A SHARK’S
MOUTH
Malik and Linda, along with their children, lived in the refugee camp Mavrovouni on the island of Lesbos. Previously, they were housed in the now burnt camp Moria, which met its unfortunate fate in September 2021. Several months had passed since their arrival on the island, as they patiently awaited permission to leave Greece and continue their journey. Tent 76, the living space of the Algerian family, was always well known for its hospitality and warm welcomes. During our conversation sitting on the tent floor, sharing a cup of chai, they often expressed their desire to travel to Italy. In January 2021, the family was granted permission to depart the camp. In September 2021, I reunited with the family in Treviso, Italy.
«This is the very private story of our family, our real legacy since we do not need to borrow imaginary heroism. Our very real story:»
No one leaves their home country except if the home country has become a shark’s mouth about to swallow us. I had told my children that we are the children of the planet earth and that we can flourish wherever we are. But we have discovered that the planet earth is not a planet of freedom, and the free society is a big lie and all who pretend who have freedom carry wide cages and freedom for their own way. The refugees have stopped living their grief in a visible way. With time I discovered that my will has been robbed the second day I arrived to this place, and I was an eye witness to how to be human slipped between my fingers and just left me while I was staying neutral and silent.
«I have learned how to hide my pain in a cage and to feed it with the crumbs of my spirit, so it grew and engorged me.»
I am a mother of five kids, a refugee, and I live in the tent 76 in an overcrowded camp which rips off life. I live in a natural reserve and I do not own the privilege of practicing my grief as it should be, no… the time is mine and it isn’t… the places, even my features I am forced to counterfeit them daily… in order to create out of them a smile for my kids. I just wait daily that the truck of life runs over me and gives me rest…
«I was a traveler without a suitcase as usually travelers carry, but I carried a lot of scars and several memories...»
September 08, 2021, Linda‘s WhatsApp message
«Hello. I missed you all. I wish I could stretch my arm and hug all the ladies I left behind in the camp. I have missed you a lot, we the ladies of Moria who lived in the largest camp of Europe, the hot desolate inhospitable place. I want to share with you this hope, I lived in Moria with my family, and I was trying my best to protect my five children. I felt the fear, the hunger and the cold, every night I would feel a thick darkness and a freezing cold. Everything was quiet and life was still in my eyes.
Nevertheless, I used to wait for a supernatural destiny who would take me out of that tent which was eaten by the mice. So, I stood challenging life, I stood with confidence because life respects only those who don’t fear it. We the people who were thrown out of our homelands, have not found a place on this planet except some dispersed tents at the sides of a cold camp. Our need for a good life is our right, we the inhabitants of the planet earth, but our countries have rejected us, and our societies neglected us, but we fought against the circumstances and now we reached Italy. Here we found a comfortable house with wide rooms and beds to sleep on.
But even if one heals from everything, they still carry those moments where they felt very grieved in every circumstance… I arrived, but how! My face carried the features of the circumstances…
You are real heroes but unfortunately, no one knows about you. I shared with you the fear, the pain, the hope, and here I am, waiting for each one of you to arrive. Did you notice that moment where you hated the whole world, where you felt that the human laws are weird, where you felt life has turned upside down, where you felt loneliness and loss despite all the people around you in the camp?»
«Everything will come to an end, I want to tell every refugee that at the end of the tunnel there is light, hope and life waiting for us to live. There are nice days to embrace and many opportunities to restore our humanity.»