Brothers Prohor and Matvej Ryazanov. Photo: Sonja Merljak / Časoris

Twins Prohor and Matvey Ryazanov came to Slovenia two months ago, in January 2018.

In March, they took part in an international boxing tournament in Eger, Hungary, which was attended by more than 250 competitors from all major boxing countries. There, they ranked higher than Slovenian boxers ever had before.

In categories under 49 and 52 kilograms, respectively, they made it to the finals, and were beaten only by two Kazakh opponents. After all, Kazakhstan is a boxing superpower.

The Ryazanov brothers during practice in Celje. Photo: Sonja Merljak / Časoris

The sixteen-year-old brothers finished primary school in Varna, Bulgaria, where they lived for the last three years.

Now they are in the first year of Celje Centre Grammar School.

They were born in 2001 in Volgograd, a city in the south of Russia. Perhaps you know this city from history textbooks. It was once called Stalingrad, and it was there that one of the most important Second World War battles took place – the Battle of Stalingrad.

Volgograd is a special city because it is very long, spanning over 85 kilometres. It has a population of one million people, which is half of entire Slovenia.

“The city centre is beautiful, there are plenty of parks and playgrounds,” say the brothers.

“After school, boys like to go to the playground and play football for two or three hours.” Football is very popular there. Volgograd is also where the next world championship will take place.

Volgograd. Source: Wikipedia

Children from Volgograd are no different from children in other parts of the world. Same as other children, they read less and less, they rarely go to the cinema and prefer watching films at home, they listen to rap, and like to eat the same food as children in other parts of the world.

“Today, fewer and fewer people eat traditional food. Maybe this is because globalisation has affected this area, too. But we do like to eat pelmeni. This is a traditional dish made of meatballs wrapped in dough and cooked. It is then served with potatoes and vegetables,” explain the brothers, who are different from their peers at least in one way. When they were little they loved to read.

They especially liked adventure novels, such as Robinson Crusoe or The Children of Captain Grant.

Why boxing? Why Bulgaria and now Slovenia? The truth is that everything is connected.

Pelmeni. Source: Wikipedia

In 2013, Volgograd saw three terrorist attacks. Because of this, their father decided to leave Russia. The family moved to Varna, Bulgaria, where the parents opened a Russian shop selling desserts and other traditional products. From there they now came to Slovenia.

They miss Varna, they say. “The climate is different than in Volgograd. Volgograd has very cold winters, temperatures reaching down to –25 degrees Celsius. In Bulgaria it is warmer and there is the sea,” say the brothers.

Why did you leave Varna? What brought you to Celje?

“At a tournament we met a coach who invited us to come and practice in his boxing club.”

Only few people who are not familiar with boxing know this, but Celje is an important place when it comes to boxing. There are as many as five clubs operating in this town.

“We moved here because there are not only better practice opportunities, but also better education and life,” explain the boys.

Photo: Sonja Merljak / Časoris

They took up boxing because the streets of Volgograd were dangerous already when they were five years old. Their father signed them up for classes at the local boxing club so that they could defend themselves if anyone attacked them.

“Today, Father says that it is no longer necessary. We could choose any other sport. But he also says that he never dreamt that we would achieve such results in boxing.”

They do not miss Volgograd itself, but they do miss their grandparents, who stayed there. They talk on Skype almost every day.

They do not miss their friends either.

“You can make friends anywhere in the world. What is more, some people forget about you if don’t keep in touch with them. In Slovenia we made new friends, both at the club and at school,” tell the boys, who learned basic Slovenian in two months and also speak English fluently.

Can you live in Slovenia as a professional boxer? After all, the most well-known Slovenian boxer Dejan Zavec did a lot of practice abroad.

“We don’t know that yet. For now we can practice the way we like,” they say.

They have not met Dejan Zavec yet, but they know who he is.

Perhaps, it is him who will want to get to know them soon.

