Language Shouldn't Be a Curse, It Should Be a Blessing

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Foreigners Registration Center in Pabradė is one of the five places in Lithuania where migrants who have arrived across the Belarusian border are awaiting their fate. They have been there since last summer, yet there is still an apparent lack of interpreters.

This story is a meeting with three people living at the intersection of conversations. Salah Ruwandizi from Greece and Peri Ibrahim from the UK were hired and came to interpret professionally, while 13-year-old Hivi, who lives in Pabradė now, interprets unofficially and does it daily.

In the evenings, when hired translators finish their work and leave home, untranslated conversations continue. Hivi remains responsible for ensuring that important things are translated and conversations are understood. She's a Kurdish teenager who has been living in one of the detention centers with her parents for more than nine months.

At the moment, the days of Hivi’s family are marked by waiting for their final answer regarding their asylum status. Hivi, who had left Kurdistan when she was in 7th grade, has no educational prospects apart from a daily Lithuanian lesson in Pabradė. Yet the use of English in Hivis' daily routine is already constant - she translates and interprets for everyone around her, from the morning till the end of the day.

Hivi in Pabradė Foreigners Registration Center. ©Martyna Šulskutė
Hivi in Pabradė Foreigners Registration Center. ©Martyna Šulskutė
Peri Ibrahim, a professional interpreter, hired to work in Lithuania. ©Berta Tilmantaitė
Peri Ibrahim, a professional interpreter, hired to work in Lithuania. ©Berta Tilmantaitė
Salah Ruwandizi from Greece was also hired as a professional interpreter. ©Berta Tilmantaitė
Salah Ruwandizi from Greece was also hired as a professional interpreter. ©Berta Tilmantaitė
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Hivi taking a selfie. ©Martyna Šulskutė
Hivi taking a selfie. ©Martyna Šulskutė
Hivi's silhouette through a window in Pabradė. ©Berta Tilmantaitė
Hivi's silhouette through a window in Pabradė. ©Berta Tilmantaitė

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