Unusual places and encounters

Travelling is a plunge into the unknown. It attracts and gives a sense of uneasiness at the same time. The promise of adventures, meeting interesting people, going through new experiences, immersing oneself in new cultures, eventually wins from our urge to seek certainty about our destination.
When I received an invitation from a Dutch NGO to apply for a post as a Visiting Professor in the south of Turkey to teach Syrian students and activists, my first thought was “yes, this is what I want to do!”. 100 students and activists would be taken out of Syria with buses for a period of 2 weeks and brought to Gaziantep, a city in southern Turkey 40 kilometers from the border with Syria. There they would follow intensive 2 week Master classes from 10 Professors. I was one of them. We would all be staying in the Hotel of the University of Gaziantep. For safety reasons since all the students and activists were young people that had to fear for their life because of their activities. The hotel was a big noisy building at the outskirts of the city next to the zoo where 100 students, 10 lecturers and 10 staff members were cooped for a 2 week-period.
The rooms had walls which failed to offer any privacy. For the students and activists it was a safe haven which allowed them to forget about the war. They never seemed to sleep. Watching movies the whole night, singing, laughing, sharing memories and doing what young people do. The young people expressed how they felt abandoned by the international community. I tried to explain the unexplainable and felt as betrayed as they did.
Many times I asked myself the question: how did I end up here? Gaziantep appeared to be an ugly city with 1.2 million inhabitants, with the nicest people I had ever met despite the fact they didn't speak english. A city that is famous for its baklava – a delicious sweet pastry, full of exotic flavors and prepared with the greatest of care - which proud owners exhibit in an endless array of tiny shops in their magnificent vitrines like small masterpieces of art.Gaziantep also appeared to have hidden treasures like the largest zoo in Europe and one of the most beautiful museums of mosaics there is to be found in the world.
Sitting among these fierce, proud, strong and determined young Syrian people I felt like a partisan must have felt during the Second World War as my American colleague phrased it. In the midst of a turmoil of events which went beyond my comprehension and understanding.