Danguolė, who emigrated to Norway, cried while leaving Lithuania: she did not expect such happiness
Prior to maternity leave, Dauguolė Trapavičienė worked for a Swedish company and held the position of Commercial Director. And then her fourth child, daughter Eve, was born. Her wife had a second husband. The first to start a construction business was a woman who closed after a divorce. After that, they bought an area with a large homestead – there was room for a house and outbuildings, and there was room left for a rural tourism homestead.
“I worked in the company for a while and I had a rural tourism homestead, which we rented and got good pajamas. There was already a circle of customers when the same people or people from their circle came back. We arrived very quickly. important because the place was not bad – near Kaunas. people from Vilnius and Kaunas were driving.
Our house was in the same yard. It was a homestead with a lot of arable land. When we had a rural tourism homestead, we didn’t need that land, so we rented it out to a local farmer to work on it. There were five buildings in our yard. Among them is a residential house, a building for rent, which was twice the size of our yard, a clone, ”says Danguolė.
PHOTO GALLERY. The fire of the skies all over: rediscovered their happiness in Norway
Fateful night
However, in January 2012, a fire broke out on their holdings. About 20 o’clock in the evening on her return from work, her husband noticed a fire. The family called out the firefighters and hurried to put out the fire themselves. However, they managed to control the fire themselves, then when the help arrived, all that was left was to ensure that the fire was completely controlled and the danger was gone.
“We believe it could have been ignited intentionally, although the court did not prove it, because the fire started in a part of the building away from our windows. Thanks to a happy random man, we noticed a fire broke out as he returned from work at the base of the fire. When the firefighters arrived, they cut the ceiling to the second floor. He stayed a little and said, “Oh, let’s see, maybe there’s nothing terrible here,” Danguolė recalls.
When the woman woke up at 1 o’clock at night, she saw reflectors falling through the window and it was too late – the building was on fire.
“It simply came to our notice then. We called the firefighters. this time they already knew where they were coming, they had been driving for a long time for the first time, ”the woman says of the horrors of that night.
The estimate of the rural tourism homestead was about 300 thousand. litas, which Danguolė and her husband had borrowed from the bank, then she could not restore. The property was insured, but the insurance company found a loophole that allowed it not to pay money in the event of an accident.
“We have filed two lawsuits, one for the fire service and the other for property insurance, because they found loopholes for not paying the money. One of the versions was arson, so they didn’t pay. We won the case with the fire service because they left earlier than they had and did not run out of fire again, and the money we received was enough to cover the loan we had taken to buy the homestead, ”she says.
He went after the man
Still, disasters do not walk one by one. At that time, the family lost not one, but two sources of income, because at the same time the company where Danguolė’s husband worked went bankrupt.
“He worked at a game processing plant in technology. The man was left without income, no more business, and only motherhood was learned. Of the three sources of income, only one and four children remain, ”Danguolė recalls.
However, after the family’s disasters, a light was seen at the end of the tunnel – the man was invited to work in Norway. He was offered a technology position at one of the meat factories.
“A man from a previous job had familiar food technology from Scandinavia. One of them asked if my husband would want to come and try to work. It came at that worst time. God seems to send those needed people.
He was invited to work in the factory as a technology. I said he could work there, earn money, and I’ll take care of the rest here. From his income, we tidied up his dwelling house, one side of which was ravaged by a burning building. We also paid for the lawyer with that money.
One lawyer whose name I can’t name because he works for the ministry helped us in vain. Until now, I am grateful to him for that. He won one of our cases. After another ticket was taken over by another lawyer, we lost the case, ”says the woman.
The family lived like this for a while – Danguolė and children in Lithuania, and the husband – in Norway. The family reunion took place on the Skype app. One day, when the younger son asked to show Dad over, Heaven couldn’t stand it. He realized that he had to go to Norway himself if he wanted to support one family.
“I cried when I decided to travel. It’s scarier than scary. My circle of friends has gone to work. I have told many of my friends that how you can work as a cleaner with your education is what you do there. She told me I needed another choice because I needed money to make a living.
I said that I would probably not need to learn those languages, go somewhere, because I had established my well-being in Lithuania as well. And that prosperity perished in a matter of moments. Then I realized that it is necessary to learn not only other languages, but also other jobs, to leave my country, ”says Danguolė laughing now.
With two young children, the woman went into the unknown in Norway and the two elders remained at home. When her eldest daughter finished class at school, she took her to Norway as well. Now she has graduated from school, university and works in a pharmacy. The eldest son came to Norway and now also works in that country.
