Jenny Jenkins (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jenny_jenkins) wrote2011-06-10 01:08 pm
jenny_jenkins) wrote2011-06-10 01:08 pm
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Bend It Like Bajramaj - Part 3 of 3
Bend It Like Bajramaj - Part Three
From Refugee to World Champion
A Documentary Film about Germany's Fatmire 'Lira' Bajramaj in 3 parts (This is part three)
A film by Nick Golueke
Fully translated by Jenny Jenkins of LiveJournal.
CLICK HERE for Part One.
CLICK HERE for Part Two.
...Continued from Part Two
Serbian is the official language. Albanian schools are closed down, burned to the ground. Secretly, behind locked doors, the teaching goes on. Also on the Bajramaj farm - 20 children between the machinery and the cow-sheds.
Ismet: "People all had the books at home. 2 or 3 notebooks. More than that...there wasn't much."
Neighbours become informers.
Ismet: "I remember it very well...those knocks on the door. I can never forget it. It was a time when terrible things could happen...and the children were always afraid.
Ganimet: "They questioned Ismet. About the school. Why did we have this school? And we had to get away."
Ismet: "Later we said to ourselves: 'Day by day it is only getting worse for us. We're going to have to do something - take a completely different path."
Lira: "We had no time even, to really think about it. And it didn't matter what the children were feeling or thinking. We just had to get away."
The memories come back. Only one photograph of Lira's childhood was saved - there's nothing else.
Ganimet: "Very sad...yes."
May 15, 1993 - a Thursday - 5 o'clock in the evening. The flight begins. A bus for twenty people is waiting, secretly organized. To avoid discovery. The way into freedom has a price - 5 people cost 10, 000 Euros. A last resort in this uncertainty.
Ismet: "Everyone was sad - we were leaving our homeland, we were leaving our family."
In a bus, on foot, over fields, through forests - twenty refugees disguised as a group of tourists. Children, the pregnant. Lira is five. Her little brother is 13 months old.
Lira: "You felt such fear, because you could see your own mother was frightened. And we children were clinging to t-shirts and pullovers to make sure we wouldn't get lost in the dark."
Five days and five nights through Eastern Europe. One suitcase. No food. No warm clothing.
Ganimet: "The baby was crying - just crying. One of the family said 'if we're discovered because of the baby we'll have to go back - and it will be the baby's fault. But he was small."
There could be no regard for the children. The path leads over the Danube - now defenseless. The traffickers leave their cargo.
Ismet: "They treated us like nothing, like nothing."
Border guards. Guard-dogs take up the family's scent.
Lira: "I had a doll, she looked like Pippi Longstocking." I lost her somehow in the flight. I can remember the doll had lots of freckles."
Ismet: "We managed to get a car - a Volkswagen golf - and there were 12 people inside."
Lira: "You had people on each others laps, with someone lying sideways. Another sat in front."
Ismet: "The police pulled us over."
Ganimet: "He looked inside and counted...one, two, three..."
Ismet: (makes a gesture as though he is holding a flashlight) "...until they got to 12. And one of them put his hands in front of his face and said: 'My God...'"
Ganimet: "And they fined us around 20 Euros and told us 'Okay, you can keep going.'"
20 Euros for the freedom of 12 people. The last bit on foot. 5 and a half hours to get to the German border.
Ganimet: "Then I saw the cars - they were taxis - but I didn't know that. I thought 'My God, that's the police.' but they said 'hurry up, get into the cars.' I said to my husband: 'Are we in taxis? Are we safe?' and he said: 'Yes, we're safe now.'"
They'd arrived. Exhausted but happy even though they'd lost everything.
Lira: "That time was difficult, but it made me strong. Whether its my character or personality...this time made me strong."
Germany. Strangeness. The new homeland doesn't feel right. From a large farm-house in Kosovo to a refugee home. Five under one roof. Freedom in 10 square metres.
Lira: "In the beginning it was very strange for me. I couldn't speak the language so I couldn't understand the people around me. So I couldn't have contact with them until, of course, I came to Kindergarten."
