrigued as any different parents were. Yeah. Okay. So then your 00:02:09.120 --> 00:02:16.196 parents come, your family gets reunited when you go to Cairo. No. No they 00:02:16.229 --> 00:02:22.807 they never came to always they always do. Okay. And did they have to live 00:02:22.840 --> 00:02:25.957 while you were there in car? Were they living through the civil war itself 00:02:25.990 --> 00:02:33.307 ? He did. Mhm. And were you in contact with him? 00:02:33.340 --> 00:02:41.340 No, not very much. We would maybe try zar once years. Oh and how would you 00:02:41.550 --> 00:02:44.467 didn't have phones in the south? Right. How would you communicate with 00:02:44.500 --> 00:02:47.906 them? It was 00:02:47.939 --> 00:02:50.617 because they would they would come to the to our Children once in a while. 00:02:50.650 --> 00:02:56.457 They were before that my parents. All right. The rest will be just family 00:02:56.490 --> 00:02:59.707 members of. Okay. 00:02:59.740 --> 00:03:03.867 But then when you went to Cairo and they never came there. And were you 00:03:03.900 --> 00:03:07.747 able to communicate with them when you were in Cairo or you work? That's 00:03:07.780 --> 00:03:10.897 if they make a visit to cartoon because that's where they could find 00:03:10.930 --> 00:03:15.737 phones. Remember that was back. Yes. It's not now now they have mobile 00:03:15.770 --> 00:03:19.117 phones. So they would have to basically go to cartoon and they could call 00:03:19.150 --> 00:03:23.897 you in Egypt and you would communicate with them there. And how often was 00:03:23.930 --> 00:03:29.936 that? Once or twice a year? Also not very often. Yeah. So you were in 00:03:29.969 --> 00:03:34.427 Cairo then. Uh and you were there for you said for 10 years and years. 00:03:34.460 --> 00:03:37.886 Yeah. Okay. And tell me a little bit about this school, you talked about 00:03:37.919 --> 00:03:42.096 the sort of the refugee school. What was that like? It was diverse. They 00:03:42.129 --> 00:03:48.397 recruited and a refugee Children from all over Cairo. There were Cubans 00:03:48.430 --> 00:03:52.577 there, there were Richmond's, there were companies, but it's also the 00:03:52.610 --> 00:03:58.006 knees, 00:03:58.039 --> 00:04:02.196 they have a lot of resources to the it would be more of like what you're 00:04:02.229 --> 00:04:06.897 tangled up here as a charter school. Uh, the syllabus is what the school 00:04:06.930 --> 00:04:11.066 wants to be. Okay. It's not a government second was a dreadful and yeah, 00:04:11.099 --> 00:04:16.087 okay, They didn't have enough resources for higher four times teachers. So 00:04:16.120 --> 00:04:18.707 they were like to volunteer 00:04:18.740 --> 00:04:24.306 staff. Oh, they did. They realized volunteer staff. Mostly it would be 00:04:24.339 --> 00:04:28.777 people. English speaking countries like U. S. Citizens, UK citizens 00:04:28.810 --> 00:04:33.697 visiting Cairo, especially those who work chair organizations, they would 00:04:33.730 --> 00:04:38.916 come in and change from the main focus was in on english helping refugee 00:04:38.949 --> 00:04:43.947 kids, you know, change the level of english, horrible. So that when they 00:04:43.980 --> 00:04:49.306 get resettled in english speaking countries that are easily 00:04:49.339 --> 00:04:54.736 can system. So you were learning english from, from like a mix of 00:04:54.769 --> 00:04:58.067 different english speakers. I mean in other words, sometimes in America 00:04:58.100 --> 00:05:01.507 and sometimes a brit right 00:05:01.540 --> 00:05:07.077 focus in benchmark for the buddy system. Okay, that was a british racing. 