Beautiful and Uncertain

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If you are reading this, thank you for your interest in the journey of an unknown person. My name is Sakib, and I work with technology for a living. I was born in Bangladesh and grew up there. Currently, I live in Bergen. Bergen is a long distance from my home. How I traveled this long distance is not only a matter of flying on an aircraft, but more of how my life has been over the last few years.

It started when I was sent to Bergen for a short visit in 2016 from my office in Bangladesh. I used to work in a company called Vizrt Bangladesh. It was a company in Bangladesh, headquartered in Norway. That short visit of mine forced me to be in love with Norway. Especially with Bergen, where I stayed. That falling in love was not the actual reason why I am here today.

The company in Bangladesh no longer exists. It was closed by management, but they offered some of us to relocate to their Norway branch. I was one of them who got that offer. As a person, I never wanted to leave my parents and my country to go abroad. That is why my first visit to Bergen played a role here. I was kind of waiting for an opportunity since I was already in love with this new city. Therefore, I did not take long to accept the offer. That is how I am here in Bergen today.

I moved here with my family. The relocation process was really smooth because I got service from a relocation agent and they did an excellent job. I arrived in Bergen in August 2017. For me, it was like being back in the place of my dreams, and for my family it was Europe for the first time. But everything has a bad side too. The first challenge was being apart from parents in Bangladesh. My wife especially became very frustrated and sad. She left her parents, she left her job and put herself on a beautiful but uncertain land. This is a common problem for anyone coming to Norway.

In this situation I had to be strong. I had to be positive and bring a positive impression to my wife and daughter. Yes, I have my daughter with me as well. My wife also had to become a woman who takes care of a kid at home while I was at the office. These situations often result in misunderstandings and bad relationships. We had to wait for our Norwegian IDs. We had no doctor assigned, residence permit, tax card etc… That was the worst moment of the journey. Few sad minds with lot of important stuff to be done.

In these situations it is important to keep cool. You have to figure out how Norwegians keep themselves happy. You have to adapt to the lifestyle here. Talk to local people whenever possible. I did that. I tried to solve each problem one by one and the process is still on-going. I figured out how Norwegians manage small kids, which path to follow to get a job, how Norwegians are by nature, the night life here, how to cook and eat, how to find home – and the list goes on.

My daughter will soon be going to Kindergarten, which will give my wife time to work on the language. We have a known Bengali community now. I go to the gym and workout. You can see how things are progressing. We are a lot better now than before. I am a very fun-loving person. I love useless gossip, I love to dance, I don’t like worrying too much… I feel, its a perfect place for me. I don’t want to go too deep on each and every experience I have had so far because that will take a small book to write. I just want to give a message to the new people in Norway.

Things are not easy when you first arrive but take the difficulty as a new challenge for a beautiful life, then things will start shaping up pretty soon. Norway is a beautiful country with beautiful people. Good luck.

 

By: Sakib Palash

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