How Hagos reached Holland?
This is the story about my first hosts in Amsterdam. I arrived in this beautiful city with mixed emotions, bit of restlessness ( as after searching an apartment online for a month I didn’t find one) and obviously excitement to dive into new culture. As we couldn’t manage to find an apartment online, Kaustubh (my husband) already started staying with an Eritrean couple in Amsterdam. I was bit anxious about an idea of sharing home with an African — Eritrean couple.I heard this country name , Eritrea for the first time when he explained me an idea of sharing an apartment with the couple. Though I was not totally happy with an idea of sharing an apartment for a month( until we find one for ourselves), I had no option left. So I decided to go with the flow. As I heard about them, I started imagining me sharing kitchen with an African lady, we sharing house with them and having no privacy left and what not.
As we reached an apartment an Eritrean tall, black man — Hagos and a lady — Alem welcomed me. Hagos could speak English though not very fluent but understandable. Alem was not very comfortable speaking English. As I entered I noticed the house is very big, clean and neat.
On the first evening itself, they arranged Eritrean coffee party for me. It’s in their culture to enjoy the specially made Eritrean coffee with guests. The process of making coffee is bit lengthier, but Alem was enjoying it. The coffee party went for around 2–3 hours, so you can imagine how crazy they are about coffee. Over the coffee, we tried to interact and understand each other’s country, culture and people. They were amazed to know about Indian festivals, specially Dahi- handi when we made them watch a video on you tube. They were very surprised. I was shocked to know about their knowledge on Bollywood movies and stars. They mentioned that they like to watch Bollywood movies, though without subtitles they understand nothing but they do like our music a lot. This made me happy and more comfortable with them!
On the other day, I offered them Maharashtrian- Indian dinner — Khichadi and soup. Though it was bit spicy for them, they mentioned they liked the taste and enjoyed it. So, as days passed by we interacted more over coffee, dinner and tried to understand each other better. Though we both the families were very interested in knowing more about each other’s culture, we maintained each other’s personal space and enjoyed our company. Over the time, we knew some more things about each other’s country , culture. On the other hand our search for an apartment was going on in full swing as this apartment was available for just 1 month.
On one such evening, while having coffee I got to hear about Hagos’ story of how he reached Holland. I got goosebumps when he narrated his story. He landed in Europe 5 years back-the final destination country was not decided. The situation in his country was not good due to some political constraints when he decided to shift to Europe. He carried some money, bag of clothes, some food and left his home. He walked in his country for 6 nights and 7 days to reach at the Eritrea -Sudan border. From his village to reach Asmara -Capital city of Eritrea there are no buses or transportation available. At the border, he met one agent who charged him around 5000 dollars to cross the border and enter Sudan. Obviously there was no guarantee that he would cross the border successfully and enter Sudan without any hassle.
He managed to enter Sudan by paying some money and then headed over to Libya. Even though he could manage to enter Sudan, there was no guarantee that he would manage to reach Europe. But, he was not afraid of life and was totally ready to give it a shot. He stayed in Sudan for couple of months to manage the resources and gather information about crossing country borders. After having proper information and having found out agents to take him to the next country, he decided to leave Sudan. For crossing the country, he had no other way but to cross Sahara. He told me, there are few agencies that help you to cross the countries by jeeps. You have to have your own food and water supply for the journey and you start this journey at your risk of life. If you can successfully complete the journey, its your luck. If you are caught by police or ISIS agents in desert then the agents don’t guarantee your life. It must have been very difficult to travel day and night in dessert due to nasty weather conditions. During the day, it is totally sunny that you have to cover yourself to protect from sun and the sand. When you halt at night, its completely scary but equally beautiful with stars in the sky along with many like minded people traveling. He was traveling like this for continuous 3–4 days and nights when he reached Sudan- Libya border.
Again, there he paid some good amount of money to cross the borders and managed to enter Libya. On entering Libya, again the fear of life was still hanging on head because of you are caught by police and they got to know about your illegal entry then you have no assurance of life. He narrated some incidences where border force didn’t just ask for money but harassed the couple by sexually abusing the wife and man had no say in that. If the man refuses the police, then they have to spend life in jails. So under the situational pressure, they have to give the agents, border forces whatever they ask for. While listening to all these, I got goosebumps and tears rolled down my eyes. I was wondering how people fight for a life which they wish to live.
He entered Libya. And then he was one hop away entering Europe. Though it was last milestone in the journey, it was equally tough. Till this time he was traveling in his own continent now its about crossing the continent and making an entry as a refugee. He boarded on a boat which was full of people like him who were heading towards the life of their dream — the better life, better future and they have reached here all the way from their home country by risking their lives and God only knows by facing and winning over how many odd problems. After arriving in Italy, he didn’t know where to go and where to stay. Everything was unplanned. During that time, he slept on streets, wandered on the streets. One day he was traveling in metro, he got into metro without knowing where he would be getting down. He pulled eye lids. 4 eye lids came out. He decided its the 4th stop where he would get down. [crazy idea that was!] He got down and then he met Eritrean lady who offered him to stay at her place. He had no other shelter so chose to go. She was quite old and sick. After a week or so, she was down with high fever so he decided to take her to Red cross hospital. She helped him in knowing the route to hospital. She was admitted in hospital. On way back to home, he lost his way. He was not able to recollect exact address of the house. He was walking for a long time and was trying to run away from police whenever he used to see them. Fortunately, after walking for 5–6 hours he could find the place and was happy. He made some friends during this time in Italy, who suggested them to go to Germany or Netherlands. After the lady was recovered, he said goodbye to her and shifted to Netherlands. On arriving in Amsterdam, again he didn’t have shelter. So initially he slept on the streets, station, footpath. By some references, he could manage to find cleaner’s job which not only offered him a place to stay but a good pay to survive in this city. He registered himself at the Government as a refugee and got conditional passport with a condition that he won’t be able to visit his motherland unless and until political issues are sorted out. He left his mom and family in his country when he decided to ran away to the life of his dreams. It was difficult to accept the fact but life had left no choice for him. Since then, he is staying in this city and now he is also going for Dutch classes.
When I heard this story, I was amazed and speechless to know about his struggle. We try to plan every small thing in life and if something doesn’t happen as per our wish we become sad. But, what about people like Hagos, they challenge their life and win over the situations. I would not have ever thought of leaving my country without knowing where I am destined to and what I am going to do for living. I really appreciated him for his courage and the way he challenged his life to achieve his dream. Risking your life for following your life of dream is not everyone’s cup of tea!!!
