{"id":29457,"date":"2020-12-21T15:58:48","date_gmt":"2020-12-21T13:58:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.arsis.gr\/?p=29457"},"modified":"2020-12-21T15:58:48","modified_gmt":"2020-12-21T13:58:48","slug":"corina-chircea-open-the-eyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arsis.gr\/en\/corina-chircea-open-the-eyes\/","title":{"rendered":"Corina Chircea – Open the eyes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Purpose: do you judge? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are people among us that are not so\npermissive in welcoming new inhabitants on their homeland, that maybe judge the\npeople before trying to understand them. At some point, maybe I was one of\nthem; at some point, maybe you were one of them. It is inevitable to not judge\nat all, but the purpose of this leaflet is to present the picture that I have\nseen about these people blown up from their homes due to the war.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The words are mine, the facts are pieces of\nother\u2019s reality and I hope that this cruel reality will become friendlier from\nnow on for the main characters of the stories. I hope also that when you will\nsee again a person on the street to be more tolerant to her\/him even if is\nsomeone similar of different for you.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the first story, I will present a broader\npicture to have a clear image about the socio-political context of the\nsituation. The refugees are coming from different parts of the world and are\ncaring their own details about the wars from their countries, but in general,\nall of them are affected by this terrible fact: THE WAR.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The\nstory of a mother <\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I met this person in the first days of my new\nrole as an English teacher. I was together with my colleague and I had just to\nobserve and learn how she was conducting the class. We were to the advanced\ncourse and there was only one student. A beautiful woman as I would not expect\nto see, she was not wearing hijab[1]<\/sup><\/a>, but she was Arab, she was not wearing\ntraditional cloths, but she was behaving with modesty. This is the best way to\ndestroy stereotypes, isn\u2019t it? I had different images created about the backgrounds\nof the refugees, but most of them have been shattered by the wonderful souls\nmet. Well, the woman was extremely beautiful; I would never say she had been\npassing through so many difficulties. She had curly, dark black hair; big,\nblack eyes, always highlighted by black eyeliner, a detail that was making them\neven more sparkling. Her complexion was brown and equally proportioned; she was\nnot tall, nor short and in that moment I would not estimate her age being over\n30. I found out later that she was 40 and even so, the number of her years was\nnot relevant for the plenty of her life events. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For us, the fortunate ones, was not even\nnecessary to imagine how the war looks like. We were readying in some history\nbooks about it, the same as we read about the lack of freedom or the atrocities\nhappened during a war. Maybe she did not imagined either the war until it\nplucked her family out from the mother country. This lady was coming four days\nper week for the English classes, it was like an escaping way from her routine,\nform her duties and worries. What a wonderful way of escaping, embracing the\neducation! How many of us, the fortunate ones, value these days the opportunity\nof having access to education or how many of us are considering the importance\nof the society evolution in having the access to an equalitarian and free\neducation? The moment when I saw her putting so much effort in speaking English\nand being so happy for every new pieces of knowledge was the point when I\nunderstood that what for us became a normality, for others would still be a\nprivilege.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Syria was the country that she left behind\nhoping for better. Syria is one of the countries involved in a long conflict.\nIt seems that this country have not found for a long time its equilibrium, the\none evoked in the history, when it is said that during the Ottoman Empire when\nthe country was a \u201dmillet\u201d, there could coexist in a relative peace Christians,\nJewish people and Muslims. From then the time have passed and the country\nsuffered many internal and external conflicts, coups d’etat and territorial\ndisputes. From then the religion and the idea of democracy are reasons for\nprovoking repression over the minorities and fighting for freedom. However,\nwhose freedom would they gain if 5.6 millions of people[2]<\/sup><\/a> have already left from the\nterritory and are seeking for peace in other corners of the world? Does not is\nabsurd to fight just for land and to lose the people?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the people was the woman with wonderful\nblack eyes. She left her siblings in the shadow of the old and once prosperous\nDamascus and went for searching a peaceful place for her children. In Syria,\nshe had had a normal life, being mother for five children and seeing them\ngrowing up until the bombs destroyed both homes that they had. Her way to a\nbetter life was not easy because the way of a refugee does not mean to take a\nbus, train or plane and to have all the comfort you imagine. Most of the times\nthey have to pass illegally the  borders,\nto walk days in a raw, to swim in dangerous waters and all the time they are\nrisking their lives. Her five children, the husband and she arrived in the end\nsafely in Turkey, where she found a work place. It was not easy to work 10\nhours per day, almost every day, but she really wanted to have a normal way of\nliving and she felt meaningful working. She leant the language and was quite\nsatisfied living there until another kind of conflict