The Pharmacist of Tetovo
Car and bikes, Tetovo, Macedonia, September 2023
"Don’t you find it embarrassing that an Albanian girl is better than you?" the teacher told the other students after I had gotten once again the best grade in class. I stood there in the room, listening to every word. I didn't know what to do or say. Nationalism was shoved into the faces of Albanians back then in Macedonia. Of course, it’s intimidating. You're 17 years old and you think to yourself, what can you do about it? That was part of our everyday life as Albanians in Macedonia. Despite all the odds, I was very ambitious and didn’t let that stop me from graduating top of my class in school.
The moment I realized my dream of studying pharmacy was coming true, I was filled with joy. I was going to be one of the first Albanian women allowed to study pharmacy in Skopje, and not only that, I also had the best grades when I graduated. But then I was told at every pharmacy I applied to "You can’t get a job here, you're Albanian."
I had to become a member of the Communist Party just to have a chance to get a job. So I reluctantly joined the party - I wasn't convinced. Can you imagine? I knew that the Communists were against me as an Albanian and discriminated against my people, yet I had to join them to find work. But even that didn't help; I still couldn't secure a job.
So I decided to study again, this time enrolling in chemistry and biology, to avoid sitting idle at home.
About a year and a half later, I met a friend.
"Have you found a job yet?" she asked me.
"No," I responded.
"But you need a job."
"Yes, but I can't find one."
"Have you tried Tetovo?"
"No, I don't know anyone there."
"Come with me to Tetovo tomorrow, and let's ask around for a job. Most people there are Albanians."
At that time there were two pharmacies in Tetovo, and one of them belonged to an Albanian. He was just as happy to meet me as I was to meet him.
"You're Albanian, so you can start to work with us from now on," he said to me.
The patients were all Albanian, but the employees were all Macedonians who didn't speak Albanian and the Albanians spoke little Macedonian; This often led to misunderstandings, such as patients taking a tablet once instead of three times a day. The local people here were so happy that an Albanian was now working in the pharmacy. Finally, someone who spoke their language. I never wanted to take breaks or vacations back then. It was more important to me to help people, and that brought me joy.
Today, there are many female pharmacists, but back then there was only one - me. Those times were different. In Yugoslavia, we weren't allowed to be Albanians. We weren't allowed to learn our history. We had a history teacher who tried to teach us our history with old books. "Who are we? Where do we come from?" Those are questions we asked ourselves back then. The Yugoslav government wanted to teach us that we were all Communists and not Albanians. If you had an Albanian flag, you could end up in prison.
My children are no longer nationalists like we were, but I grew up with that nationalism. Why? Because we wanted to do exactly what was forbidden. You're not allowed to be Albanian. Then I'll be one even more. That's why many Albanians were proud to be Albanian. But after all, we just wanted to live in peace and not be treated as second-class citizens. Macedonia was our home too.
If you want to achieve something in the future, you always have to make sacrifices. Always. That's what my husband and I did for our children. For a better life, one generation must make sacrifices for the next. And now things are much better for our children.
“Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.”
