Mayass and Ahmad: studying at home
Ahmad:
I’m from near Damascus. But I used to spend a lot of time near the Umayyid Mosque in the old city. We went there on Fridays to pray. It’s so beautiful, it’s like a museum.
l have been here a year. I went to the sea here a couple of times to swim, that was nice.
I like Lebanon but everyone loves his own country the most. I miss everything. I miss going to the mosque on Fridays, I miss going to play and swim, in the river.
I went to school there and here I don’t go any more. I can’t go because I have to work because my family doesn’t have enough money, and they can’t afford to send me to school anyway, schools here are expensive.
I was working in a petrol station, washing cars and filling them up with petrol. Now I’m working in a $1 store. I prefer the store because the petrol station was hard work and very hot, and at the store I get to talk to the customers and I get to sit down. But the wages are lower.
I want to be an engineer when I grow up because I want to help rebuild Syria when the war is over.
Ahmad, 14, from the Damascus countryside. He and his younger sister Mayass have been in Lebanon one year.
Mayass:
It’s four years since I went to school. I reached the second grade in Syria, but I had to drop out because soldiers used to come to our classes and the school wasn’t safe, and my parents got scared. I should be in the sixth grade now.
I was very sad when I left school, and I’m still sad because I’m only just learning a bit of reading and writing now. Three months ago I didn’t know how to read or write at all, but now my brother Ahmad is teaching me what he knows. And when I can do it well I will teach my little brother and sister.
We play a game where you choose a letter and then you have to write down an animal, a person and a place beginning with it. It’s fun and it’s good for practicing letters and writing.
It’s important to go to school so you can study and learn. And if I could go to school I could get a good job and then I could help my family.
When I grow up I want to be a teacher so that children can learn.
Mayass, 12, from the Damascus countryside. She and her older brother Ahmad have been in Lebanon one year.