Glossary

Hi: Privjet

Bye: Paka

Thank you: Spasiba

My name is: Minja zavut

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She decided to come to Slovenia after realising that her grammar school was not giving her a good enough education.

“At the end of third year, most of my classmates decided to go to university. They were talking about where to go, and they were all thinking about going abroad. A friend of mine said she would go to Germany. She said that Bosnia cannot give her what she wants. This is when I started thinking about leaving, too. At that time, my father lived in Celje, because he was working for a construction company. It took me a year to convince him, but then he finally gave up.”

She spent the first year on her own. Her father worked in Croatia during the week, and came to Celje over the weekends. Later, her mother joined them, and now they have been living together for a year.

“At the beginning, all I did was study and work. First at McDonald’s, now in Zara.”

She never thought of Bosnia as inferior, even though she has always felt that there was a difference. “Whenever our relatives from Slovenia or other countries visited, I felt the difference.” My grammar school offered a lot, but I wanted even more. I have this now, and it shows – in my school performance, my ideas, my way of thinking. I’ve always been ambitious, and why not follow your goals if you have the chance.”

Dženana and her classmates at Ključ grammar school. Source: own photo

In Slovenia, she enrolled in the third year again because of the language barrier. Luckily, there was a Bosnian girl in her class, which served as her personal Google Translate, as she likes to joke. “This made it so much easier for me. Some classmates understood me well, others a bit less, but by the end of the school year my Slovene was good enough to hold a conversation without any help.”

Dženana is a Muslim, but she never felt like being different. “I never felt like a foreigner. At first, they were asking me about my home country and religion, about the hijab and if we must wear it. I told them that it is only compulsory for orthodox Muslim women.”

Mostar. Source: Wikipedia.

Her classmates knew about Bosnia. They knew that so-called Southeners are more hot-spirited, always smiling, very kind and accepting everybody. They have been to Sarajevo and Mostar. This is why they knew that Bosnia is a small and beautiful country, but at the same time a country where job prospects for young people are bleak.

“If you are more ambitious and want to become a psychologist or a mathematics teacher, you won’t get a job. Unfortunately, everybody is leaving, mostly to other European countries where they can lead a better life. My brother lives in Germany, my sister is in Bosnia, but my friends are either in Germany or in Switzerland.”

She told her classmates about the education system, teaching methods and teachers.

“There were only good things to tell, except for the education system, for which I can find no excuse. The differences are really too big. Exams in Bosnia are easy – you learn the teaching material by heart, and you can easily get an A or a B. Here, you have to connect the dots, you must understand the subject if you want to get good grades. English is much more difficult and I still struggle with it, even though I spent almost two months in Edinburgh, Scotland, last summer to improve my language skills.”

Dženana and her friends in Edinburgh. Source: own photo

This trip was the reason why she delayed her final exams. She already passed all her of fourth-year subjects, but she did not take the final exams then. Apart from English, she also had problems with Slovenian.

“You can tell that I am not a Slovenian, even though I work hard to improve my language skills. Now I can already have a conversation in English and I am certain I will pass the final exams,” says Dženana, who wanted to study psychology, but decided to apply to the Faculty of Social Work, because she feels she does not have all the knowledge needed to study psychology.

She is still homesick, but not as much as before. She also misses her friends and teachers, but not her school. Using Facebook and Instagram she keeps in touch with two of her friends, and she visits her sister and nephews every month.

She likes typical Bosnian dishes, such as sarma, kvrguša (a chicken pot pie), and baklava. Her favourite dish is burek.

Baklava. Source: Wikipedia

“My favourite Slovenian dish is potica.”

In other aspects, Bosnia is not so different from Slovenia, she explains. Bosnians like football, children also play basketball and volleyball, listen to Dino Merlin and Divlje Jagode, watch American romantic comedies, such as A Walk to Remember and The Fault of Our Stars, while the most popular fairy tale is Snow White.