00:05:07.110 --> 00:05:13.957 Okay, okay. And you said the school was funded by uh, by the, by the 00:05:13.990 --> 00:05:19.937 church. It was, it was a church that provided facilities. Were there a lot 00:05:19.970 --> 00:05:22.877 of students there? There are a lot of students. There are a lot of 00:05:22.910 --> 00:05:27.156 students they kept growing as refugees from different countries came into 00:05:27.189 --> 00:05:33.496 Egypt after the arab spring? There's a lot of refugees from Syria. A lot 00:05:33.529 --> 00:05:40.096 of refugees from. Mhm. Mhm. Yeah. So you were there? You would've been. 00:05:40.129 --> 00:05:43.067 Yeah. 00:05:43.100 --> 00:05:51.100 When did the one of the arab spring begin was the incident? Yeah. Wait, do 00:05:51.540 --> 00:05:53.906 something. 00:05:53.939 --> 00:05:57.757 No, no, no. It it must be 2000 and 10 or 11. I know when the Egyptian one 00:05:57.790 --> 00:06:05.226 started, it was january 25th 2011. The there because that was there and it 00:06:05.259 --> 00:06:10.507 was right after the tunisian revolution. 00:06:10.540 --> 00:06:14.887 Yeah. And um and so you were there uh in this refugee school and you were 00:06:14.920 --> 00:06:20.197 living with relatives. But going to that school. Okay. And was the plan 00:06:20.230 --> 00:06:25.027 all along to try to get you to the United States? That was that was the 00:06:25.060 --> 00:06:28.707 goal. That's why you would think that to that school. Okay. And how long 00:06:28.740 --> 00:06:34.087 were you at this refugee school From 2004 all the way to 2011. Quite a 00:06:34.120 --> 00:06:40.056 while quite a while. Yeah. Did you make close friends at the school? Other 00:06:40.089 --> 00:06:44.106 refugees there? Yeah. Are you still friends with some of these were 00:06:44.139 --> 00:06:49.406 friends actually from school? Yeah. I'm still in touch with you actually 00:06:49.439 --> 00:06:55.036 came into the US. Uh I have some that are the others are different things 00:06:55.069 --> 00:06:59.007 who went to that same refugees. 00:06:59.040 --> 00:07:07.040 What did you having having fled south Sudan And um uh, and knowing at 00:07:07.670 --> 00:07:12.707 least rewarded mouth that there were still civil war. And so it's over. Um 00:07:12.740 --> 00:07:19.127 , when the airstream arrived in Cairo there was the uprising marches. What 00:07:19.160 --> 00:07:23.077 did that seem like to you that were you fearful that it was going to be 00:07:23.110 --> 00:07:28.346 another war? Were you old enough to appreciate At least in theory what 00:07:28.379 --> 00:07:33.746 people thought was going to happen? Yeah. 11. Too much mature. Always 00:07:33.779 --> 00:07:38.596 going. It sounds like reminding me of what was going on in Sudan that no 00:07:38.629 --> 00:07:44.397 one, no society was in conflict. It could happen to everyone because the 00:07:44.430 --> 00:07:49.257 perception growing up as a refugee locals didn't appreciate that they did 00:07:49.290 --> 00:07:54.596 not understand what it meant to be refugees? Mm hmm. Yeah. Political 00:07:54.629 --> 00:08:00.447 statement. Yeah. So not that I wish them any bad but revolution happened 00:08:00.480 --> 00:08:05.796 for me. That was more of like a reminder of like here you are wondering 00:08:05.829 --> 00:08:10.647 why I was here in your country now. Now it's happening here. That's that's 00:08:10.680 --> 00:08:13.877 exactly, that's that's why I'm here and not in my country because of such 00:08:13.910 --> 00:08:19.877 things. You know, social revolutions conflict. I understood I understood 00:08:19.910 --> 00:08:25.736 why people went to Tahrir Square and they were asking mhm To step down 00:08:25.769 --> 00:08:29.666 because it reminded me of what happens. Did you know people who went to 00:08:29.699 --> 00:08:32.307 their spare? 