First eid as a refugee from Ukraine in the Netherlands.

avatar
(Edited)

Seen a lot of happy events turn into straight-face events. Just a few days back we celebrated Easter here...as refugees. Most recently, went out to embrace the local King's day celebrations. And today is Eid. Our biggest holiday of the year.

Every year I look forward to this day. Almost everyone that celebrated Eid looks forward to this day. The buildup is insanely energetic and the celebrations always exceed expectations. Matter of fact, I've always celebrated Eid more magnificently than I have my own birthdays. But this Eid is a little bit different...

I was looking at my previous posts about my Eid celebrations and now I feel I undersold them by a lot. All the previous Eids were incredible. Granted not all of them were as good as possible, but they were always filled with a lot of joy and happiness. But how can Eid be the same when you are a refugee? Stranded in a foreign country, with nothing to call home, no friends to celebrate with, and family far far away, with no traditional'Eid' food to indulge in. How do you celebrate Eid when your life has turned upside down, tumbled at 6900 RPM, thrown around like a football and the future is as dark as Stevie Wonder's vision?

I'll tell you how - by focusing on all the good things surrounding me and making the best of what I have.


IMG_20220502_112356.jpg


It is a day of joy and happiness. I'm obligated to celebrate it. And so I will. Yesterday @katiefreespirit prompted a very strong emotion from within me. I should say she has a very magical vibe that improves my mood. I told her "You know what? I feel like the past always seems much better. Right now we feel it's bad, but in the future we will look back and think of this moment as amazing. I think it's because with every hardship we evolve to find solutions and become stronger ourselves."

In retrospect I think I might have sent this message to her but was saying it to myself. And honestly I'm in no position to complain. From day 1 of the invasion, the hive blockchain has been helping me. I honestly might not have made it without the moral support. @erikah pushed me everyday to feel better and get out of my ego which could have harmed me in the long run and helped me find so many helpful people and resources. @hallmann, @foggymeadow and the people of @krolestwo showed me incredible compassion and embraced me like one of their own. Witnesses like @guiltyparties @gtg and @roelandp wemt out of their way to ensure our safety. Heck, @artakush welcomed me into his own home. I looked at @dalz report today and 3 Ukrainian accounts made it to top authors simply because the people of hive wanted to help us. And all the generous donations and heartful comments that kept going in the daily - from the dreadful day the windows of room shook from the impacts of explosions till today! I have more than a million reasons to celebrate Eid today. Simply being alive and healthy, as much as I am, to see this day is a very good reason to celebrate the day.


IMG_20220502_103750.jpg


Every Eid always started the same way. Wake up early in the morning, freshen up, wear the spanking new outfit you spent a week to pick, plan the day with friends, eat some sweets and start the day. I didn't have any special Eid sweets, just a chocolate bar I saved from Poland - good enough. No friends to plan the day with, but could wish them coz I have an internet connection - good enough. No new clothes that I prepared, but at least a new t-shirt roelandp had sent me - good enough. And I'd find someone at the morning prayer to hug and wish Eid Mubarak - good enough. And that's what I did. I got a huge surprise. One guy from the prayer had kept me in mind from many days back. I had only spoken to him once before. He got me a beautiful gift. Now it's really feeling like Eid. This small gesture felt like a million bucks. How incredibly nice of him.


IMG_20220502_110332.jpg


During the morning I went for a stroll. Looked at the beautiful day. Sunny and not too cold. Clear beautiful sky with smell of nature encompassing me. I was incredibly overjoyed seeing people dressed in beautiful clothes, children playing with their parents. It felt like an Eid day.

After that I headed to the phone store to get a Sim activated since I need that to make a bank account. Eid or not, refugee obligations still have top priority. Last week I was turned down from making a bank account because I didn't have a local Sim. I didn't get a free one because I'm not a Ukrainian, but now I bought one. Then we sat down for a coffee. Me and 2 fellow refugees. Just one cup of coffee among us. Sat there talking about all sorts of things. Shared our problems, our hopes, our situations. Discussed about what the future might have for us and what we could do about it. Discussed what we had and we lost. As a non-Ukrainian refugee I had a lot of disadvantages, but those only left me motivated to try harder. The best part was looking at all the people celebrating. Really beautiful clothes, big smiles, some shopping, some just hanging around and enjoying the day. Very beautiful moment.

After that I took the bus and left for the same service point of the bank that turned us down the first time for not having local sim cards. It was a nice relaxing ride. Saw the beautiful nature and architecture of the Netherlands.
So now we should be able to get the bank accounts right? NO. For some reason our passports were not getting accepted in the system and my Ukrainian permanent residence card was not an acceptable form of ID. Last week the passports got accepted, but this week something changed. No clue. So now I have a sim but still can't get a bank account. OK. But hey, I wouldn't let this bad news ruin my mood.


IMG_20220502_130301.jpg


Very close to the service point was a domino's pizza restaurant. I might not have the means to enjoy the traditional Eid dishes now, but I still deserve to have something nice. It is a very modest restaurant with a very cute interior. So I decided to splurge! Splurge big!! One small chicken pizza and went crazy by adding cheesy crust to it. Wohooo! Oh trust me, this felt so special. So good. I know I used to write massive food blogs with elaborate orders enjoying from the best in Kharkiv, but ya'll should let me slide this one time. Okay? The pizza was soo good. Delicious BBQ sauce with chicken and thick cheesy crust to fulfill my cravings for high cholesterol food. Perfect. Walking out of the restaurant I felt like a while new person. Eid was shaping up to be pretty good now.