was about to make her\nfamily taking the decision to leave that country too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was part of Alawi religion, a branch of Muslim,\nwhich is combining the Islamic believes with the Christian, Gnostic and\nneo-Platonic ones[3]<\/sup><\/a> and which is not well seen in\nSyria; also, her nationality was Kurdish. \nEven if she was speaking Arabic and she was coming from a country with\nstrong roots in Islamism, her religion allowed her to have the hair uncover and\nto dress similar to the European style. However, not this was the reason for\nwhich she had to leave from the second country where she arrived. The reason\nwas linked to her nationality and the war caused between the Turkish\nauthorities and the Kurds. Since 1987, the Turkish authorities and the Kurds\nare on the edge regarding the good coexistence. In 1987, a group of Turkish and\nKurds students decided to form a party for making their voce heard and for\nstopping the terrors towards the Kurdish people within the Turkish territory.[4]<\/sup><\/a> The greatest fear of those who once\nformed an enormous empire was exactly the division of the actual shape of the\nterritory through proclaiming some parts as being Kurdish territory and forming\nthe \u201cKurdistan\u201d. During the\nyears, it have fallowed a series of painful measures towards the Kurds, such as\nthe interdiction of their language and culture[5]<\/sup><\/a>, which results in long fights. The bloodshed\nseemed to stop in 2013, but this state did not last more than two years, more\nexactly until 2015, unfortunately for all the innocent people that were dying\ndue to the fight.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The woman with black eyes did not want that her\nfamily to be even more dissolved and she wished a safe future for her children,\nso they decided to start a new journey to a better life. When I met her, she\nhad lived in Greece for one year already and her life was not easy. She was\nmother for five children and a grandson who came in this world in tough\nconditions. In the beginning, they lived in a tent being scared of the rain\nthat could damage their things. Later on with the help of the organizations\nthat are working for helping the refugees, they received the status of refugees\nand a home for their family formed from ten souls. She was cooking, cleaning\nand taking care of ten people: her five children, the daughter in law, her\nhusband, one cousin and barely after could have time for herself. The house was\na temporary help for them, being supposed to leave it after they get ID cards.\nShe was always worried about her family that she could not sleep at all. Even\nif she was very thankful to the country that received her, she was considering\nleaving it too since she could not find a work place and was very worried about\nthe financial situation of her family in the near future. I remember clearly\nthat even if she was speaking four foreign languages: Arabic, Kurdish, Turkish\nand English, she said she was willing to accept any kind of job, just to work\nand be able to help her family.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last time when I saw her, she obtained an\nextension for the time that her family and she could stay in the house provided\nto them. She was also waiting for the papers to be able to leave the country.\nThe documents were supposed to be ready unfortunately after the deadline for\nher home, but all these worries did not stopped her to come to the English\nclasses and wish for a better life in the future.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Let\u2019s\ntalk about dignity <\/h1>\n\n\n\n
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Even if you are a temporary citizen of\nThessaloniki or just a tourist, one of the first things that will impact you is\nthe number of homeless people. According to a survey realized in 2018, 380\npeople are homeless in Thessaloniki.[6]<\/sup><\/a> Of course, that many other cities all around the world have this\nproblem, but lately in Greece, the number of these people increased due to the\neconomical and refugees crisis. I\nam not going to give you in this short writing any more statistics and numbers\nor to present you the situation in a very rigid or formal way. No, I am going\nto tell you a story that affected me a lot. \nThessaloniki, Greece, the first\nSunday of the month of February, after enjoying a long time in the sunshine, I\nwas going back home disappointed of my state of mind and worried about the\nfuture of a relationship,           especially\n           about    a                particular\nattachment. With many thoughts and lack of motivation for something concrete, I\nwas walking alone distract from the surroundings, when a beggar was caching my\nattention. Yes, a beggar. But he was not caching my attention because I felt an\nenormous pity, no. I was amazed to see that being on the street, with\nhis blanket put on a small part of the pavement, under a window of a shop and\nwith some toys around, maybe keeping them as a memory, in that evening he was\ncleaning the space which for him had the meaning of a home. He was brushing the dust set around his blanket\nexactly as a housekeep would do inside of a house.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How beautiful, human and organized! It was\nsomething that changed my perspective in that moment. I realized that even if\nthe life was cruel with him, it did not meant that it had stolen his dignity,\nhis willing for living in a clean place, of behaving close to normal. In that\nmoment, I was also comparing his situation with some of the people that I met\nand I knew that even if they had all the necessary means were for sure less\ndignified and did not put price on living their lives in a beautiful way.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For me this image was a vivid proof that the\nworries that we create are most of the time unfounded and that we can be\nfinancially poor, but we can still have dignity and be spiritually very rich\nwherever and whenever.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A teacher\u2019s mistake, a\nlesson about reality <\/h1>\n\n\n\n
