INGRID (ENGLISH VERSION)

A DISASTROUS START

During summer 2002, my parents decided that we would leave Kirkenes and we would move to Greece. My dad has an origin from some village of North Cefalonia. Cefalonia is an island, which is geographically located in Western Greece. We didn't need to buy a house, as there was already my dad's old family house there, which he had also lived for a few years into. We had travelled to Cefalonia earlier, but we wouldn't visit this place that often, so my memories are faint. Of course, the nature and landscape were beautiful and anyone would love to hike there.

On the other hand, the settlement there would be rather difficult, at least for me. To start with, I could understand only a few words in Greek, because I could just recall my father speaking a little bit. However, back in Norway, I was usually speaking Finnish, Norwegian and broken Russian, so I couldn't understand any single word in Greek. But I was soon starting school, hoping that my classmates would give me a hand. However, this was only my own illusion!

My house was located in Cefalonia's most northern part, although it wasn't as huge as the one in Kirkenes. You could have the view of the sea, if you were sitting at the backyard. There wasn't any house close to it, as you can see in that picture, and I can say that this was the only similarity of the place with Norway. There were no neighbours and nobody cared about what you were doing. This sweet privacy.

Apart from Monica and me, Johanna came along with us, because she was only 14 at the time. I never learnt the reason, why we moved to our island. My parents, though, were saying that they wanted to find their inner balance, but I was personally really annoyed by that. We, as children, were not even asked whether we actually wanted to leave the huge house in the prairie. Kirkenes was and will forever be my home and my heart was so broken, when I was forced to leave. I was in a place, where I didn't know anybody and I was feeling so alone.

I lived in Cefalonia for 6 years and the first one was a complete disaster for me. I started my education at the local village school and I wished to find new friends. Monica and I were not in the same group of pupils (Schools in Greece are divided into two or more groups, because the number of pupils is great), because it felt somehow uncomfortable to be classmates with your own sister). I wished though I had been at her group too, as children were very friendly there. Things at school didn't end up the way I had predicted that they would. When I went to school for the first time, no one from my classmates wanted me to sit next to them. Every single one of them, seeing me, were placing obviously their bag to the adjacent empty chair, in order to get me to understand that they did NOT want me to sit close to them. So, as it was natural, I went to sit alone in a desk at the back of the classroom. I could also see some children take a quick look at me and then laugh or whisper something in their friend's ear, while sneaking a peek. During school breaks, of course, nobody wanted to hang out with me. During the first month, at least, children didn't annoy me, but everybody would avoid me. 

However, since October, I was a victim of harsh bullying. One day, the teacher noticed that I was constantly sitting alone at the back. So, she asked: "Ingrid, why do you never sit with anyone?" As I didn't know what to answer and the truth is that I didn't really want to anyway, I replied abruptly: "I feel fine". Very soon, I started listening to the comments, but also the names, which children had started to give me. They used to call me a gypsy, Viking, they used to say she has a homeless woman's hair, she looks like she's beaten up and being dragged to dirt, she stinks like she's not washed at all, she might stab you with a knife and any other nonsense their foolish head could think of.

I was feeling so upset and I couldn't do anything against all that. Nobody would bother me back in Kirkenes. Now I was obliged to face millions of problems and I didn't know the way. I couldn't even handle the situation all by myself, to tell them to stop and I couldn't even react. This wasn't part of my character. I was an extremely introvert person and I could never complain to anybody. However, I would never dare bursting into tears. I wouldn't give them the pleasure to see me surrender this way.