By Kirsten Nour Namskau
It's 7 years since I came back to Denmark with Dexter
(my dog) after 20 years in Egypt.
Since I came to Denmark, I have had a very difficult
time. But I came at the right time, for many reasons.
Before I traveled I had got a time for job-interview
as a teacher at a school. So I made myself ready to leave Egypt, closed my
business and made an agreement with a moving-company to come and collect my
things after I had found a place in Denmark.
You know, I also felt like this … if I shall leave, it
has to be “now”, both because of the age, my health started to give me signals
of medical care and all my friends also started to move back to their
respective countries. Also we did feel that it would come to a revolution. It
wasn’t about if ... it was about when...
Can you imagine … when I came for the interview, they
already had employed another person!!! Her I was, nothing in Egypt to come back
to and nothing in Denmark. Without an address, I wouldn’t get a work … without
a work, I couldn’t get an accommodation.
Lucky for me, I had a friend who believed in me and
helped me enroll myself into many housing-estate that build and rent out flats.
They told me that I should ask the social welfare of a loan for the deposit,
and they never use to say “no” I was told.
I accepted the first and best housing and then guess
what … the social welfare didn’t want to give me the loan for the deposit.
My friend paid the deposit for me in which I have paid
back in small rates every month.
I contacted the moving company in Egypt to go and
collect my things and send it to me. Guess what … Hesham, who was the owner of
my flat in Egypt, denied the moving company to collect my things. He took
everything I owned … even my clothes, books, furniture, music, everything is in
Egypt. I had only what I came in when I came to Denmark. Now, I didn’t have
furniture, I didn’t have clothes I didn’t have anything … NOTHING.
What annoys me the most, is the loss of books, CDs,
photos, pictures
and all that small stuff that one needs, but is the last on the buying-list
when one starts new.
I started in a post graduation program as a
bus-driver, and got employed in a company. But I got fired from the company I
worked for because it took a little more time that expected to get the
bus-license.
You can imagine the panic! !
I got employed in a substitute company. That means I work by hours in different
places as substitute. But it's again better than nothing, and it held me just
from hand to mouth.
But I had an address, and finally I got permanent a
job in a home for elderly people. But it was far from where I lived and it
didn’t go any bus.
I had to look for another place to live, but no bank
wanted to give me loan for a deposit since I didn't have time enough in Denmark
to have built up enough customer-confidents.
At the social care system, I didn't get any loan
neither. First because I earned too little, when I finally got I job, they
didn't give me loan because then I earned too much.
If it had not been for a friend of mine, who took care
of me the first months, I would have ended as a homeless tramp. Seriously!!!
Finally a person in an estate company helped me to get
a loan and sold to me a small house with garden, close to my work. My small
house is only 47 m2, but it has a big garden for Dexter to enjoy, and he really
do. He has become very territorial protective.
And I had the job in the home for elderly people, and
I actually liked it better that I expected, and now I started to get a regular
income. (Thank God)
For one year I lived in my house without any furniture at all … without proper
clothes. Thanks God, at work we used uniform and I also tried to eat while I
was at work, and that was the only food I got.
The only thing I could do, was to start buying
installment. First of all, I had to buy winter-clothes, the next was to
buy furniture.
Slowly I built up myself worth for credit and was able
to get a loan to buy some furniture and clothes. And happily I had Dexter to
keep me company. After three years I could start to feel that I lived a kind of
normal life.
Then I started to take pain in my right hip, that
escalated to the knee, ankle and up the back and neck. "Gees of Christ"
I went bananas. My biggest fear was if I have to stop working and get more and
more invalid.
I went to the doctor that didn't find anything wrong. (Do they ever?) If you
don't know yourself, the doctor definitely doesn't know. The pain got worse and
worse, and at the end I couldn't walk at all.
I went to chiropractor and massage without any
success. Then I by luck heard in a program in TV, that a woman had had some
pain that was related to some negative earth-energies. By moving her bed to
another place in the room, brought the pain to disappear.
I thought: That it didn't harm to try at least. So I
moved my bed to another wall in the room.
Well. . . .At the same time, I also went to the doctor and suggested that it
maybe could be an inflammation in the hip that also escalated around in the
body. Finally, I got some medicine for inflammation and "Thanks
God"... It seemed to help, but only for a short time. I went to the doctor
again and by luck, I got a rota-candidate. She found out immediately what was
wrong and told me that I needed a new hip and that should have been done 2
years ago. She applied to the hospital while I was with her on Wednesday, on
Friday same week I got a letter from the hospital that I could come on Monday
following week. The operation went very well. It was an amazing feeling that a
body can accept a foreign body- part so well, and I felt like a new person.
Totally without pain.
Then, in the following winter I fell on the icy road on my way to the train
to get home after work and broke my left leg.
Because of this, I suddenly had too many days of sick leave in one year and
got fired. Thanks God I was in Denmark, so I at least got money from the union.
In Egypt, I would have been totally lost in a case like this.
But here in Denmark it is very difficult to get a job at the time, and I
don’t have my age with me neither.
At the time, I had 2 ½ year left go get pension. First then I could relax.
But at least … I have my little house and an income I
can live on. For two years I was depending on the union.
But I began
to feel good and more relaxed mentally too.
I even got myself a brand new car, a Nissan Pixo, little but makes the life
very comfortable.
Now I at last have retired, but I’m still not “out of
the wood”, because I suppose to get retirement fee from Norway, but there the
retirement age is 67 and here in Denmark it is 65. So I get only a very small
fee from Denmark, but I try to keep low cost so I can keep it up for 1 year
more. I will get my retirement fee from Norway in February 2016
I try to be self suffusion as much as possible, so I have my small
kitchen garden with fruit, berries and vegetables and spices and I have a
gren-house for delicate vegetables. If I can afford it, I will set up a space
for some chicken next year, so I keep myself with healthy eggs and meat. (They
stuff the animals with so much poison on this side of the globe, so it creates
more deceases than what is good for human being.)
I also go to the forest and collected mushrooms and berries.
Ha, ha... It helps on the budget.
What I enjoy the most is the seasons, the rain, the
nature, that I can take Dexter for a walk in the forest and he can run free. He
has also got a lot of dog-friends we meet at our walks.
I have a lot of wild animals running in the forest around
the house, especial deer. Birds of all kinds come to the food-tray. I have seen
even eagles, mouse-hawk (musvaak), wild pearl-hens (fasan) and others.
Yesterday the air was filled with tiny flakes of snow and it was ice on the
ponds that broke when Dexter stepped on them.
The grass was stiff, covered with ice and broke, leaving footsteps as I walked
through the field. The cold air was biting the cheeks and the children had
"red buns" in their cheeks. And I enjoyed it all.
Thank God I at least
have a good health, expect for two years ago I had to have a new hip on right
side. But I recovered very well, so it is as if nothing never happened.
Well, this is only a fast, little notice from Denmark. I also have a computer
now, so it easier to be online. . . I
only have to take one step at the time. . . That is the only way to come
forward, I have heard. I only have to be sure the steps goes forwards
and not backwards.
Geese, what a time! ! ! But it seems to come together
now..
More so, I have finally come in closer contact with my
children.