(The children sing a song wishing the listener " A Good day, and Good Luck")
Today - it hasn't changed much. Without a word of German, little Lira has to learn to swim on her own. A Kindergarten teacher helps.
Lira: "My mother said to me: 'Look, she looks a little like an Angel.' because she was so blonde back then. 'Come on, take a look, she looks like an Angel.' and I took a look and said "Yes Mummy, she's blonde!' She had curls too."
The parents provide an example for little Lira. It's important to engage with the new culture, to fit in, and not to be prejudiced.
Ismet: "For me it was very important that my children learn German first of all. They learned it in school, and we spoke it at home too about 80% of the time."
Lira: "And I find that if the parents provide a good example, then the children will do the same."
Giesenkirchen - she's finally arrived in her second homeland.
Lira: "Every summer it was full and we'd have to argue over who was allowed to play with the two goals. This is where it started. There were a couple of days when it wasn't so nice. Older boys would come, or they'd sit over there and call out 'You shit-foreigners. Go back to where you came from.' And we'd run home and cry. And then one day they were playing football and we had the idea - why don't we play for the pitch? And they said 'no problem' because they thought that because they were so much bigger they could finish us off. But we beat them instead and won the field. Afterwards, when we'd won, there was a bit of anger, but they left us alone.
Lira Bajramaj, Celia Okoyino da Mbabi. Kosovo, Cameroon. Today - that's just Germany. All together for a common cause that goes beyond cultures.
With Celia and some random guy we've never heard of.
Lira: "It just makes me sad when people are so concerned with: 'Where did this person come from? What's her religion? - oh well, that doesn't fit into my idea.' It makes me angry and upset."
Champions League, London. The final. Potsdam against Lyon. The title-holders against the French Champions. It doesn't work out. Not for her, not for Potsdam. The dream of a second Champions League title is over. And its her last game for Potsdam. Frankfurt will be Lira's new home from now on.
A farewell, and a new beginning. Lira Bajramaj - From Refugee to World Champion.
Never give up. Fight for your dreams. I'm grateful, for the things I've achieved. I had many angels on my side. Now, I want to give back as much as possible. Me - Fatmire Bajramaj - but everyone calls me Lira.
From Refugee to World Champion
A Documentary Film about Germany's Fatmire 'Lira' Bajramaj in 3 parts (This is part three)
A film by Nick Golueke
Fully translated by Jenny Jenkins of LiveJournal.
CLICK HERE for Part One.
CLICK HERE for Part Two.
...Continued from Part Two
Serbian is the official language. Albanian schools are closed down, burned to the ground. Secretly, behind locked doors, the teaching goes on. Also on the Bajramaj farm - 20 children between the machinery and the cow-sheds.
Ismet: "People all had the books at home. 2 or 3 notebooks. More than that...there wasn't much."
Neighbours become informers.
Ismet: "I remember it very well...those knocks on the door. I can never forget it. It was a time when terrible things could happen...and the children were always afraid.
Ganimet: "They questioned Ismet. About the school. Why did we have this school? And we had to get away."
Ismet: "Later we said to ourselves: 'Day by day it is only getting worse for us. We're going to have to do something - take a completely different path."
Lira: "We had no time even, to really think about it. And it didn't matter what the children were feeling or thinking. We just had to get away."
The memories come back. Only one photograph of Lira's childhood was saved - there's nothing else.
Ganimet: "Very sad...yes."
May 15, 1993 - a Thursday - 5 o'clock in the evening. The flight begins. A bus for twenty people is waiting, secretly organized. To avoid discovery. The way into freedom has a price - 5 people cost 10, 000 Euros. A last resort in this uncertainty.
Ismet: "Everyone was sad - we were leaving our homeland, we were leaving our family."
In a bus, on foot, over fields, through forests - twenty refugees disguised as a group of tourists. Children, the pregnant. Lira is five. Her little brother is 13 months old.
Lira: "You felt such fear, because you could see your own mother was frightened. And we children were clinging to t-shirts and pullovers to make sure we wouldn't get lost in the dark."
Five days and five nights through Eastern Europe. One suitcase. No food. No warm clothing.
