When civil war erupted in Sudan in 1983, in the south, thousands of young people were sent to training camps in Ethiopia to prepare for combat. Some instructors were Cubans sent by Castro to encourage export revolutions in Africa and communism. Many new recruits were children incapable of carrying a weapon.The instructors felt that they were unfit for war. Rather than send them to the front, they sent to Cuba to study. Those children are now returning to Juba to rebuild the country they left. They are known affectionately as the juban. In the local Havana, in the city of Juba, Orik Simon, 38, takes a sip of the local beer Tasker and continues the story in perfect Spanish with a Cuban accent very pronounced.
"The trip was in 1985. She was 13 years. We went to Eritrea and out the Mediterranean to America on a Soviet ship. There were about 300 odd. I think we went for a Spanish port. And then through the Canaries. We spent 22 days in the sea until we came to Havana. " Orik and his companions were there the whole African continent.
The settled in the Isle of Youth and there began to go to school. Soon after, another 300 Sudanese children traveled to Cuba, this time by plane. And then thousands. Seized the opportunity. Orik went to college years later and studied veterinary medicine. Life then took him to Canada, where he had family.
In 2007, two years after the war ended, he returned. "I wanted to see how he could help. After the war, South Sudan is totally destroyed. I thought my experience could do a lot for this country. Now I work to make roads. We started with 10 trucks are now leased our "he says. At three o'clock in the evening not many people in Havana and you can talk while you eat a typical Cuban dish.
At that time the bartender pours two beers in an empty bar that evening will be packed. They bring together some of the juban who studied with Orik in Cuba. They are doctors, engineers, economists ... An elite in Juba has decided to return to lay the foundations of the new state is about to be born and to fix the country with a glass of rum.
"This week we voted our separation in the referendum. I'm not going to forget ever. We are making history and thank God that I am in Juba to see it." To convert to Southern Sudan in a country with success, Orik brings out some lessons of communism: "There are things that the mixed with capitalism is not bad.
The health and education, for example. I never saw die no hunger in Cuba. could not miss a shoe but it was basic. I think we have to start with education. We must take what we have. On the banks of the Nile can be planted stones and safe growing something. "
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