Aziza, my dearest
“You know how it feels when you start falling in love? It was exactly like that. You can see over a thousand different ones, but then you look at her and you just know it. I swear to god. I saw her and immediately realized that she was the one. She is not the tallest one in the crowd, one meter and 57 centimeters to be precise, but she is absolutely stunning. Her gray hair shimmers in the sunlight. I gave her the name Aziza, because she was my first love.”
“The name means my dearest in Arabic. You might not believe it, but even though her beauty was beyond comprehension not everybody loved her right from the start. It took me four, no maybe five years to convince my family that she is one of the best things that has ever happened to me. Slowly they realized that she is amazing and that Aziza is not family in blood, but by choice.”
Loving someone can go a long way, but sometimes the love for certain things is bigger than people can imagine. Some people are born to love their cats or maybe their dogs, but for Anwar it is horses that fill his heart with love. Anwar’s voice lights up when he talks about her. “People tend to call me Anva. I do not really know why. They just replace the ‘w’ with a ‘v’ and entirely forget about the last letter”, The 27 year old veterinarian student explains how people from Germany tend to pronounce his name. “I myself speak five languages. I learned them along the way. I learned Arabic because my mom is Arabic. Hebrew because I am from Israel and that is the main language over there. English, since we learn it in school and then only German and Italian are left. Those I learned in the country of origin. “I used to live in Israel and I remember that I worked really hard when I was younger. I must have been sixteen when I finally bought her.” Aziza was not only his first love but his first horse as well and maybe his hardest goodbye.
Having an incredibly enormous passion for something, does not necessarily mean that your future actually includes your passion. That did not happen for Anwar either. “When I was 17 I wanted to start learning therapeutic writing. That means that I was helping children cope with their mental or physical problems. When I finished that I started following a design course which included journalism and photography as well. The thing is that I got bored. Sitting behind a desk, inside of an office… It was not really my thing. So I moved to Germany. I chose this country, because studying is almost for free. The other ones were way out of reach.”
Moving from one country to another to try out something new. Anwar followed his dreams all the way to Germany. As always, following your dreams sounds amazing, however that does not mean that it is always easy. “You will not believe how ridiculously hard it is to actually get an allowance that lets you stay in Germany. There is so much bureaucracy?!” A slight hint of frustration slips through the words when Anwar talks about all the procedures and the waiting. Every two or three months I had to go back to the foreigners office to apply again. Fill in all the forms and then wait for them to accept it.” Surprisingly enough, two months back Anwar got the word that he can actually stay here for another two years. “I am so grateful.”
The thing about having an enormous passion for something, like Anwar does, is that it does not just disappear. It is like a constant flow running through your veins. It is what you are born for. It pushes you to do whatever it takes. If that is learning a completely new language, so be it. “One of my friends suggested that I could become a vet, just because I love the horses so much. So I checked what I had to do to be admitted to the veterinarian university in Hannover. Then it turned out that I at least had to learn German.” Quasi nonchalant Anwar tells how he passed the German test within a year and got accepted at one of the oldest as well as one of the finest veterinarian schools in Europe. “Literally, everybody who has to do something with horses knows that if you attend this school, you are doing something good.”
Attending the school is one thing, however you also need a place to stay. Imagine sleeping in a hostel for the first eight weeks you arrive in an unknown city. “I did not really have any friends yet who could help me find a new place. I did not really speak the language it was hard and kinda lonely. Besides that the room I stayed in was ridiculously expensive. I had to pay 30 euros each night. I think that the longest period I actually had a place for myself was approximately three months long. Even when the beginning was rough I do like Hannover and the fact that students can do sports for free. I mean it is a little crowded, but that is okay”.
Since he now can stay for at least two years he found a new place to stay. “A few of my friends told me about a house. It is right next to the veterinarian university. Before I moved in I had not even heard of the house and I definitely did not expect it to be this great. The people are so unbelievably nice, friendly and helpful. They do so many things together and if you need help they are always there.” Anwar is talking about the big yellow building on the corner of a street in Südstad. It is called the Schwesternhaus, a completely self-governing student dormitory. “I have three rooms! Three! All for myself. A kitchen as well. The wooden floors are beautiful and I even have a little tiny stair towards my bedroom. He laughs. “The only downside that I can think about is that I have to walk at least three to four minutes to get to the toilet. On the other hand. I have so much space for myself that I actually cannot really complain about that.”
“I wish horses had as much space as I feel I do. I do not really like the fact that horses are being locked into their cages, boxes or fields. I know we cannot really do it otherwise, because it would be weird and dangerous to let them loose in a city or something. There is however a saying which I wholeheartedly believe in. ‘Horses should have a horse life.’ They should be free! So they can move around freely, eat as much grass as they want, whenever they want. These days it is just not like it used to be. They get food twice a day and the owner tells them when and in which amount. It pains me to see these things. On the other hand I cannot really change it. Even when I would do it differently.”
“So many times people have misconceptions about horses. They are scared. Think that riding a horse is dangerous, that you will be kicked of the horse and that the risk of having something broken is huge. Which is absolutely not true Or that they do not give anything in return and that they are useless. That is not true either. For me, as soon as I walk into the stables, it feels like a meditation, something that calms me down and an extra family member at the same time. They give me a certain calmness and friendship.”
“When I am done studying, I will have my own stables. Not only stables. I will have a place where I can combine having my own horses with having my own clinic. Not only for horses, but for all animals. I might not have been born to love cats and dogs as much as horses, but I want to take care of them as good as I can. And my horses? They will roam freely. I will give them family and friends to play with.”
If you are standing on top of mount Carmel in the north of Israel and you are looking to the north-west you can see the city Haifa. That is where Anwar used to live before. His family still lives there. He actually is quite far away from his home: It would take 46 hours to drive the 4118 kilometer long ride to get to Hannover, but it is the place where he learned to ride Aziza. A horse does have a price tag and even though he worked hard when he was sixteen, he ended up with not having enough money to actually buy a saddle. “I rode her bare back. Aziza taught me how to ride. Not only me, but most of my friends and family as well. It will forever be embedded inside of my head and heart”, Anwar’s voice sounds lovingly when he talks about his first horse and the words he choses get more poetic. “Then I left and I had to leave her behind, which was particularly hard to do. You would not believe it.”
“I would not even sell her if I got one thousand euros. The only thing I wanted was for her to have a home. A loving place with someone who could take care of my baby when I was gone and then one of my friends suddenly showed up. He wanted to take care of Aziza. The way he asked it was beautiful. He asked if he could have the honor of taking care of her and she is doing so great right now. Really. I care so much for her and I am content knowing that she is alright.”
