Speaker 1: Hushkin, you do hear the bombings all the time when
Speaker 1: you're living in the war zone.
Speaker 2: So me and my.
Speaker 1: Older sister were like, we need to go because it's
Speaker 1: only getting worse. We knew that we're not safe. We
Speaker 1: knew that every day you get out of the apartment
Speaker 1: is a risk and you might never see your family again.
Speaker 3: When Olympic swimmer You Sir Mardini was just a teenager,
Speaker 3: she and her sister fled their homeland of Syria. They
Speaker 3: went on a dangerous journey across Europe before finally seeking
Speaker 3: asylum in Germany.
Speaker 1: I was in a refugee camp when I arrived for
Speaker 1: a few months, and me and my sister and everyone
Speaker 1: else got to Germany. We had so much paperwork to do.
Speaker 1: We sometimes would wait in line from twelve am until
Speaker 1: eight am the next day to have just a number.
Speaker 1: That's how crazy it was at that point, and for me,
Speaker 1: my escape was sports.
Speaker 3: On today's episode, a Syrian refugee fights for her dreams.
Speaker 3: I'm maya Shunker and this is a slight change of plans,
Speaker 3: a show about who we are and who we become
Speaker 3: in the face of a big change. As a teenager
Speaker 3: used her care at about two things, hanging out with
Speaker 3: her friends and swim practice. She was a star on
Speaker 3: the Syrian national swim team and had big dreams of
Speaker 3: one day representing her country at the Olympics. But as
Speaker 3: the Syrian Civil War intensified, even everyday activities like walking
Speaker 3: to school or a friend's house became dangerous.
Speaker 1: I remember one time I was thirteen years old. I
Speaker 1: was walking to see my friends and there was like
Speaker 1: a bomb attack, literally like two hundred meters behind me.
Speaker 1: I look back, I go to the pharmacy. I stand
Speaker 1: there for a few minutes and I continue afterwards. That's
Speaker 1: how normal it became. And I wouldn't tell my mom
Speaker 1: because then I cannot go out. I had a friend
Speaker 1: where she did lose her life while being in her bedroom.
Speaker 1: I heard so many stories about people being in their
Speaker 1: houses and then missile attacks or bomb attacks, and it
Speaker 1: was like, I am risking my life being home or outside.
Speaker 1: So I would rather, you know, try to rebel in
Speaker 1: my own way, to be like you know what we
Speaker 1: need to like try and have a normal life.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you've mentioned such dangerous circumstances, and I know that
Speaker 3: this danger followed you to the pool. You're one place
Speaker 3: of refuge. So do you mind describing what that was like.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So the pool is a fifty meter pool and the
Speaker 1: building is mostly glass. Sometimes I'd be swimming like backstroke
Speaker 1: and I'll see holes in the roof because of the missiles.
Speaker 1: I remember that day we were practicing, just like any
Speaker 1: other day. You heard something like a really loud knock,
Speaker 1: but you didn't know what was going on. It took
Speaker 1: us a moment to realize that it was literally a
Speaker 1: missile in the water. It did not explode, so the
Speaker 1: coach was shouting at everyone to go hide. Everyone started running.
Speaker 1: Everyone's like trying to get out of the pool to
Speaker 1: go and hide. Me and my older sister were like
Speaker 1: waiting for my mom to pick us up. I got
Speaker 1: my mom just shaking and just crying. I couldn't speak,
Speaker 1: and then my mom was just like shouting trying to
Speaker 1: make sure that we are okay, and I couldn't respond.
Speaker 1: So I got in the car. I couldn't respond, and
Speaker 1: I think it was me being in shock. I was terrified,
Speaker 1: but I was also used to it, which is really sad.
Speaker 1: I was sixteen years old and this was normal for me.
Speaker 3: What solace, if any did you find in the act
Speaker 3: of swimming, Like, did that help bring structure focus to
Speaker 3: your life during this time? Oh?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I did not want to let it go.
Speaker 1: For me, it was about proving that I am talented
Speaker 1: enough that I you know, I'm always going to be
Speaker 1: the fastest. If I want something in life, I work very,
Speaker 1: very hard to get it. My mom would shout at
Speaker 1: me because I would come back home so tired. I'll
Speaker 1: sleep with my backpack, That's how tired I was.
Speaker 3: When did you and your sister I first realize that
Speaker 3: you might want to try and leave Syria, Because I mean,
Speaker 3: obviously what you've described us is so unimaginably harrowing, but
Speaker 3: it's still so challenging to imagine leaving everyone and everything
Speaker 3: you know and love behind. I mean, it's just hard
Speaker 3: to understate the pull of home.
