TCNJ

TCNJ Magazine - Winter 2017

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17 about the futility of her situation in Syria. "There's nowhere to hide," she would say. When the bombs would drop, she and her two children would huddle underneath a staircase. But there wasn't enough space for her husband to fit, so he would just have to throw himself on top of them. I don't know if you can imagine living like that. But she was laughing about it. After a minute, she'd return to the reality of the situation. This is Syria. They laugh about hiding from bombs. It was a 1 1 /2- to 2-hour commute north every morning from Amman, Jordan's capital, to the psychosocial clinic where I worked last summer in Irbid, Jordan. Syria's right across the border from Irbid, a couple of miles further north. Over the span of a month, I would say I worked with more than 200 people at the clinic. I attended group therapy sessions for children on my first day. In the first session, the kids were ages 5 to 10. The session focused on helping the kids combat fear, sleeplessness, and temper problems. The therapist told the kids a story and really emphasized certain emotions, and then later she asked the kids what stood out to them. They would always recognize fear. They'll always recognize the scary things, because that's what's so familiar to them. This is what they know best. Then the kids were asked what reminded them of sadness or happiness. What really stood out to me — what was so heartbreaking — was there were so many examples of death. A lot of these kids will say, "When my brother died I was sad." Or, "When my dad died …" Then, when asked to describe fear, one of the kids said, "A fear of being slaughtered." It's such a heavy word for someone that age. For me to just have a reference point, I'd think, "What's a 5- to 10-year-old in America thinking in terms of fear?" They probably think of ghosts under their bed or Disney movies. The first week, I spent a lot of time shadowing. After that, I would help my coworkers with the group sessions for the kids. I attended some sessions with mothers and contributed to those therapies. Next-gen rage Ebady observed this young boy threaten to kill Bashar al-Assad by name. He lost his father in the attack employing the nerve agent sarin in Ghouta, Syria. REMEMBER THIS WOMAN LAUGHING I

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