IMG_20220502_133007.jpg

IMG_20220502_133354.jpg

IMG_20220502_133015.jpg

After the gorgeous Eid meal it was time to head to the "big office" of the bank. I was told at the service center that they might be able to help. So one more bus ride to the center and a few minutes of waiting. I was helped by Melvin there. He informed me that there was something wrong with the account creation system and that might have affected us. I told him it's the second week in trying so he helped me out by booking an appointment for me tomorrow. It was the final slot for tomorrow so I felt lucky that I got it since there are holidays coming. So hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to finally get a local bank account. With that good news my mood was even better.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. Went to the library to see if they had any Dutch speaking clubs that could help me learn the language. Read a few blogs on here. Had a slice from the leftover pizza and checked up on my friends in the shelter.

I told myself that I'd treat myself to something good for Eid. Relive the ritual my oldest friends and I in Kharkiv had created. No matter what we would get together at midnight during Eid and share a "Kalyan". I might not have them around, but it only makes it so much more important to continue the ritual. So here I am. At a bar not too far away from the shelter with a Kalyan. It was originally 23 euros but Abdullah, the Kalyan guy, gave me a discount when he saw I had just one 20 euro note and coins. I am actually very happy that he gave me the discount because this is the last bit of cash I have. I'm hoping in the near future I'm given a a free ride to Amsterdam like the Ukrainian refugees are given so I could go to the exchanges and get some more cash.


IMG_20220502_235957.jpg


It is, after all, a very beautiful Eid. A day with so much to be thankful for and many beautiful moments among the ongoing hardships. I know there is something beautiful coming. Either a job which allows me to start living life like a normal person, or the war stops and I can go back to help rebuild my city and life.

Happy Eid guys. Thank you for all the good things. Eid Mubarak and I wish you all happiness, peace, and a long bull run.



0
0
0.000
32 comments
avatar

I see you guys are doing well, hope to see you soon! And again, give some smooch to Gigi!

0
0
0.000
avatar

"You know what? I feel like the past always seems much better. Right now we feel it's bad, but in the future we will look back and think of this moment as amazing. I think it's because with every hardship we evolve to find solutions and become stronger ourselves."

That is very true and I admire you for being positive and grateful amidst the challenges you are faced with. Also glad to know that Hive has helped you get through the toughest of times. I salute those who have gone their way to keep you through.

Happy Eid to you, take care and I honestly feel blessed to have come across and read your post today.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Thank you for the very nice words. There have been many good things that happened now and then which were all very unexpected. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

0
0
0.000
avatar

You are very welcome, it's a heartfelt read. Thank you and I wish you well.

0
0
0.000
avatar

I wish you the very best too, thank you!

0
0
0.000
avatar

It is, after all, a very beautiful Eid. A day with so much to be thankful for and many beautiful moments among the ongoing hardships.

That's the spirit I want to see and not only see but I want you to feel like.

I'm on the run now, but I'll be back with another comment.

Happy Eid, thanks for mentioning me and just to let you know, I would help you more if you would let me.

Enjoy your day, good luck with the bank and don't forget, there are plenty of banks, if one door shuts, another opens. I'll be back!

0
0
0.000
avatar

I agree plenty of banks. But ING is supposed to be the biggest here that is why I went to them after the first bank i went to 2 weeks back couldn't help me at all. I made a revolut account anyways. That should help in some way.

0
0
0.000
avatar

عيد مبارك!

I hope you can get your passport situation solved and find a job, too. 🤗
Netherlands is a nice and very multicultural country, I'm sure something will pop up!

0
0
0.000
avatar

There is no passport situation. There shouldn't be at least. No clue what is happening. Hoping it all resolves today.
I sure hope something pops up :D

0
0
0.000
avatar

I know there is something beautiful coming.

100

Glad to see such a fighting spirit.

0
0
0.000
avatar

This post has been manually curated by @bhattg from Indiaunited community. Join us on our Discord Server.

Do you know that you can earn a passive income by delegating to @indiaunited. We share 100 % of the curation rewards with the delegators.

Here are some handy links for delegations: 100HP, 250HP, 500HP, 1000HP.

Read our latest announcement post to get more information.

image.png

Please contribute to the community by upvoting this comment and posts made by @indiaunited.

0
0
0.000
avatar
Thank you for sharing this amazing post on HIVE!
  • Your content got selected by our fellow curator @priyanarc & you just received a little thank you via an upvote from our non-profit curation initiative!

  • You will be featured in one of our recurring curation compilations and on our pinterest boards! Both are aiming to offer you a stage to widen your audience within and outside of the DIY scene of hive.

Join the official DIYHub community on HIVE and show us more of your amazing work and feel free to connect with us and other DIYers via our discord server: https://discord.gg/mY5uCfQ !

If you want to support our goal to motivate other DIY/art/music/homesteading/... creators just delegate to us and earn 100% of your curation rewards!

Stay creative & hive on!
0
0
0.000