Interviews

So, part of our trip up, was to do some work. We brought five packages with us to give to some people in need. Kathleen and James know a pastor up there and asked him to refer five people in the community that could use some extra help. Friday morning Kathleen and I left the kids at the compound, and went out to do our interviews. We went to the church and met the people, then sat down at a table and the people came in one by one to talk to us. I felt privilaged that the people shared their stories with us. I think this is the first time that I thought I might cry during an interview, hearing about the war and how it affected them, and how they escaped with their lives. It is not the first time I have heard stories like this, but for whatever reason, it hit me a lot harder. The one man, ABC they call him (Augustus B. Collie) doesn’t have the use of his legs due to polio. His chair couldn’t come up into the church, and so he crawled up the aisle to talk to us. To him it isn’t a big deal, but to watch, it is difficult. He was cheerful and hopeful about the future, and wanting to learn more about computers, to perhaps have his own computer so he can work typing documents for people to make a living. He says, people tell him “your disabled, why don’t you just sit down” but he says “no, my mind is still good, I can still learn”. It was very encouraging to hear. During the war in 1994 soldiers came into town. Everyone ran, he was left alone in the house, not knowing where anyone had gone, so he too had to escape, crawling into the bush. His friends found him, and put him in a wheelbarrow, and helped by pushing him around. They couldn’t light fires to cook, becuase if the soldiers saw smoke, they would come find them and kill them. He said they had nothing, they had to sleep on the ground, they had no blankets or sheets. One woman they met, her husband had been killed, and so she asked him to take one of her small daughters, and so he talked with his wife, and they took this extra girl to be their daughter. At one point back in town, they were going to kill him, because he was disabled, but one man convinced the soldiers not too, and then later he heard that they had killed another man who was in a wheelchair.
Another man that we interviewed when we asked how many children he had, he said five, but only three are living. Again during the war, they had to run to the bush for safety from the soldiers. Two of his children died of starvation in the bush. He is looking after three of his brothers children as well though, as his brother was killed in the war.
When we returned home Ruth was here, and I told her about my trip, and she told me how when she was little she lived with her grandma, during the war, and they lived in a village. At night they would have to go and sleep in the bush on the ground, and the two of them would sleep on her grandmas lapa (like a wrap around skirt). She was two when the war started and she lived with her Grandma till she was five, when her grandma got sick and died. Then she went and lived with her parents.
These stories are not isolated. Everyone in this country has suffered during the war. It is heartbreaking to hear the stories. It is still not easy for people as they struggle to find jobs and have enough to feed their families.