WEBVTT 00:00:00.100 --> 00:00:03.997 Ok. 00:00:04.030 --> 00:00:12.030 Ok. Uh, my name is Janny Deng. Uh, Jany and Deng 00:00:13.069 --> 00:00:19.436 or, you know, and New York, that's tribe. I'm from. 00:00:19.469 --> 00:00:25.346 So the town I was born on, called Joong. So it's under its border of Opia. 00:00:25.379 --> 00:00:30.456 So that's why I, 00:00:30.489 --> 00:00:34.835 I was not born in the hospital. So we didn't, to begin with. We didn't 00:00:34.868 --> 00:00:40.417 have a record, so we don't have any birth record. So birthday in Sudan in 00:00:40.450 --> 00:00:43.926 southern Sudan when I was growing up, it's just when, when you born as a 00:00:43.959 --> 00:00:47.006 child, that would be the celebration. That's it. We don't celebrate 00:00:47.039 --> 00:00:52.565 birthday. So either the parent or the elderly person in the group in the 00:00:52.598 --> 00:00:58.656 village will remember because of either um, uh, something that happened 00:00:58.689 --> 00:01:05.456 and that's when they able to know that. Oh, you were born in spring. We 00:01:05.489 --> 00:01:10.286 don't know the date and we don't know the month. So we, so we, so like 00:01:10.319 --> 00:01:13.536 five years ago, actually I able to ask my brother when I able to connect 00:01:13.569 --> 00:01:18.036 with my family in Sudan. No, no, eight year, I take that back. Yeah, eight 00:01:18.069 --> 00:01:21.217 year now because I've been here for 17 years. I was the first one was 00:01:21.250 --> 00:01:26.385 crazy. I've been here for that long. Um So I able to ask my brother and my 00:01:26.418 --> 00:01:28.717 older sister because they're the one who was holding me when I, when I was 00:01:28.750 --> 00:01:33.447 little. So, and I said, do you guys remember at all when I was born? 00:01:33.480 --> 00:01:36.876 Because I, I need to know when I could, we come to the different country 00:01:36.909 --> 00:01:43.617 now. They have us all the time, you know. So, so, so my sister said, let's 00:01:43.650 --> 00:01:46.165 see, 00:01:46.198 --> 00:01:52.736 I think you were born in, I said you think correctly. But yeah, so, and 00:01:52.769 --> 00:01:55.915 then I had brother the same thing. They, so my brother, he was, he was 00:01:55.948 --> 00:01:59.915 right on it. He like, he was born in Spring, I think sometime in March, 00:01:59.948 --> 00:02:07.415 either March 15 or March 28th, 1975. So it may be like, I'm 35. So that's 00:02:07.448 --> 00:02:12.737 my, so that's what they said. I kept that. I said, hm. So, so I tried some 00:02:12.770 --> 00:02:17.495 stuff that, that I remember before I get out from Sudan, before I, before 00:02:17.528 --> 00:02:22.396 we run away, you know. So I thought that I remember when my mom died, I 00:02:22.429 --> 00:02:25.987 think I was a fight. I remember she, you know, when she would, she would 00:02:26.020 --> 00:02:29.995 die, she was sick first and then she, before the war get rid of it. So she 00:02:30.028 --> 00:02:33.255 died for natural cold disease. I don't know what she died for. I remember 00:02:33.288 --> 00:02:38.286 that, you know, I'm like, that was around like, like 19 eighties. So I 00:02:38.319 --> 00:02:42.677 remember that. That was exactly eighties because right after that, the big 00:02:42.710 --> 00:02:45.677 war, you know, that's when the big, you know, three years after that, the 00:02:45.710 --> 00:02:50.936 big war happened in 1983. So I kind of tried so either 70 so 79 now that 00:02:50.969 --> 00:02:54.047 when my mom died. So I'm trying to try to know I'm not, that made a lot of 00:02:54.080 --> 00:02:59.505 sense. So I kind of tried to know myself well in the camp when I was, when 00:02:59.538 --> 00:03:03.606 they were given us. So they just look at you. Oh, you look skinny, you 00:03:03.639 --> 00:03:07.767 look, you look like 14 or 15. 00:03:07.800 --> 00:03:15.217 So I was given March 3rd, 1979. 