Our Syrian Friends

It's a WAR out there, everywhere....
I planned to write this blogpost since the first day our Syrian friends came to stay in our house but I delayed with all the things we had to do.
Today under the sad fog of the explosions in Belgium I am sitting down to write this.

 But I will have to start from the beginning.
I am a refugee.
I was born in Constantinople (Istanbul) Turkey, from Greek parents and of Greek origin. My great great grandparents were from Skyros and Chios islands, Greece.

In 1969 we were displaced from Constantinople to Greece. We were told to leave, we had to leave. In Turkey we were considered Greeks correctly.
When we arrived in Greece we were called Turks by those who know nothing of History.
We survived.

We were poor. We had to stand in line in the Greek Foreign Affairs Bureau to take a residence permit and a working permit for 6 months. And all that inspite the fact that we were of Greek origin, spoke Greek and were Christian Orthodox, the official religion of the country.
We survived. We met good people, good neighbours who opened their homes for us and although we had no relatives in Thessaloniki (all were in Athens) we went forward alone because of good friends.

Fast forward .....

Albanians, Russians, Georgians, Armenians all immigrants, flee to Greece to find jobs and survive from their very very poor countries.Thousands of them, more than a million. I teach in a school where 80% of the pupils were born in Albania or are of Albanian origin. They are poor. They survive. They do all kinds of jobs to survive. They try to live a better life. Nowadays after 20 years in Greece they started managing to buy houses. They settle here.

Fast forward to today....
A five year war with no end is destroying Syria. Asad, anti-Asad and Isis powers kill thousands of people in a war that seems to have no end. Simultaneously the war moves to other countries as terrorists attack U.S.A., France, Turkey, today Belgium......

Millions of Syrian people, the innocent victims of this conflict flee to neighbouring countries to find a way to reach their relatives and friends abroad.
Suddenly the Greek islands become the recipient of hundreds of boats filled with thousands of refugees fleeing the war. A lot of them drown on the way. The Aegean becomes the wet tomb of hundreds who will be forgotten as names but not as souls. But some others like the Turks who transfer them here get rich.

Greece becomes the passing through country for those who want to go to European countries to find a better life. But they want to go to countries that don't want them.
And now Europe and Turkey playing their games decide to send those people back...back where? No one knows yet.

For the time being more than 50.000 people, refugees from Syria mainly, but also poor immigrants from other countries like Afganistan, Pakistan, and others are stuck in Greece. They are stuck in a country who is suffering a financial crisis for years now. They are stuck in a country that does not have the means to give employment to its own children who emigrate abroad. They are stuck in a country with thousands of people who live under the poverty level. They are stuck in a country that unfortunately has many inhabitants who don't want them. They are stuck in small military camps, living in tents, with nothing but the clothes they wear.

But they are also stuck in a country which has many many people who have love to give them too. Many people who believe that God is one and it doesn't matter what religion or race you are. People who do their best to help them. Volunteers all over Greece and the military are helping as much as they can. They cook for them, offer medical services, interpreting services.People offer food, clothes,money to help cover the cost of having so many people living under these conditions for an unknown period of time.

 In all this situation some people opened their houses and took refugees in to give them a chance to get some rest, have  a bath, eat some homemade food. Our friend Tassos did it too and we followed his example.
For a few days we had a Syrian family in our house. Mohamed, Nour and sweet little Hanyn are now our friends. We don't know if what we did was important for others, but I know it was for them and for us. I don't know how they will end up and if we will see them ever again.

I just hope they find a better life soon. They will need patience and strength. They are young, educated, kind people.May they are safe and happy. That's all I wish them.
I know what we did was a tiny seed in comparison to the enormity of the problem. But if everyone did something small then something big would be accomplished in the end.I wanted to write this blogpost to explain why I feel so close to all those innocent people who are stuck in my country.
It was  alife changing experience for me.
And I am so happy that I was into this as strongly as were my husband, my son and my mum. Oh yes and my dog too who adored our friends!

Here I would also like to thank my friends who helped financially or with much needed things for our  new friends. Also I 'd like to thank my colleagues at school who gathered money for a pram our friends needed. I would like to thank all those who loved what we did and showed it in any way they could.
I am sorry some others didn't care much for what we were doing or for those who didn't even like what we were doing. Those I am sorry to say do not belong to my friends' circle anymore.

Let's all fight for WAR to stop wherever it takes place. Do not think that because a war is happening far away from your little home you are safe. The attacks in Belgium prove that.
And wherever you are look around you and give a hand where you are needed.
People become enemies when they are maltreated and rejected. They do not become enemies when they feel they are loved, accepted and supported.