Uh my name is Kuan.
Uh spelled K U O L. The last name is spelled A W A N.
He was born in South Sudan in a small village called K.
OK.
C H I I R.
Uh, the daily life is for, for boys like me. You eat, you sleep, and in
the morning you start doing something about cow or goats, and then you
clean them or you clean the tanks of the pieces, or you, you know, if you
are old enough, you can go to the garden and be with your dad. But the
girls it's more of gold, fresh water, cooking. You know, try to do
something with like running boots and preparing food and stick with the
mother try to learn how to do things and you know, for boys is all about
if the cows missing, you go out and look for that car and as you know, if
it is in parties and then your dad or your uncle, you wanna take care of
that and you start learning those things as, as you grow. And then if you
come to the afternoon, then you start taking the cows out and I look at
them here you bring them in
in the evening. So the role was kind of divided and then you grow up to at
that old
and that was the take, you know, you go then to be a man and then when you
get mad and then you move out and then this kind of goes like that. So
that's how it was.
Um, I was just looking at houses and books, so that's what I learned early
on and that's what I used to do and do that horrible workup.
In the village for us, you know, there are 22 big, we call them rock. It's
a big one that you keep the cows in and the small one that where, you know
, people are sleeping. But the way it is, is kind of a gender kind of
gender-based thing where the cows sleep, that's where the boys and men
sleep. Well, you know, that small home room that where people live, this
is where, you know, the little kids and girls and mothers sleep. So that's
how my room used to be. So and then, you know, in the car, they, you know
, they take the bed there for the boys, you don't have to be to sleep. Pro
or something like that, but for other, yeah, they have made that they
sleep in the power and they sleep there that's, you know, to their council.
And then when there's more room to see where everybody sleep. The boy
that young and you know, all the girls and so and that's, you know, you
can find about 10 or depend on the size of the home they can sleep there
yourself, you know, all the boys can sleep with the cars and the cows
or uncles that are all.
Uh, yes, it's highlands a big threatening animals that attack cows, so
that's where, you know, you have to be. Kind of that all the time because
they come and open the back of the that room, that room that they keep
them in and then take a small one. So and then also they they want to get
that and you don't bring them back home with you and they attack them.
Lions, uh, lions, lion is not a lot like I know there's more hyas than
lions. A lion also seem to be a little bit there for. They eat cows but
not all the time. Because what they do is they tend to stay away, away,
away from the building. So sometimes the only time they come is when they
fail to get other animal like that and other animal that's when they come
and like the times animals that are home for people. So with that, you
know, the high is the animal that is really crazy eating cows and and I,
especially the goats and sheeps
because they are small and they. on the back of the they come and open the
bag and I and get one. So that's, you know, in in the dog here the dogs
are used for Bradley and like babies, but back there that's what they do.
When the dog park at night, people know that something is coming, so
people then will get up and go around and see what is happening. That's
the use of the top most of the use of what I do basically the youth guide.
There was one time I remember during the summer I think it was coming for
the war because during the summer they it came and then people were
attacked because they one man I keep lying, but it has to be a team. I
remember when they killed him when they kill it. They killed on the top of
somebody, jump on somebody, and then people kill them. So that's, that's,
that's the only time I remember that I've seen lion during all this whole
thing, but getting back home I thought once.
Yes, this is Pierce.
Not there are people that are that blacks meets that does that make them
in the community, the people buy them.
As you know, there are major
harmonies that are here that are in my village here there are free. So one
in December, which is more like this month but for them this is know they
kill a lot of cows. It's like, you know, they do offering to the guy for
whatever happened with the good empathy or all the diseases and all that,
and people go to one place and then they do that. And then there is also,
they don't do it yearly, but they do it after the 1st 3 years initiation.
This is whereby they bring all the boys together. In my village it's not
like in in the village they do so that guy would hold those things in his
head. That's, that's the time that they put in my village they don't do
that. What they do in my village, they bring the boys together and then
they stay together for 3 months. And then, and then they shave their hat.
One person like if one woman will be designated in the whole village to
shave their hat off. Every time they bring one kid in, they have to shave
their head his head before he joined the team. That's how they do then at
the end that what happened during that initiation period that's this is
when the adults come and tell them about, you know, what it, what it means
to be a man. What role are you taking? Now you're not a boy anymore, so
you're not. So that kind of put me thinking. Now when you become, when you
went through that, that I think that you don't do. You know, you, you know
, you don't, you don't do the child thing, so now you become adults. So
you always go to one day gathering, you go to where others are making the
decision and even if you don't make the decision because you feel at the
lower end of adults, you sit there and listen. So that's the second one,
not the third one is, you know, a small thing that like up in the village
like one, like if I be like that, there's something wrong with my. In my
house I'll bring a boat or a cow and just kill it and invite and all the
plants around and talk about what is happening. So it's more like second
class then like the last one. So those are the thing and then in the, in,
in, in our own home, you know, in the very room we eat together and then
this is the historic time that we'll talk about, you know, what and his
grand grandfather used to do or what, you know, it's like more some of it
is more like his history here but more of it is all about education. And
so the guy that was what happened. If this happened, this is what this
person done in the past. This is how we do it for the girl, it's more
about how to take care of the babies, how to take care of the house and
all that. And so if the mother is one telling the story will be more of,
more of how the babies can be taken care of and how the house will be kept
and and all of that. So that's, that's how the situation was.
