Able bodied young men are a hot commodity in Syria. I met a few of them at Idomeni this week. I was actually on my way to talk to a father traveling alone with his baby daughter when I was stopped by this young guy hanging out in “Tent 1,” with his brother and friends they had traveled with from Syria. He wanted to know if I had any news about the borders and I said I did not, except that it didn’t look good. He showed me a photo on his cellphone. There was a church in the foreground, directly behind it the remnants of a house blown apart by a bomb. He pointed to the house and said, my home was “damaged.” So we had a conversation about the difference between “damaged” and “destroyed.” His home was destroyed. Then he showed me pictures of friends who had been killed in the war. First one, then another. Many friends he said, many friends have been killed. (Photo here is of one of them. Youssef did not want to be photographed for his own safety). 

“The borders may open after the next meeting,” he said, so he will wait in Idomeni until then. I asked him if he would go back to Turkey. No he said. I would rather die in Syria than live in Turkey.  

Youssef studied English literature. His brother studied Arabic literature. Their friend, Abdul, was still in high school. They have no interest in fighting in a war. They range in age from 20 to 24.  

We exchanged phone numbers and are communicating now via WhatsApp. Last night a question from him, again, looking for news about the border. I told him that there was a youtube going viral that apparently shows the Turkish coastguard beating a dinghy full of refugees and that it was prompting people to ask whether the EU should be proposing so much $$ to Turkey to address this crisis. Today a note from him with the question: “All world sells us why? We are human, not stuff for sale.”  

March 2016