Assalamu aleykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatu, sisters!
In today’s story I would like to tell you about our life in Syria before being taken to the refugee camp. I want to tell you something about the hardships we had to face but also about the pleasant moments we had there.
I would like to start by saying that, once we reached there, we immediately were immersed in a completely different culture, with different customs and a different cuisine than those to which we were accustomed.
The main issue for me at first was the language barrier. I practically had to explain everything by using hand gestures and sign language. I also had to become accustomed to the currency and the prices there. At first, I found it difficult to go outside the house but, after a while living there, the children started learning some words in Arabic, and this made all of our lives a lot easier. They gradually started using their Arabic skills and talking to the vendors in the market. Personally, I found it extremely difficult to do that because I simply could not manage to remember the appropriate words in Arabic for what I was trying to buy. I tried hard to learn Arabic, but I all seemed hopeless. However, after four years of living in Syria, my brain started to remember some words and I would find myself saying some phrases in Arabic from time to time, without even realizing it, or slipping some Arabic sentences here and there while I was talking to my family.
Another major change when moving to Syria was the climate and the weather. Just a few months after our arrival there, Ramadan started. And, at first, we founded difficult to adapt to the new conditions there, especially during the holy month. We were not accustomed to the heat during summertime and we found it insufferable. At one point, I thought I was going to die. I had to go about my daily duties around the house, to take care of my children, clean, go to the market and cook. Moreover, in Syria, we would often receive guests in our home, so I had to keep the house extremely clean at all times and cook enough food for everyone.
I just remembered a funny story and I wish to share it with you, my dear readers. I knew, from back home, in my own country, that bell peppers are not spicy. Oh, how I was mistaken! In Syria, bell peppers are, usually, extremely spicy, so you have to check and taste it before using it in your food. It is so spicy it can cause serious burns. This is what happened to me. Because I was fasting and because it was extremely hot outside, I think my brain was not functioning properly, to its maximum capacity anymore, so I was not careful enough. I forgot to check how spicy the bell pepper is. That evening, we were also expecting several guests, so I prepared a big pot of shurpa (a traditional soup with meat and vegetables). I wanted to make the dish as tasty as possible for the guests and for my family, so I cut a lot of bell peppers and put them in the pot. Five minutes after I did this, I started feeling a burning sensation on my hand, my skin turned red and a blister appeared. Even thogh I stopped immediately from what I was doing and started washing my hands with lots of water, nothing helped. At the same time, without considering the pain I was feeling at that point, I started to rapidly remove the bell peppers from the pot. But my shurpa was very spice and I had to serve it to the guests like that, because I did not have enough time to prepare something else. I had not other options at that point. Fortunately, everything turned out fine in the end, because the guests liked spicy food and they all appreciated and enjoyed my dish. The only issue remaining was that, after this incident, I was left with some burns on my hand, that took quite a long time to heal completely.
I have to confess that I also had some trouble becoming accustomed to the food and produce which you could find in Syria. The cuisine was different than that of my own country and I found it less varied and diverse.
But, like I said in the beginning of my story, we also had pleasant moments and good times in Syria. Everything was new and exciting for us. I remember always being able to find and eat extremely delicious pomegranates, which the locals would eat like we ate apples, peel and all. In Syria, I also ate boiled peanuts, that I found to be extremely tasty. I also could find lots of kefir which was sold in small buckets. The taste was similar to that of yoghurt, but somewhat better. In one of the towns we lived in Syria, we became friends with some our Syrian members. They taught me how to make kefir in my own home and we had a really good time together while living there. I keep these beautiful moments in my memory and I treasure them to this day.
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