WEBVTT

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 Sudan before the separation of the cessation of south Sudan was the

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largest country, the African
continent. What's okay? And so for us coming

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from the south having to you travel
all the way to the north. It's two

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guys about 2.5 or three years truly
over three years with our Children.

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Eventually. Yeah, we'll just uh you
know, we didn't have means of

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transportation. We don't have money.
And so we would it would always be

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you know, traveling at sort of
distance getting off and staying in that

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challenge to make a living and raise
enough money and then take another

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majority. It just happened that to
stop. Do do do you remember the day

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that you left? Do you have any memory
of that day? You fled Remember? Yeah.

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It was early on in the morning. 56 A.
M. The sun was still coming up.

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We just heard gunshots

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as the routine was in hearing
gunshots. That's there's always been someone

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telling the Children and women elderly
to go into the heart and go hype

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and that's exactly what we did. So we
went inside, Some people were hiding

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under beds. The city cut into each
other and a few minutes later somebody

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comes in the door and says it's a
major attack. We can't hold it back. You

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don't have to get out and run. Just
run for your life. Yeah, that's

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exactly what happened.

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And did you stay with your family? I
stayed with my brother actually at

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that moment we were separated still my
mother,

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my daughter. I mean my sisters for ran
a separate way of my brother and I

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ran a separate line, but luckily later
on you were able to, when the fire

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and the attack was way behind, we were
able to the truth roads converge

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eventually and everybody else was
able. And where was your father? Was

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your father? Our father. We left him
behind. He joined later in the day.

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Oh, okay. Yeah. And so as they fled
because you were under attack and who

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attacked the village? You know, it's
it was a rebel rebel section there,

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it was rebel renegades. Uh And it's an
interesting thing when you hear

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about the South Sudanese or the civil
war, people always think the major

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rebel movement, you know, the Sudan
People's Liberation Army, our movement

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versus the central government in
cartoons. People people see it as just

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those, just those two sides. But there
was a lot going on, even within the

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rebel movement, it wasn't always a
united faction, that was always

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defection. Those defections affected.
It's also really differently. And in

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my case, that's exactly what happened.
Two rival sections with the rebel

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movement in the south that we're in
good terms, that were attacking each

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other. So, one was based in my village
in that in that section was

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attacked. Okay, so like factional
divisions within the rebel movement, it

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sounds like modern day Syria right now
with the rebel movements, there's

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many factions or what's going on in
South Sudan area. So the the and so,

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uh, your village happened to be from
one faction and presumably another

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faction had attacked. Okay. And so
then when you fled, how long were you

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apart before you finally reunited with
your family? I mean, how much time

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passed there with hours? Days, but it
was in the morning would say it was

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around five or six in the morning.
That happens. We ran I believe we met

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later around 34 pm. So it's the same
day in the reunited. Okay. And that

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was probably extremely fortunate

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actually

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for people who couldn't run for their
lives who couldn't hold enough or

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young enough and some civilians got
shot because there was a crossfire

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literally there's a war going on body
alive. And did your did your maybe

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you learn this later from talking to
your parents? But did your parents

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understand immediately that they could
not return? I mean, it's like this

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is not just an attack and we just need
to stay away for a couple of days

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and then we can go back to they knew
they knew it was a large

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exodus of people from that job. They
knew they knew because what happens

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in terms if you get captured by the
other faction,

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especially if you're a young man or or
an adult automatically accused

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being part of the other faction that
belt. So your life would be dangerous

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, your life being the And we learned
that the actually the time was taking

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over. So the rebel faction put and
hold them back to actually, right. They

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take over now even though, as you
said, your family or subsistence farmers

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and raise livestock was either your
father or mother involved at all

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politically in this faction or were
they? No, but I think, you know, I

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think my father was about to get
involved.

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He wasn't recruited remote rebel
faction and there was a lot of constantly

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improving. Sure young man dolls,
everybody. Yeah, right. I heard my dad

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was not, not by forest, but he had, he
had an in low that was involved in

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, oh, okay. That was involved was
involved somebody in the family. I think

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he convinced him, uh, to support the
leaves and not, uh, he had a gun, but

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I don't think he was because he was
old as well. So who was my dad? Oh, he

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wasn't, he was an older man. And so
now when you, when your family

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reunited then, at what point at that
point did you just like we're just

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going, we're just going north and
yeah, we just Did you have any

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possessions?

