Being smuggled out of Syria
Germany 🇩🇪 "It was such a bad feeling to leave my home, it was like leaving a piece of me behind. What I miss the most about Syria is drinking Mate tea with my family. Being in Germany has made me think more responsibly, to count on myself and try to organise my time. It’s different than what I expected. I didn't think it would be so hard to concentrate on studying while being scared about the future, being alone in a foreign country and thinking about my family, with all those thoughts in my head.
I left Syria because I didn’t want to join military service, which is mandatory. Dancing has always been my passion and along with my friend, who is a rapper, we decided to try to come to Germany for better opportunities. When we got to Turkey, we talked to a smuggler and he got us onto a rubber boat to Greece. That was the worst experience of my whole life. The journey got better after that but on the way from Serbia to Hungary, the smuggler disappeared with our money. We were left stranded on the highway and tried to hitch a ride to Hungary but no one stopped, they would look at us and continue driving. We walked down the highway for 35 km to Budapest.
I try not to think about people who are still in Syria because it’s hard. But when I do think about them, it motivates me to make sure I do something worthwhile in Germany. When I first arrived, I was totally destroyed, I felt so bad. I survive because of my talent. When I feel down, I start drawing or dancing. I don’t keep many pictures of my family’s. I am a sensitive guy and if I kept a lot of photos, I would look at them and think about how much I miss them. My family is not in pictures, but in my heart and my mind."