When the war when the war started in 1983. You know, what happened is they
startedroing people in the villages. What they used to do is they come and
tell people what is happening and then they and then they talk about the
guns because and then with the new thing that they had. So they, they kind
of lie to people that just, I remember that they lied to all the people
that if you go and get the guns, you can have your gun at home and if
someone attacking you, you will shoot them with a gun. If the animal
attacks your animal, you will shoot them with a gun. So people start
thinking about, oh, I wanna go and do that, but the trick was you go when
they train you and you join the rebels to fight against the government
that will kind of. Uh, discriminating about. But in 1987, what happened
was the government decided to go out and go to the villages and try to
kind of destroy the villages and, and take the kids and take them to the
north and gain them to be Muslims or, or put them in the military to kind
of destroy the, the manpower of the rebels. So that, that, that afternoon
when that, when they start, so in a while they come on the plane and then
throw they throw the bombs out the villages or in the car camps. So it was
summer. It was the thing I remember that was the beginning of the summer.
So I I that me and another 5 boys, one of them is 2 of them are one is in
the one and the other one is in. In Boston, so we were, we were taking
care of the cows that and we saw the plane coming, then it dropped the
bombs and then it left. Then it came back and then it stopped. We saw, you
know, that parachute thing that they put people and we saw it throwing
people down. We were like, why are they throwing people down, but they
were throwing soldiers down in the village. So that's, that's the day that
it become messy. So we, we came back with the cows and we kind of said,
let's, let's take the cows back and see where people are and then we can
handle that. So we didn't even need to the building. We had it become too
, too scared, too scared, and then we left the cows there and then we
start. Running to the south of the village, that's the other day that we
got to, so we start hiding in the boots and gear to become a, a kind of a
threat to
to go to. It took 3 months to get there and a lot of people didn't get in
that process. So finally we went to that first camp.
To me, I was 8. I was 8 years old, and, and what it was, what my day was
like is I thought, you know, in the village fighting it, something that
happened and they get over and go back. So I know it was scary. And in my
head, I thought it would be done and you know would come back home like it
used to be. Because when you what it used to be when the fighting is going
on the kid and the girl and the woman's and they would run away and then
the man would go and fight. So we thought it would be like that, but it,
it become, and the, the, the part that was killing me that time, I didn't
know where my family was, so I was not sure what happened to them and I
knew that also they were also worried of what happened to them.
Well, before, yeah, it was kind of on and off when the plane come run or
when they, they, you know, the, the, the messaging in the mouth, the
communication back there, it can be somebody crying in the village and
then the other person pick it out and another person pick it out because
there's no communication through. So the way to communicate is they beat
the drum and then you kind of know the sound of the drum, that's a drum
for the communication that there's something wrong, and then there's a
drum for that. So when they beat it up or they, when there's something
like with fighting or attack from Government troops or other tribes, they
will be the 2 and then people will know that something is wrong. So the
men will start running to where that where the drama is coming, and then
the kid will start going to where they can hide. So that used to happen
since 1983 when the war started.
Oh yeah, it's, you know, cause you know, when you, when you feel like
that's something that, you know, there's no rhythm in it. It just um
that's something wrong. But if it is a drum for, for dancing it and
doesn't do it and then people will always play it in a way that people can
dance to at that level, but for the drum for, you know, communication also
sometimes in the summer they use choir. But that's why I think kind of
pain away because it turned out to be that kind of cause a lot of problems.
Uh, what happened when after we left, we, we start going to the south of
the village and the, the thing, the thinking was that we'll go back. But
after about 5 days into it, and then that's 1 week out of that it's like
kind of stuff and it's going through all the villages. So the level they
were fighting. Uh, the government, they had their base in the public.
That's where they go and get their training and come back to South Sudan
and why.
So I think by day 7 or day 8, so there was one person in the group that
that was a so you, but somehow we were wounded. So he had,
yeah, he was, and then you kind of wanna go back to base where they were.
So he, he became the leader of the car, and now he was the one that kind
of show us where we can go, yeah, so you took out of the leadership role,
he was the only person with the gun. We used to go to this gun, but you
know for,
so we come to land. So that's when our direction can be clear that we're
going to this election. And you know, for a little bit of what I was there
were 11 o'clock, you know, it was like, oh, I'm gonna get a gun and come
back and fight these people and that was the story of the whole trip that
you, yeah, we're running to this direction. You don't know what it was,
but if we go there we will get down by other people that always come with
a gun.