It was March 29, 1999 when the Serbian army came to my house and told us to leave the house. My mother was serving lunch. It was a very scary moment because we didn’t know where to go and it was hard for me and my family to leave the house. When we left the house we went to the train station. At the train station were a lot of people. Old people, children, babies, pregnant women, paralyzed, etc. That night we slept at the train station. That night three women gave birth. That night was so cold that we didn’t have anything with us - blankets or anything, because we didn’t know we were going to leave our home at that moment. So we didn’t pack anything.
There were police all around us. Their faces were colored and they were scary. That night buses and trains came to take people from Pristina and send them to other countries (If you got into a bus you’d go to Albania, and if you got into a train you’d go to Macedonia). We decided to get the train and go to Macedonia. The next morning we went and tried to get to the train. At 1:30 we go into the train but we weren’t sure if this train would get us to Macedonia. Every 10 miles the train stopped. We thought that now they are going to kill us or do something to us. We thought this because we saw police with weapons in their arms and they were scary.
At 12am, we go into Macedonian border. When we went to the border there were thousands and thousands of people. That night it started to rain and we just arrived there and didn’t know where to go. After an hour the rain stopped. Then my mother and I went to get some bread and something to eat. When we got there we had to get in line and wait 30 minutes for a piece of bread. At the Macedonian border we met my uncle. We didn’t know if he was alive and he didn’t know if we were alive because they had cut out the telephones and we weren’t safe to go out to his apartment to see if he was okay.
The next morning we tried to leave the Macedonian border when suddenly police stopped my brother and told him to stay and told us to go. But, my mother refused. She said, “I am not going anywhere without my son.” Then my mother started crying. Another policeman came and asked my mother what was wrong. We told him the situation and he told us to give him $200 if we wanted our brother back. Then the police took my father and told him to go with him and get my brother. We got him back and then we went to the bus. We then went to Gostivar, a Macedonian city. There we went to a mosque.
At the mosque, one person who was Albanian came and asked us if we wanted to go to his house. We said, of course, but you know we are five people. He said it wasn’t a problem so we went there. He told us that you should consider that you are in your own house. His wife came and gave her children’s clothes to us. We stayed at his house for about 2 and a half months. There, I met Haxhere.
After 2 months, my aunt called us and told us that Clinton said that refugees could come to the United States. My father realized that perhaps our house was destroyed and robbed and we would probably have nothing if we went back. So we decided to come to the United States. We also came here to have a better education and learn English because these things were important.
After 2 more weeks we went to an interview. They asked us whether we had a passport. It was an American woman and she asked us to tell her our story, with our hands raised and “telling the truth and nothing but the truth.” She cried when she heard our story. After this she said, congratulations, you can go to the United States.
After 2 weeks they called to say that on June 16, we could go to the United States. I was very happy because I always wanted to see the United States - I saw it in the movies and always wondered if I could see it in real life. Finally, my dream came true. So then on June 16 we got on a plane and came here. But when we came here, my father didn’t like it. My parents didn’t know English, and they knew they couldn’t get a job right away.
After one month, I went to the IRC program. There I met some friends, and I go to M.S. 45 in the Bronx.