(CNN)When hundreds of thousands of refugees began arriving in Berlin last summer, Manuela and Joerg Buisset abandoned plans to rent out their newly-renovated basement, and instead offered it to refugees in need of shelter.
Ahmed and Nourhan and their daughter Alin came to stay for 10 days, carrying all of their belongings in two small plastic bags. More than a year later, they and their new baby are now part of the Buisset family -- though it hasn"t all been easy.
"Ahmed was very insecure and shy, but we thought he was stubborn," recalls Manuela. "He wouldn"t make eye contact with us, which we thought was so impolite, but he thought it was rude to make eye contact ... He later told me he was just completely lost."
"We are so happy here," says Nourhan. Manuela went with Nourhan to all her medical appointments, and was at the hospital when baby Laith was born in July.
"At first I was scared," admits Manuela, "But we really, really like each other now."
Although they feel at home with the Buissets, the family longs to return to Al Quneitra in Syria -- when peace talks were held last November, they began packing their bags in the hope they could go back.
"I feel like I am living in heaven"
When Margarethe Kramer offered a spare room in her home to a refugee, she was expecting a headscarf-wearing woman with traditional views to move in.
"But I was really surprised when I met Souad," the kindergarten teacher says. "She is so independent, so open minded, [so] modern."
Souad Awad, 49, a refugee from Iraq, has been living with Kramer in the Austrian border town of Lavanttal for just a few weeks, but already the pair are firm friends.
"I feel like I am living in heaven now," Souad said. "Margarethe is amazing -- so sweet and her whole family is wonderful. I feel at home. I feel she"s like my sister."
Kramer, 59, says she is pleased to have someone to keep her company while her husband is away working for much of the week.
"The whole experience enriched my life, with friendship and companionship," she says.
Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/31/photos/refugees-welcome-unhcr-no-stranger-place/index.html
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