© 2024 KALW 91.7 FM Bay Area
KALW Public Media / 91.7 FM Bay Area
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Crosscurrents

Far from Syria's war, a scholar dreams of his lost home

Courtesy of Jamal
Jamal with his wife and son

 

When Jamal left his home in Aleppo in 2010 for a year-long Fulbright scholarship in the United States, he assumed he was coming back.

He had no idea the Arab Spring would break out while he was teaching in Omaha, Nebraska, and that he might never see his hometown again. KALW’s Andrew Stelzer spoke early last year with Jamal — who doesn’t want to use his last name — about his unexpected journey, and how he’s coped with being separated from his city, country, and family for what seems to be an unending war.

 

 

"I just thought life is not fair, like why am I the one who got to leave and every else is there? Like what’s fair about that? I would be having good experiences here, sometimes I would be having a nice hike or being in nature, and just imagining they are in the smoke and shelling sounds, and any day, something could happen over their heads and kill them."

Click the audio player above to listen to the full story