My name is Bahman, 18, from Afghanistan. I had a lot of trouble in Afghanistan because there was war in my country. I did not go to school. When we were sleeping then attacked on doors, then children and women came crying. People were injured then. It was difficult because I would love to move to somewhere and live my life. I felt bad because I came here.
Through the Pakistani mountains I went about 10 days. We were 100. Everyone was thinking about himself. Because we walked far through the mountains, the shoes broke and it blew under our feet. We went through an area between Turkey and Iran called Sarvan. There the whole area was mountainous and very loud. It was a family that had four children to bring. For those with four children it was even more difficult to go to the mountains to Turkey.
They did not manage to leave their one-year-old child between two large rocks. I could not help them because I already had one of their children with me. I had difficulty believing that they could really leave their child between the two rocks in order to move on. They had to move on otherwise they would not leave their children. We all were forced flight from death. When I saw the child lying there only the tears ran. It is still so when I think of the child I get a lump in my throat and think about it. What happened to it, it was only a year old child. Then we went 27 days on the border between Iran and Turkey. We got into Turkey anyway. Afterwards we got to get on a truck. We were many in the car and they had covered the truck with a plastic tarpaulin so nobody could see us. We arrived at the border between Turkey and Greece. There we were allowed to take a plastic boat. We were 45. 20 of us were children and family. It was at. four in the morning. It blew a lot because it was on the boat. The boat swung. Then we moved everyone here and there. I thought that we all died a hundred percent. It’s hard to sit in a plastic boat in the middle of the ocean. I’m still scared when I tell you. At halfway, we noticed that the boat was broken. Me and my mate saw that the boat broke down, then I told him to be quiet otherwise the children and family had to be afraid. I asked him to keep it handy, but it did not work. At first it was small but then it became bigger and bigger. Then all children and family noticed everyone began to cry.
There were two children who yelled and told their parents that they were afraid and wanted the parents to help them. It broke down when we were allowed to swim in the water. I myself had to drink a kilo of water. Either the head or leg was bent down into the water. When the head was in the water then felt uncomfortable and thought I was gone. I thought it was last minute I breathed. You must experience this in order to understand. We were 15-16 minutes in the water and just had to touch our hands. The wave movements moved us upside down. That’s when I realized that the two children who needed help disappeared. There was nothing heard, it was completely dark. You did not see anything. Then we saw that a big long distance boat came against us. I do not know how they were told we needed help. They shouted that we would calm down. They came to help us. That boat was from Greece. They carry us to the boat. There they wondered the two children of their children where their children took the road. After five minutes the two dives jumped into the water and searched for the children but they found none. Their parents fainted by the horrible news. They had difficulty believing what happened. They thought it was meaningless to arrive at Europe without their children.
We got a lot of water in the stomach, when they thought of the stomach, about a kilo of water came from the stomach. It tasted salty. When the head was in the water it hurt the head and got water in the throat. It felt very strange. We did not recognize our own effects other friends. We were completely confused and laughed so much that only the skin and legs were left by us.
We arrived at Budapest’s capital to Hungary then we took the train towards Austria. There people took us in a very nice way. We got bread, water. It felt like we ended up in a completely different world. When we arrived in Austria we thought it was a dream it was incredible. Women, men and children arrived to receive refugees. You got everything you needed. Water, food, and clothes. I still have a pair of shoes that I received. I thought that could not be true. It was just like a dream. Then we went to Germany. There people were very kind to us and everyone got food and everything else. From there we came to Denmark. We stayed there for 3 hours then got water and food and … Then we came to Sweden, to Malmö. Here people were very kind to me so I decided to seek asylum and stay here and live on.
I really enjoy it. Here is a nice country. I can study further. We can build the country together. When I came here, I could not write in my language either. I could not read. I started from zero. Now I can write and talk dari. I can also write and speak in Swedish. I have practice and studied a lot.
A Million Stories Sweden: Nizar Keblawi, Nina Olsson, Sara Sarabi, Malin Gillberg, Daniel Björklund, Mats Nordström.
A Million Stories Sweden volunteers: Fariborz Ghadir, Mohamad Mohsin, Yazan Saad, Tarek Aloudallah, Dalia Saleem, Yara Ali, Ahmad Younes, Chaimae Hamri.
In association with