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What I really appreciate to the people that I\nmet during this experience was mainly the fact that they have the power to\nsmile, they manage to overcome the hard conditions they are passing through and\nto have relatively normal lives. You can see them behaving so normal that\nsometimes you cannot imagine all the pain that stays behind a smile. I always\ntry to behave normal and to treat them normal for not making them feeling\ninferior or ashamed by their status. However, sometimes it is better to keep in\nmind their situation for not making mistakes like the one I did.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was taking an English class for the\nbeginner\u2019s group and I was teaching them some basic words about the names of\nthe house\u2019s rooms and objects. Throughout the learning process, I considered that\npractice was very important, so I thought that maybe a small homework or\nexercise for practicing the words would help them memorizing the information. I\nasked them to name usual objects that a room of the house might have and I\nsuggested them to take for example their homes without considering in that\nmoment that many of them did not have homes. One of the students with a large,\nbut bitter smile said that he was not living in a house; he was living in a\ntent. In that moment, I rapidly told him to take as example the rooms from that\neducational center and to describe them, naming the objects.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nthat moment and long after the class finished I felt guilty. I felt guilty\nfirstly because I felt that I made that student to think once again to the fact\nthat they did not live as the other people. Secondly, I felt guilty because I\nrealized that we take everything we have for granted. We should think more\noften to the fact that we enjoy some things and situations, which for many\npeople are luxury. We should reflect to this aspect more often and we should\ntry to be more solidary. The hope for a better life and a better world will\nalways be alive as long as we still feel empathy and we love our peers.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Happiness\nis in your mindset <\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I want thank you because you reached this page\nand to share with you several lines more about the one touching experience. It\nis a mix of feelings and for sure, a good lesson for future. It is about\norigins, love, compassion, courage and the power of your mind.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Most of my stories encountered here are about\nhope and I had the chance to discover them in my role as a teacher for which I\nhave been very happy and grateful. So, as it is expected, this story is also\nfrom the brunch of the teacher life. I was taking a class with the advanced\nstudents and we started to talk about traditions or habits. We talked about\ndifferent traditions from different countries and about our families\u2019\ntraditions, when the members gather together for dinner or for chatting. At\nsome point, a young girl told us about her family tradition since they arrived\nin Greece. She told us that almost every evening her parents, her uncle, her\naunt, her two sisters and she were dancing traditional dances from her country\nof origin. In that moment, we became curious and asked her more details about\nthis tradition. Her answers were short and spoken with a sad voice. She told us\nthat her father was sick and very worried because they were living in a foreign\ncountry, in a tent, without having a certain future. They were facing many\ndifficulties in getting medical assistance and the entire situation within the\nfamily was quite unstable. They were dancing for putting a smile on her father\nface, for forgetting some minutes all the stress and worries, for remembering\nabout the nice dances and beautiful country that they left behind.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is\nimpressive; it is amazing how people find means to make their lives better, to\nleave for a while all the worries and to enjoy a particular moment. Maybe this\nis a good solution to distract your mind from the thoughts, to create a safe\nspace and to escape from your reality. In the end, the happiness stays in our\nmind and we are responsible for cultivating it in order to make our lives\nbetter.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Result: so do you still judge? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end, I want just to point out that the\npeople that you might meet on the street or the people that you hear about on\ntelevision can be people like these presented. Of course, not all of them are\nthe same. I cannot deny that there are people that are doing terrible crimes\nand have a bad behavior, but we should not categorize an entire group due to\none individual.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\nare people that have the sense of dignity, that love their peers, that share,\nthat have the desire of evolution even if they live in precarious conditions. I\nhope you will not judge all of them before knowing their stories, I hope that\nthe empathy will be more often encounter nearby and that we will try to\nperpetuate the kindness and the love instead of fear and hate. Love is\nthe answer.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Author: Corina CHIRCEA
\nMaterial realized with the stories collected during the volunteering experience within the frame of European Solidarity Corps, October 2019 \u2013 June 2020, hosting organization ARSIS
\n(Association for Social Support of Youth), Thessaloniki, Greece
\nMay 2020 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bibliography: <\/p>\n\n\n\n