00:03:15.250 --> 00:03:18.245 Yeah. 00:03:18.278 --> 00:03:22.846 Yes. So African family is crazy. They're like Latino family in this 00:03:22.879 --> 00:03:30.017 country, you know, and, and you know, so we go big, you know, so well, so 00:03:30.050 --> 00:03:33.186 I take that back. So the reason why I have so I have four. So to answer 00:03:33.219 --> 00:03:37.386 your question, you just straight up to the question. But I just thought so 00:03:37.419 --> 00:03:42.316 I have five brother. No or you know, with six brothers. So one of my 00:03:42.349 --> 00:03:45.846 brother get killed here two year after we arrived in Phoenix. Yeah. Yeah. 00:03:45.879 --> 00:03:48.946 Yeah. Yeah. And that's, that's another story. You know, I can tell you 00:03:48.979 --> 00:03:53.467 more about it and stuff and more in, in de but um and then we uh I have 00:03:53.500 --> 00:04:01.500 four brother left now. No, five left and then I have five sister 00:04:03.008 --> 00:04:07.876 when I left my village, I was only probably an eight year old eight when I 00:04:07.909 --> 00:04:12.745 left, when, you know, to walk, went to the whole nine yards of the lost 00:04:12.778 --> 00:04:18.075 voice. So now me, you know, that we have to just run away from the war. 00:04:18.108 --> 00:04:22.106 You know, that was, you know, we have to fight our own way to get, 00:04:22.139 --> 00:04:26.895 eventually to get in trouble. Camp in Kenya in Ethiopia first, then the 00:04:26.928 --> 00:04:30.325 civil war from, from there and then we move back to Sudan again and then 00:04:30.358 --> 00:04:35.476 we come back again and then we it it's, it's like a movie. I was like we 00:04:35.509 --> 00:04:38.166 were just running with our life, whatever it said it will be many people 00:04:38.199 --> 00:04:41.515 have died, you know, many kids in UN met. And so um you know, so we were 00:04:41.548 --> 00:04:48.697 one of the Children, lucky one from Sudan. We decided to walk to King and 00:04:48.730 --> 00:04:53.745 that's one pro scam in Kenya called dada pro scam. I didn't come from K 00:04:53.778 --> 00:05:01.606 but many of the people that yeah, they were dada ad D I think ma I think 00:05:01.639 --> 00:05:05.947 so. This is one of uh this reason this came, was on the news recently not 00:05:05.980 --> 00:05:11.616 too long ago for Somalian. You remember the Somalian kids was in coming. A 00:05:11.649 --> 00:05:14.486 lot of them were just dying the time and there's no food and all that. The 00:05:14.519 --> 00:05:19.245 came I was in for it. It's, it's one of the largest before couple, one of 00:05:19.278 --> 00:05:24.197 the largest refugee camp in the world. Pretty much Yeah. Um, that's ac, I 00:05:24.230 --> 00:05:28.856 get to get there first and that's when I will find out that I'm gonna be 00:05:28.889 --> 00:05:31.507 coming to the United States. I'm gonna be moving to the United States 00:05:31.540 --> 00:05:35.437 because I have no idea what was going to be, what I had and what, and what 00:05:35.470 --> 00:05:40.817 , and the way that you have to move, you kind of just said, oh, I just 00:05:40.850 --> 00:05:43.866 want to get a ticket, just go to Dallas Texas and just go and hang out 00:05:43.899 --> 00:05:46.825 with friends that 00:05:46.858 --> 00:05:53.515 you, that you say, I know it. Um I wish it would be that way at that time. 00:05:53.548 --> 00:06:01.548 But um, so I got to this that up camp like 94. So I didn't get to come 00:06:01.600 --> 00:06:04.575 the processes you have to go through, you have to have interview why you 00:06:04.608 --> 00:06:07.486 want to go to us, what is called you from your home? They have to ask you 00:06:07.519 --> 00:06:11.736 every everything. These are the US consulate from the State Department 00:06:11.769 --> 00:06:15.116 have to ask you all these questions. Long application, 30 page of 00:06:15.149 --> 00:06:19.495 questionnaire that you have