Dženana is currently focused on her final exams. She revises a lot, but is certain she can make it and enrol in social work study programme. She chose social work because she wants to help people, the same way others helped her when she most needed it.

Glossary

Good day: Dobar dan.

Thank you: Hvala

Goodbye: Doviđenja

My name is Dženana: Ja sam Dženana

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Seventeen-year-old Kirill Yakovenko came to Slovenia four years ago from Donetsk, Ukraine.

Today, there are mostly Russians living there, but in the past, there were also Ukranians.

He lived in Donetsk up to eighth grade. This was when war began on the Crimean Peninsula. Soon it spread to the west of the country, where Kirill lived.

At first, it did not feel like war, because there was no shooting. A curfew was declared, which meant that people were only allowed to leave their homes between 8 and 10 a.m. and 12 and 9 p.m.

Everybody lived normally, went to work and to school until 1 May 2014, when shooting began.

On that day, Kirill was in Kiev with his brother to spend holidays with their mother.

“On 2 May, our grandmother called and told us that war came to Donetsk. She said it was good that we had left, because shooting began. She told us that the railway station had been destroyed and that no one can leave the city.”

Donetsk before the war. Photo: Andrew Butko / Wikipedia

Their mother had left Ukraine earlier to look for better life in different European countries. At that time, she worked in Slovenia. Because she considered it a safe country where they could all live, they decided to apply for a Slovenian visa. One of the reasons why they chose Slovenia, over Italy, for example, was that Slovenian is a Slavic language and as such similar to Ukrainian.

Kirill says he would like to return to Ukraine one day, because he misses his home and his friends, with whom he still keeps in touch. But he cannot go to Donetsk, because it is practically a dead city. Even the school he used to go to was destroyed in the armed conflict.

Kirill is a second-year student at the Koper Technical Secondary School. He spends his days in classes, and in the afternoons, he socialises with his friends and helps out in the family restaurant.

He looks back on his days in Donesk fondly. School began at 8 a.m. sharp. Breaks were longer than in Slovenia, lasting 15 minutes, and the main break lasted for a whole hour.

With his friends, he listened to similar music that is also popular among young people in Slovenia. The only thing he did not know before is yugo rock, music from the countries of former Yugoslavia. He also watched the same films, but they were Ukrainan dubbed.

Now he keeps in touch with his culture in the Russian centre for science and culture, which is also open to Ukrainians. Three times a week, he has singing classes with a Russian teacher in Ljubljana.

There will be a Ukrainian night in Koper, which is where folk dances, food and rituals will be presented.

Kirill’s favourite food is vareniki. “They are something like ravioli, just made of fresh dough. They can be made sweet or savoury – my favourite ones are with mushrooms and potatoes.”

Vareniki. Source: Wikipedia.

Traditional Ukrainian dishes contain a lot of meat, but Kirill does not eat it.

Kirill says that Ukraine is a vast and diverse country, which is hard to compare to Slovenia.

“What I like best is that people are very open there. If you need help, you can ask anyone, even on the street, and people will do everything they can to help.”

His favourite place in Ukraine is Kiev, Ukraine’s capital. “It’s a huge city with people from not only Ukraine but also other countries. There you can find anything you can think of.”

He likes it in Slovenia, because it is nice, but his life was more exciting in Ukraine.

“I am an adaptable person. My brother went back to Ukraine, but I am staying here. The most important thing is having friends. And I have them here in Koper,” says Kirill, who wants to be a pastry chef when he grows up, even though he is attending a technical school with an emphasis on computer science.

Wherever he ends up, this knowledge will be useful.

Glossary

Good day: Dobrij djen

Thank you: Spasibo

Goodbye: Do svidanija

My name is Kirill: Menja zovut Kirill

Visa is a special permit to visit a country or to live there.

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He has a brother and a sister. Jiajun is eight years old and is in third grade, and Jiayi is a first-grader.

