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In This episode
Our participants share their personal survival stories with loved ones and reflect on their healing process throughout time.
Transcript
0:07
What is the pain in me
0:08
you would like to heal?
0:21
I think that
0:23
I think that in all the strength
0:25
that you've shown
0:27
and that you've had to show and all of
0:31
the- all of the resilience
0:34
that you've had,
0:35
you've had to be so strong
0:37
to survive, to get through it all.
0:39
Yeah. - I fear that.
0:43
I think that there's pain
0:46
that you need to dig up
0:48
in a safe space
0:51
to be- to heal.
0:58
In what ways has being a survivor
1:00
of human trafficking most affected
1:02
the way you raised me?
1:07
I always want to keep you aware
1:10
of your surroundings
1:11
as you were growing up, because, I mean,
1:16
people think that people
1:20
that get taken for human
1:21
trafficking are being kidnaped off
1:23
the streets.
1:24
They're not. It's just people you know.
1:27
And I just want you to be aware
1:29
of your surroundings constantly
1:31
and even today I'm like: Jasmine,
1:33
pay attention to your surroundings,
1:35
you know,
1:35
because you never know
1:37
what's going to happen.
1:38
And that's why I thought,
1:40
you know, I was going to be honest.
1:42
I want you- you know,
1:44
be aware, just be aware.
1:46
And I know there was a couple
1:47
times you couldn't understand why I would,
1:49
you know,
1:49
tell a guy to stop looking at you and stuff
1:52
it was because I was
1:54
I wanted to protect you.
1:56
I want to protect all my kids because
1:59
no one needs to go through what I went
2:01
through, it's the most horrible thing ever.
2:05
You know,
2:07
I'm going to do what I can
2:08
to try to make this world a better place
2:11
because for a long time being trafficked.
2:16
I mean, this place in this world, ugly place.
2:20
I had to do a lot of stuff and a lot of
2:22
it was- a lot of it was illegal.
2:25
So the only thing I can do now
2:27
is try to help people,
2:29
you know?
2:30
Yeah. - Yeah.
2:32
That's it.
2:35
What's one experience you wish
2:38
I never had and why?
2:43
Well, I mean, we can go into
2:47
World War Two.
2:49
That's an experience you might wish
2:51
I never had.
2:52
Yes.
2:55
Yeah.
2:57
Marks you for the rest of your life.
3:06
I will ask you questions forever
3:08
about it.
3:09
And I will answer.
3:11
And I'll never fully understand
3:15
what that felt like
3:16
and what it feels like
3:20
and what it feels like
3:21
to read the news now
3:25
with information
3:27
and the visuals that you have seen and
3:32
the horror that you've lived through.
3:33
It's-
3:36
Yeah. - It's beyond.
3:39
And it's very funny to think that,
3:43
you know, some of the scenes
3:44
I remember
3:47
we were going, we were traveling
3:49
when you could still travel a little bit
3:53
from the south of France
3:55
to visit, um,
3:59
I guess ______ parents'.
4:04
And we were in the station
4:06
and the train stopped
4:11
and
4:13
my mother said she wanted to go
4:16
and look for a bathroom
4:21
and she went down
4:22
and I see we went down on the platform
4:26
of the train of the station
4:31
and suddenly
4:34
the train is going to leave.
4:36
So there is a whistle and the train,
4:39
people says:
4:40
the train is leaving,
4:41
get back on the train.
4:44
And where is my mother?
4:50
I can feel it now.
4:53
What my-
4:54
My father didn't know what to do.
4:57
We had our valise on the train,
5:00
and we could, of course, get on the train
5:04
and get out the next station
5:08
until I saw her
5:11
coming out of the building on the side
5:14
and getting into the train,
5:16
even over there, that didn't matter.
5:18
But getting on the train,
5:21
I was what was I was 11 years old.
5:24
Ten years old.
5:25
That was devastating.
5:30
Devastating.
5:33
And that stayed with me
5:35
until today.
5:37
I'm devastated now thinking about it.
5:44
Describe your three favorite memories
5:47
you've shared.
5:53
Okay, so the first, the first memory
5:56
I've shared with you was
6:00
the- about the genocide,
6:02
how I survived the genocide.
6:04
And, um,
6:08
the second thing I told you about
6:11
the orphanage, the French orphanage
6:13
back in Congo, back home and
6:17
how it was sleeping on the floor
6:19
and stuff like that.
6:20
We were laughing like, yeah... something.
6:23
So
6:25
the third one,
6:29
the third one
6:33
I told you about
6:36
my mom
6:39
yeah, it's-
6:42
Yeah, that's.
6:42
That's three things.
6:44
Very big I've shared with you.
6:47
Yeah, that's.
6:50
That's all.
6:53
What is the pain in me
6:55
you wish you could heal?
6:59
I think there's two in there.
7:03
There's two. - Oh, two.
7:04
Okay. - What is the
7:05
pain in you I wish I could heal?
7:07
I don't know if you have any pain.
7:09
No, this is to me.
7:10
To you. - I know, I don't know what to ask you.
7:15
I don't think you have pain.
7:16
I think you
7:17
sometimes have some regrets of leaving
7:21
your parents.
7:23
You? - You.
7:25
What's the pain?
7:31
Right.
7:32
The pain that I think
7:33
I wish I could heal in you.
7:35
I don't know if it's pain,
7:36
but I think you have
7:37
a little bit of regret
7:39
sometimes
7:40
that you left your parents back home.
7:43
Maybe, but I don't.
7:45
But you don't tend to regret
7:46
and you don't tend to look back.
7:49
What's done is done.
7:50
What's done is done.
7:51
But I think. - But you know.
7:53
You know, they were far.
7:55
They missed they weren't here.
7:57
They also so
8:00
and but I don't know if that's.
8:01
I mean, I know, you know, my history of
8:04
of survival during the Holocaust.
8:07
So, you know,
8:08
all that pain could be taken away.
8:11
But it's but as long as I took that
8:17
facing it
8:18
and overcoming it,
8:20
then basically there's no really pain...
8:24
To heal.
8:25
To heal. - Yeah.
8:27
I you know, like,
8:28
I didn't let myself to be hurt.
8:31
Yeah.
8:32
And that's what I'm teaching you
8:36
not to let me so hurt,
8:37
not to distance or, but
8:40
to say, hey, I'm strong enough,
8:42
I can take everything
8:44
and optimistically,
8:48
you know, my saying
8:49
if a brick falls off the building,
8:52
you'll be happy that the whole church
8:53
didn't fall on you because it may happen.
8:56
So
8:58
you okay then?
9:00
So I don't think you have any
9:04
pain to take away from me.
9:07
How do you describe me to others?
9:13
Okay.
9:14
I describe you...
9:15
Maybe you should tell behind my back, not in front of me.
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