Speaker 1: Yeah, me and my older sister were like, we need
Speaker 1: to go because it's only getting worse. We knew that
Speaker 1: we're not safe, we knew that every day you get
Speaker 1: out of the apartment is a risk and you might
Speaker 1: never see your family again.
Speaker 2: So the first conversation.
Speaker 1: That we had was with my dad. We were like,
Speaker 1: we need to go to Germany. They were just welcoming refugees,
Speaker 1: and he said no. My mom said no. For my parents,
Speaker 1: the conversation was not even on the table. For us
Speaker 1: to leave two girls living alone, that's insane. And my
Speaker 1: dad was like, find me someone I could trust. And
Speaker 1: then our cousin came by and he was going with
Speaker 1: his uncle. So then we opened the conversation with my
Speaker 1: family again. And then it took ten days for us
Speaker 1: to leave. My mom was crying every day for ten
Speaker 1: days straight. They booked the flights from Libanon to Turkey.
Speaker 1: We got to the airport and I remember we got
Speaker 1: on the plane and the flight attendant was like, please
Speaker 1: do not steal the life jackets.
Speaker 2: Wow. Yeah, they said that on the plane.
Speaker 3: Because they knew so many people were headed down the
Speaker 3: same yeah, towards the same machine.
Speaker 2: They knew.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they knew there were thousands of people trying to
Speaker 1: escape Syria.
Speaker 3: Were you scared, you, Sarah? You say everything is so
Speaker 3: matter of factly, and so I'm just so curious, like,
Speaker 3: and you're seventeen years old at this time, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think this part I'm thankful for my parents for
Speaker 1: because they raised us to be ready for everything, and
Speaker 1: every time I doubted anything I was like, my sister's here.
Speaker 2: She's here.
Speaker 1: I used to like beg her for like sleepover in
Speaker 1: her bed, even though like we're in the same room.
Speaker 1: So she gives me sort of some type of peace,
Speaker 1: even though we're very different. Me and my sister were
Speaker 1: very different, but whenever she's there, she was like a
Speaker 1: parent for me too, how much older three years So
Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, my sister's here, and for me,
Speaker 1: I knew that this was my last chance to survive
Speaker 1: and try to survive and fight for everything. It's the
Speaker 1: human instinct in the end. Absolutely, it's just I want
Speaker 1: to live.
Speaker 3: You say, there's so many parts of your harrowing journey.
Speaker 3: It took twenty five days, but I want to focus
Speaker 3: in on one part of the journey, which is when
Speaker 3: you found a smuggler to help you take a small
Speaker 3: boat across the sea in order to get to Greece.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we found these smugglers and yeah they were like, okay,
Speaker 1: you have to pay thy five hundred euros for each
Speaker 1: person for the sea journey, and you're gonna come tomorrow
Speaker 1: to this place again at five pm. It was to
Speaker 1: take us to the island, one of the closest islands
Speaker 1: in Turkey to Greece. So we all pack this one
Speaker 1: pack pack that we had from Syria. We didn't have
Speaker 1: anything else. Anyway, you sit in the bus, you close
Speaker 1: the curtain. That was four hours. So when we got there,
Speaker 1: we waited for four days to be able to get
Speaker 1: on the boat. No water, no connection, no food, You
Speaker 1: are not allowed to talk to anyone.
Speaker 3: So what was it like finally getting into this little
Speaker 3: I mean when I say boat, I mean literally like
Speaker 3: it's a small rapper boat.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's very inhumane.
Speaker 1: So the dinghy like fits usually like if you want
Speaker 1: to be comfortable for like five six people, and we
Speaker 1: were twenty people and one child that was six years old.
Speaker 1: So the smugglers take people, let them on the boat,
Speaker 1: they start the motor for you, and they let you go.
Speaker 1: Whatever happens afterwards, that's it. So usually the trip does
Speaker 1: not take more than like forty five minutes because obviously
Speaker 1: the islands are so close. So we got on the
Speaker 1: boat and then the motor stops after like fifteen minutes.
Speaker 1: The whole journey, the motor keeps working and stopping the
Speaker 1: whole time. It's an experience where I'm a swimmer and
Speaker 1: I was terrified of the water. All of us on
Speaker 1: the boat, we were praying in one voice as they'll
Speaker 1: remember that. Some people were taking the water out of
Speaker 1: the boat. Some people were like trying to steer it.
