interview reflection

James Bot

The person we interviewed was named James Bot and he was a refugee who came from Uganda. James Bot was born in northern Uganda; he experienced the lost of a brother at the age of eight. James Bot has been shot at and has been tortured and seen death through out his life. He went from Uganda to Ethiopia where he met his wife. After living in Ethiopia he then moved to Sudan. But while at the border of Sudan he was thrown in jail. And he was thrown in jail because at the time a war was going on between the Sudanese and Ethiopia. He was thrown in jail because they suspected him of being part of the rebel army. He told the guards at the jail the he was originally from Uganda and they did not believe him so he told them to call the refugee camp which is where he had been staying. And they had found out that he was telling the truth and let him go. So he traveled into Sudan. He then soon found a job as a teacher and they lived there for about four months. Then after they fired him, because he did not have any papers that said he was from Sudan. Soon after he told his wife and kids that they had to go, and they moved to Egypt. And he got a job as a teacher and went for an interview at the United Nations and when he did the interview they said that he was going to America. His wife had a sister that had lived in America, but she had died and left five kids behind. He and his wife moved to Wyoming, to take care of the kids. He and his wife had been taking care of the kids and his wife leaves him and takes the six out of the nine kids. He comes home from work and he talks to the three kids that stayed behind. She had gone to Minnesota so he and his kids follow her to Minnesota. He takes the kids that he has and gives them to her because she is living of the welfare, and he wants to live together as a family but because of well fair he is not allowed to live with her. To straighten out everything he moved to San Diego to find a job.

While I was listening to his conversation at the part where he was talking about his wife taking the kids from him, he said that he dislikes America because of that reason the well fair. Because of that he is not allowed to see his kids. And the money that he makes half of it goes to the kids so he says that this law does not favor refuges. In fact he said that refugees do not like to come to America that they are only forced here because the situation in their country is so bad. I was surprised to hear him say that he dislikes America and that refuges dislike America as well. The process in which we took the interview I thought was a good process. We asked the questions and he gave an answer and we then would ask him to elaborate on that answer. At first I was nervous because I thought asking these questions would be too impersonal, but through out the interview he was a really nice guy very relaxed about everything. We interviewed James Bot at the Alliance for African Assistance headquarters. His story was amazing the struggles he went through, and his perseverance is just amazing. It gave me a whole new insight to what he went through living in Uganda.