‘Auntie, Auntie’

A Syrian mother and her two sons arrive in The Netherlands, scared, tired and alone.

By IGGIE

With aching legs from the hours spent volunteering over the past few nights, I walked up onto the platform to meet another incoming international train.

As the train stopped the conductor came over to our small group of volunteers, informing us that there was a female refugee on the train, traveling with her two small children.

I went to welcome them, introducing myself and asking where they were from. The woman answered, “We’re from Syria. It is only my boys and myself”. I thanked the conductor and asked the woman to walk with me, explaining that we could give her something to eat and drink as well as a safe place to sit and rest.

Taking her backpack I held my hand out to one of her little boys. When walking to the welcome corner, the woman smiled softly to me, explaining “they are twins. One of them is usually very shy, but I can see that he likes you”.

As we passed by two policemen the woman immediately started to shake, all colour draining from her face. I tried to reassure her, explaining that the police wouldn’t harm her and that I would stay with her as long as was necessary to make sure that nothing would happen to her or to her children.

She sat down to rest while I entertained the children with a game of tag. The children played loudly. The sound of their laughter warmed my heart.

After we had exhausted ourselves, I asked the woman whether she wanted to go to the emergency refugee camp. She said no. She had family in The Netherlands and wanted to go to them instead. I told her I could help her with that.

Slowly she started to get a little colour back in her face, but she still looked very tired. When I mentioned it to her she laughed.

“The boys drive me crazy, especially the active one. He wants to see everything, touch everything and go everywhere. I am always so busy with him that his brother doesn’t get the same attention. Usually their father helped me and made sure that they both got enough attention.

But after he was killed it was just me and the children. There wasn’t any place that was safe for us and I couldn’t live there alone with them both. It was impossible”.

Seeing how hard it was for her to keep herself together I gave her a hug and she quietly thanked me. One of the boys shouted enthusiastically to me: “Khalti, Khalti [auntie, auntie], are you going with us?”. I smiled slightly, feeling tears in my eyes as I had to explain to these two amazing children that I couldn’t.

“There wasn’t any place that was safe for us”

“No, I won’t come with you but I will make sure that you get safely to your aunt’s house tonight.” I asked the mother to let me know as soon as she was ready to go. Still a little overwhelmed, she nodded and told me, “Soon benti [daughter].”

She worried, “Is it safe for me to go alone in a taxi at this time?” I tried to reassure her, letting her know that I would take her to the taxi myself and that I would call her family again to tell them she was on her way and what time she was due to arrive. I held hands with the children as I lead them to the taxi stand.

When we reached the taxi, the driver stepped out of his car and I explained everything to him, mentioning how frightened and overwhelmed the woman was. I assured him that although the boys were very active they were also very tired and would most probably fall asleep soon after he started driving.

Giving him the destination address I asked him to be sure to lock the car doors to keep the children safely inside and I explained this to the woman, letting her know that she didn’t need to be afraid when he did so. Hugging her tightly I wished her luck before turning to say goodbye to the boys. As I cuddled them to me one of them asked again whether I could come with them to their new home. I was grateful when their mother answered for me because I found it so hard to say no. “She can’t, son”, she explained gently.

I fastened their seat-belts and kissed them on their heads before closing the taxi doors. As the taxi driver sat down behind the steering wheel, one of the car windows opened and the children shouted out “bye Khalti, bye Khalti!” I returned their goodbyes, telling them to be good for their mother and the driver. As the taxi drove away I could see them waving back at me and blowing me kisses.

When the car was out of sight I turned and walked back to our welcome corner, where we had been happily playing tag earlier. I saw new people waiting there. More people that needed us. Tears ran down my cheeks as I tried to convince myself that I had the strength to do this.

Together we can help them, I told myself. Wiping away my tears I headed back inside, ready to be there for someone else. Another human being in need of help and support. Maybe I could be a “Khalti” to another kid again.