"I had a very good time in germany", hilendi nurja recalls vaguely and in broken german – but nevertheless. In 1998, the 15-year-old, her brother xhulio (18) and her parents arben and suzana came to germany as refugees from albania.
The young people recently visited the habberge district again after many years. Nearby they were at the international camp at ellertshauser lake and in hammelburg anyway. There they each met for a week with young people from different countries.
The meeting with old acquaintances from early childhood in habfurt and the surrounding area was initiated by harry riegel. "It's a mixture of lions club and 'habfurt helps'", walter becker explained. The retired doctor from westheim and his wife are host parents for the youngsters for a few nights. Both the lions and "habfurt helps" engage in albania. Hilendi and xhulio spent the remaining two weeks with wilhelm wolpert's family in habfurt. "We arrived in habfurt without a care in the world and were well received", xhulio recalls in neat german.
An angel named rita
Before the family from shkodra in albania came to habfurt, they lived briefly in an asylum shelter in wurzburg. Xhulio was already a little older than his sister and still has good memories of the time in habfurt, where they lived on the gries. The schramm family from steinsfeld had taken special care of the asylum seekers. Above all, the already deceased rita schramm was the good angel for the nurjas. Rita schramm had found the mother suzana, who had been lost in a trance, on the main bridge in habfurt and took pity on the albanian family. Rita and ludwig schramm collected everything from cooking pots to various household utensils and made them available to the family. The nurjas were happy to stay in germany, as xhulio reports. But after the situation in albania had improved again, the family had to return there according to the asylum law. Hilendi visited the kindergarten and xhulio the school. Xhulio now has his albanian high school diploma in his pocket and even wants to study in germany, possibly medicine, he says.
Friends from the past visited
Both were particularly pleased that they were now so lovingly received and that they were able to do a lot of things with the people they knew from their earlier days. Whether it was nurnberg, rothenburg, wurzburg, bamberg, coburg, fulda or geiselwind – it was a full and great program for the young people here in the district. But now it's off to ellertshauser lake for a week each and then another week at the bavarian music academy in hammelburg. There the young people will cook, dance and perform folk songs. At the end, the host parents are invited to see for themselves what their proteges have learned during their time in germany.