The life as a local editor and reporter in a small town continues. Today is actually my first day when I am working alone. Yes, apparently I will be handling my part of the magazine’s pages by my self. There are some days when we will be two but mostly, I’m on my own for the rest of the summer.

Filling the paper with news and articles

Last week I was supposed to write an article about “språkvänner”. It is a thing where Swedish people help immigrants. They become friends, meet up and have mutual exchanges. The Swedes will learn about other nationalities and cultures. The immigrants will learn some Swedish (hopefully) and maybe some Swedish traditions and cultural things.

The article was supposed to be that Bromölla needs more Swedes to sign up as “friends”. I decided to write an article about that but also an article where I met some people that have already become friends.

Syrian coffee and amazing people

So I found a couple that was willing to let me tag along when they met. It turned out to be the most amazing family that came to Sweden from Syria. When I got to their house they invited me in and I got to drink Syrian coffee. It was really strong and good with a taste of cardamom. It reminded me of the coffee we drank in Egypt. Or maybe the one we had in Turkey?

Whats interesting is that to me the coffee tasted similar to the other coffees. But to the Syrian family, it was completely different. They said that they understood the connection but, it is not the same thing.

Left everything in Syria

This family had everything in Syria. Great house, well-paying jobs and everything they needed. They had to leave everything and escape to Sweden. Here they have nothing. Well, they are safe but they have to start a completely new life. My tears came while they were telling me their story. And then it hit me – all the immigrants have a story to tell. There is so much hate and racism in Sweden right now that it’s scary. You can hear the complaints every day about racism and that they should stay in their country and not come here.

But nobody wants to leave a good life. In Syria, they have to flee and that is terrible. I believe that if the Swedes heard the story of these people they might think before they open their mouths and spoke out. I have a month left at work so why not try to do some sort of article series on that?! My mind has lots of ideas even if they are not travel related. Apparently being a journalist means that I can’t turn it off?!