Be prepared for the worst.
Suuna Golooba from Uganda comes in 2003 illegally to Holland to work here as a house cleaner. While cleaning he says that Dutch men don’t trust male cleaners, because they fear they steal and they take their wifes. He doesn‘t earn enough to pay for the school of his daughter in Uganda, so we see him going from door to door offering flyers - for his wife, he says.
Suuma says he is the boss of the family since he went to Europe. He has to look after his family. Sometimes he skypes with his daughter or calls with his sister, who tells him she wants new shoes. In Uganda people think Europe is a place of milk and honey and their inhabitants are very hospitable.
His sister says that in their youth they paraded because both their father and grandfather were in the army. Their father died when they were young. When the king of Bugunda came to visit their school the whole family saw her brother march. From his birth on he was a special boy.
His mother remembers that Ssuuna went to the nespaper compagny to tell them the local news and finally he got money in return to buy bread and milk. Later he became a photojournalist.
At first he couldn’t get used to cleaning toilets in Holland and sleeping in a hallway. He did not tell his family about it and hoped life would soon be better. He watched all the news on television and saw the fire in the detention area of Airport Schiphol in October 2005 in which eleven young persons died, waiting for their deportation. It shocked him. He couldn’t believe such a thing could happen in a rich country like Holland with firealarms. They came here for a better life. It could have happened to him, he feared. He decided to go back to Uganda but first he wanted to make a film to warn his fellowmen back home.
He starts to make interviews with other illegals like Martha from Zambia who cleans in four houses a day and has not even time to eat. She says it would be a shame if she would not make it in Europe. Another woman works as a prostitute and says they invested in them and think Europe is heaven. A man, fighting against the trade of Africans by Africans, says that even if you bring a brother home dead, another one will go. If you want to have an impact there is a price to pay: rejection. People are brainwashed to go to Europe.
He visites an animal hotel. It costs fifteen euros a day to let your dog stay there. Dogs have a passport, get food, drinks and even a hairdresser. Dogs are treated as children. They have a better life the an illegal person from Africa.
Six years were a long and though time, he says, when the film is ready. He is scared to go back and see his family in Uganda. He brings bags and shoes for them. He is shocked by the poverty and that’s why he rather stays in a hotel.
He shows his film in Kampala, at night in a swimmingpool with everybody on the platforms. There are a lot of students. He says that he doesn’t want to discourage them but just give them information. He went to Holland with too many expectations. He did not know a visa was not enough and that he also needed a working permit. His message is: be prepared for the worst. We see other stories, from Germany, about racist murders.
He askes the boss of the newspapercompagny if he can work there again, but the man says they employ only because of qualities. Ssuuna should have to start from zero. He stays in the house of a friend and sleeps in a chair again. ‘’Who don’t you start a business like a production compagny?’ the friend askes.
Ssuuna sees his daugther in a boarding school and wants to do everything for her. His mother needs money to repair the house. He thinks about going back to Holland. Ssuuna is the initiator of Surprising Europe. On the site one can share his or her experience with migration:
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