to answer still have to match. You have to go 00:06:19.528 --> 00:06:22.495 to the front of the church. You have to swear in, you have to go to 00:06:22.528 --> 00:06:30.528 medical checks. You have to, that's before you even post when go. 00:06:32.639 --> 00:06:36.736 Well, it took us almost a year and a half sometime it can take like up to 00:06:36.769 --> 00:06:41.015 10 year, I mean up to five years to get this process going. So I was very 00:06:41.048 --> 00:06:46.286 lucky. We were one of the first one you back in the 1990 to, after we went 00:06:46.319 --> 00:06:51.067 through all this, we passed every single test that they give us either 00:06:51.100 --> 00:06:57.536 written test the story. The you have a full aroma, 15 people interview you 00:06:57.569 --> 00:07:00.156 with different. It's like how are you guys did it, you know. Yeah, that's 00:07:00.189 --> 00:07:04.366 how it was. So they, they still have to be consistent, have to match all 00:07:04.399 --> 00:07:07.106 that stuff. Get it good, you know, and make sure the medical check is 00:07:07.139 --> 00:07:12.187 passed all this, you know. So answering your question, I wanna just move 00:07:12.220 --> 00:07:18.055 just one, just one move. And so I have to go because it was a desk but 00:07:18.088 --> 00:07:24.036 place we had to go somewhere better and we didn't know, you know, I don't 00:07:24.069 --> 00:07:27.817 know much about this country until I get to walk into airport, into this 00:07:27.850 --> 00:07:32.536 airport to New York. That's when I first left. So after all the process, 00:07:32.569 --> 00:07:38.736 they put your name and they put your name, they say you go. So the first 00:07:38.769 --> 00:07:42.526 thing you go to phonics, that's what people, they didn't know how to say 00:07:42.559 --> 00:07:45.947 it. 00:07:45.980 --> 00:07:52.866 Now we look back all this is so funny. They call for no Phoenix. 00:07:52.899 --> 00:07:56.687 And so you will see your name on the list and you like, you're so excited 00:07:56.720 --> 00:08:01.676 but you have no idea where you're going. It's like, you know, so we like 00:08:01.709 --> 00:08:05.055 we go to Phonic, they're so excited. We go to phonic, you know, we play 00:08:05.088 --> 00:08:12.075 the bar by friend, you know, um, June of 95. I able to, uh, we able to, to 00:08:12.108 --> 00:08:16.197 get everything and able to come here. So I came, June of 95 here in 00:08:16.230 --> 00:08:19.437 Phoenix. That's when the, it was the, when I came, it was one of the 00:08:19.470 --> 00:08:26.276 hottest in the summer in so, uh, I remember right shortly after we, we 00:08:26.309 --> 00:08:31.627 landed here. So I think the next day it was 100 and 22 for those of you. I 00:08:31.660 --> 00:08:36.515 don't know if you guys from here, but it's hot. I mean, it's hot. I'm 00:08:36.548 --> 00:08:39.775 gonna do an airplane, couldn't land at that time. When, when I came here 00:08:39.808 --> 00:08:43.696 it was hot and then to make it even more worse, I come from the camp. It's 00:08:43.729 --> 00:08:47.895 hot desert. No food, nothing. Well, I came in, it was different kind of 00:08:47.928 --> 00:08:52.586 experience or hot here. So my, to make it even was my air condition. So I 00:08:52.619 --> 00:08:55.616 was undermined when I came, I was 16. So they, they put me in a foster 00:08:55.649 --> 00:09:01.726 home. So how the work is for the government. Uh If you undermine minor 00:09:01.759 --> 00:09:07.326 kids, so they will find a foster home for you to live until you graduate 00:09:07.359 --> 00:09:10.417 from high school. And that's what I did. So I was very like, meanwhile, my 00:09:10.450 --> 00:09:15.336 brother, he was 22 he would be considered dull. He was living it by 00:09:15.369 --> 00:09:18.677 himself. And that's how to believe that good thing was just too 00:09:18.710 --> 00:09:22.005 overwhelming for him. And that's