I still remember, that having an apartment was not easy. Anyhow, Trepça was so big, so that’s why all constructions are made by Trepça. Tuneli i Pare in its entirety including 13 collective housing are owned by Trepça. I remember that one day, I planned to construct a house in Stari Trg, because I have a plot of 10 acres in Stari Trg, to land a loan from the bank, so I submitted a request for loan. At that time there were various bodies, commissions which decided if you deserve a loan or not. I submitted a request for the project from the municipality for the house I wanted to build,… so everything was ready, I only waited loan to be approved. All directors asked me, “Hakif, you don’t have to construct a house. We will provide to you an apartment”. I have asked them “But, when you will provide it?”. Two are already in Tuneli i Pare and there are some still under construction, so very soon you will get an apartment, because you deserve it”. In fact, I had seven children and together with brothers, we were about twenty family members, “Really, you deserve it”, they said.
Speaking the truth, directors, Serbian or Albanian ones, they all agree that, “Hakif deserves to have an apartment”. So, I was provided with an apartment on 31st of December 1989. Forty-eight Trepça workers were provided with apartments, in two building, which were the last ones. Because, after six to eight months, we were expelled from the work. Anyhow, the apartment remained under my possession, so far.
The story about the pool
Yes, I was a footballer… but I was a good swimmer too, because of swimming pool in Stari Trg in 1966 I won the first place in freestyle swimming. I was and I am even today really good swimmer and I love to play football. We were playing together with friends and the others…, especially when I came home, with friends and colleagues. It was a pitch, or better saying a tennis court, we used to call it “English Colony”, because it was an English colony for real, and it was known by this name in Stari Trg. Englishmen lived there and workers’ colony was on the other side in Stari Trg- composed only by workers. So this was Stari Trg – whatever you needed, it was there.