By Karen van Elmpt
Last week Christian, Natalia, Ilona and I drove to Emmen to visit Rufat. We all thought it was time to see him again and make him feel like we haven’t forgotten him. Since we haven’t. The car trip was long and that made us realise how far he lives from home back in Alkmaar.
When we arrived we saw his big smile and we gave him a warm hug. We first went into the famous Wildlands zoo which was very much fun. Lots of laughs but that’s always the case when you hang out with Rufat. He has this very dry special sense of humor where he can take the piss out of you but not be rude or offensive. After running around the zoo in the rain we found a cafe close by and played pool like we always do. They played good music and we all danced and sang together. Rufat and I share a love for Tame Impala and Arctic Monkeys so it was nice to bond through music again like we always did.
It was clear that Emmen was a dead city. There was hardly anything to do or any people around. After we played pool we went to the Burger King and had dinner. There we laughed talking about embarrassing stories and funny memories with each other. One thing we all love about Rufat is his laugh, he is the funniest friend I have. Sadly it started to get dark and we had to say our goodbyes.
We brought him to his AZC and took a good look at his place from a distance. There was a metal fence on the outside of the buildings, it did not look welcoming at all and it was in the middle of nowhere. It was sad to see Rufat leave and enter the AZC.
We all wanted to take him with us back to Alkmaar where he belongs.