24-10'16 :
Said goodbye to my friends back in the city. Left with the car and arrived at Antakya, Turkey. Our appointment with the smuggler was 15:00. We were parked for 15 minutes and then decided to travel with the car around the city to not be suspicious(im in the back with a large army backpack and huge beard). Driving around and asking were the smuggler is. He wrote Dörtyol in Arabic on Telegram. Said tamam(ok). It is an hour distance. We went back to the first parking place because he said he is close. We sent him our location through TG and just waited. He arrived at 16:34, like too late, for an hour and a half(typical syrian or turkish appointments).
He arrived with a full car. One muhaajir(immigrant who goes to Syria) one woman and two children. It was his own family. The muhaajir and me were brought to a safehouse close to the city centre. Its an old house and the neighbourhood looks alot like Aleppo. Before we were left by the smuggler, he told us this owner of the safehouse is a bit crazy and smokes alot. Well we arrived at the garden of the safehouse and the owner of the house gave us a chair to sit outside. It was very cold but I was used to it. The other muhaajir was shaking. The owner opened the door of his pidgeons and threw corn and some grains on the floor. You could tell he liked animals. After like 20 minutes we were allowed to go in, he stayed in front of the house and blocked the way to the room on the right and told us to go left. We were sitting and had a small conversation with eachother. The muhaajir said; I will call this owner Birdman.
After an hour we got breakfast.
Syrian tea!
We were praying together and reading Quran and doing our daily dhikr(saying prayers). We were supposed to go this night. We waited and waited and then received a message of our contact in Syria that the smuggler got involved in a car accident.
Later on this night Birdman came to us and told us that it wasnt a car accident and that 2 smugglers got shot by turkish soldiers.(nothing of this will reach the news and it happens frequently).
We were sleeping with lights turned on. I heard noises on the roof. Hmm ... a rat... :// it entered the room through a hole in the roof. I stood up and the rat escaped. After a while the second rat came and while I was shoo-ing it away Birdman came into our room. Telling us to kill it with this bat in this room. ........ wth. Just close that small hole...easy. Maybe he likes rats too :p
**Second day: **
Breakfast, praying and exchanging nasheed. Sleeping..Rats...Boring day..
**Third day: **
We had our breakfast.
Suddenly 8 refugees came from syria in a rush. Some are going to istanbul and some will go to europe. We are entering Syria and they are leaving. The smuggler who brought them slept with us in the same room. His name is Abu Ahmad.He and the refugees were very wet and cold because of the rain. The refugees were smoking every 5 minutes and threw their ashes on the floor where we will sleep. The refugees paid 100 dollars per person to come here. After an hour they left.
Our smuggler came too and showed a video compiled of photos of the dead smuggler. The other smuggler Abu Ahmad stayed at our room and he was supposed to bring us the same night but he said he wasnt able because of the rain and the cold. So he said that he would bring us in the morning. Abu Ahmad said that the turkish soldiers said to the now dead smuggler: Dur, Dur!! Which means 'stop'. And that they didnt stop, so the soldiers sprayed bullets at their car hitting the drivers leg. He still didnt stop and eventually got a bullet in his head. Abu Ahmad said if the soldiers told me 'dur', I would stop
Fourth day:
Its morning and the smuggler said he will go to Syria and that someone else will bring us
.. that someone else never showed up...
At night the smuggler who brought us told us he had a funeral. Birdman was very certain that we would leave this night or next morning.
Fifth day:
Morning and still no news. 6 refugees came into our room. Some were going to europe, being very certain of europes warm welcome. One even said britain and canada are the best countries for them. While I can tell about Canada having kind civillians, but Britain....
The call to prayer was heard and none of them prayed. The Birdman was yelling at them discussing about the amount of dollars they should pay. Some of them were constantly using bad words while there were 2 little children. They dont care. The 2 children looked very mature and poor in the same time. The war must have put them in this situation. They were playing with plastic chocolate wraps...
6th day:
We have to go to the living room. Lovely kids! I love children !!! One little girl maybe 2yo and a little baby boy not even 1yo. Hey, they like us! Birdman came and told me to talk to our smuggler in Turkish and to ask when he will come because he always says al yawm(today) subh(morning) layl(night) etc etc. This really made me think because this means that Birdman was desperate and that the case arent the problems at the border themselves.
The smuggler said tamam(ok) haji(pelgrim LOL!) and said he will come "in sha allah"(Godwilling). This time he sounded very reliable because he told us a departure time for in the next morning: 07;30.
We could finally take a bath(after 6 days!!!) the birdman and his wife and children left so it was pretty comfortable.
Our smuggler didnt show up but Abu Ahmad showed up and he is supposed to bring us finally!! Birdman got mad at our smuggler as always..
"Look.. everyday these smugglers were saying things are tight at the border bla bla. But if this is the case then why is Birdman mad at the smuggler? He shouldnt complain. I think it depends upon the smuggler himself. Syrians....lol."
Birdman said that if Abu Ahmad doesnt bring us, he will lock him into our room until he will bring us :). Then Birdman jokingly told me to handcuff his hands to mine so that when we are entering Syria he couldnt suddenly run away :D We told our contact in Syria about our time to leave. And I told many friends about it. Friends back in Europe, Turkey and especially in Syria who are waiting to pick me up and give me some food (maybe syrian tea and fresh olives bcs its olive season now :p)
We both are reading quran and saying prayers and asking Allah to protect us on our way to Syria(e.g to not get shot or detected by the Turkish Army). Praying together and and eating together. Well today we only got food once. But it was enough. There was La Vache Qui Rit and bread so thats more than enough. Really!
The wife of birdman is crying and she is yelling at her children. Women... why acting with your emotions towards others and especially children..!?
Birdman came home at night. He came into our room. He was talking about lets go to the casino and dance with women.... I am laughing because hey its his home and its my last day plus I dont know maybe he could do something to me. So just laugh hahaha. I told him I will tell his wife about him dancing with women. He laughed and said oh no dont!
Men... Why is your wife not enough for you?!
We got one glass of tea and went to sleep. But as always I am checking if the rats will come so I cant really sleep..
7th day:
(I wrote this after arriving in Syria because I got so mad this day, I didnt want to write it with furious emotions lol)
We woke up. Abu ahmad said at 9o clock he will get a call. We were waiting.. 09:30 he gets a call and asks if the border is clear. The border is clear. And abu ahmad says he will first leave the house and get the car. And then he will come back. I said to the muhaajir, he will not come. He left us. He is just a liar. And yeah.. its afternoon and he still didnt come. I was so mad.. I put on my shoes and bag and gloves and everything. I took everything off... Such a liar. Urghh...
(If you wonder why our smuggler who should bring us is frequently changing, it is because one is lying, and Birdman calls the other one to bring us, and he is also lying, so... dilemma.)
Finally we got to go at 21:20. Too excited lol. Woohoo😂
Arrived at 00:00 we went between mountains and got shot at by the Turkish army while they were pointing with Chinese green laserpointers. I know those lasers pretty well thats why.. Some Syrians got hit, they were only civilians. Shake my head.. they have a huge wall at the border and shoot at civilians and then Turkey complains about Israel having a big wall and killing Palestinians? Hypocrisy, never expected this from the Turkish army. I thought Erdogan was so pro-islamic. But he is just like the rest of the dictator Arab leaders. Anyways.. I came to help the Syrians from killers like ISIS, YPG,Iran,Iraq, Russia,America and Assad.