The moment at which it is announced that the raid is over, is the happiest moment which less than 10-year child Adel awaits, where after it he can breath the fresh air after leaving the cave which his desperate
father has digged with the aid of some friends in order to be a shelter for the family against the brutality of warplanes and oppressors’ barbarity.
In the areas out of Assad regime’s control, people have chosen to live in caves and shelters under the ground prefering the life of displacement and miseries after regime forces shelled their houses and residential districts turning their lives into unbearable life, in addition to deprivation from living sources and earning living entering a siege of hunger and yield.
The little child came out with an old footable he gained by accident under the sand of a house that turned into rubbles. With his little hands, he pointed at his younger brother and friend in the cave to play together before warplanes shell again, he stammering said: “Hurry up, let us move and play getting some fresh air.. I swear to Allah life on the ground is way better being under sunshine and the blue sky…ah how much I love this life, I wish I had my cheeks burned under the sun”.
With innocent laugh, his naughty friend Homam from the neighborhood said: ” you must be kidding.. you want your cheeks burned under the sun.. first pray Allah warplanes will not fly.. and you manage to hide and escape death.. safety comes first and then wishes come”.
Damascus city streets in which cars sounds get loud is not so far from those dark houses in which you feel another world. In those streets there is no need to live under the ground as if it were a country in which life can be measured with the loyalty for Assad regime. In northern Syria many families in Hama have refused to abandon their towns and farms which are targeted by regime.
They have digged houses under the ground to hide so that those caves turned to be shelters for many miserable families in the northern Syria where they spent most of their time there. Certainly they do not dare to come out unless they make sure that warplanes leave the skyline.
Hours past as if they were moments till Adel heard his mother saying “warplanes have taken off” calling him to return to shelters. With lumbered steps, the children headed the cave with feelings inside refusing the reality looking for unidentified future and a life bringing them back the right of childhood”.
Adel entered the cave hoping the raid would come to an end soon holding in his hands that old ball.
By Bayan Alahmad
translated by Sabah Najem
Syrian Press Center
