The Reunification of Ayuen and Dut

With irresistible excitement, I went to pick Ayuen up at her school to bring her with me to Bujagali. She did not know that I was coming – nor did she know that Dut was coming the following day! What a fun bit of news to share with her! After picking her up and bringing her back to Eden Rock with me, we tucked in for an anxious night’s sleep.

The following morning, Evie (my friend who agreed to take pictures at the airport), Ayuen, and I struck out on the road. Evie and I were balls of nerves and excitement – Ayuen was calm. At first, we thought she must be excited but the language barrier was making it hard for us to understand that… But no – she was really normal. It was weird – but I suppose in Western culture, we are exposed to stories, movies, and tales of reunification experiences. They seem to us be abnormal and emotional. For her, she hears often of people be reunified with loved ones – it is not so strange and exciting. For us, we had expectations about what it would feel like to meet a brother whom we had never met – but it was unclear what she was thinking about it. It was a really interesting three hour drive to Entebbe.

When we arrived at the airport, we went inside to find out where the arrivals came. At thirty minutes ‘till Dut’s arrival, Ayuen seemed to be getting increasingly excited, asking questions like “are you sure that this is the only door?” and when people were coming through, looking at me as if I might not remember what he looks like. The three of us were quite the threesome – Evie with the camera, Ayuen by the door, and me – the only one who knows Dut – trying to track all of the people coming out. In that situation, I started to wonder if maybe I would forget what Dut looked like – it was so important. However, I spotted him through the gate, heading for luggage and cried out “there he is!” We all got pretty excited. Ayuen was holding my hand – her palm was sweaty, but her face was stoic, as if there was nothing to see here. Weird.

Dut started walking down the corridor entrance – about 100 feet, so we had a build-up. Dut walked towards us like it was nothing – he did have a big smile on his face, but he did not seem to be in too much of a rush. I had completely lost it by that point – I was crying so much that my entire face was wet :). Ayuen just waited patiently… Dut finally made it to the door and then he seemed excited – so excited that he left his baggage behind the security door. Ayuen and Dut stood at the entrance for about five minutes hugging and looking at each other and hugging and looking at each other… I went to get the baggage – everyone seemed so happy (while we were waiting, we told everyone around us what was about to happen, so the entire entrance gate was sharing in our reunification experience).

We headed to the car with the luggage and settled in for the car ride home. Dut and Ayuen barely looked at each other in the eyes and did not speak much to one another. Dut, in fact, spoke more to me and Evie (whom he had just met) than he did to Ayuen. I suppose they were adjusting to one another’s presence.

It was truly one of the experiences that I will carry with me for the rest of my life, as with many moments I have had on this trip. War is a terrible thing – people die, families are split up, and countries are devastated in many ways. It was amazing to have the juxtaposition of Rwanda and the reunification so close together. Dut had talked to me about meeting his sister for the past three years every two weeks, so there was an intense buildup. I knew that this was the most important part of the trip for Dut; I was so honored to be a part of the process.