Dear Mimmy. (Refugee Writing on the Journey).In a diary she calls 'Mimmy' schoolgirl Zlata Filipovic records her departure from besieged be·siege tr.v. be·sieged, be·sieg·ing, be·sieg·es 1. To surround with hostile forces. 2. To crowd around; hem in. 3. and war-torn Sarajevo and her arrival in Paris PARIS. There's electricity, there's water, there's gas. There's, there's... life, Mimmy. Yes, life;bright lights, traffic, people, food... Don't think I've gone nuts, Mimmy. Hey, listen to me, Paris!? Me, my mum and my dad. At last... The darkness is behind us, now we're bathed in light lit by good people. Remember that -- good people. Bulb by bulb, not candles, but bulb by bulb, and me bathing in the lights of Paris. Yes, Paris. Incredible. On 6 December, three days after my thirteenth birthday (my second in the war), the publishers told us that on Wednesday 8 December, we were to be ready, that they would be coming for us -- we were going to Paris for your promotion, Mimmy. We had one day to accept that we were leaving Sarajevo, to say our goodbyes to Grandma and Grandpa, the whole family, Mirna, to pack and be ready by 8.00 am when an UNPROFOR UNPROFOR n abbr (= United Nations Protection Force) → FORPRONU f; Unprofor f UNPROFOR n abbr (= United Nations Protection Force) → personnel carrier would be coming to pick us up. It's impossible to explain those mixed feelings of sorrow and joy. Joy at being able to leave the war and sorrow at having to leave EVERYTHING behind. ALL MY LOVED ONES loved ones npl → seres mpl queridos loved ones npl → proches mpl et amis chers loved ones love npl . Wednesday 8 December, 8.00 am. It was all done. We had cried our eyes out, said our goodbyes. Eight o'clock came and went. No personnel carrier. Why? Who knows? Something went wrong. Again that strange mixed feeling, again that feeling of sunken hopes. At 10.00 am on 23 December, the personnel carrier actually came. Through the little window of the vehicle I watched the Post Office pass by, the Law Faculty, the Holiday Inn, Marin Dvor, Pofalici, Hrasno, Alipasino Polje, Nedazarici. Sarajevo was passing by. We reached the airport safely. Then the Hercules cargo plane cargo plane n → avión m de carga cargo plane n → avion-cargo m cargo plane cargo n → , flying over Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina (bŏz`nēə, hĕrtsəgōvē`nə), Serbo-Croatian Bosna i Hercegovina, country (2005 est. pop. 4,025,000), 19,741 sq mi (51,129 sq km), on the Balkan peninsula, S Europe. , leaving it behind. We flew over the Adriatic Sea Adriatic Sea (ādrēă`tĭk), arm of the Mediterranean Sea, between Italy and the Balkan Peninsula. It extends c.500 mi (800 km) from the Gulf of Venice, at its head, SE to the Strait of Otranto, which leads to the Ionian Sea. . Our landing point --. Ancona. And...we stepped out of the Hercules and together with our friend Jean-Christophe Rufin Jean-Christophe Rufin (born June 28, 1952) is a French physician and novelist. He is the president of Action Against Hunger and one of the founders of Médecins Sans Frontières. Early life Rufin was born in Bourges in 1952. , we boarded a small plane -- destination PARIS. In the plane we were given Coca-Cola, salmon, eggs, steak, chicken, tomatoes YUMMY. Everything I hadn't seen for almost two years. And then... the lights of Paris appeared. There was electricity. Then I caught sight of the Eiffel Tower Eiffel Tower, structure designed by A. G. Eiffel and erected in the Champ-de-Mars for the Paris exposition of 1889. The tower is 984 ft (300 m) high and consists of an iron framework supported on four masonry piers, from which rise four columns uniting to form one , Arc de Triomphe Arc de Triomphe Largest triumphal arch in the world. A masterpiece of Romantic Classicism, it is one of the best-known monuments of Paris. It stands at the centre of the Place Charles de Gaulle, at the western terminus of the Champs-Élysées. , cars, houses, roads, people... LIFE. At about 3.00 pm we landed at the military airport in Paris. A wonderful reception, warm words of welcome. Then a SHOWER WATER BATH. HOT WATER. GOLD WATER. SHAMPOO. SHOWER. Bliss! That's how Paris welcomed me. That's how I came out of the darkness and saw the lights. Are these lights my lights as well? I wonder. When even a glimmer of this light illuminates the darkness of Sarajevo, then it will be my light as well. Until then...??? This extract by Zlata Filipovic is from Zlata's Diary published by Penguin, 1993. |
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