WEBVTT

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 what?

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Okay forget it. Full battery. Okay so
uh so we're talking about you

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leaving Egypt. And so um so did you go
then to England for a time? No uh

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that was her goal to balance her goal
was to get us to Egypt. So when she

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used to come see us used to come and
spend time with their home school as

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because you know she was yeah she was
home schooled in english you know

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that's where I actually basically I
learned A. B. CS. For my aunt yeah

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from home and she was teaching and
other cousins and the cousin that we're

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going to school, she used to do the
same thing basically every night she

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was very structured well mannered so
every night we all sit together,

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nobody goes out before dinner you know
and it was kind of easy transition

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because we lived in Sudan uncle does
the same thing. My uncle, her sister

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, older brother. Uh huh You know half
brother because she had a different

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mom and and then okay so my dad's
side,

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there's three of them. Yeah quite a
few white, its normal from his culture

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so from my dad's side it was her, she
was the oldest from their mom time

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and then my are the one who's been
here with us and my dad was the

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youngest. Okay. Yeah but from her some
other siblings. Uh huh my uncle um

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who's a different mother but you know
same fathers are that's why I didn't

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check. Um So when you can but when she
would come uh it sounds like she

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would stay awhile. she would stay
awhile, three months or three months I

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think the longest she stayed was about
five months. Okay so that's quite a

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state. You still write stage. She
stayed there the first time she came she

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stayed there just to kind of get to
know. Yeah, while she was there she

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would be home schooled. Yeah he's
comfortable coming to us, all of us, you

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know the rest of the family. And when
you were in Egypt, did you not go to

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a regular school? Well we went to
school, we went to school but it was the

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school they were teaching like in
English there were you know more

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expensive and it was pretty expensive
to get into and a lot of the kids

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that were there if you don't have the
funding, I mean. Mhm. Not only does

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that one, there's quite a few
Children, it's so it was a private school,

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you had a private, yeah there's public
school but also their fees fees for

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each term. Yeah because you didn't
know how long we're going to be. Uh and

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there and how long the process is
gonna take. So basically we just and my

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cousin, the older one Rocky, we're in
like uh middle school formed 78,

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there were you know, you're the best,
so then you, so at what point then

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was she didn't get you to England but
she she figure out some way then to

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have you come back. I heard that the
reason we didn't go to England

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because her goal was to get all of us
and we're a big family. Yeah. My mom

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and her sister alone. She has

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five Children. Huh?

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And then my uncle, there were four of
my uncle Children besides the ones

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that were uh in Sudan. So we're a big
family in your answer. You wanted to

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keep the family together. You wanted
to keep the family together. And I

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believe the reason we didn't go to
England is that England didn't accept

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because they said that the family were
a required a family of four. They

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have a cap right max for the max.
Yeah. And she said, no, it wasn't a good

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idea to separate us. Right. What was
the what was the claim though that

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she made about why you deserved
refugee status in England? Was it because

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um she felt And your family felt that
if you return to South Sudan or

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stayed in Sudan, that you would be
persecuted

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alone. She was not a lot of Sudan
since she left. And she never went back

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in 20005 piece. They were trying. That
was the first time in her life,

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going back to going back to school. So
she was the government knew about

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her, She knew about. And did she feel
as if when she returned, if she

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returned that she would be jailed jail
and that's what was happening to

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majority people, a lot of people and
if you get jail, if you don't get

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killed. Well, if you don't get killed,
you basically jail, right? And

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sometimes people heard that her and
used a lot of people disappear, go to

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jail and just don't, nobody knows
where you are and why did they target

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her? Was she politically active? Was
she was afflicted action. But they

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will go after the family of the member
who was practically active. So

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somebody was active. They might go
after family members. Yeah, that's kind

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of comedy and see how many and and did
she feel maybe she expressed this

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to you and your family that she knew
that she could not return? She also

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knew that I was worried that the
government knew that you were related to

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her. So she felt that you weren't safe
simply by being family. Because I

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heard there was like they were going
on and people being, they said that

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the middle of the night, military, go
to house to house people being

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killed

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if he spoke out against the
government, you know, don't come in the middle

