GROUNDING: SYRIANS FROM HASSAKA SPEAK OF THE PEACEFUL LIFE THEY KNEW
By:
Date: November 9, 2014
Excerpts:
Over the past two weeks in a small Lebanese village, I’ve gotten to know a number of Syrians, including a family from the Hasaka region in eastern Syria who’ve been pushed out of their village. He was an elementary school teacher for nearly 3 decades. They grew vegetables, had some chickens, lived reasonably happily.
They returned six months ago, yearning to see their country, their home. But most people they knew had left, driven out by foreign terrorists. There was nothing left to return to.
He works hard at his menial job, back straight, whistling a song from his memories, always cheerful in spite of his losses. Over coffee he shares stories and laughs, reminisces now and then about his former work and how the terrorists have ruined even schooling in his area. Sometimes he emotes the regretful “ach” I’ve heard so many times in Gaza, Palestine. “Ach, ya Eva, kan el hia helua.” Life was so good before…