It's over - the 24 hours of being 'on the run.'
På flukt, På flugt, On the Run or whatever language you prefer, is a 24-hour role-play, showing what it is like to be a refugee.
About 80 students from the school had signed up for participating in the role play and we were split into different groups, which were now our new families.
On Friday night we had an introduction and orientation about Somalia, since that was the country all the families were fleeing from. We also got a list of names, birthdays and roles and the family and had to decide who was going to play who.
Since we were one boy short, I ended up being 13 year old Ahmed Farah Elim from Somalia and together with my father (Habar Ali Elim) his two wifes, my siblings and uncles (a total of 11) I ran from Somalia, to Yemen, through Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Syria, just to catch a flight to Sweden and then finally hit Norway.
We walked/ran a total of about 30 kilometers up and down hills and the wrong way A LOT. All groups had an instructor with them at all times, to make sure we went to the wright places though.
Our first instructor took us a little the wrong way (on purpose), had us run back (just for the fun of it), and then took us to the migration office.
Here, we went through some offices (costumes, medical ...) but before we were even close to having all our documents, since this takes long, the offices were attacked by military and we had to evacuate.
Out second instructor was a Norwegian guy from Red Cross Youth. He was supposed to take us to Yemen. The only problem was that he didn't know the area and we walked the same paths what felt like a hundred times, before he admitted that he was lost. When we finally got to the boarder, we bribed the military and got through. All other families had been "tortured" there, done exercises and been yelled at ect., but since we came late, they let us through.
On the other side of the boarder, we met a Red Cross Refugee Camp called "No Hope." Here we got a tarpaulin to lay on the ground and then we rolled out our sleeping b
ags and cuddled up to stay warm. We also got approached by doctors, representatives from the UN, journalists and of course Red Cross people.
It is important to remember that all this would happen over a longer time period in real life, but since we only had 24-hours, it all happened very fast.
After all eating some malaria medicine (oil), we got our food. Half a cup of rice.
The UN have determined, that these 35 grams of unboiled rice per day(which becomes 95 g. when you boil them) is what a human body needs to function in a refugee camp. So in a place where it can lay in a tent without working. This was the only food we got during the game.
We got the chance to sleep a little, but it didn't last long until the military closed in on the camp and we had to get going again.
Our third instructor was supposed to take us back towards Flekke (from Dale), but because of bad instructions, he had been told to find a gravel road there, so we walked around the area of Dale for about 3 hours, before he made a call and found out, we were just supposed to take the main road, that we all know.
At this point, two people in my group had already been about to pull 'the emergency break,' which is the only way out of the game. If you do so, you'll be taken back to campus and sit in a room, still without food or sleep, with two teachers, until the game is over. Our instructor did though, get them convinced to keep on going and we moved on.
When we came to the main road, what should have happened, and happened to the other groups who actually managed to get there on time, was that we should've been chased by military; hiding from their cars and running from their people.
What did happen, was that a third person in our group got sick and wanted to pull the emergency break. We had been hiding about two times and only run away once, when we had to stop and the military chasing us had to take care of her. The organizers of the game figured that since we were so far behind anyways, they'd come and "fly" us to Sweden (drive) in the hope that this would make my 'little sister' not quit the game.
It did work and she stayed in, but it was a little sad for the rest of us to miss out on more because of that. But we're a family and we go together up and down :)
From Sweden (a.k.a. Flekke) we walked to Norway (a.k.a. campus) and here we met the Norwegian government. We filled out the first forms and went to an asylum where we got to sleep.
Another thing to notice is that during the game, we had no source of finding out what time it was. I have been told later that we arrived to Norway at around 4 am., but I had no feeling of the time myself at that point.
At about 7 we were woken up, as the first family, to go to our interview. Here we had a translator translate the conversation between the person from the government and the family father. Rikke and I understood what they said and I can only tell you that it wasn't a fair translation, but since my role didn't understand Norwegian, there was nothing to do about it.
After filling out more forms, we got back to the asylum and waited.
All families, except for two individuals, were sent back to Somalia - even though our family ran away until they yelled the game was over.
Unfortunately, this is a very realistic ratio on how many people fight their way out of their countries and then get sent back.
At last we had an evaluation and comparison to real life refugees.
There was a lot of different opinions on whether this was a good or bad way to get a touch of the refugee life, but in my opinion it way just great!
I am sad that we missed out on the boarder patrols and fleeing from military, 'cause I've heard that was the toughest part, and I missed being pushed a little, instead of just walking, but looking away from all our getting lost, the reflections at last, gave me a lot to think about, and I'm not done thinking yet. It has changed my world-view in some way and I think every teenager in this age should have this experience, of course knowing what they are going into!
I am just gonna link the norwegian Red Cross page, in English: http://lokal.rodekors.no/ungdom/english/activities/the_roleplay_on_the_run/
and the danish site, because yes, it exists in Denmark as well (DO IT!)
also, a link to a great song for Nordic speakers. Listen and think: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdosczXkdpA
Last, but not least!! A family picture :)
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