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of the night and get you. So that was
the things that was happening. So

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there was a lot of crack. Yeah. So
when when did you leave? Egypt, We left

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? Egypt in 98, and where did you go
from? Each? We came here in Phoenix

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and came straight to Phoenix. Did you
fly directly to Phoenix? Well, we

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did connection I think we went I
believe in Chicago and chris there. I

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think we spend a night or new york.
Okay at night in new york. And you

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were how old? Um by 10. So you left
Cairo and flew straight to the United

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States. Did you know that you were
coming to the United States? As a

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matter of fact matter of fact I was
always the first one to wake up every

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morning and marked the calendar once
our our departure status was approved.

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Okay what's your status where our
standard was approved? They give us a

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date. Um So that day everybody my aunt
wrong is up and she was because you

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know so when they give you this
booklets Sounds you everything about

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America a book about. Yeah it has the
statue of liberty on the cover. Yeah

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it tells you about America and they
used to read it to us every night. Oh

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kind of transplant. This is what you
expect it. This booklet provided by

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whom the U. S. Government? It was
through a refugee status. That basically

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gives you, Yeah they would read it to
you. What did you when you before

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you know that day came and you left
and you were there at the family and

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they were reading you this book. What
did you imagine the United States

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would be like um did you have an image
in your head about the United

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States Or maybe not not really because
I thought, you know, living from

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transitioning from food to Egypt was
to me it was, that was it, you know,

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I didn't, I did have like, okay, what
is going to be? It wasn't, I was

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excited, you know, excited for a new
journey, you know, something

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different family talking about, it's
going to be like the family excited

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country, all white, you know, that was
it. And then, and I thought it was

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gonna be a country that was all white.
Yeah, just white people, you know,

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but

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you know, so I I would wake up every
morning before everybody else and I

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would mark the calendar marked the
dates, you know, he did. Okay. So did

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your family talk about what they
thought it was going to be like to come

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to the United States? Yeah, she did
address some of these issues and what

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kind of things like, you know, working
hard, going to school become,

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educate yourself basically. So someday
you can go back home and do

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something better. This is your aunt,
you can do something for your

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community. Uh, yeah, it sounds like
your aunt, if she was not politically

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involved as a, as a a an opponent
actively against the government. She was

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definitely very aware of the politics,
were informed of the politics and I

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think that was her way because her
husband was in that movie, he was in

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politics. Her husband was, everybody,
a lot of people from my spell knew

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he was, as soon as you say his name,
everybody knew who he was and where

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did he live? He lives in the south.
They actually had a few houses that

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even today and while in boom and I
believe way deep and this area

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juba he had like Like a story house in
Juba and I know she was trying to

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hear what big house there was actually
um yeah it was built but it wasn't

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complete because that's what they were
working. So she went back 2005 she

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tried she tried to like you know kind
of secure it because it's a big land

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but her husband, her husband, her
house, her house. Yeah what what

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happened to him? He was he got killed
he was killed he was killed okay

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when they captured him you know after
the capture and he was coming I

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remember she said that he was coming
back from England and two routed to

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Ethiopia and from Uw but they
captured, they captured him in Ethiopia.

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Yeah and the government, he was
detained by the government at the time. Oh

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yeah and then he was like that's what
Sudanese were. Sudan was huge. Yeah

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for that because I heard a lot of
people killed, three captured disappear.

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Nobody knows where you are. Mhm. I was
that was Rogers so he was jailed

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and then killed or they actually
never. Yeah he was I heard that he was

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detained and then nobody knew what
happened. So basically that's what

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happened to this actually. Okay. So he
was politically involved

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something and they knew that of
course, and targeted him. But then she of

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course could not visit right reasons.
Right? And I think, I think most of

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it was because, you know, during the
break, a lot of centers that were

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militarily active, they were, you
know, they were good southerners and

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transfer the crop tool, they get
trained and then they stationed them, you

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know, different areas. Okay? So when
the war started in the south, they

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wanted those people to go and fight
the south. So, you know, kind of your

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own people, your own family, you know,
and that's the majority of people

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will fight. So the government, you're
saying the regime would bring people

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from the south train them militarily.
And then when the conflict started.