Syrians in Lebanon...and beyond

We have begun researching chapter two of The Book of Journeys. We spent the last week in Lebanon and met with Imad Auon of the Danish Refugee Council there. They will help us gather narratives from refugees in the countryside in Lebanon and in Beirut. The Lebanese have not set up camps as they feel that they will become permanent, like those of the Palestine's who have been there decades. So they provide tents and temporary shelters but many, especially in Beirut, are homeless. In some ways the depth of this subject is overwhelming but it is also invigorating. The challenge is immense but we are embracing it. We choose Syrians because the crisis is very much front-and-center in the media but their experience is similar to all refugees wherever they are and the project encompasses them all. It is about displacement and being in limbo, which is why we are using the tale of The Seven Sleepers or The Cave as a framework. And thou wouldst have deemed them awake, though they were sleeping. Refugees are merely sleeping until they can go home...but home to what?