Speaker 1: Someone was calling the coastguards saying please save us, and
Speaker 1: they were like turn and go back. So that was
Speaker 1: a moment for me where I was like, there is
Speaker 1: no humanity. So the first thing that we did is
Speaker 1: throw everything we had, all the belongings. There was a
Speaker 1: friend of my dad that was also with us, so
Speaker 1: he stands up, he jumps in the water to stabilize
Speaker 1: the boat to try and save everyone. And then the
Speaker 1: next person to stand up and jump in the water
Speaker 1: was my sister, and then I stood up. I went
Speaker 1: from the other side, and she was furious and I
Speaker 1: was like, I'm a swimmer too. There was a rope
Speaker 1: around the dinghy, so me and my sister we tried
Speaker 1: to grab one rope and then tried to swim. It
Speaker 1: took us three hours and a half to get to
Speaker 1: that shore. It was really cold, but we couldn't just
Speaker 1: let go and leave.
Speaker 3: You had confidence that you and your older sister would
Speaker 3: survive this because you're swimmers. But what was painful for
Speaker 3: you is the idea that maybe everyone else might not.
Speaker 1: Me and my sister, we could have swum it. We
Speaker 1: swum open water before ninety percent of the people on
Speaker 1: the boat did not know how to swim. I also
Speaker 1: remember doing like smiley faces for the kid, like staying
Speaker 1: my tongue out because I didn't want him to feel
Speaker 1: like we were drowning.
Speaker 3: What was it like on an emotional level to share
Speaker 3: in an experience like this with a group of strangers,
Speaker 3: I mean, people you didn't even know days prior.
Speaker 1: Even though the strip was horrible in every aspect, the
Speaker 1: inhumane way we were treated, I think we were very,
Speaker 1: very lucky to have those people on the boat because
Speaker 1: we all worked together to save each other's lives. You
Speaker 1: can make it in life on your own, but it's
Speaker 1: not as beautiful as when everyone makes it.
Speaker 3: We'll be back in a moment with a slight change
Speaker 3: of plans. Everyone in Eusra's boat made it safely across
Speaker 3: the sea to Greece. After they arrived, User and her
Speaker 3: sister continued their journey, mostly by foot, through four more
Speaker 3: countries before finally reaching Berlin. They were accepted into refugee housing,
Speaker 3: where they found safety but little privacy. Eustra spent her
Speaker 3: days filling out mountains of paperwork to seek asylum. She
Speaker 3: missed her family in swim practice and the warm weather
Speaker 3: back home.
Speaker 1: The moment I got to Germany, it was gray and cold,
Speaker 1: and I did not like it at all. I was saying,
Speaker 1: I'm going to go back home soon. This is temporary.
Speaker 1: I didn't want to give up on going back to
Speaker 1: my country. I was, of course thankful to be in
Speaker 1: a country where they took us in as refugees, but
Speaker 1: it is not that simple or easy. I know refugees
Speaker 1: that do not feel like they fit in until today
Speaker 1: and it's eight years since they left Syria.
Speaker 2: It's not that they're.
Speaker 1: Not trying, but the trauma and to process everything they
Speaker 1: went through is not easy. Not everyone's welcoming. Me and
Speaker 1: my sister were very, very lucky to meet incredible people
Speaker 1: that wanted to help. But not everyone meets people that
Speaker 1: want to help and want to make them feel at home.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I was in a refugee camp when I arrived
Speaker 1: for a few months, and me and my sister and
Speaker 1: everyone else that got to Germany, we had so much
Speaker 1: paperwork to do. We sometimes would wait in line from
Speaker 1: twelve am until eight am the next day to have
Speaker 1: just a number. That's how crazy it was at that point.
Speaker 1: And for me, my escape was sports. I think after
Speaker 1: three months of getting to Germany, we made an appointment
Speaker 1: with a swimming club and the coach goes, okay, can
Speaker 1: you go change and jump in the pool. I want
Speaker 1: to see your skills. We go, there's one problem, we
Speaker 1: don't have swimming suits. Can you give us swimming suit? Right?
Speaker 1: So he goes and grabs swimming suits and we swim.
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, he was really surprised by the skills
Speaker 1: and level of US swimming.
Speaker 2: And after that, yeah, I went back to practice.
Speaker 3: Wow. Wow, Yeah, you go back to practice and you're
Speaker 3: in the pool again. So yeah, walk me through what
Speaker 3: that evolution was like.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I met Sven, which was my coach at the time.