Xu misses his grandma, who lives in Lishui. Lishui is a town is near Yangtze River. China is a very big country. To let someone know where a town or a village is located, you need to tell them the nearest major city. Lishui is near Shanghai.

Xu’s grandma once visited him in Slovenia. While she was here, she made him spaghetti, which are among his favourite foods. “But those are rice spaghetti,” he explains. Chinese pastry, similar to Slovenian doughnuts, is also his favourite.

Xu visited his grandma, too. During that time, he played with friends in the yard and in the park next to grandma’s block of flats. They built sand castles. There is a river flowing nearby, and they liked throwing stones into it. Sometimes they even had a little picnic on the riverbank.

This was in the afternoons, after they got back from preschool. Preschool is a serious matter in China. There, children learn to multiply and divide numbers. All children must also know the times table. At preschool, children learn how to write their name, and they must also know some basic Chinese characters.

Xu still keeps in touch with his Chinese friends. He talks to them using the WeChat app.

In Slovenia, he likes to eat gibanica layered pastry or pancakes with Nutella. Believe it or not, you can also get Nutella in China.

What he likes most in Slovenia is that everything is clean here.

He also likes that school is not as difficult as in China. There, first-graders learn mathematics that Slovenian students learn in sixth grade.

Despite this, he spends most of his afternoons learning. When he spends time with his classmates, it is mostly at school. They talk, sometimes play football or tag. He used to practice judo, but now he is more interested in technology, especially robotics.

But when he grows up, he will not be a computer engineer, but a doctor. Since he was little, he knew that he wanted to help others.

Xu Liwei Foto: Sonja Merljak/Časoris

Glossary

Good day: Ni hao

Thank you: Xie xie

Good bye: Zai jian

My name is Xu: Wo de ming zi shi Xu

The Chinese use special characters instead of letters. Every character means a different word.

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They came here a year and a half ago, and they already speak Slovenian fluently. One could call them true polyglots, because they also speak French and Lingala, one of the many languages spoken in the Congo.

Dad said that by the time we grow up, we will speak five or six languages,” says Bonheur, who is nine years old and is the most talkative among his brothers; at least when it comes to serious newspaper interviews like the one for Časoris.

The Congo is a huge country in the middle of Africa. Even though it has abundant natural wealth, many people are very poor. Some children are even forced to work in cobalt mines instead of going to school. Cobalt is used in manufacturing smartphones. Amnesty International has already

urged

smart phone producers to check if the cobalt used in their batteries was mined by children.

Dan, Bonheur and Rilain lived in Kinshasa. This is Congo’s capital with a population of eleven million. In their Congolese school, the teachers were not as nice as in Slovenia. Despite this, they liked it in the Congo, because they had many friends there. They played tag and hide-and-seek with them.

But they made new friends in Slovenia. In the mornings, they go to classes together, in the afternoons, they do their homework and play, and in the evenings, they play basketball. They like their France Bevk Primary School in Ljubljana because their classmates and teachers have welcomed them with open arms.

In Slovenia, many things are similar to the Congo. Children like to eat macaroni, drink juice and water. Their mother, who is a hairdresser, used to make them fish, egg and meat dishes. And as mothers all around the world do, she used to read them bedtime stories. Children from Kinshasa know the one about the Little Red Riding Hood, too.

The brothers continue to like reading in Slovenia as well. This helps them learn Slovenian. It is very important for them to speak correctly. If one of them makes a mistake, the others correct him right away.

Same as all young basketball players and many Slovenians in general, the Matondo Kimpala brothers watched the European Basketball Championship. They rooted for Dončić, but also for Dragić and the rest of the team. “When you become a basketball player, you will have to speak on television”, said Bonheur, probably remembering television statements by Dončić and Dragić, to Rilain, the quiet one of the three.

