As Houda and Sara’s English has improved over the past three years, they’ve been able to share more of their story with Melanie–and with you. In these two episodes, the sisters tell stories of moments when–as kids being kids–they did something their mother had told them not to do.
But in a war zone, the normal curiosity and experimental independence of children can have terrifying consequences.
In part one, we revisit a story that Houda first told on air in Episode 7: The School Desks of Our Childhood. When she first told the story, her English was more limited. And when we recorded that first episode, she was younger, only 19, and not yet willing to share the whole story–because the whole story includes her decision as a young teen to break her promise to her mother and to God that she would not join the University of Aleppo students protesting in the streets.
In fact, she told us the same story she told her parents! But now, with the distance of young adulthood, she has compassion for her child self and wants to share the whole story.
Note: Image is of a protest in Columbia, but accurately captures the feel of the burning tires and street protests that Houda experienced as a 13 year old girl in Aleppo.
Melanie/ميلاني: From here, we are listening to our mothers.
هدى/Houda: من هنا: استمعوا لأمهاتكم
