Diary of Agnese – 3
Yesterday my suitcase, full of gifts from Syrian friends to their relatives, lost a few pieces, which reached their recipients, but immediately filled up again with something else to bring to those in Italy.
Today we leave for Homs.
Exiting Damascus, the bus drives by Ghouta, the neighbourhood literally reduced to rubble by the violent oppression of the regime.
That of the chemical attacks.
It’s striking, because it’s right next to the city, like a crude amputation that never healed.
Rubble, heaps of abandoned rubble.
Then a rocky desert, and behind the snowcapped mountains...poetic.
And in between this poetry some abandoned eco-monster of cement, unfinished, the legacy of the building speculation of an old world.
We stop to get some sweets for the family we’re visiting.
For 3 dollars of pastries we have to leave a thick wad of Syrian banknotes. Here we walk around with millions in our pockets with how high inflation is.
We often go visit W., who after becoming ill had surgery, and now has a disability.
He needs medical equipment that is not available here in Syria, so we get it for him from Italy.
W.’s daughters ask us to help them with their English homework.
They say that now school is great...then explain that classes have been merged and that for some subjects they don’t have a teacher...well, everything is relative, compared to how it was before.
Those who attended school in Lebanon are finally restarting with their regular lessons, but have so many gaps that they seriously struggle to keep up with the programme.
They ask us to help them with 9th grade English exercises, when they struggle with those of the 1st grade!
We end the day in the village of Qusayr, where the rest of the group of the Doves waits for us.
Life goes on with shocking simplicity in the ruins.
Lit up shops on the ground floors of dilapidated and crumbling buildings. Kebab being served in between the rubble...
It’s an odd sight, and I don’t know if I should see the glass half empty or half full.
But I cannot only see the lights, the life and the daily routine...
Where do we put all this rubble? It doesn’t just need to be rebuilt, it needs to be torn
down and to start off anew.
OPERAZIONE COLOMBA
