Lives lived in limbo all over the place.  

This is "Mary." She is from Afghanistan. She is a woman traveling alone with her 9 year old son. She has been in Serbia now for 3 months. She, like so many others, has come here for her child. She longs for him to be in school. This is an expensive time for him she says and then corrects herself. "Precious." He is losing out on critical chances to learn, to keep his mind engaged and active and learning. And of course she is right. She doesn't want to show her face because there are people she is running from in Afghanistan. They are very clever she says. "They would know how to find me."  

She used to be a teacher. She speaks four languages. Her days she spends in nervous anxiety. She says her son dreams of a day when they can live in a house where he can play outside safely and she can watch him from the window.  

She bursts into tears.  

People think I am brave on the outside she tells me but inside I am an empty shell.  

October 2016