Anonim
The interviewer: Once again, welcome to this interview. Shall we start the story from when the situation started to worsen? How did you make to decision to leave? What do you remember?
Anonymous 3: In fact, I don’t remember much from that part. I lived in Prishtina and Prishtina was a safer zone in comparison to other places where they forced people to leave. What I remember is the time right before we left the house. A family from Drenica was staying in our house. The house was big and we had enough space to let another family in need stay there. I didn’t exactly know what was going on. I was around 7 years old. I had two younger brothers and when that family came to our house I became friends with their daughter who was the same age as me. So, we played together…
The interviewer: The girl from Drenica?
Anonymous 3: Yes, with the girl from Drenica. I only remember this part. Also, it’s interesting that I remember how the power went off quite often. I don’t know what happened but it was dark during the evening…I don’t why we had to sit on the floor. This is what I remember. We would always try to continue on with our routine; we would go to bed, wear our pajamas and not wake up with our clothes on. I remember that my friend from Drenica would sleep with her clothes on and that I didn’t understand why because I was still living my routine… we didn’t understand what was going on, maybe my family didn’t tell us much about it. I don’t remember how we decided to leave the house but I do know that my mom and my aunt decided to take us, the children, and leave for Macedonia. I still don’t know how but I know that the bombings started. I remember the long lines of people and we were with two women…
The interviewer: Do you see the militaries along the way?
Anonymous 3: I can recall the moment when we left – my brother was so sick; he had a fever… my mother was pregnant. So it was just me and one of my brothers because my little brother wasn’t born yet. He was born during the war. My mother was in her 9th month of pregnancy and that was one of the reasons why we wanted to go to a safer place because she would need to deliver the baby and medical care. So, I only remember the people down the roads. There were too many people by cars or on foot. There was a moment, how my mom told me, that we were left without food. It feels like I’ve erased that bad memory from my brain because it was a bad experience. I remember that we arrived in Skopje. My uncle was in Skopje and he was waiting for us. He took us to an apartment and then, since my mother was pregnant, we were thinking of leaving abroad. I believe this was the reason why. We went to someone’s house, temporarily, and then we went back to the camp, and finally went to Sweden. They chose Sweden as an option – there were options like Australia or I don’t know which were far away. So, the time zone and all the differences made my parents decide to go to Sweden. We also had some relatives in Sweden so we thought it would be better for us. So that was the first time I got on a plane. I don’t remember a thing… Then there were the other scenes I remember after we got there but it’s a bit later… We stayed at the apartments that were for different communities where we stayed for weeks or months and I don’t remember anything about that. I don’t know how we got on the plane, I don’t remember the airport or how we arrived in Sweden. Nothing. It was interesting to see a totally different infrastructure of everything like the school and…
The interviewer: You started going to school in Sweden. What was the school like? What do you remember?
Anonymous 3: The beginning was very hard because we didn’t know the language. But, children are fast learners and I know that they only let us draw anything we wanted at the beginning. Of course, the teachers and everyone were too careful about how they approached us and our needs because we were children coming from the war and we could’ve had trauma. Sometimes there were interpreters but it was impossible to have them during the whole classes. The beginning was hard. We tried to communicate through gestures and we mainly got to draw and practice sports. Gradually, we started learning new vocabulary and then got to the point when we could attend classes normally. We didn’t take long to progress taking into account that we were children – we were quick learners.
The interviewer: You mentioned that the first word that you learned was… Can you tell us that story? Which was the first word you learned?
Anonymous 3: Yes. The school had its canteen where we could get food. So you had many choices but my mother told me that whenever I got there I had to tell them, in Swedish, “no girs”. And I thought that she knows my diet and the things I like since I am quite a picky eater. So, yes I told them “no gris” every time I got there. So, one day I asked my mother what does “girs” mean and she told me it was pork. Then I asked her why don’t we eat pork. Yeah, the first word I learned was “girs” since my mother decided for me that I don’t eat pork.
The interviewer: You didn’t eat pork…
Anonymous 3: Yes.
The interviewer: Can you explain a little about some special activities you held in school during the time you were still fitting in the Swedish environment?
Anonymous 3: Well, it was Christmas time and within all the activities they organized…there were a great number of activities in comparison to the school back in Kosovo where these kind of activities were never organized; activities where you could show your talent. There was kind of a theatre and it was really interesting as they organized acting parts monthly in the school. You could audition for the role. I went there for one of the auditions although I wasn’t sure who the character was but I liked Saint Mary. I auditioned for the role of Saint Maria and I took part in the rehearsals. Taking into consideration that I would tell them “no gris” they decided to contact my parents about this role since it had religious motives. So I was a Muslim. They called my mother… I was still at school and they told my mother about the whole thing. They told her that the main role was of Saint Mary. They told her that I auditioned there of my own will. When I arrived home my mother asked me whether I wanted to play the role of Saint Mary and I told her yes. Then, I don’t know if I was the best in the auditions or if they simply wanted to motivate me but I got the role.
The interviewer: Do you remember how did you decide to return here?
Anonymous 3: Yes. In fact, we went there only temporarily and we didn’t think about staying there in Sweden. My parents always believed that we should return and contribute in our country and…
The interviewer: … this was the reason why you returned…
Anonymous 3: We had the chance to stay there. When we returned, when they decided we could return after checking on the conditions, the house, and the safety… Some of my relatives fixed everything and cleaned the house. When we returned… after a while because we lived in Sweden. Only recently I found out they gave us a kind of visa which allowed us to return back to Sweden within 6 months if we wouldn’t be okay here for any reason. We never started that procedure of papers about the residence. Sweden was our temporary solution until the situation in Kosovo would get better. My brother was born in Sweden; we didn’t want to travel with a little baby. But, we never wanted to live there for a longer period.
The interviewer: Was there a discrepancy between the two places? The infrastructure, school, and society?
Anonymous 3: It’s not that we stayed abroad for too long but it was enough to see the difference. The period right after the war when the power went off…. we landed in the airport of Skopje. When we arrived in Veternik the city was all in the dark, I don’t know if you could see 4 or 5 lights on. The power was off in Prishtina. I couldn’t understand why the power went off, it was a weird situation. Then, when we got back to school, I was in a public school, and all the public schools in Kosovo are more or less the same regarding the infrastructure. The restrooms were unclean. The doors of the restroom on the floor wouldn’t close as they should. So, a friend of yours had to come to the door and hold it close for you when you had to use the toilet in contrast to the school I attended in Sweden where I had an inside pool and all the sports hall, a place where you could hold different activities. The school in Kosovo lacked the basic conditions. It was disappointing. I remember how I wanted to go back to Sweden because I didn’t like my school here. I knew all about it when I first started first grade but perhaps I had forgotten all about it because I was offered a better school. Of course we all missed our family members, but maybe only the school part was about what I felt this way. I remember how I felt frustrated and wanted to go to the better school and not stay at the one I was in.
The interviewer: Do you recall any conversation with your family members during the time you were in Sweden?
Anonymous 3: With the ones in Kosovo?
The interviewer: Yes.
Anonymous 3: Yes, but I don’t know why we didn’t have a phone in the house. Perhaps there was a reason for that. Or, maybe we couldn’t make international calls with mobile phones… I don’t know. But, I know we went to telephone booths too often. We had to use a card and speak for some minutes with our relatives. We didn’t have internet back then. But, I can’t even recall the mobile phone although I know they had mobile phones. I just know we had phones but in order to speak with people in Kosovo we had to do it through a telephone booth and we could speak with people within Sweden with mobile phones.
The interviewer: Thank you very much!