Freekeh: the new quinoa

How hip can you be as a refugee? Ideas prepared the Ideas core-team the traditional Syrian dish Freekeh: the new Quinoa, but better. Moniek and Tim love it!

http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/blogs/546850/freekeh-the-new-superfood.html

orderly departure

Eduard Nazarski, Amnesty-chief in the Netherlands, reminds tha audience at the Safe Passage demonstration on the 27th of february 2016 in Amsterdam of the Orderly Departure Program in Vietnam, created in 1979 under the auspices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), that allowed more than 1 1/2 million refugees to travel safely to the US and other countries. What's wrong with the EU, is it really so much divided it cannot arrange something like this in 2016?

a house

Ideas has an apartment! 
He's working hard to get it comfy. Next week his Dutch lessons start.

It's a strange world

Ideas travels, as a normal person with a passport again, in Europe, to a friend he met this summer, when he travelled Europe without any rights, chased by the authorities. It's a strange world.

computer

Ideas moved to Rotterdam last weekend and lives in the attic of a house he shares with other people. He's saving up for a computer. In the mean time it would be great if somebody can lend him a computer -desktop, laptop.

mallokhieh

Ideas will leave the camp soon: he found a room in a house with other students. He's saying goodbye with a typical Syrian dish, cooked together with his roommates. In december we start with the account of the first steps of Ideas in Dutch society.

new neighbours

Ideas participates in the New Neighbours project of Willem de Kooning student Nienke Galjaard. 

Nienke built a pop-up coffeebar where refugees serve free coffee and conversations. Ideas spent an afternoon with Nienke and his New Neighbours in front of the Markthallen in Rotterdam and had a great time.

oud

In the camp there's a man from Edlib, in the north of Syria, who is a good player of the oud, the traditional lute of the Arab world. People gather around and dream away on the sound of the Oud. Ideas recorded it while his roommate is listening, very concentrated.

colder

Ideas' cousin is also fleeing now. They WhatsApp regularly. The journey is now different from earlier this year. There are -still- more people. And it's colder.

letter to the editor

Ideas wrote a letter through WhatsApp

about the debate on refugees in Eurpean society and the impact it has on refugees that I (Sam) translated and sent to the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad, who printed it yesterday.

rumours

This week, Halbe Zijlstra, the chairman of the Dutch liberal -ruling- party, did his best to depict refugees in the media as non-entities, that can be put in 'container housing with minimum living conditiions and 20 euro's a week'. 

The NRC Handelsblad editors contribution demands that politicians stop framing refugees as welfare-tourists. Hurah for the NRC, this is a very important message.
Refugees themselves though are invisible in these discussions. But they read newspapers and are very aware of what's going on. And yes, they do not feel welcome and yes, that depresses them. I urge media and politicians to include refugees in their dabate.

banana

Ideas gets this video via WhatsApp: there are still large groups in inflatable rafts coming to the Greek islands near the Turkish coast. Here they are lining up for food on Chios.

public transport

Like many ex pats in the Netherlands, Ideas has trouble to get to know the ins and outs of the OV chipcard, the public transport paying card . Since a week, Ideas has a personal chipcard, that provides him with 40 % discount in the weekends and out of  rush hours. The system of the card: checking in, checking out, seems simple enough. But the devil is in the details: how to check in for the fast train to Rotterdam? Do you have to check in separately for the tram? Don't forget to check out. etc. etc.
This week Ideas paid at least 10 euro's too much. And he does not feel good about this.

Ideas is learning how to blog

How does it work? Whats the difference between a blog, Facebook and a website? Ideas asks.
And we both look at the screen. Actually, it is a difficult question. But I do my best to explain. From now on, Ideas will also contribute to the blog. Inshallah, of course.

tour

Ideas is touring the Netherlands: here he's at the Willem de Kooning academy in Rotterdam where he told his story to students of the advertising department. On the 6th of October he will present in De Zwijger in Amsterdam. 
(picture Nikki Vieler) 

mushrooms

Ideas appears to be a trendsetter again. From Germany there are accounts of numerous Syrian refugees eating wrong mushrooms and getting in trouble. 

Here's a pic of Ideas in the hospital, 2 weeks ago, where he had to stay for 2 days after a delicious meal of mushrooms he had gathered himself in the Netherlands. He recovered quickly, by the way.

Dutch

In the lunch break of writing sessions for the Ideas book, Ideas is starting to learn Dutch, instructed by yours truly

boat

Ideas makes a trip with shipping company Lampedusa, a project by Teun Castelein. The Prince Omar was abandoned at Lampedusa after it took more than 100 refugees from Libya and donated to Teun by the Italian government. 

Now it is run by a crew of refugees -and skipper Bob-, making trips on the Amsterdam canals. Ideas likes shipping company Lampedusa!

family

Ideas phones his mother and father in Syria. The situation is getting worse. The government is increasing the pressure on villages to surrender their young men to join the army. To avoid fighting for the regime, many young men are leaving. They will have to be fast, there's not much time left before winter starts, the bouttrip to Greece will get more dangerous and countries like Hungary and Macedonia close their borders. This means there will be even more refugees from Syria coming over the Balkans in the coming weeks.

next camp

Ideas is transferred to another refugee camp, for the fourth time since he is in the Netherlands. In this camp people stay for a longer period of time. The scent of transpiration, exotic food and lysol (archaic cleaning product) is everywhere. In this room, about 25 square meters, Ideas stays with 3 others. For how long? There are people who live here for more than 2 years, waiting foor appropriate housing.