Today, April 7th is your birthday. First of all I would like to say that I love you so much. You were born in the middle of Easter in 1982. Your father and I couldn’t get enough of you – a child we’d waited for so many years. You were a feisty little guy, awake from the beginning and hungry for life.
And I will never forget how I looked into your eyes right after the birth and thought: “not only do I love this child, I like him as well”. Now you celebrate your 29th birthday in the jungle city Kisangani’s Central Prison. There is almost two years since shots were fired against you outside Kisangani on your way back to Uganda. One shot were fatal, and this trip to Congo in 2009 had major effects and still has major effects for a lot of people. These two years feels like ten years. Not only has a lot happened in your life in this period of time, but in the lives of your closest family. Because in our family history, Congo will be an era of before-Congo-, during-Congo- and an after-Congo time.
I am proud of how you and Tjostolv have handled many dramatic situations and a difficult everyday life in the prison. Not to mention how touched I am of how you’ve been so compassionate with your inmates and cared for them in different ways.
I’ve told you before, but I’ll say it again: you can be impressed on how your girlfriend and your sister and the rest of the family has encountered and pulled resources none of us knew we had to deal with this Congo drama. And I know that you as the rest of the family are very grateful to everyone that through almost two years have supported and helped you and us in many different ways. Not least we thank God who is always near both you and us in both good and bad days.
My birthday wish for you is that God keeps preserving you, and that you will get your freedom in this, your 30th year.
Your mother, April 7th 2011