00:08:32.340 --> 00:08:34.486 Were you old enough that you would have known someone that was actually 00:08:34.519 --> 00:08:40.006 participating in it or not. 00:08:40.039 --> 00:08:44.417 They were in refugee community is going to be super. It was purely local 00:08:44.450 --> 00:08:48.616 Egyptians. Absolutely no refugee wanting to get involved in that could be 00:08:48.649 --> 00:08:55.126 sympathetic towards protesters, but it was mainly Egyptians, huh, Yeah, I 00:08:55.159 --> 00:08:58.486 think I know that you're aware of it because of what because of news 00:08:58.519 --> 00:09:06.207 stories or news of scuffling news. And there were people, you know, 00:09:06.240 --> 00:09:11.087 thanks to my area going to Tirana Square. So you would see passing through 00:09:11.120 --> 00:09:15.616 passing through a terrorist. I did visit because they stayed there for a 00:09:15.649 --> 00:09:20.746 while. They stayed a terrorist square for a while before regime. I did 00:09:20.779 --> 00:09:25.947 visit in France and china. I walked by. I just wanted to see what this 00:09:25.980 --> 00:09:32.606 word. And but were you afraid or make you fearful? Did you think things 00:09:32.639 --> 00:09:35.787 are unraveling everything on the table? Yeah, they were fear that we're 00:09:35.820 --> 00:09:38.506 actually doing 00:09:38.539 --> 00:09:42.577 so the police would, you know, was withdrawn from the streets in the army 00:09:42.610 --> 00:09:48.157 and military to over there was chaos. People robbing shops, burglars were 00:09:48.190 --> 00:09:52.346 taking place. And that was a fear actually. I remember some community 00:09:52.379 --> 00:09:56.256 members had to check security measures into their hands and they would 00:09:56.289 --> 00:09:59.707 hold sticks and machetes 00:09:59.740 --> 00:10:04.276 you in your community, in your neighborhood on the streets at night 00:10:04.309 --> 00:10:09.657 protecting community here. Right. And you were told about that time, I was 00:10:09.690 --> 00:10:14.797 18. You're 18? Yeah. Okay. So, I mean, so you were definitely worth it? 00:10:14.830 --> 00:10:19.856 Was it? Was there uh were you worried at all at that point about your own 00:10:19.889 --> 00:10:23.837 status? In other words I'm a refugee here in Cairo. I'm just trying to 00:10:23.870 --> 00:10:28.337 eventually get somewhere else safer. And all of this madness is going on 00:10:28.370 --> 00:10:33.116 around me. Were fearful at all that it was threatening your own status. I 00:10:33.149 --> 00:10:35.907 don't think it was. 00:10:35.940 --> 00:10:39.896 Maybe it's here is the living. To my understanding is of course something 00:10:39.929 --> 00:10:44.596 like that could have happened because every team must be talking. But it 00:10:44.629 --> 00:10:48.037 wasn't just come up here, right? But it wasn't necessarily something. Yeah. 00:10:48.070 --> 00:10:51.207 Yeah. I wasn't thinking about it. I think I was just busy, you know, 00:10:51.240 --> 00:10:55.787 experience in what was going on. Which in my mind I thought it was just 00:10:55.820 --> 00:10:59.197 Egyptians that had nothing to do with me. Yeah. Because actually it's 00:10:59.230 --> 00:11:03.707 interesting you bring up that question with you. 00:11:03.740 --> 00:11:09.407 Yeah, sort of the tumult of it. I mean it's kind of like refugees here in 00:11:09.440 --> 00:11:13.567 the United States now. Of course, no. During most of the Obama 00:11:13.600 --> 00:11:17.866 administration you may have felt a certain level of security and maybe now 00:11:17.899 --> 00:11:23.136 they don't. Yeah because of this new president, his whole attitude. So 00:11:23.169 --> 00:11:29.567 there's a bit of upheaval that's occurring And marches and so forth. uh so 00:11:29.600 --> 00:11:33.547 then okay so then so then when do you leave Cairo? When when I left in 00:11:33.580 --> 00:11:41.580 August 12 August 12 2011 left cargo to Juba. Mhm. Because I had got in 00:11:41.750 --> 00:11:45.886 this full scholarship to go finish my high school in Johannesburg South 00:11:45.919 --> 00:11:51.590 africa. Oh okay. I have to go to juvie. It's like.