14/11/2025
There’s a 30 foot concrete slab dangling from the 7th story of a dilapidated, blown out apartment building. The enormous flat rock is hanging on by the mangled, exposed rebar like a detached limb clinging to the body by it’s microscopic nerve endings. Below are two little girls strolling down the street with their colorful purses, carelessly returning home to see mama and baba, gleefully ignorant of the potential avalanche of cement that could drop at any moment. I hope they’re returning to the warmth of their families. I hope. Tens of thousands were killed during the brutal Syrian civil war in Homs, a city that witnessed heavy fighting between Assad government troops and opposition forces as recently as December 2024. But there is hope. It exists here along every war torn road and in the smile of every friendly soul I met. I hope to see more coffee stained teeth as grins reach from ear to ear. I hope for more jingles and jangles from tiny pink toy hand bags bouncing to and fro as more kids dance through the streets. They’re starting to rebuild now. No more rifle sticks and rubble stones breaking people’s bones in Homs. Just words that forever fortify the spirit of the Syrian people: Resilience, Strength, Determination and perhaps most importantly…Hope.
