hello everybody :)

Now, this is my 6th Block Post and I realized that I still have not introduced myself. Where do I start? Well, my name is Amina and I live in Leibnitz. It is in the South of Styria, the Green Heart of Austria. The name fits good because of its forests and green areas. Besides, Southern Styria is famous for its wine-growing areas which are located in the rolling countryside near to Leibnitz. These areas include lots of Buschenschänke which are traditional, Styrian restaurants. A Buschenschank is popular place to visit. Not only provides it home-made wine and delicious snacks, such as the Brettljause, but visitors can also have a great few over the beautiful landscape from there. One special Buschenschank is the Kitzeckmüller, in Kitzeck, ten kilometers away from Leibnitz. It has the best view over Kitzeck and the best food there, but I would not write about it, if I would not work there! After all, this post is about me and, yes, every autumn, the peak season of a Buschenschank, I do work there as a waitress. I really like this job! The owners are kind and I can drink and eat whatever I want after work. I am a lucky person! Another fact about me is that my parents are migrants. My mother is from Montenegro and my father is from Hercegovina. Both had crossed the borders, seeking refuge from the war in former Yugoslavia back in 1992. After arriving in Austria, my parents and my sister lived at several families who were willing to open their home to refugees. One year after my birth, my parents had worked hard enough to gain independence and to move in a small house to Leibnitz. In the next couple of years we moved from one house to another. From time to time my parents improved in German and the chance to get a better job raised. Twelve years ago, we finally moved into our current house. I think it is remarkable that my parents managed to build a secure existence for our family, although they had nothing when they arrived in Austria. I am very proud of them!  Throughout my life, I have often visited Bosnia or Montenegro, particularly Sarajevo, which is a really special city for me - in another post I am going to write about it! Now that you know where I work, live and where I am originally from, it is time to go to bed! Maybe I will tell you more about me at a later point in time!

Good night :)

 Kitzeck

Selam Aleykum

,

Hello everybody :)

Today I wanna tell you something about my last weekend. On Saturday my mother and a friend of hers gave an eating party. I have been to many eating parties and feasts before, but this one was very special. It was a party for refugees from Syria.

You might wonder what my mother and her friend have to do with Syrian refugees. Well, thereby hangs a tale:

During the spring and summer months of this year, floods hit Bosnia and Serbia. Wait! Bosnia? Serbia? – Surely you wonder again, how this incident in Bosnia and Serbia is related to eating parties for Syrians. You see, it is kind of complicated! First, let me continue: The floods, caused by heavy rains, damaged streets, bridges and hundreds of homes in the two countries of former Yugoslavia. Nearly two million people were affected. They lost all of their stuff because in most cases, the entire ground floor had been flooded. Due to this trauma, my mother wanted to help them and started to collect goods from relatives, friends and acquaintances. Some of them had connections to the mayor of Wettmannstätten, a small town in the Southern part of Styria, and his wife, who is the founder of a woman’s group. Both were impressed by my mother’s willingness to help and therefore they decided to support her with  donations and a large amount of clothes, which my mother stored in our cellar. Subsequently, my mother set out on a journey to Bosnia. There she visited the first villages she saw and helped affected people on-site. Since then she is keeping on visiting these villages over and over again. 

So, to get back to the question about how all that is linked with the Syrian refugees: The reason are the oodles of clothes in our cellar. There has been still a huge amount of it. That is why the wife of the mayor called my mother two months ago. She wanted some of the collected clothing back for a good reason. Twenty refugees from Syria have been housed in a guest house in Wettmannstätten. Furthermore, some of them arrived in rags. Due to these poor people, my mother dropped some clothes round to the guest house. There she met the refugees who were deeply thankful for her visit. From that moment on the refugees and my mother became good friends. She visited them again with her Tunisian friend, Semi. His mother tongue is Arabic, therefore, he was able to communicate with the refugees and they immediately hit it off. Semi decided to invite them to his restaurant called Sesam. Sesam is a small but excellent restaurant. Semi, who is its owner and its chef at the same time, offers a variety of healthy, Arabic food. If you want to know more about Sesam, just check this Facebook link:

 https://www.facebook.com/sesamleibnitz?fref=ts

The eating party was such a great success! First, we had a delicious, fresh prepared  meal, consisted of rice, vegetables and meat, like beef, lamb or chicken. Semi also offered a homemade, carrot cake with cream cheese icing. It tasted so good. Everybody was completely satisfied with the meal. Then, one of the Syrian guys put some Arabic music on. The refugees started to dance. They took to it like a duck to water! Of course we joined them. It was great fun and a great experience to dance to those beats and magic sounds.

If you are interested in how the music sounds and how the traditional dance looks like, just check this video:

 You can find images from the eating party, if you check the Sesam link above.

All in all, we really enjoyed the party! I think the hospitality was good for the refugees. Being in company with people who cheered them up, made them forget about the terrible situation in their native country for a while. 
It is kind of complicated for me to explain the conflict in Syria. So, please check this link, if you still got no idea what is going on:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-26116868

Lastly, I would like to remember you that not every refugee is treated well. They are short of money, which means that they are not able to afford healthy food. Everybody knows that healthy food nowadays is expensive. Not only food does not remain within refugees budget, but also other necessary things like napkins for babies. Earlier this week I have visited another group of refugees with three little babies. It made me unhappy to feel the parents fear of the future and their family’s existence. For that reason we should support refugees in saving their existence!

Good Bye and Good Luck!