what many are, it's cha, it's very 00:09:22.038 --> 00:09:26.326 challenging. It's here for many, all of us all over the country. Uh, and 00:09:26.359 --> 00:09:28.895 post medic stress daughter. And then not only that, some of these people, 00:09:28.928 --> 00:09:33.557 they serve it as a child soldier also, I was lucky didn't get to serve and 00:09:33.590 --> 00:09:38.246 my brother did. All they know is to go fight the child soldier. You guys 00:09:38.279 --> 00:09:43.037 see the invisible Children with K in 2012 kind of saying some of these 00:09:43.070 --> 00:09:51.070 kids are, are from Sudan. Not only just you can. Yeah. Uh so uh post match. 00:09:51.590 --> 00:09:55.496 So has become a big, you know, there's a lot of challenging right now um 00:09:55.529 --> 00:10:00.989 with a lot of it because it just can its lot better on coming from the war. 00:10:03.369 --> 00:10:05.369 This is many, many of the refugees when they come over here, this is the 00:10:07.729 --> 00:10:13.856 life they come from with that packet they bringing with them from wherever 00:10:13.889 --> 00:10:18.356 because this many people, they see people getting their head cut off in 00:10:18.389 --> 00:10:23.417 their front of them, they blow on people in front of them, you name it, 00:10:23.450 --> 00:10:27.226 their mother, father maybe getting killed in front of them. You name it so 00:10:27.259 --> 00:10:34.686 many. Um And, and you know, the trauma it it doesn't if you, if for many, 00:10:34.719 --> 00:10:39.206 you know, if you, if they don't get it for the first generation, it go to 00:10:39.239 --> 00:10:43.326 all the way it can pass on to your own kids and that's one of the struggle 00:10:43.359 --> 00:10:47.956 , many properties and they come from their continental. Now we get people 00:10:47.989 --> 00:10:53.917 , all of them from Iraq, from Afghanistan to, I mean, you name African, 00:10:53.950 --> 00:10:58.385 other African country. Uh, a few years ago, one of the Ethiopian refugees 00:10:58.418 --> 00:11:06.047 , he, things were the same way. He just burned all his family. 00:11:06.080 --> 00:11:11.836 Yeah. Absolutely. And, yeah, and that's, and that's the thing. And even, 00:11:11.869 --> 00:11:16.467 and then one of our guys get shot at the dps on I 17, right. Like this 00:11:16.500 --> 00:11:22.057 were like in 0506. He just, nobody know. That's when we just got our old 00:11:22.090 --> 00:11:25.941 center. That was just 2003 right before we, that's when we just started, 00:11:25.974 --> 00:11:29.311 we just try to figure out how we can get them in here to just come 00:11:29.344 --> 00:11:32.932 fellowship kind of thing. All these people, guys, you know. Well, one guy 00:11:32.965 --> 00:11:38.331 just was wandering around in the I 70 right on between Bethlehem. So they 00:11:38.364 --> 00:11:44.287 call the dps. He's on the media on the highway, you know. Yeah, welcome. 00:11:44.320 --> 00:11:49.456 So the dps, you get the rug, you know, you pick up the rug, he drove the 00:11:49.489 --> 00:11:53.467 dps in the car and they just shoot him. 00:11:53.500 --> 00:11:58.816 Yeah. Well, where about, yeah. So that's why we have to share all this 00:11:58.849 --> 00:12:03.157 that, you know, people don't realize they think all these people, you know 00:12:03.190 --> 00:12:06.157 , that's what people always call these people. They came here. Look, there. 00:12:06.190 --> 00:12:10.346 No things are not, things are not created at you, people are always just 00:12:10.379 --> 00:12:13.366 think. Wow, we are so excited. I come from America. Welcome to America. 00:12:13.399 --> 00:12:20.177 And you have a good life now. Yeah. Very, very, very dull here because now 00:12:20.210 --> 00:12:24.807 you get to have flag. It's a different kind of war. You get to, uh, either 00:12:24.840 --> 00:12:31.548 people sometimes look at you different, you look different. Oh, yeah.