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Samah is my name. Forgiveness is what I am doing.

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Samah is my name. Forgiveness is what I am doing.

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2015, Stavro Tavirna, Athens
As usual, I was doing life happily. It was difficult to plan the next steps as the chaos of the war In & On Syria gave no hints. I am hopeful and satisfied woman.
Suddenly, there is no way back to the Syria I know. Gloomy news, ambiguous talks and dirty politicians speeches. On Youtube and Facebook groups, you can watch blood, killing, death on the Mediterranean shores, stories about kidnapping and smugglers....all the ugly faces of war and civil war.
It is stupid to see the world via media, I admit. But at that time, media is the world maker, unfortunately!
Then I decided to start my "Fleeing to the North" as I like to call my trip to Germany.
Why Germany? I have no clue! I was moving willingly and unwillingly. When Lina, my friend who lives in Jableh recommended staying with her sister, I did it without any considering or reconsidering!
Then the story started.

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Working for Museum Friedland helped me to start the space to shape future by embracing the moment. Since September 2016, Let"s Make It project is the chance to spread the culture  of tolerance, gratitude and integrity. The activities of Let's Make It bring the children of the new comers to Friedland Transit Camp peacefully to bed after clarifying that Friedland Monument is not the Holocaust place and the old chimney is not part of  the factory where Jewish were killed by gas.
The story started and will go on.....

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They say, ‘Home is where our story begins’, and mine started in Friedland Transit camp in Germany. It was a cold early morning in front of a shack made of tin which later I learned that it is called Nissenhutte.

Chaos permeated the place. Too many cables, journalists, security good-looking men in their elegant uniforms, blond tall men in their tuxedoes walking and talking while pretty women who running breathlessly holding notebooks and many other things! My eyes were jumping everywhere trying to survey it all but couldn’t figure things out! I felt like watching one of flashy cheap movie.

Listening to the chaotic organized people talking German made me even more panic. My salty tears into my heart tasted bitterly saltier but I managed to stop tears from rolling down over my freezing cheeks.

My second day in Friedland camp after a sleepless night; the roaring train accelerated my fear. No exits from this place and no place for me among thousands of refugees. How tired!

He was standing there smelling his aftershave. He looks VIP but not blond! The black hair and the friendly smile encouraged the easy talk. Just a few minutes but they were enough to remind me myself and to change my destiny. His words explaining the existence of the featureless shack surprised me then I heard myself talking and involving in his project as if I am part of it. When he left to join his people, the VIPs, I smiled sadly remembering that I handed him my business card as if I haven’t left my Syria."Crazy me! Ground yourself woman! You are a number and the White Card!"

A wave of memories overwhelmed my soul but "no way back", I promised myself. I stepped out of the tragedy of the war in my home which make young people die fighting each other instead of their enemies. I am here to live my culture of love, reconciliation and peace. It is my choice and I will make it. "Life should be achieved not waited for", this is what I kept lecturing over my students’ heads and now it is the high time to stop preaching. My soul road map is clear and my destiny is ahead.

When my weakness make my mouth salty and bring tears into my eyes, I take a long breath so I could feel the women patience on the borders, near the check points, in the food lines, in that crowded rubber small boat holding their children and their tears. I could hear those women brave but despaired hearts beating loud reaching heaven. Then I become strong like that Syrian woman who is not bent by poverty, displacement or bereavement. She rises always from ashes to gather her children meal bite by bite and let her soul fly again.

I am from Syria, the Lady of thousands years, which suffers from crazy selfish and illogical war where hearts, souls and minds have been and are being destroyed. Too many media headlines, UN reports, politician speeches, statistics, pro & cons refugee activities and the war mill is always harvesting the future or just mocking the children who were born in a plastic tent near the no- man border or in dump dark forest.

At my Home, March brings spring, the most pleasant season and the time of rebirth, new beginnings and inspiration. March proved itself with me in Germany! The business card was the turning point and I am working for Friedland Museum. I pay taxes and go to work. I am doing life.

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Reaching Eschwege, Germany & Let's Talk project

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Reaching Eschwege, Germany & Let's Talk project

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"Under conditions of tyranny, it is far easier to act than to think", Hanna Arendt declared but I have applied and lived. Terrorism creates migration but open talks creates Peace and tolerance. Let"s Talk was the space to share stories, needs, desires and feelings.

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Before Fleeing to the North, I was a teacher. Teaching English as a second language is/was a my way to bring some changes into students' mindset to start thinking different. Honesty, Respect, Trust, Fairness, Responsibility & Courage are not simple words. They are lifestyle