In the shoes of a migrant
My doctor ordered me to take some rest and refrain from my regular running trainings and visits to the gym. This made me angry, because “for God’s sake, what do you mean I can’t run?”. This feeling of being angry lingered until the very end of last month when I met Muhammad.
Muhammad is a migrant from Tunisia, who embarked on his precarious journey a year and a half ago, when the state closed his market. The same story as in B&H: the taxes were too high, inspections occurred daily, and fines had to be paid. He often points out that it’s interesting how he is currently staying in a country that is almost the same as the one he ran away from. This graduate of computer programming could not find a job in his profession, therefore the standard route Turkey — Greece — Macedonia — Albania — Serbia — Bosnia became his destiny as well.
He stayed in Greece the longest, just before coming to Bosnia. There he worked on a farm. As he says the working conditions were inhumane, because you work 12 hours for a daily wage, which you then spend on one meal and a drink. Nevertheless, he had to survive somehow.
“I was passing through and for me it’s not a problem to work just to survive. But what about the local residents, who are not passing through? With miserable daily wages they are expected to survive each and every day and feed their families as well?! One of the first things I will do, after I reach a stable European country, is that I will bring the media to this farm to end the mobbing there.“
You cannot but notice one specific character trait of this migrant: his positive attitude. During his stay at the Greek farm he discovered a particular talent of communicating with dogs. Every meal he had, he shared with these little beings, while in return they shared their playfulness and friendship. He pointed out that now dogs come to him on their own, and that for the majority of his journey, when he was walking, they would walk with him as well. The same happens in Velika Kladuša. Every morning and evening he would go into the local streets, to find this playful dog crew waiting for him. He would play with them and feed them.
He arrived to Bosnia and Herzegovina more than six months ago, and he stayed in Velika Kladuša after he was returned twice from the Croatian border. He personally did not have any problems with the border police, however, as he says, he has seen instances of xenophobia and violent treatments of other migrants.
For the last five months he has been living in the house of a local resident, who has been very friendly towards refugees and migrants. Muhammad also volunteers in a local restaurant, where the refugees are provided with free meals. He helps with cooking, washing dishes and cleaning.
As he described his everyday routine, his days are rather fulfilled. So much it took us some time to set the date for this interview, but more importantly to also do a training together. And this is what his days look like now. After a cup of warm milk, he goes out running or to do his morning workout, after which he feeds the local dogs. Following is a hot shower and getting ready to be at the restaurant by 10 o’clock, where he spends the rest of his day preparing food for migrants. In the evening, he goes out once again to feed the local dogs, and comes back to his room where he waits for the night to set in.
Muhammad already speaks four languages — French, English, two variations of Arabic — but he uses his free evening hours to learn other languges. Currently, he is learning Czech through online communication with a friend living in the Czech Republic.
Once again he pointed out his gratitude over the fact that he can do what he loves and at least to some extent keep his healthy lifestyle. He is more than aware that the majority of his “brothers on the road” do not have time to even think about their health.
”Not all of them have a place to stay, and it is awfully cold outside. Also not all of them have an everyday meal, and when you are outside you get awfully hungry. Not everyone has a pair of whole sneakers, in which they will cross the next border, let alone go running in the morning.”
One particularly sweet story Muhammad shared is his anecdote with cigarettes. He is not a smoker, but his friend is. Considering he is often talking with the local residents, whenever someone offers him a cigarette, he would accept and save it for his friend. However, since people from Krajina can be persistent, one time when he was offered a cigarette they also pressured him to smoke the cigarette with them. And so Muhammad had to light his first cigarette ever and inhale all that nicotine cancer. It was worth it, as he says, for his friend.
To honor our friendship he also did my everyday plank exercise, saying that other than the muscles, it is far more important to strengthen one’s psyhce. I was thinking to myself, what can I tell him about psyche, when he runs without running gels, volunteers in a restaurant, shares his meals with dogs, and manages to find time to learn the Czech language.
On that morning I stopped being angry about my ‘keep still’ order from the doctor, because it actually reminded me why I love to run. You never know where and to whom your shoes will take you. The Americans have a saying “walk a mile in my shoes”, similar to our saying “put yourself in my place”, basically meaning try to understand someone’s position. Running with Muhammad helped me to better understand him, but also to understand myself.
Author: Edina Čović
Video: Edis Kadrić