Speaker 1: I sat down with him and he said, what are
Speaker 1: your goals? And I said, I want to go to
Speaker 1: the Olympics. And it was twenty fifteen, so my goal
Speaker 1: and his goal was that I participate at the Tokyo
Speaker 1: Olympics twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: Then there was an announcement.
Speaker 1: That the creation of the first ever refugee Olympic team
Speaker 1: will happen in Rio twenty sixteen that I did not
Speaker 1: consider going as a refugee. At that point, I did
Speaker 1: not want to. I was struggling because where I come from,
Speaker 1: a refugee wasn't something great like being like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm a refugee I left, I'll be like, no, I'm Syrian.
Speaker 2: I want to earn my spot.
Speaker 1: I want to prove that I belong at the Olympics,
Speaker 1: that I did everything I could in my life for
Speaker 1: the sport. When I did not want to go to
Speaker 1: the Olympics as a refugee, my mom was like, if
Speaker 1: you don't remember how hard you worked, remember the hours
Speaker 1: I was waiting for you and driving you to practice
Speaker 1: and drying your hair, making your sandwiches.
Speaker 3: I love how they said, like, if you don't remember
Speaker 3: how hard you were, remember how hard we worked.
Speaker 2: Oh. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: And then my dad, I remember him coaching me all
Speaker 1: the time. Yeah, my sister being my biggest supporter and competitor.
Speaker 1: At the same time, they all told me sometimes there
Speaker 1: are opportunities in life that you will never have again,
Speaker 1: and we know how hard you worked and how much
Speaker 1: you deserve that you should go. I went back to
Speaker 1: swim and I told him I want to go to
Speaker 1: the Olympics. But I was still not okay, like not
Speaker 1: one hundred percent sure about what is this refugee Olympic team.
Speaker 1: It's going to happen for the first time in history?
Speaker 1: Will people be okay with it? Will people will? Will
Speaker 1: they welcome it? There's another announcement a few months later
Speaker 1: that three athletes made it on the team basically, and
Speaker 1: one of them is a Syrian swimmer that's based in Germany,
Speaker 1: and the media goes crazy. We got three hundred plus
Speaker 1: emails that day. The story goes viral and everyone's like, oh,
Speaker 1: from refugee to an Olympian. The face of the refuge
Speaker 1: Olympic team. She speaks amazing English. I was like, oh, God, like,
Speaker 1: come on, yeah, a lot of Syrians speak at English.
Speaker 1: You know. I won my heat when I swam, so
Speaker 1: that was also really insane. I met the athletes on
Speaker 1: the refuge Olympic team, so many people that showed me
Speaker 1: so much love that I was not expecting in my life.
Speaker 2: But the moment that everything changed.
Speaker 1: For me about who I am, about what a refugee
Speaker 1: is is the moment I stepped foot in the Olympic stadium.
Speaker 1: In the opening ceremony, I realized that every person in
Speaker 1: that stadium stood up for the team. I met the team,
Speaker 1: and I realized that this team is just about to
Speaker 1: give the world a very strong message. We do not
Speaker 1: come from the same countries, yet we are forming this
Speaker 1: team that sends a message of hope to the world.
Speaker 1: It was an incredible time for me and that's where
Speaker 1: everything started.
Speaker 3: Yeah, your experience in the twenty sixteen Olympics changed you
Speaker 3: so much that you opted to be part of the
Speaker 3: Olympic refugee team in twenty twenty. Right, that was a
Speaker 3: proactive choice. Tell me a bit more about that.
Speaker 1: Yes, I decided to go to Tokyo again and I
Speaker 1: was working really hard to be there, and the Syrian
Speaker 1: team reached out and told me you qualified for us
Speaker 1: and you can go with Syria, and I respected that
Speaker 1: and that was very a happy moment for me because
Speaker 1: it was something that I wanted to know that I've
Speaker 1: done in life. But I chose to compete for the
Speaker 1: refugee Olympic team because of what I am trying to
Speaker 1: do in life right now, which is change the people's
Speaker 1: perspective and ideas about refugees and what can we do
Speaker 1: and what can we not? So yeah, I competed again
Speaker 1: for the Refugee Olympic team. I loved every moment of it.
Speaker 1: To be honest, I would not change anything about both experiences, Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: the dream.
Speaker 3: Wow, that's amazing. You Srah, can you tell me to
Speaker 3: bring me after speed on present day? I mean, you
Speaker 3: since retired from swimming, you built this foundation. Tell me
Speaker 3: a bit more about the foundation and what your goals
Speaker 3: are for how you spend the rest of your life.
