The game had now started, and I had no choice but to play ball. And that meant I had to lie. I knew myself to be a less adequate person for acting in such wrong way. I had never lied in my whole life. But life teaches you that this is a sinful world, a world where in some instances the righteous becomes the loser and the lies help you go through the next step. Sure, both the truth and the lie have their own consequences, and at that moment I was taught that the consequences of telling the truth were more severe than those of telling a lie. I was becoming part of the sinful world. I, too, was about to sin as I pronounced the words:

‘Hi, we are from Kosovo.’ I was already shaking while bearing in mind the orders given by the Albanians. I had to, at all costs, refuse the idea that in reality we were from Albania, due to the fear of sending us back home.

‘Which part of Kosovo do you come from?’ she asked.

I had not thought about this possible question, and at that moment I didn’t have any answers with me. But I was not prepared to surrender, so I decided to take time and think smart.