I felt very secure, the conditions were very good, the hygiene was good, I had no obstacles with my friends, there were various communities: Bosnians, Serbs, Albanians, Turks, but we got along very well, we lived all together. But I was the only Roma working in my department, but there is a saying, ‘One finds themselves in the setting where they live the way they reflect.’ But I never felt bad there, I didn’t feel bad in the elementary school nor in the high school or in the high pedagogical school, I was the only person from the Roma community in my classroom but I never felt bad, my friends didn’t feel bad either for having a person from the Roma community among them. We got along very well at that time…before the war exploded, then there were some agreements which had to be signed. I don’t know! Most of Albanians quit their jobs not only in the factories, but in schools and everywhere else…

Because, we, our Romani have a lot of knowledge. A Turk or a Serb or an Albanian cannot play the same music. That means, we have a lot of knowledge, we, the Romani, that is why they always invite us, for example, you can take a Turk, people can take a Turk but he cannot play the music the way I do, or the clarinet for example, a Turk cannot play it the same way as I do. They can play a little, but that is not enough. This is it…

Radmilla Rexhepagiqi was [my teacher] she was Muslim, chemist…When she explained the compounds, structural molecules, somehow I didn’t need to study at home…But I got everything directly in class, I listened to the lectures so carefully that I never had to read at home and I always got fives.

We often use this word, that when a Roma child is born, they immediately know four languages, because the social circle here requires it and we have no problem with that. […] What will always remain registered in my head is an image which was also a motivation for me to continue motivating my children, I am talking about one moment when, my mother who always walked me to school and back, and what was interesting, she knew the rule that parents needed to follow their children, to help them with the homework and she asked me, I mean, when I returned from school, to do my homework, to write, to do my mathematics homework, or writing-reading sessions. And, until the second or third grade, I really didn’t know my mother was illiterate, because she always hovered  over my head, I thought that she knew what I was doing, what I was writing and reading. I thought that she understood.

I decided to stay in Prizren because I liked it the most, my children liked it better here. Because I came here from ‘66, they all made friends here, they got adapted. But I got  adapted too. […] In Gjilan, I told you, I had a very good time in Gjilan but here I had my friends. I could go to Pristina, because the whole Kosovo is there, Podujevo is there as well as Drenas, Peja and Gjakova, everyone is there, the whole Kosovo is there in Pristina, but I liked it here better, I got closer friends with whom I still hang out […]

To be honest, life in Prizren hasn’t changed much, it has just gotten more dynamic, and here I am talking about the nightlife, because there are no big changes. […] We had, Prizren had only one korso, there were no coffee shops like nowadays, there was the korso in shadërvan., then they moved it to Marash […] from the rock bridge, the iron bridge […] that is where the korso was, from the rock bridge to there. Before that it was in shadërvan. But it was very good, life was dynamic […] There was not a single night when we wouldn’t go out, only if we were on duty or something […] not much in coffee shops, but on korso, we would go for walks.