In the Congo, football is the most popular sport. Bonheur used to practice it, too, but he took up basketball in Slovenia. When they grow up, all three of them will be basketball players. They already practice at Ježica basketball association. Dan, who is in second grade, plays for the U9 and U11 teams; fourth-grader Bonheur plays for the U11, and Rilain, a sixth-grader, for the U13.

In case they do not make it as professional basketball players, they might become electricians like their father. Bonheur would also like to be a policeman if his father lets him. But he might not let him, because the policemen in the Congo are not nice.

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Nikita Khabirov goes to sixth grade of Hinko Smrekar Primary School in Ljubljana.

He came to Slovenia from Kamchatka. This is a Russian peninsula in the Far East, where there are many geysers and volcanoes.

“It’s very cold there,” says Nikita. “In winter, it is about minus twenty degrees Celsius, and in the summer it is rarely warmer than twenty-five degrees. Winters are very long, lasting from September, sometimes even from August, all the way to May.”

But this is not why his family moved to Slovenia. Not even the crisis, which has inflicted Kamchatka, like many other regions of the world, was the reason. They moved because they wanted to change their lifestyle and because his father got a job here.

Nikita says that he misses Kamchatka a little bit. He still has friends there, and he goes to visit them every summer. He used to play football with them a lot – in his former home town, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, there is a big football field with artificial grass.

“This is the most popular sport in Kamchatka, followed by basketball”, Nikita says.

Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky is the administrative, industrial, scientific and cultural centre of the peninsula. The city, about the size of Ljubljana, is located by the sea, but it is too cold for swimming. It is surrounded by volcanoes, which are a UNESCO world heritage site. Last year, Nikita climbed one of them, which is almost as high as Triglav, the highest Slovenian mountain, only a bit less steep. “I made it almost to the top. About fifty metres before the peak, I couldn’t go any further, because it was so cold.”

Nikita’s life in Kamchatka was not so different from now. “Even the food is similar. In Kamchatka, we also ate spaghetti and macaroni. But we still often make borscht, a typical Russian dish. It’s a soup made with beets, potatoes and meat.”

His class in Kamchatka was a bit smaller, but the school itself was about the size of his current school in Ljubljana. There, younger children also read the Little Red Riding Hood and the Three Little Pigs, while older children listened to rap. Boys played football, while girls sat around the playground, looking at boys or staring at their smartphones and chatting.

Nikita likes it in Slovenia, but Kamchatka was not bad either. “What I like best in Slovenia is that the people are nice, like in Kamchatka, and that they are sociable and helpful.”

In his current school in Ljubljana, he has many friends, and together, they like to socialise in the schoolyard. When he is not with his friends, he likes to read. He reads both in Russian, so that he does not forget it, and in Slovenian, for his school assignments. His favourite reads are articles on various topics and on animals, for example in the National Geographic.

Apart from this, he spends a lot of time playing sports. Last year he practiced football, but he needed to take a break from his practice for a while. In the meantime, he has taken up swimming but hopes to go back to playing football soon. After all, this is the most popular sport in both Slovenia and Kamchatka.

Glossary

Hello: Zdravstvujte

Goodbye: Do svidanja

Thank you: Spasiba

My name is Nikita: Menja zovut Nikita

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She came to Slovenia with her mother in the summer of 2016.

“We saw that the country is peaceful and that women feel good here. Estrella will be able to get a good education here,” says her mother.

They have applied for asylum, i.e. political refuge, and they are now waiting for a response by the Slovenian authorities.

Estrella was born in Kuwait, while her parents are Syrians from Damascus.

They moved to Kuwait because her father got a job there. Kuwait is full of foreigners, and they do most of the work. They mostly come from Jordan, Egypt and Palestine.

Damascus is one of the oldest cities in the world. Estrella last went there when she was three years old. Two years later, her parents got divorced, so for the last eight years she has been living with her mother.

The marriage of Estrella’s mother to her husband was forced by her parents, which is why she could not go back home after the divorce. She was also in conflict with them because of religion. Since she was not allowed to study after getting married, she could only get a job as a secretary.