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Really? We ran away? Maybe maybe a
piece of cloth. Yeah. Uh, she's a

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clothes or a bag. And the decision was
made. We just need to go to get

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away from here and go, where, where
were you guys going to go northward

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northward northward from the south.
Just running northward because it's

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safer actually the time we were going
to was viva, which is a disputed

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region now between the south, quote.
Okay. Both countries have a claim. It

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was called what? A

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e I o K. So that's the time where
we're going to after our village was

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attacked. We're going through that
town and we went there, we stayed there

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for a few weeks and not and then I
just kept hearing news of things

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getting.

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So when you would go to these villages
and your family would have to work

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just to make enough money to keep
going. Um Did they know people in those

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communities or did they just sort of
show up? And there were groups of

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refugees and there were groups of
refugees, Most of the people that we

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knew. It's either we know personally
or we knew them because they were

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part of the same village that we were
in South Sudan or the same class.

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Mhm. Mhm. Because these, he's out, you
know, these are mechanisms of

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building social relationships in South
Sudan. When you introduce your soul

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, if you're from the same plan, it's
more likely. Okay, someone else, you

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know, knows them. And were you part of
a specific tribe as well? Yeah, I'm

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a Dinka Dink. Okay. And we're most of
the people,

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everything in terms of the people
moving headed north and you would

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communicate with as well

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region. Yeah, we're from the south.
Hard when you traveled, what was it

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exclusively on foot was on foot was on
foot from my village to a buffet

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was on foot but from a to headed
northward, which is a car because you

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could make what makes some money or
what could make some money. But there

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were transportation to something.
You're seeing a difference of

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infrastructure and services. Oh, okay.
Because in your rural area there

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weren't passable roads, that sort of
thing. Okay. I got it. And uh, and so

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then uh, and then when you were
traveling north, was it just your family

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or were sometimes you in larger
groups? There were no larger groups. Some

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people checking the same joint. Yeah.
So then, um, so then what were the

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dangers that you faced along the way?
I know that I've heard some refugees

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talk about uh huh uh, soldiers are
being attacked sometimes if they were

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in a group and you were traveling that
government soldiers might attack as

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you were traveling. Did you face any
of that? Was it? Was that a real

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danger for you for you and your
family? No, No, because so be a was

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occupied by, you know, pro government
soldiers Programming soldiers. Yeah.

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Okay. Okay. I was under the government
protection. Mm And the same story

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was true as there weren't any issues
with rebels, but they allowed you to

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come in and they, even though they
knew you were going from, especially

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were civilians. Okay. If they could
detect that if you were a man able

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bodied person from the south and they
could detect that you were Mhm

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incredible memory? The trauma report?
But if you were just family members

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, elderly Children. Okay. So your,
your siblings were young enough. Yeah.

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That they weren't old enough to be
recruited as soldiers. And your father

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was old enough. That yeah. But he
wouldn't suspect, wouldn't. Yeah. And so

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why did it take so long to get to
ultimately where you want to go to

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cartoon? That's money because we
didn't have enough pay for transportation.

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Uh, and so that's why we took over
time. You know, we would pay enough to

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take another mile or two miles and we
would get off, whichever time we

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were in. Just

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start to do something to raise
something some way. That's something. Yeah.

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You were very young. So at that time.
So did you have any comprehension

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at all about where you were going or
why you were going there? I did, yeah

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, I was young. But the life in the
village makes you grow up faster

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because everything is hands on. You've
got to be tough. Yeah, helping the

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farm or help with lifestyle. It's just
very community based. You learn how

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to speak well, You learn how to
respect people, take some new ones in the

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community. That was clear to me. Uh,
what was going. I mean, you

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understood that you were leaving
obviously physical dangers and that kind

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of threat. Um, but did you understand
that we're actually trying to get to

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a place that is safe and we're going
to be better off? Was it was that

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just comprehensible to you at that
age? Is safety? I could comprehend, But

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you know, whether how different the
place was from where I was born or

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raised? Yeah. I didn't necessarily
know what cartoon was. Yeah. Yeah. Um,

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and so then, uh, so it took you, uh,
two or three years to get there. Yeah.

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And