I, who have been in the Middle East for 20 years, have only 200 meters of explosions with me, and now I am reunited with my wife and children in Afghanistan
Narrator: Daniel Zhang
Finishing: Mr. Xiao Han
Image: From the Internet, intrusion and deletion
My name is Daniel Zhang De, and my compatriots who know me in Afghanistan and Syria call me Brother Yong. Since childhood, he has a heart to explore the world, after graduating from junior high school, he came to the provincial city to work, and at the age of 19, he had his first contact with foreigners and began to learn multiple languages since then. Maybe I'm struggling to learn books, but I'm very talented at language, whether it's a foreign language or a dialect, I learn very quickly. Later, at the age of 25, he began to go to the Middle East, living in Afghanistan, Libya and Syria, but because of the war, displacement, and now back to Afghanistan, and also brought his family to Afghanistan for reunion.
As a rural child, can not be admitted to college, then only go out, whether at home or abroad, have to work hard, otherwise there is no day to start, in this short 45 years of time, have seen the cold and warm in the world, but always feel that the hard work, luck will not be too bad.
In 1977, I was born in a small village in Kaifeng City, Henan Province, in the Central Plains, with a long history, from an early age is a very snoozing child, in the words of my father: "The previous life must have been more fighting, otherwise how can this life be so snoozing." "Maybe Dad is right, or maybe my dream hasn't started yet."
I went to school later than my peers, when I was 9 years old, I directly crossed the first grade of the preschool class, the second year I skipped the grade to read the third grade, and when I was 16 years old, I graduated from junior high school, because of my poor academic performance, my father began to give me a back beat, saying: "Xiao Yong, you still learn a technique, otherwise you will starve to death later." ”
But I was stubborn, never listened to my father's words, and replied: "I will become a boss in the future, and I will drive a car, so I will not learn to move bricks." ”
My father was also very speechless to me, but as the eldest son of the family, I still hoped that I could get ahead, in 1994, before the New Year, I ran to Xi'an to work, followed by a fellow villager in a bathhouse to learn to scrub, but this work is not flattering, rubbing heavy will be scolded, rubbing light will say I have no strength. In a fit of anger, I decided to leave, and then went to a big hotel as a waiter, fortunately I was tall and beautiful, otherwise with my cultural level, I would not have been able to enter such a level of restaurant.
In this restaurant, there are often some foreigners to eat, there are opportunities to contact with foreigners, but do not speak English, every time communication is very difficult, all rely on gestures, and then the idea of learning foreign languages came up. What I didn't expect was that learning a foreign language changed my life.
At that time, there was no money in the language school, and then I asked my father to borrow, but for the father who was born in the countryside, learning a language seemed to have no meaning, but I was very insistent on learning, and then I was given 5,000 yuan, and then I studied English and Arabic in a language school for a year, and during the period I was also exposed to German and French, and even the teacher praised me for learning really fast and very talented.
At that time, being able to speak a foreign language, if you do translation, is at least four times higher than the salary of a waiter, as long as you have time, you will contact, but you did not lose your job because you learned a foreign language.
I spend 10 hours a day learning a foreign language, compared to more than 9 hours a day. Almost at the end of the day, the rest time is only three or four hours, probably because of youth, and I do not feel physically tired, but full of fighting spirit.
Also in this year, after a blind date, I married a girl from a neighboring village, but I have always been in a state of separation, she is very sensible, never asks me what I do outside, and whether I earn money or not, quietly live with my parents in my hometown.
When the child was born, I was still in Xi'an, which is the most regrettable thing in my life. There was no personal welcome to the arrival of the son.
After studying the language for more than a year, I quit my job as a hotel waiter and switched to translation. By 2002, I had saved up almost $50,000 as a translator, and then I had taken all my assets with me to explore the world. At that time, the courage was particularly great, first to Afghanistan, and before 2001, Afghanistan in that era was more prosperous than the country.
Here I met the first noble person I knew, he was from Hubei, who had been doing business in Afghanistan for seven or eight years, following him to do things, becoming my master, learning how to do business and how to survive in Afghanistan. With the advent of the war, the master's business was severely frustrated, and he chose to return to China.
But I thought, since I came out, I didn't make a career, and I didn't have the face to go back to see my parents. He then sold the master's assets left in Afghanistan and ran to Syria. My career also ushered in the spring, not only with more than twenty fellow villagers to start a business together, but also did a lot of real estate, everything is developing in a good direction.
But the goodness didn't last long, and in 2011, there was another war, and the explosion was only 200 meters away from my closest time. For the sake of safety, I decided to lay down all my assets and started to flee the war in neighboring countries. Fortunately, at that time, I bought several properties for my parents, younger siblings in China, left a lot of money, and began to migrate again. I thought it was the last migration, but it wasn't, and then I made a short stay in Libya, and then I came to Saudi Arabia to make a living in the jewelry business.
Life goes on, and my fate seems to like to joke with me once and for all. During this period, I experienced too many tribulations, and the one I missed most was my wife and children who were far away from my hometown in Henan.
As the situation in Afghanistan has gotten better over the years, I have returned to Afghanistan to regroup and begin to regain my strength. But compared to before, the business in Afghanistan is difficult to do, fortunately, the mineral area has always been our Chinese doing, relatively speaking, the locals are very friendly to Chinese.
In 2021, as the epidemic stabilized, he could no longer bear to be separated from his wife and children, and after a lot of efforts, he finally brought his wife and children to Afghanistan for reunion. When people reach middle age, the longing for home is also more profound, and on the day of reunion, I feel that it is the happiest moment in life, even if my relationship with my wife and I is flat, but it is very down-to-earth, after all, she is my family, the mother of my son.
I hope that everything will go well in the future, and I hope that life can be complete.