“I lost my job three times last year,” says Estrella’s mother. “If you are unemployed in Kuwait, you can’t get your residence permit renewed. Apart from that, foreigners can only go to private schools, which cost a lot of money. Even health insurance is different if you’re not a citizen of Kuwait. I could not afford all of this anymore.”

Even though Estrella has a Syrian passport, she cannot remember anything from Syria; she only knows Kuwait. What does she identify as?

“I am Syrian and hope to be Slovenian,” she says. To make this true, she works very hard at school and is getting good grades. She learns Slovenian by reading books. She particularly likes Anica by Desa Muck. Her favourite subject is mathematics, but she also gets good grades in science and ethics. When she grows up, she would like to be a doctor or a dentist.

She does not miss her old friends, because she made many new ones in Slovenia. In Kuwait it is so hot that children cannot spend much time outdoors. They play at home, for example doing puzzles, or in special playgrounds under blocks of flats. If they want to do sports, they have to go to the gym. They often go to one of the numerous shopping malls. With a land area of 17,000 square kilometres, Kuwait has only one library, so Kuwaiti children read little.

“There is a football stadium in Kuwait, but matches only take place in the afternoon when it’s a bit cooler,” Estrella explains. Kuwaitis often go swimming in the Persian Gulf and have picnics on the Green Island, which is not an actual island, but a place where people meet.

Estrella loves Arab cuisine, which is why her mother often makes her favourite dish – lamb with rice in yoghurt sauce.

Glossary

Hi: Marhaban

Thank you: Šukran

My name is Estrella: Esmi Estrella

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came to Slovenia from Kosovo. This country is located between Serbia, Albania, Montenegro and Macedonia. It was part of former Yugoslavia.

Artiola came to Slovenia together with her mother and sister about two years ago, joining her father.

The twelve-year-old is now in sixth grade of Matija Čop Kranj Primary School. In her free time she goes to go to Škrlovec youth centre, where she learns Slovene and attends various workshops. Whenever there is some time left, she goes on a walk with her friends.

She came to Slovenia because she wanted a better life. Schools and teachers in Kosovo are not as good as in Slovenia.

“The entire school had only one toilet. The building was very high, and if you were on the highest floor, where the classrooms were, the way to the toilet was very long,” she says.

Even though Artiola completed the first four classes in a school with poorer education quality, she learned a lot, because she has always loved to read. Pippi Longstocking is one of her favourite books.

Although she likes it in Slovenia, she misses her former home. Her grandmother and grandfather, uncles, aunts and cousins all stayed there. In Kosovo, she also had a lot of friends, with whom she played tag, hide and seek, and Chinese jump rope. What helps her feel less homesick is making traditional food, such as eggs with peppers.

In Kosovo, people like to eat meat and do not go out for a salad like Slovenians, she describes the differences between the two countries. Her favourite dish is goulash.

She is happy that she made new friends over these two years. They play monkey in the middle, volleyball, which she used to practice, and even football. The latter is the most popular sport in her former home country.

“As soon as I learn Slovenian, I will start practicing again,” says Artiola, who is very strict with herself and her knowledge. She wants to become a lawyer because it hurts her seeing people around her being treated unfairly.

With a population of about two million, including a very large proportion of young people, Kosovo is considered the second poorest country in Europe, where not everybody has access to drinking water.

Even if children finish school, it is very difficult to find a job. Because unemployment rates in Kosovo are very high, Artiola, too, probably could not get a job if she had stayed there.

This is why many go to other European countries to look for better opportunities.

Artiola does not know if she is staying in Slovenia for good, because her parents want to go to Germany to join her aunt and other relatives.

She wants to stay, because she likes living Kranj very much. She says she could live here for the rest of her life.

Glossary

Good day: Mirdita.

Goodbye: Ditenemir.

Thank you: Faleminderit.

