Argita and Detina Zalli captivatingly narrated the adventure of their family to leave Albania after its collapse, and the harsh immigration journey across Europe to become refugees in England when they were teenagers in their book Good Morning Hope. This true story is about hope, self-confidence, maturity, family love, and traumas due to exposure to violence in Albania, physical and verbal abuse in England.
In 1997, Gita and Deti were 11 years old when Albania government collapsed due to being involved in Ponzi schemes. So, Albanians lost their money, resulting in chaos and violence. Men, who wrapped their heads with scarfs, started attacking schools, parks, and people on buses carrying guns and rifles. Young girls and women also were abducted, sex-trafficked, and forced into prostitution! Other men even attacked the school of the Zalli twins! So, schools were closed from March till the end of the summer. This encouraged Mr. Zalli to immigrate to London or New York.
During a summery day, the twins begged their parents to go the beach since they have been locked in the house for 4 months. Sadly, on their way back home, two men with rifles attacked their bus and looted money, gold, and other valuables from the passengers including the Zalli family. On another occasion, the twins’ dad was attacked at work - Albpetrol Company! This trauma caused him to stay home form sometime until the company’s management took better precautions against the mobs. One day and while Gita went to buy ice cream for her and Deti, who sat with 2 of their friends, a couple of men approached the 2 girls asking them to join them on their ride. But the girls refused, so the men abducted the 2 girls and placed them in their car. Then one of the men returned for Deti, who ran away and hid in the alleys. So, the man left her because his mate was worried of being caught! This incident left Deti traumatized causing her to have nightmares!
Finally, Mr. Zalli found someone who can take them by a speedboat to Brindisi, Italy, from where they could go to Milan and obtain a visa to the US. This would cost them $15,000! Mr. Zalli paid $500 in advance, and his friend, who lives in Philadelphia, would pay the rest when they reach it! Yet, upon reaching the shore of Vlorë, there was not a speed but an inflatable boat, in which 20 Albanians sat with their belongings. The journey wasn’t easy as the Italian border patrol warned them of the storm, but they continued until they were risking their lives. So the co-pilot forced the pilot to return back!
Luckily, their neighbor knew a doctor who had connections in Europe. The doctor asked for $12,000 to take them by plane to England using legal visas. This huge amount of money depressed Mr. Zalli, but his wife stated that she has been saving and they had $4,000. So he just needed to borrow the rest from their relatives. They got the money and 2-week business Schengen visas (from a Western European Embassy where the doctor had a connection), in which the twins were added onto their mom’s visa. They started dreaming about going to school in the UK and visiting Big Ben. At the same time, they were sad for having to leave their friends, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins without saying goodbye, as secrecy was key in their situation.
On July 24th 1999, the family left their house. However, and to the shock of the Zalli family, the doctor told them many people were returned to Albania upon landing in Heathrow. So he promised to get them there by traveling to Italy by the ferry, then cross to Paris, and then to London! This made Mr. Zalli and his brother furious, but they accepted the changed plan, and drove to Durrës seaport where they took the ferry. However, the Albanian officer refused to get them on board; stating that their visas were not legit, and the Italians would return them back! So the doctor’s mediator intervened and paid him some money, after which they got onto the ferry.
In Bari (port in Italy), Mr. Zalli stopped in a separate line from his family waiting his turn on passport control. He got in, yet his wife and daughters were forbidden and would be returned to Albania. At this moment, the twins, who speak Italian (learnt it at school), asked the officer to double check their visa on his computer. After a few sentences form the twins, the officers asked their commander to let them in, who after some thought, answered that the visa wasn’t legit, but he would turn a blind eye. So they got into Italy, and were picked up by Besim (another mediator), who drove them to Foggia where they stayed form 2 nights. The Zallis had to shred their Albanian passports to prevent patrols or officers from knowing their identity.
Besim later dropped them at the station, where they took the train that took 8 hours to reach Milan. The following day, they took the 10-hour train to Paris. Another mediator waited for them in St. Lazare station, who dropped them at a hotel to be picked up the next day. Then they took another train to Boulogne, where they thought that they would get on the ferry to England. Yet, they were smuggled into trucks, leaving their 4 big bags behind! The trucks then were loaded onto the ferry! Throughout this stressful adventure, the Zallis kept hiding whenever they saw an officer, whether it was on the street, in stations, or on trains.
Upon getting out from the truck on July 31st 1999 in Folkestone port (in Kent), the border patrol caught everyone. Like the rest of the run-aways, the Zalli family was held in a room of the immigration services. The smugglers told these immigrants to state that they were from Kosovo since it is easier to be accepted as a refugee. Yet, upon interrogating the parents separately, the officers discovered that they were Albanians. Nonetheless, they got a 2-month stay in Folkestone from the Immigration Nationality Directorate (IND). They stayed for 2 months in the Gran Canaria Hotel, at the expense of the social services. Throughout this time, Don Carlos helped them whenever they needed anything such as finding a school for the twins.
