The sun rises again and I wake up from my sleep determined to start my journey as a refugee. I carry in my pocket a few documents. One proves my personal identity and the identity of my wife, and the others prove that we are married. I wait in front of UNHCR’s office in the camp until their staff begins arriving.
After the office opens and work has started, I enter and register my name and my wife’s as new refugees in the camp. Then starts the torturous journey of getting a tent for shelter, a few mattresses, some blankets, a few pillows and some cooking supplies. On that day, I was only able to receive the tent because of the pressure that came with the large number of arrivals into the camp. But I could not get the tent until it had been set up.
I received the tent at sunset and I went back to my wife at the reception centre to take her to our new address: a tent in Zaatari camp. The process of equipping the tent took three days. Every day I would receive a specific type of assistance from the agency until it became ready.
A New Set of Rules: Life in a Camp
I woke up one day to the sounds of a strange drilling, so I went our and looked around only to see residents of the camp gathered around a small mount of soil. They were filling up buckets with soil and taking it back to their tents. What is going on? Why are you doing this? One of them pointed his finger to the sky and told me it’s going to rain. I look up and it was filled with clouds.
They explained to me what to do with the soil; I headed to my tent and untied its internal section. I then picked up a bucket and a metal plate. I filled up the bucket with soil and brought it back to my tent to lift the internal section 20 cm up from the ground so the water would not come into the tent when it rained. It took me around 4 hours, but I was not tired. The feeling of safety makes you forget the pain of work and your refugee status.
In the evening it rained. I kept examining the floor of the tent and observing from the outside wondering whether the water would creep into my tent. I saw it running down the sides — thank God for the work I put it.
Age: 26
Country of Origin: Syria
Host Country: Germany
Civil Status: Married to Alaa, with two children (wife and children in Jordan)