Journalist Blendi Fevziu is one of the world's most traveled people and recently found himself in Belfast, Northern Ireland, sharing an inspiring story with his followers on social media.
He met an Albanian at Belfast airport, who was washing the floor and invited the journalist for coffee. During the conversation with him, Fevziu discovered that the Albanian was the owner of several bars.
Fevziu was surprised, because even though he was an owner and with a good financial income, the owner from Vlora cleaned the floor or did other work.
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He pulled aside the small car on which he was cleaning the floor of Belfast airport at that late hour and invited me for coffee. I tried to politely refuse him, thanking him and when the insistence didn't work, I told him that the cafe area was already closed. Don't worry, he told me, he went ahead, opened the tape that stopped the entrance of the cafes, turned on the espresso in my total confusion.
⁃ I have these for rent here, he told me, come on, sit down.
⁃ You were washing the floor, I said, what do you have to do with the premises.
⁃ I am the owner. I do it on the floor as an extra job. Today I didn't have a worker and I'm doing it myself. I just closed the premises.
He reached over the counter, took a piece of cake and brought it to me while the espresso was heating up. A woman from Vlora does this, she told me. He does it like a bitch. I take it from her and sell it.
Historia e tij ishte thuajse e pabesueshme. Kishte ikur nga Sevasteri i Vlores si shume shqiptare te tjere ne vitet ‘90 – te. Kishte kaluar malin per ne Greqi ku kishte punuar ca vite. Ishim shume vellezer me tha dhe shume te varfer. Prisja qe vellai te hiqte kepucet qe ti vishja une. Pas ca vitesh ne Greqi kishte marre rrugen per Angli. Nen kamion nga Franca ne Britani. Kishte punuar ne Londer dhe ku djali i vetem po i rritej ishte transferuar ne Irlanden e Veriut. kishte bere cdo lloj pune dhe tani kishte nje stabilitet financiar per tu admiruar. Por punonte serish. Ku te mundete. Me pasionin qe mund te punoje vetem nje njeri qe e do punen. Kur kisha prinderit gjalle me tha, shkoja ne Shqiperi me makine. Ishte larg, por e mbushja me dhurata per plakat dhe pleqte e fshatit. Tani vinte me rralle. Djali po i behej grafik dizajner dhe ishte krenar per te.
⁃ We don't have a school, he said, I can't. But boy yes!
He walked me to the plane. I was amazed by his story. Belief that with work you can recover. It was so similar to the stories of many other immigrants. Who ran away from the misery of the 90s, who believed in the dream of freedom and it returned to them again.