Ganimet: "The baby was crying - just crying. One of the family said 'if we're discovered because of the baby we'll have to go back - and it will be the baby's fault. But he was small."
There could be no regard for the children. The path leads over the Danube - now defenseless. The traffickers leave their cargo.
Ismet: "They treated us like nothing, like nothing."
Border guards. Guard-dogs take up the family's scent.
Lira: "I had a doll, she looked like Pippi Longstocking." I lost her somehow in the flight. I can remember the doll had lots of freckles."
Ismet: "We managed to get a car - a Volkswagen golf - and there were 12 people inside."
Lira: "You had people on each others laps, with someone lying sideways. Another sat in front."
Ismet: "The police pulled us over."
Ganimet: "He looked inside and counted...one, two, three..."
Ismet: (makes a gesture as though he is holding a flashlight) "...until they got to 12. And one of them put his hands in front of his face and said: 'My God...'"
Ganimet: "And they fined us around 20 Euros and told us 'Okay, you can keep going.'"
20 Euros for the freedom of 12 people. The last bit on foot. 5 and a half hours to get to the German border.
Ganimet: "Then I saw the cars - they were taxis - but I didn't know that. I thought 'My God, that's the police.' but they said 'hurry up, get into the cars.' I said to my husband: 'Are we in taxis? Are we safe?' and he said: 'Yes, we're safe now.'"
They'd arrived. Exhausted but happy even though they'd lost everything.
Lira: "That time was difficult, but it made me strong. Whether its my character or personality...this time made me strong."
Germany. Strangeness. The new homeland doesn't feel right. From a large farm-house in Kosovo to a refugee home. Five under one roof. Freedom in 10 square metres.
Lira: "In the beginning it was very strange for me. I couldn't speak the language so I couldn't understand the people around me. So I couldn't have contact with them until, of course, I came to Kindergarten."
(The children sing a song wishing the listener " A Good day, and Good Luck")
Today - it hasn't changed much. Without a word of German, little Lira has to learn to swim on her own. A Kindergarten teacher helps.
Lira: "My mother said to me: 'Look, she looks a little like an Angel.' because she was so blonde back then. 'Come on, take a look, she looks like an Angel.' and I took a look and said "Yes Mummy, she's blonde!' She had curls too."
The parents provide an example for little Lira. It's important to engage with the new culture, to fit in, and not to be prejudiced.
Ismet: "For me it was very important that my children learn German first of all. They learned it in school, and we spoke it at home too about 80% of the time."
Lira: "And I find that if the parents provide a good example, then the children will do the same."
Giesenkirchen - she's finally arrived in her second homeland.
Lira: "Every summer it was full and we'd have to argue over who was allowed to play with the two goals. This is where it started. There were a couple of days when it wasn't so nice. Older boys would come, or they'd sit over there and call out 'You shit-foreigners. Go back to where you came from.' And we'd run home and cry. And then one day they were playing football and we had the idea - why don't we play for the pitch? And they said 'no problem' because they thought that because they were so much bigger they could finish us off. But we beat them instead and won the field. Afterwards, when we'd won, there was a bit of anger, but they left us alone.
Lira Bajramaj, Celia Okoyino da Mbabi. Kosovo, Cameroon. Today - that's just Germany. All together for a common cause that goes beyond cultures.
With Celia and some random guy we've never heard of.
Lira: "It just makes me sad when people are so concerned with: 'Where did this person come from? What's her religion? - oh well, that doesn't fit into my idea.' It makes me angry and upset."
Champions League, London. The final. Potsdam against Lyon. The title-holders against the French Champions. It doesn't work out. Not for her, not for Potsdam. The dream of a second Champions League title is over. And its her last game for Potsdam. Frankfurt will be Lira's new home from now on.
A farewell, and a new beginning. Lira Bajramaj - From Refugee to World Champion.
Never give up. Fight for your dreams. I'm grateful, for the things I've achieved. I had many angels on my side. Now, I want to give back as much as possible. Me - Fatmire Bajramaj - but everyone calls me Lira.