What is the pain in me
you would like to heal?
I think that
I think that in all the strength
that you've shown
and that you've had to show and all of
the- all of the resilience
that you've had,
you've had to be so strong
to survive, to get through it all.
Yeah. - I fear that.
I think that there's pain
that you need to dig up
in a safe space
to be- to heal.
In what ways has being a survivor
of human trafficking most affected
the way you raised me?
I always want to keep you aware
of your surroundings
as you were growing up, because, I mean,
people think that people
that get taken for human
trafficking are being kidnaped off
the streets.
They're not. It's just people you know.
And I just want you to be aware
of your surroundings constantly
and even today I'm like: Jasmine,
pay attention to your surroundings,
you know,
because you never know
what's going to happen.
And that's why I thought,
you know, I was going to be honest.
I want you- you know,
be aware, just be aware.
And I know there was a couple
times you couldn't understand why I would,
you know,
tell a guy to stop looking at you and stuff
it was because I was
I wanted to protect you.
I want to protect all my kids because
no one needs to go through what I went
through, it's the most horrible thing ever.
You know,
I'm going to do what I can
to try to make this world a better place
because for a long time being trafficked.
I mean, this place in this world, ugly place.
I had to do a lot of stuff and a lot of
it was- a lot of it was illegal.
So the only thing I can do now
is try to help people,
you know?
Yeah. - Yeah.
That's it.
What's one experience you wish
I never had and why?
Well, I mean, we can go into
World War Two.
That's an experience you might wish
I never had.
Yes.
Yeah.
Marks you for the rest of your life.
I will ask you questions forever
about it.
And I will answer.
And I'll never fully understand
what that felt like
and what it feels like
to read the news now
with information
and the visuals that you have seen and
the horror that you've lived through.
It's-
Yeah. - It's beyond.
And it's very funny to think that,
you know, some of the scenes
I remember
we were going, we were traveling
when you could still travel a little bit
from the south of France
to visit, um,
I guess ______ parents'.
And we were in the station
and the train stopped
and
my mother said she wanted to go
and look for a bathroom
and she went down
and I see we went down on the platform
of the train of the station
and suddenly
the train is going to leave.
So there is a whistle and the train,
people says:
the train is leaving,
get back on the train.
And where is my mother?
I can feel it now.
What my-
My father didn't know what to do.
We had our valise on the train,
and we could, of course, get on the train
and get out the next station
until I saw her
coming out of the building on the side
and getting into the train,
even over there, that didn't matter.
But getting on the train,
I was what was I was 11 years old.
Ten years old.
That was devastating.
Devastating.
And that stayed with me
until today.
I'm devastated now thinking about it.
Describe your three favorite memories
you've shared.
Okay, so the first, the first memory
I've shared with you was
the- about the genocide,
how I survived the genocide.
And, um,
the second thing I told you about
the orphanage, the French orphanage
back in Congo, back home and
how it was sleeping on the floor
and stuff like that.
We were laughing like, yeah... something.
So
the third one,
the third one
I told you about
my mom
yeah, it's-
Yeah, that's.
That's three things.
Very big I've shared with you.
Yeah, that's.
That's all.
What is the pain in me
you wish you could heal?
I think there's two in there.
There's two. - Oh, two.
Okay. - What is the
pain in you I wish I could heal?
I don't know if you have any pain.
No, this is to me.
To you. - I know, I don't know what to ask you.
I don't think you have pain.
I think you
sometimes have some regrets of leaving
your parents.
You? - You.
What's the pain?
Right.
The pain that I think
I wish I could heal in you.
I don't know if it's pain,
but I think you have
a little bit of regret
sometimes
that you left your parents back home.
Maybe, but I don't.
But you don't tend to regret
and you don't tend to look back.
What's done is done.
But I think. - But you know.
You know, they were far.
They missed they weren't here.
They also so
and but I don't know if that's.
I mean, I know, you know, my history of
of survival during the Holocaust.
So, you know,
all that pain could be taken away.
But it's but as long as I took that
facing it
and overcoming it,
then basically there's no really pain...
To heal.
To heal. - Yeah.
I you know, like,
I didn't let myself to be hurt.
Yeah.
And that's what I'm teaching you
not to let me so hurt,
not to distance or, but
to say, hey, I'm strong enough,
I can take everything
and optimistically,
you know, my saying
if a brick falls off the building,
you'll be happy that the whole church
didn't fall on you because it may happen.
So
you okay then?
So I don't think you have any
pain to take away from me.
How do you describe me to others?
Okay.
I describe you...
Maybe you should tell behind my back, not in front of me.
Well, first of all, listen, I do mention
I do mention
your background that you are a survivor
and that you were a role model,
that,
you know,
considering what you went
through in your life
now the amount of volunteer work
that you do, I mean, Big Apple greeter.
But getting back
to how I describe you: sincere,
straight forward,
you say it as it is,
you don't pull any punches.
I mean, look, during those months
that I was going through
all my treatments,
there wasn't
I don't think there was a week
that went by that you didn't call.
You didn't send an email.
How are you doing?
Is there anything I can do?
Can I get something for you?
Can I get something for your wife?
You know, so that's it.
Thank you. - My turn.
What is one experience
you wish I never had?
I mean, you know.
Yeah.
Me too.
But not me too. - But hashtag Me Too.
Yeah, because it really.
And not to be like
super silver linings rah rah.
But it is one of the reasons why
I am the person I am. - Yeah.
And I really like the person I am.
Most of the time.
That's beautiful.
I just hope it never happens
to either of us, ever.
Yeah, I'm good. - I've done my learning.
I'm over it.
I'm just done. So done.
Yeah. - Yeah.
Well, and you're still like in yours.
That's what's- that's what's so hard.
I mean it's so hard. - Yeah.
It's like,
I mean,
I think what you're going through with
the trial is amazing.
And I think that there is there's
so much strength and resilience
that's required in order
to go through the criminal justice
system, when
it has to do with sexual assault.
But I mean,
talk about just
getting traumatized over and over
and over and over and over again.
Yeah.
You know, and just like
having to retell your stories
so many different times
to people who are not therapists.
They're not counselors.
They're not people who it's it's-
They have no fucking idea
what they're doing.
Any of them. - I know.
well that and also it's you're,
you're in a position as a survivor where
you're trying to get someone,
you're trying to convince
someone that you're telling the truth.
Yeah.
Which is I mean, that's the worst.
That's the worst.
And and you have people
it's I mean, it's the most adversarial
situation that you could be in
as as a survivor of sexual assault,
having- having people
who are there,
exactly what they're trying to do
is prove that it didn't happen.
Yeah.
What do you think
others can learn from my story?
It's easy.
You have a huge story, but
acceptance,
forgiveness,
I think it's a lot of forgiveness.
Not all of your pedophiles,
but also of yourself,
because you- something
that you've worked on and deal with.
But you give such hope
when you speak.
When you tell your story,
you give
such an inspiration of hope to people
not only through,
you know, children that have been abused,
but addicts and,
and those that are lonely.
And,
um, because it's,
it's hard.
You knew it was going to happen.
It's just
you inspire a lot of people from your 38
years of life
because of what you've been through
and how you've dealt with it,
because not everybody deals with it
like you do.
Not any
2 people deal with it the same. - No.