“I always wanted to leave, but not permanently.” George Abdushaibea (20) came from Bethlehem to Zagreb on a scholarship, in order to develop more as a person. “The end goal is to go back to Bethlehem.“
When he looks back to his time in Palestine, he misses the culture: “We’re just so loud and happy, and we like to have fun. Even though a lot of bad things are happening, you’ll always see people laughing and having fun.” When he was 18, he decided to leave his country: “After high school, I met a Croatian priest in Bethlehem. We had a good relationship, and he told me about this scholarship to go and study in Croatia, which I just applied for, and now I’m here.” He is not planning to stay in Croatia, he always wanted to live abroad, but not permanently.
Feeling at home
The hardest part for George about moving to Croatia was leaving his family behind. He is alone here, but he believes he made the right decision : “I will learn a lot of new things here, new experiences. And just that time when you live alone, you really develop your character more. Learn a lot more stuff”.
While George feels ‘at home’ in Croatia, he notes that it’s a different sensation than feeling at home in Palestine. “I feel at home when I’m with really close friends, people who treat me like family. But when I come home at 10 p.m. I used to see my brothers and parents, that’s what I miss the most.”
Travel logs
While trying to return home, George decided to make travel logs about the war in Palestine. He tried to notice the unusual things that he didn’t notice before: “I wanted to show things that are not always in the regular news”, he explains. The thing that made the most impact on him was the situation on the border. “It’s really busy. It only works five hours and you have to go through three separate borders. In general it’s not a pleasant experience.”
Future plans
When he is going back to Palestine he wants to continue using his knowledge of the Croatian language. “I would like to work in tourism. I am also part of the 40% Christians in Palestine. Croatian people are also mostly Christians and really religious. A lot of them would like to visit what they consider as the holy land, which is Palestine. So maybe take in tourist groups to Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Nazareth. All those Christian landmarks in Palestine. And this is for the time of Christmas and Easter.Maybe for summer I can take groups from there to enjoy the Croatian coast here. Which is really nice.” Currently George is assistant for A1 level of Croatian and he helps others learn Croatian. Furthermore, as he tells us himself, he is constantly trying to help others. However, he doesn’t view this merely as “helping”, for him, it’s more like spending time with friends.