Vlora starts her day at the refugee centre on Amager like many other children. She gets up in the morning, goes to school and is with her friends. The teachers at the centre organize many trips with the children so they will not have to think too much about the violence they have experienced. In the evening she is often at the youth club in the centre.

She misses her friends in the village and talks to them on the phone as often as she can. They are back in the village again and have started on their new lives after their time as refugees.

Vlora and her family are to stay in Denmark until the spring. It is impossible to live in their house, and they will not be able to repair it before the winter.

But Vlora is looking forward to going home and starting a new life of freedom without the dominating presence of the Serbs. She is very relieved that she does not have to go to school with Serbs any more. The school used to be divided, with the Serbs on the first floor and the Albanians on the ground floor.

Vlora has always wanted to be an actress, and at the centre they have acted a comedy that she was in. Otherwise her great passion is Spanish love films.

Longing and farewells
Vlora's oldest brothers and sisters would like to stay in Denmark – not always, but perhaps for some years; they would like to get started on the new life now, and not wait until the spring, when the family is returning home to start again. The waiting period at the centre is long.

But Vlora and her sister of 17 go to school and although they would rather go home now if they could, they have nothing against waiting until the spring comes.

All the time there are families who go back as it becomes possible. It is very sad to say goodbye to the people one has shared so many experiences with; and there are many good friends to say goodbye to. When a family has to leave, they have a party and talk and cry. There are three or four families left who will stay there over the winter.

The escape from the village
The day they fled, they had invited guests for dinner. The guests had recently been thrown out of their own house. After dinner the Serbian police came and said they had to be out of the house in five minutes, or they would be killed. They left the village with the other Albanians in a long column. And they had no idea where they could go.

They knew the Serbian police were looking especially for the young men, so Vlora's brother had to hide, and that way got separated from the family. They only found him the next day at the railway station in Pristina. They were at the station for almost 24 hours and then went on to Macedonia, where they lived in two different camps for eight weeks. From there they came to Denmark.