Can you imagine you being a citizen of a country which threatens your own life and the life of your family and friends? Not feeling the freedom in this country, only feeling the miserable atmosphere and living in a constant shivering with fear for a possible death. Such a country is Afghanistan.
The salvation from all this is escape. Many people have already done this, they have rescued themselves. Such is the fate of refugees and I am going to write about an experience which stock my mind with knowledge about the life in these circumstances.
In the beginning of August 2011 I participated in an international seminar called EYW (European Youth Weeks) and the leaders of each country decided to include a visit to a refugee camp in Mainz. When I entered the camp I saw some Vietnamese kids running and playing around with joy, some women from Iran strolling carefree. And this place looked as if it was a safe place, a paradise for them although it was fenced with thick walls and looked like a prison to me. But the most interesting part came when we had the chance to talk to an Afghan refugee and to ask him whatever questions we had. We were all standing in a circle looking with curiosity at the Afghan. He was a middle-aged man with an unexpected smile glowing on his face. The director of the camp, a Brazilian, was there, too.
Before starting his 2-hour thrilling story the Afghan thanked the director and welcomed us in a kind manner. His English was really good and we could understand everything he meant. He started to tell us about his status. He told us that when he had landed in Germany he was referred as asylum seeker. Then he was approved as a refugee which carried him more rights but he had to stay close to the camp . We asked him why he left Afghanistan. With an ironic smile on his face he told us that he loved his country and he didn’t leave Afghanistan but it made him do so. Then he stopped for a while awaiting for some questions and afterwards continued. He told us everything about his life story in Afghanistan. That he had been born in averagely poor family and when he had been studying law at university his father had passed away. And when he shared that he was the oldest child in the family everybody from us understood that all responsibility had been passed to him. At that time he had the important decision to choose whether to work in order to help his family to connect the two ends or to continue his law studies.
“The job was obligatory because without my family I would have been begging on the street. So, I had to do both. I slept few hours, without free time, only studying, working and had my will to support me. And now, here I am in front of you, educated, away from this chaos.” He also added: “Your life in Europe is a normal, straight line, no danger, no terrorists. While in Afghanistan it is a loose one with many declinations.”
He started telling us about terrorist attacks in Afghanistan: “I have recently watched on the TV how some Talibans breaking into a bank with machine guns. They make a row of innocent people. Everyone – one by one takes a shot in the head. Also recently I have read about a little child which was hung again by Talibans. They are not people, this is not human”. While he was talking he was holding something like a necklace and he was counting its beads. He explained that this was a really popular item in the Middle East which made a man to relax and made his thought flow as water. He gave a really good example of this with the well-known football manager Sir Alex Fergusson and his habit of chewing passionately a gum.
All the time the Afghan was with us, a smile was glimmering on his face. We asked him why he was so happy after all these things which had happened to him. His answer was: ”There is no other way to accept these bad things. If I am always sad and only repenting about this there won’t be any sense.”
Just after that we had to leave the camp. We said good bye to him and continued the rest of our trip. I wasn’t writing any notes while he was talking. His words were so intriguing that I managed to remember most of the part he told us. I have made many conclusions since this visit and have made many questions: What is the sense of killing innocent people? Why these brainwashed Talibans do this? Why these civil wars not only in Afghanistan but everywhere in the world still exist?
“My hands are tied
For all I’ve seen has changed my mind
But still the wars go on as the years go by
With no love of God or our human rights
and all these dreams are swept aside
By bloody hands of the hypnotized
Who carry the cross of homicide
And history bears the scars of our civil wars”
Civil war, by Guns n Roses
It is really strange to me the difference between people from Afghanistan and these from my country – Bulgaria. How insolent are the Bulgarians to complain about unimportant and material things such as low salaries, their car or not having a high-tech telephone. While the Afghans dream for only one thing – safety and freedom.
