By Steve Odhiambo
“Show me a stranger, and I’ll show you a friend that you haven’t met yet.” Boonaa Mohammed
Towards the end of last year, 2013, it dawned on me that I once again would not be able to meet with my family over Christmas. Eek!, It had been 4 years since I last saw my beautiful mother and lovely sisters. This was going to be the fourth Christmas in a row that I’d spend in Germany. Guess the reason? I had just landed a job with a hardware manufacturer and my IT-Startup, Uko Wapi?, was slowly taking form. I had successfully put together my management team and we were getting ready to start developing a prototype. After dozens of text messages from my family inquiring about my arrival date, I finally gathered the courage to say a big “Nope” for this Christmas, Ah! What a painful answer?
During the weeks leading up to Christmas, the stores and walkways in Darmstadt, or any other city in Germany for that matter, were filled with brightly colored Christmas decorations and droves of holiday shoppers. Gigantic Christmas trees, complete with thousands of Christmas lights,
were put up in the city center and are only taken down after Christmas. The Christmas madness grinds was due to halt on the 24th of December at 2 p.m. when all shops and supermarkets close their doors as per the law. German tradition dictates that Christmas Eve dinner is shared with immediate family. Now the streets that were bustling with activity turn into ghost towns. Having come to Germany as an international student I am well aware of the loneliness that checks in at this point. Many foreigners find themselves in a similar position; thousands of miles away from home, alone in a distant land, to paraphrase American author Jodi Picoult’s words on homesick “You may intend to leave in order to really miss a place; maybe you had to travel to figure out how beloved your starting point was“
Moreover, the blistering cold only makes it worse for those of us who hail from much warmer parts of the world.
I have been a volunteer at the asylum-seekers’ hostel in Alsbach-Hähnlein, Germany for about 2 months now. As the festive season drew nearer, it became clear that all the other volunteers would be away with their families. It is at this point that I realized how fortunate I actually was. Although I was unable to be with my family, once my probation at work was over, I could always catch a flight and head to home. However, for the men and women living in the asylum-seekers’ hostel things were a lot different. For one reason or the other they couldn’t simply catch a flight and head home for the holidays, it was much more complicated. So instead of spending Christmas Eve with my wife’s family like I’ve always done I decided to put together a Christmas Eve dinner at the asylum-seekers’ hostel.
Meeting with Yusuf: The Special Man
Majority of the people in attendance were of Eritrean and Somali origin. A few Afghanis and Pakistanis joined us later on. It was at that dinner that I met with Yusuf Mohamed Mohamud. After speaking with him for a few minutes, I could tell that he was different. He had a confidence and positive attitude and to the all, he was walking semi-encyclopedia. He began by telling me the harrowing story of how he fled from Somalia.
The journey from Somalia to Khartoum in Sudan was made on foot and took several weeks. Upon reaching Khartoum a cartel of human traffickers offers to transport the refugees through the Sahara desert for a “lift”. As soon as they got to the middle of the desert, the game changed, Ugh, the innocent migrants missed to remember the old saying of “Leopard doesn’t change its spots” and so do the traffickers. The truck was suddenly stopped and the traffickers demanded for money. Those who didn’t have money were forced to contact their friends and family. The refugees would be forced to camp in the middle of the desert until everyone had raised the extra money. They had very little to eat and the traffickers would mix the drinking water with diesel fuel as a form of torture.
“One time we went up to them and asked for water. They beat us up, tied our hands behind our backs and forced diesel down our throats,” he exclaimed. “After which they beat us some more. My friend died of dehydration in my arms and I could do nothing to help him.”
All this while I’m shaking my head in disbelief, The ease with which he would narrate and look at me with a straight face left me with mixed emotions, as I was torn between sorrow and awe.
“Steve, don’t feel sorry for me,” he continued, “because I don’t feel sorry for myself. I am a man of faith. If I didn’t die in that desert, then Allah has a great plan for my life!”
The traffickers continued on their journey as soon as they had collected the extra money, leaving 19 dead bodies covered by sand in the open desert. Upon reaching Libya the horror continued. Yusuf’s group is sold to a militia who then imprison them. He then proceeds to show me an armature video on the internet depicting refugees being beaten and tortured in prison cells in Libya. He managed to escape from the cells and made it to Tripoli on the coast of Libya. It is here that he would encounter yet another cartel of scrupulous human traffickers.
‘The boat was too small and the guy who was supposed to drive it refused, claiming that there were too many people. They then shot him in the head at point blank range and asked if anyone else had something to say,’ explains Yusuf.
More than 80 refugees were forced onto the small motor boat and Yusuf was put in charge of the GPS device used for navigation in the high seas. Halfway into their journey they ran out of fuel. Without food or drinking water, surrounded by the seemingly endless deep blue sea, they drifted for days across the Mediterranean.
“The boat was rocking in the wind, a baby kept crying and everyone else remained quiet, shocked. We just drifted in the dead of the night, we’d lost all hope.”
In a twist of fate, the Italian coastguard found them and took them to shore. Lucky to be alive, Yusuf was taken into a state-run refugee camp in Italy. The living conditions at the refugee camp were appalling, it was overcrowded; they were neither offered beds nor a change of clothes as theirs were soaked in sea-water. The situation seemed from bad to worse.
“Most of the refugees that I saw in Italy slept on the streets and lived in extreme poverty,” he says. “But I was determined to make something out of my life, to play football and to be really good at it.”
Yusuf soldiered on to Germany where he sought asylum. Here he feels secure and finds hope once again. Now he resides in the asylum-seekers’ hostel in Alsbach-Hähnlein, a town in the outskirts of Darmstadt, Hesse. Like a dream come true he now trains with the SV Darmstadt 98 under-23 team, a third division football club. During an interview by Kontraste, a documentary team from TV station DasErste, trainer Christian Hansetz expressed his confidence in Yusuf’s skills and bright future in the sport. It is, in fact, only after the airing of this documentary on German national television that Yusuf’s fellow teammates found out about his breathtaking story. In response one of his teammates, Ediz Davulcu, started an online petition seeking to compel the immigration department to grant him asylum in Germany so that he can finally sign with the football club.
Making the world a better place
Yusuf’s story is one that has personally inspired and motivated me. I was lost for words when he told me what he’d gone through. Besides his determination and relentless focus, I was utterly impressed by his compelling vision and desire to make the world a better place. His ideas are worth to note and his sheer intelligence is evident every time one listens to his speach.
At the moment I am doing all that I can to help him realize a project he calls ‘Voice of the Voiceless.’ This will be a web-based platform where people can share their stories and exchange ideas as to how various problems can be solved. I have enlisted the support of good friend and photographer, Kiplimo Kibet, who has offered to take up the photo sessions as well filming of short documentaries. The website will showcase his truly inspiring story and promising career in football, which will be a source of motivation and encouragement to anyone who might be going through difficult moments in life. We are looking to work with anyone out there who can help get out this message of perseverance, positive thinking and will power.
I met Yusuf in a most unlikely place and he certainly changed my world. I am determined to help him tell his story to the world, so that it may touch other people’s lives and change their world as well.
Steve Odhiambo
Email: [email protected]
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The writer is a Graduate Student @ The Darmstadt University of Technology. He is also the Founder and President (2010 – 2012), Organization of Kenyan Students in Hessen.
Hesse, Germany
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