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“Dad decided for us to go, because the situation in Iran is very bad right now. People are angry because the republic is no longer okay, they are angry at the politics, the president and the prime minister.”

Because they left home in haste, they came to Slovenia with little luggage and no family photos. The trip cost them 15 thousand euros.

They spent the first two months in an asylum centre, and then their application for international protection was approved. Now they can also travel to other countries of the European Union.

They had to flee because his father opposed government policy. Ali keeps in touch with his mother and little sister on social networks, and occasionally they meet in Turkey.
He misses his friends with whom he liked to play football on the shores of the Caspian Sea.

His dad continues to make his favourite Iranian dishes here in Slovenia. He particularly likes fesenjan, a delicious chicken and pomegranate stew served with rice.

He does not know what he would do when he grew up if he had stayed in Iran. But he knows what he wants to be now that he came to Slovenia. He wants to be a football coach. He is in ninth grade at Livada Primary School in Ljubljana and plays for Črnuče Footbal Club.

“I’m not sorry I left Iran. I’m actually very happy to be here, and I feel good. I have never imagined I could learn Slovenian so well. At the beginning when I did not speak the language, my classmates looked at me a bit funny. But after a couple of months, I could to speak to them normally, and now I have many friends.”

But even today he wishes to go to the stadium in his home town one day and watch his home team play.

The Stories of Children from around the World are created in cooperation with Časoris institute. Read more about Časoris: http://casoris.si/

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Read our first story

Afghan music, Slovenian films

Erfan is a fifteen-year-old Afghan boy. He came to Slovenia from Iran. He came to Slovenia from Iran.

He set out on the long journey together with his cousin. They first travelled to Turkey, and from there on to Greece. They continued through Macedonia, Serbia and Croatia, finally arriving in Slovenia.

Their family had to pay a lot of money for their trip to Europe. He now talks to his parents and younger brothers over the phone. They tell him not to worry about them, that they are okay.

He is fine, too. He goes to school in Slovenia and dreams of becoming a doctor. Or maybe a tailor.

In Slovenia, he spent the first eight months in Koper. “It’s a very nice place,” she says smiling. “It’s by the sea.”

His family had to leave Afghanistan when he was one year old. “We are Khazars and other people don’t like us. They don’t want us living in Afghanistan,” he explains.

Even though the Khazars are Persians, like other Iranians, Iranians do not like those who came to their country from Afghanistan. “I don’t know why. A big boy attacked me with a knife once. This is when I decided that I don’t want to live in Iran anymore.”

Iranians refuse to issue Khazars personal documents. Those without documents cannot go to school.

In Postojna, Erfan listens to Afghan music, but reads Slovenian books and watches Slovenian films. “I need to learn the language,” he says.

He speaks a language called Dari. In Afghanistan, people also speak Pashto, but he does not speak it.

But he does know how to make Afghan food. The most typical dish is bolani. “First you make the dough, like for a pizza, then put potatoes and parsley on it, fold it together like a sandwich and fry it in sunflower oil. When it’s done, you eat it with yoghurt and ketchup.”

Erfan is great at playing chess and drawing, and he also sews well. He learned this in Iran. He does not like football because he once broke his finger playing as a goalkeeper. In Slovenia, he learned how to play basketball, and he also does karate.

“I have friends here at school. They are all kind. If I don’t understand something, they explain it to me.”

He also went to school in Iran, but it was not like in Slovenia. Afghan children without documents could only go to school for three years and they were taught by anyone who knew something well. “Here, my favourite subject is mathematics. I did not learn it in Iran, and here I’m doing very well. I like physics too. History is very difficult for me, because I still have to learn a lot of words.”

Next year he will repeat ninth grade to further improve his Slovenian, and after that he may go to grammar school.

“I would like to stay in Slovenia because I feel good here and I can go to school.”

Glossary

Please: Loftaan.

Thank you: Tashakor.

Hello: Salaam.

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