In October 1999, they succeeded in the English evaluation test and got into the Channel School in Folkestone. To the opposite of the twin’ expectations, British students bullied and attacked them in the cafeteria, called them scum Slovaks, and yelled at them to go back to where they came from! This shocked the twins, who didn’t know the reason for such hatred! Despite this negative environment, they excelled in school, shocking most students in their class, esp. in math. This is because some Europeans (and Americans based on my experience) think that their country and education system are the best! Therefore, they look down onto non-Europeans and even on these from Eastern Europe, similar to the suffering of Deti and Gita.
Over time, the twins adapted to the school, and decided to concentrate on their education and forget about the bullies, esp. that they didn’t want to make their parents worry. They also started waiting tables in the Gran Canaria Hotel to help their parents in paying their debt.
Luckily, the Zalli’s IND was extended for another 2 months, then for additional 2 years (July 2002). The family also were given an old house, furnished with modest furniture and broken TV, and the social services provided them with cooking utensils. Nevertheless, these days and years were very stressful for the family because they were worried of being deported at any time. Their house also was attacked by boys form the twins’ school, by throwing stones and slurring at them. So Mr. Zalli took Deti and tried to talk to the boy’s dad. But to his shock, they were faced with hatred! They weren’t welcome in their country.
In April 2000, the twins started working as waiters in the Blanc Hotel restaurant, where 2 of the bullies (Caroline and Daisy) joined them after a few months. Against the expectations of the twins, this turned out to be good since they got to know the bullies and became friends with them. Deti even discovered that Caroline let out her anger onto others because her divorced parents (addicted dad and alcoholic mom) neglected her and her little brother. Deti discovered that the love of her family is the greatest gift of all.
Later, Mr and Mrs. Zalli joined the staff of the Blanc Hotel restaurant too. It was the only job they could find since unlike their daughters, they don’t speak English. Sadly, on June 25th 2002, the night of the GCSE science exam, Mr. Zalli had a heart attack and stroke while on his way with his wife home. So the twins called an ambulance, after which they left a voice message to their mom’s Kosovar friend Bytyci. Their dad survived and the twins got the highest grade in the school.
In September 2004, they received amnesty - an indefinite leave to remain in England. This was achieved with the help of Jenny, their social worker, who contacted their lawyer and the Home Office. Jenny supported them because the twins got accepted into the University of Sussex, which was conditional on having a kind of residency in the UK. Eventually the twins were accepted into the molecular medicine in the University of Sussex, which was supported by a scholarship.
The Zallis were able to pay their debt and visit Albania in December 2005. Today, Gita and Deti have a family, and live near their parents in England. Gita received her PhD in immunology, and currently work at the University College London. She is also a learning design lead at the Imperial College, and a fellow at the Higher Education Academy. Deti got a PhD in biochemistry, and got into Harvard School for Dental Medicine. Currently, she is the director of Pre-Medical Studies at Cambridge University, after being a senior academic at the University of Oxford in oncology. She also has a certificate from NASA’s Spaceflight Technology, Applications, and Research Program. Both received prestigious awards in research and science and worked with Nobel Prize laureates. They also founded We Speak Science to support science and researchers from all over the world, and the Zalli Foundations to promote kindness via storytelling.
In this book, the Zalli twins described the beauty of Albania, but the schools were shabby and had no heaters in the 1990s. Teaching history in England was better and more fun due to using videos, showing what happened in the past. They also noted that in Albania, fruits like banana were expensive and eating them was luxury, yet they were able to eat banana in Folkestone by purchasing it from the farmers market.
This true-story is about holding on to hope and never giving up, as well as self-confidence, perseverance, and enduring the obstacles that a person face to reach ones’ goal similar to grapes that must be pressed to make wine. For instance, the Zalli family were traumatized due to exposure to violence in Albania, the horrible traveling/transportation conditions, as well as physical and verbal abuse in England. They got over all these experiences, which caused the twins to mature at an early age, because of family love.
My favorite quotes:
Deti thoughts at Bari port, “Everyone tells you it’s all over. You’re like a wounded bird – your wings drop and you feel drained of energy and hope. But then suddenly, slowly, you recover your strength and start to fight. Gradually, another part of you awakens, giving birth to belief, to conviction that you can do it. You can climb that mountain and overcome all odds.”
Deti thoughts at Bari port about being helped by Mother Mary (whose figurine was given to her by her aunt, and remained in her hand throughout the trip) to speak to officers in Italian, “Someone had helped us rev up our determination and transmit our hearts’ desire into their hearts. That someone was in the palm of my hand. Thank you, Mother Mary. Tonight, she taught me if you really wanted something, you could get it, because deep inside, you knew the steps you needed to take to succeed.”
Gita thoughts about her dad and quitting (not to do the exam) when her dad got sick, “He (Mr. Zalli) taught us to be fighters, to face any situation. No matter how difficult the challenge, we had learned to confront it head on without trying to hide or make excuses.”
Gita thoughts when she became 18, and was accepted with her sister in the University of Sussex, “We weren’t afraid of the unknown because we discovered that maturity had everything to do with the acceptance of uncertainty.”
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