Speaker 1: I decided that it was time to move on from
Speaker 1: swimming and it's time for studying. I study film and
Speaker 1: TV production because I'm a storyteller and I want to
Speaker 1: be able to tell other people's stories, not just mine.
Speaker 1: I know that the events that happen in my life
Speaker 1: are so insane, but I am so thankful because now
Speaker 1: I get to say I know that I can help people,
Speaker 1: and I know that I can tell people that they
Speaker 1: can help others and that coexistence is really beautiful. Last year,
Speaker 1: in June, I decided to launch my own foundation, and
Speaker 1: it is a nonprofit foundation that is focusing on helping
Speaker 1: refugees through education in sports. Because I felt like my
Speaker 1: education and access to sport helped me become who I
Speaker 1: am today. For me, sports was my home for the
Speaker 1: longest time and it will always be and it helped
Speaker 1: me with my mental health and struggling a lot in life.
Speaker 1: So I want to give that opportunity to refugees that
Speaker 1: are still in camps, that are still trying to figure
Speaker 1: out what are they going to do in their lives.
Speaker 3: And then tell me about your family. Estra, your parents
Speaker 3: and your little sister were also able to successfully make
Speaker 3: it to Germany, and I'm wondering how your whole family
Speaker 3: is doing today.
Speaker 1: So pretty well, all of them live in Berlin, Germany.
Speaker 1: My dad is still swimming coach, lifeguard, and my mom
Speaker 1: does a physical therapy now. My little sister is super smart.
Speaker 2: I love talking to her.
Speaker 1: She's so driven and smart that I cannot wait to
Speaker 1: see what she's going to do in the future. And
Speaker 1: my older sister, yeah, Sarah, still does advocacy work and
Speaker 1: is still based in Berlin, USA.
Speaker 3: I'm curious to know what you wish people better understood
Speaker 3: about your experience as a refugee.
Speaker 1: It took me a while to fit in in Germany
Speaker 1: so and I was seventeen. It took my parents way
Speaker 1: longer than me to feel comfortable, to feel like they
Speaker 1: fit in, to feel like they can feel like they
Speaker 1: are a part of the society. But I'm going to
Speaker 1: tell you one thing that is actually really sad. But
Speaker 1: this is the reality of life. We as refugees sometimes
Speaker 1: feel detached from where we come from and we don't
Speaker 1: feel like we fit in. And then you society, so
Speaker 1: no matter, I have a German passport, but still I
Speaker 1: cannot say I am one hundred percent German, and I
Speaker 1: cannot say I'm one hundred percent Syrian, and I cannot
Speaker 1: be like I'm Syrian and German. There is something, there's
Speaker 1: like a piece, like a small piece that's gonna always
Speaker 1: be missing somehow.
Speaker 2: And this is a.
Speaker 1: Pain that refugees have. They that they're gonna have for
Speaker 1: a very long time. And that's okay and that's normal.
Speaker 3: Hey, thanks so much for listening. Be sure to check
Speaker 3: out the other two stories in this series if you
Speaker 3: haven't heard them yet, with Olympic gold medalist Missy Franklin
Speaker 3: and Paralympic gold medalist Brad Snyder. And next week join
Speaker 3: me for a conversation with doctor Molly Millwood, a therapist
Speaker 3: who's honest writing about motherhood has changed how so many
Speaker 3: people think about this major life transition. And if you
Speaker 3: enjoyed this conversation, we on the Slight Change team would
Speaker 3: be so grateful if you could share the episode with
Speaker 3: someone you know. It helps us get the word out
Speaker 3: so we can keep making more episodes for you. Thank
Speaker 3: you so much and see you next week. A Slight
Speaker 3: Change of Plans is created, written, and executive produced by
Speaker 3: me Maya Shunker. The Slight Change family includes our showrunner
Speaker 3: Tyler Green, our senior editor Kate Parkinson Morgan, our senior
Speaker 3: producer Trisha Bobida, and our engineer Eric o'kwang. Luis Scara
Speaker 3: wrote our delightful theme song, and Ginger Smith helped arrange
Speaker 3: the vocals. A Slight Change of Plans is a production
Speaker 3: of Pushkin Industries, so a big thanks to everyone there,
Speaker 3: and of course a very special thanks to Jimmy Lee.
Speaker 3: You can follow A Slight Change of Plans on Instagram
Speaker 3: at doctor Maya Shunker. See you next week and