The success of the son in Norway
Going to her husband, the woman believed she would wake up only temporarily until her younger son Michael needed to go to school.
“Then he was 4 and a half years old, so I was planning to stay until he was 6 and we would be back because children of that age start school here. The children quickly learned the language in kindergarten. Michael was even written about by the local press as he learned Norwegian over the years. For the Norwegians themselves, it was a utopia of how a child can master a language in so much time.
My little daughter took a long time. When we came to Norway, she didn’t even speak Lithuanian. After that, her languages were intertwined and she did not know how to speak, because Lithuanian is spoken at home and Norwegian in kindergarten. She didn’t speak at all until 3, and then spoke both languages at once. I have survived that maybe my daughter will not talk at all, ”she shares her anxiety.
However, almost 8 years have passed since leaving for Norway and the family still lives in Norway, where not only parents but also children are happy. He is 12 years old and has been recognized as the youngest organist in all of Norway, whose talent has received one current boost.
“Children here in Norway can achieve everything in the same way as in Lithuania. Michael received two incentives this year – the size of a music school-funded bill for its size, and the church has also significantly reduced the fee for a person to remain anonymous who covers half of Michael’s learning to play the organ.
A great incentive for a child is to give him a letter of honor and tell them that they are helping the talent. Not a single priest has said that there is no other child in Norway who is 12 years old so play the organ. He has also played at several christening festivals, when even the stone hearts of Norwegians, from which it is difficult to squeeze a tear, even they cry when a child rings at their child’s christening, ”she smiles.
From working in a factory to owning a business
Arriving in Norway, Danguolė did not promise to sit with her hands down. She applied for a job at the factory where she worked. She was offered an evening cleaning job. Because there was more to choose from, the woman took it.
“Most of the women who come here are about 90 percent. they start with the blackest jobs – cleaning, factories, laundries. They really require physical capacity. These are works that the Norwegians themselves do not want. They are employed by all people who are looking for a tastier bite in Norway. I also started in the factory.
I started by washing the line where the meat was made in the day. In the evening we gathered 4 washers and washed the equipment. I worked in this job for about 3 years. I want to notice that emigration is really strong and strong for people, because the experiences we have here do not have to endure everyone, ”says the woman.
The woman decided that she did not want to work the blackest jobs of her life, so she decided to learn Norwegian because she would not have been able to get a better job without it.
“My agenda was like this – I take the children to kindergarten in the morning, I go to kindergarten to study Norwegian at the university, after the lectures – in the car sandwiches and I have coffee on the way to work. My university is 35 km away.
After the kindergarten, the children were taken by the man. All the man’s evenings and nights were with the children. I came back at night, from how many lines worked, sometimes at 1am, but it was like I was coming back at both 3am and 4pm. Depending on how much equipment needed to be washed. My agenda is so easy maybe a year and a half. It was really hard.
In the morning the children go to kindergarten, then learn the language and go to work – I turn like a squirrel in a circle. There were days when you realized that you had to be with your family, children needed a mother, a husband needed a wife, but I couldn’t do it. I slept for 12 hours or more on my days off. And then I went again. Of course, if I weren’t in the making, I wouldn’t be where I am now. Most of the women who work here just wash, get paid and live that way. I made an effort to learn the language, and I had the baggage of knowledge. The tax system here is different from Lithuania, but the numbers and formulas are the same, ”she smiles.
Now Danguolė has established a business and handles convenient Lithuanian documents in Norway. The woman admits she doesn’t know if she’s in Norway now if they don’t consider it for other reasons.
“I have a company that handles documents for Lithuanians – starting with tax returns, processing benefits for children, submitting applications for incapacity for work due to illness, consultations on various issues related to labor protection, health care related not only to taxes, but also to incapacity for work, registration, treatment , etc.
In my current activity, I listen to countless stories, I don’t hide the fact that sometimes I cry with my clients, because it’s really a pity for them … a few hours when you feel that a person decides to get out of life and see when you have managed to distract from that thought.
I could take the job with me and get my pajamas. I’m not tied to the workplace, just need to have my head and computer close at hand. If it weren’t for the kids ’school, I wouldn’t be here. I don’t know if I would be here. I would probably return to Lithuania. It would also be more convenient to live in Lithuania financially and it would be enough for four more children to receive Norwegian pajamas, ”laughs Danguolė.