Making Home Away
So I sat them down and told them: the five of us are here, me, you and your father, wherever the five of us are, that place should be your heaven.
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Look, my hairs are standing. Because I feel like my body is over here, but my mind is back in Syria.
We trusted them and they didn’t give us any trouble, until one day, one of them wrote a report...
I worked as an Uber driver only to improve my English, to get out of the house, and to make some money
... if you ask anybody here, they will tell you that the key to this country is the English language.
When I heard the sound I held my granddaughter and ran outside to the olive garden where I sheltered under an olive tree.
You know when you ask me about my feelings of moving and settlement, a line of memories moves in front of my eyes. Sometimes I spent time thinking about that, and sometimes I cry when I remember. But I am thankful.
Syria was a heaven on Earth, but Syrians now cannot afford the bread. People stand in lines for four or five hours to get one bag of bread. There is no electricity or gas; life is very hard there
I believe everyone can create his own home. You can make your own home by the relations that you develop with people where do you live. It is not exclusive to a specific piece of land.
My nieces did not have the chance to live or remember Syria. They only have memories about [city in Iraq]
Dina describes what home means to her, and how she finds glimpes of it while away in viewing things like the sea.
“What I really miss the most is my family home in Syria. It was a spacious home with a garden. The second thing I feel sad about is losing my job as a teacher; the respect and admiration I enjoyed among people…I was proud of my job”.
Yahia comments on concerns over the future, while also referencing the difficulty of integrating in cultures that do not emphasise community and kinship as strongly as those he felt in Syria and Lebanon.
We suffered in Syria, I do not have any feelings towards the idea of going back. There is even nothing left for me to visit again. There is no home or even cities