Do you know how to dodge bullets?

They are all three about the same size. Short, slight frames with sinewy arms, skinny calves and gigantic smiles. They hug me rather awkwardly but act as my entourage, surrounding me protectively like I’m a younger sister. At 18, 19 and 21 years old, James Jimmy and Emmanuel are becoming three of my favourite Congolese refugees to hang out with. James and Emmanuel are brothers, and Jimmy and Emmanuel are both sponsored by Educate!. James is sponsored by another organization.

They are my guardians here in Hoima. Having just completed their final exams in form S4 (sophomore year American High School), all three attend Kitara Secondary School (one of four partner schools we work with in Hoima). I have spent the afternoon with the new headmaster of Kitara, chatting about Educate!’s programs. I wait for the boys to come and pick me up to take me to their hostel. While I wait, I’m accosted by some of the other students. Camera phones come out and quiet clicks are heard. One of the boys is named Herbert and I make fun of how old fashioned his name sounds to general laughter. He demands a new younger name so I name him Jonny. I hope he takes our course. He is in S4 himself and will be in the right class next year to join Educate!’s Socially Responsible Leadership Course.

Jimmy, James & Emmanuel pick me up and welcome me to their hostel. COBURWAS runs a hostel in Hoima – they manage transport, rent, food and healthcare of the students who stay there. They even have 3 of their own students on scholarships. This allows the refugees access to the better schools in Hoima over the two schools available in Kyangwali Refugee Settlement. To fund these school expenses, the students and COBURWAS club members spend their holidays digging in the fields of Kyangwali.

I am welcomed by all of the students living at the hostel. Numerous speeches are made – young men and women with various titles – President, Vice President, Counselour, Treasurer…the Entertainment manager gets up and performs an a cappela song and dance which then prompts two women to stand up and perform a traditional Congolese dance. Finally I’m asked to speak after being introduced as “our beloved friend, sister, mother and father, Emily from Educate!”. I thank them for their welcome and wish them well in their exams. They have formed a tight knit community together, where everyone seems to have some kind of title and some kind of responsibility. In short, every refugee here in this community is a leader in their own way. It astounds me when I sit back and think about what COBURWAS have done for their community.

Dinner is with James, Jimmy & Emmanuel. 90% of the time I’ve spent with our Educate! students it has been the women who prepared the food. Tonight, it is Emmanuel who does most of the cooking, mixing the posho over the fire. He invites me to try mixing it also – it is a stiff substance and it doesn’t help that the pot is balanced precariously over the fire and one has to hold onto it with a scrap of paper instead of an oven glove. Dinner is posho, rice and a delicious fish curry. Emmanuel is a much better cook than me. While eating he muses about how he grew up thinking men didn’t have to work. His father never lifted a finger. He thought that men were “born served”. This instigates a heart felt discussion on how important female leadership is. It is ironic that these students are so concerned with what role women play in their community, when Angelica and I have just been informed by our boss that a new board member has been added to Educate! without our knowledge. The board was previously composed of three white males. Latest addition? Another white male. It was paradoxical to me that a Congolese refugee whose father never even stoked the fire was talking to me about women leadership roles while we were having to recommend to our American team that they try and find a female board member next (perhaps even a non white member!)

I asked Emmanuel about his family. Here’s the gist of what he said –

Emmanuel: Our whole family is gone. It is only me, James and Beth left.
Jimmy: It is ok, Educate! is here.
Emmanuel: When we were running from the Congo, we were carrying Beth on our back. When the bullets flew, we would throw her and run away. But then I thought, I cannot just leave her and would run back to get her. She’s now 13. I was 8 years old when I arrived in Kyangwali carrying Beth. They gave us a plot of land with a mango tree on it. There was a very big snake that lived in the tree. So I would act as a guide. When the tree was on one branch, James would climb the tree for the mangos. Once James fell off the tree…
James: Look, I have scars on my arm. The entire skin fell off.
Emmanuel: The snake was just killed recently. We couldn’t manage to slash the place because we were too small. I tried to build a house but when the wind came, the house fell down. Nobody would help us. Those mangos, they really helped us. We also ate these things growing in the soil – people said not to eat them but we did anyway. They were called “Vihama” and look like yams. So many people survived on those things. Cholera broke out because people did not have latrines. Lice attacked us. We used to have to cut them through our T-shirts with our teeth to kill them. When I was running from the Congo, I fell and cut my leg open. It was bleeding badly and noone wanted to run with us. They said the rebels would follow my blood. I didn’t get it treated for a long time and it became infected. After about one month I went to the doctor and got about 20 injections.

The boys refused to let me do the washing up. They then walked me back to my hostel for a half hour in the pitch dark, pointing out where the potholes in the roads are. They asked me about American food. James has never seen a hamburger. None of them have ever tasted pizza. I felt myself wanting to look after these three young men who were looking after me so well. I wanted to buy them a big steaming pizza and take them swimming somewhere.

The next night they asked me “Do you know how to dodge bullets?”. I replied, “You mean, like in the Matrix? Noone can actually dodge bullets”. I received a chorus of “Yes we can” in reply. “We have when we were running. You run from side to side. When they shoot at the beginning, you crouch down. Sometimes you have to step on bodies”.

It makes me feel sick thinking about them dodging bullets. They are almost cheerful when they talk about their past, for it was such a long time ago. Now, with the current situation in the Congo, they sit around an old radio listening to BBC news of rebel troops closing in on Goma. I would imagine that soon there will be more refugees in Kyangwali. Perhaps listening to such news is what is making them reminisce about their own flight from the Congo.

They have called me “karate” ever since I told them I did karate in school and have laboriously extracted a promise from me to teach them next time I’m in Kyangwali. I told them I will only teach them if they recruit girls to be taught as well. I will also dig with them. The longer I spend with these kids the more I feel like promising them the world. They are close, support each other, are smart and have been through so much. They adore Educate! and all they have received and have no complaints.