Khinkali – a famous Georgian dish, was prepared for customers in a St. Petersburg restaurant by Tajik chef Zarrina.
He works in one of the “DeDa Khinkali” restaurant chains as a head chef and in charge of tasting food. Prepares meals and banquets for various events and for tens and hundreds of people.
Zarrina has been emigrating for 25 years, and unlike many women who complain about their hard work and life abroad, she is satisfied with her work and is respected by her colleagues. He says that women, if they have the desire and effort, can find their own way and place in migration and make a better life for themselves.
25 years ago, Zarina left her 6-year-old child with her mother and decided to emigrate alone. This decision was not easy, but at that time he had no other way to make a living.
In her conversation with the “Hello, sister” program of Radio Ozodi, Zarrina said the following:
“I worked for two years in the personnel department of the hospital (policlinic) No. 2 in the city of Kulob. Because the salary was low, I had to emigrate to have a better life. At that time, my daughter was 5-6 years old. When the first grade left, I was not there. I always remember this with sadness and consider myself indebted to him. We were not together neither on birthdays nor on New Year’s.
At first, he wanted to start working in Moscow, but according to Zarrina, this big city did not accept him well. After a year, he returned home empty-handed and this time he went to St. Petersburg with the advice of his friend. Here he started to wash dishes and floors.
“I came to Russia with the intention of working as a professional, but I couldn’t. I went to the kitchen department. I started work from scratch, washing dishes and floors. But at the same time, I watched how professional chefs cook. It was interesting for me. I wanted to also learn how to prepare delicious food. I really like to please people and it was very important to me that people are happy when they eat the food I prepare. Not everyone can teach you the ins and outs of cooking. You have to do what you can. you have to believe and know that you can handle the job and that you are not inferior to anyone else. I would ask other chefs to let me help them. Or during campaigns, when there was a lot of work, I would always help them. That’s how I showed myself that I can do it too.”
According to Zarrina, first of all, patience, effort and strength can help every woman reach her goal in life. He considers the lack of tolerance and readiness for hardships, especially during migration, to be a reason why many women face a lot of problems.
“There is a lot of opportunity, all women’s work is paid. Everything does not happen at once. People, especially our women, are not ready to work and live here. See, I will give a simple example. A woman came and asked me to help her. I provided him with a place to sleep and work. But in the end it became clear that he was not ready to do menial work, he did not want to clean the floor or the toilet, for example.”
While the long migration makes some women depressed and heartbroken, apparently our interviewee, although she did not walk this path easily, she does not feel poor and is optimistic about life and tries to have a good time with work. He says that he spent 25 years of his life in exile alone, and although he did not accumulate much wealth, he managed to achieve his goal.
“I wanted my children and parents not to need anything. There is always warm bread on my mother’s table and my father is also provided. My goal was that my relatives would not need anything, that my daughter would go to school well and get an education. I have reached this goal.”
Source : Радио Озоди