Two More Stories

John:

I met John during my weekend in Gulu last summer. He consented to tell his story in hopes that those that heard it would bring the horror back to America.

John was kidnapped when he was only 12 years old. He was hiding in the bush (the tall weeds and grass that surrounds the displacement camps) one night because he was too exhausted to walk all the way into town, which was about 3 miles away. He heard from his hiding spot as the army attacked his camp. He stayed as still as possible in hopes that they wouldn't find him. But they did. When John thought that the army had fled the camp, he started to leave his hiding spot and two men grabbed him threatening him with guns.

John was told that his whole family had been killed, so his best option was the "security" of the Lord's Resistance Army. John was a soldier in the army for 9 years. He worked closely with the leader, Joseph Kony, and he knew intimate details about the organization of the rebel army.

John blocked the terrible acts he committed from his memory. He is still effected each day by the things he was forced to do to innocent children and families. But each time he did, he knew that he was one day closer to freedom.

During an attack, John was shot in the leg and deemed useless to the army. Because he was such a faithful soldier, Kony allowed him to live and be taken back to his home. No one in his family survived in Gulu so John was taken to a recovery center to rehabilitate. He was given medical help and therapy to discuss what he went through. When he was allowed back into civilization, he experienced a personal stigma from other people. They believed he was still the enemy because he had been with the army for so long. It is hard for him to get a job because of this stigma.

Edward:

I met Edward at the rehabilitation center World Visions. He was still unable to leave the center because he suffered from severe post-traumatic stress, even years after escaping. He told us this story.

Edward was a soldier in the army for only a few weeks, when his commanding officer forced him to prove his loyalty to the army. They ambushed a small village and kidnapped a few women. The officer picked one woman and told Edward that if he was truly loyal to the cause he would have to use a machete to cut off her nose, lips, ears, and fingertips.

Edward was only 13 when the officer made him do this. He reluctantly accomplished the task and the army left the woman there to die.

Four months later, Edward escaped from the army during a direct battle with Ugandan government military. Edward was brought to World Vision to be treated medically and mentally. A few days after he was there, he spoke with a therapist about this "loyalty initiation."

Days later, a woman approached him from behind and said hello. This woman was the same woman that Edward had mutilated months before. She had somehow crawled to a main road a mile from where the army abandoned her and she was picked up hours later and brought to World Vision. When she told him this, Edward burst into tears. The woman looked at him and told him not to cry. She was alive and recovering. She did not blame him and was not at all angry with him for what he did. She forgave him immediately after the event occurred, and now hoped that he could forgive himself.

Days after that encounter, Edward tried to escape World Vision, and his life, by jumping off the retaining wall. During the next few months he attempted suicide three more times.

When I met Edward in 2010, he had been living at World Vision for two years. He was not able to leave the center because he was believed to be a danger to himself.