Before, Ibrahim Shadi was a lawyer. Before the war ravaged his country, Syria. With his wife, he leaves Homs and goes to Lebanon in spring 2015. They begin a long journey by plane to Brazil, "one of the few countries in the West which accepts to issue tourist visas to passport holders Syrian". The Christian couple has family in Sao Paulo and stays there for about a month then leaves for Dominica. But a few weeks later, tropical storm Erika hit the island.
“Everything was destroyed. There weren't even any thefts. So we took a boat to Guadeloupe, ”recalls Ibrahim. From there, they take the plane to Saint-Martin, because his brother, who has American nationality, lives on the Dutch side and can accommodate them. “At the beginning, he was the one who kept us up because we had no money,” says Ibrahim, who has since obtained refugee status. He cannot practice the profession of lawyer because his diploma is not valid in France and his level of French is insufficient to pass an equivalence. A year after his arrival, Ibrahim finds a job in a grocery store in the rue de Hollande. He learned English at school but at the beginning his level was a bit low. He has been fluent since then. He dreams of opening his own business. He passes his driving license, does all the administrative procedures, helped by his brother. Then comes Irma, whom he describes as a "disaster", even if we understand that it is less harsh than war. He quits his salaried job after Irma and decides in mid-February to open his own grocery store at the Royal Marina, on Low Town Street. “I wanted to go on an adventure. The area was dead. I thought to myself that there was a main road, a bus stop, a building above and that it could work. Ibrahim says. At first he was a bit lonely, because after the cyclone many businesses closed. But since then a dozen shops and restaurants have opened. Ibrahim appreciates the freedom that his new job allows him. “I like being my own boss. And anyway, I didn't have many other solutions ”.
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