Interview with My Grandmother

Helen Kipriyan currently resides in her house in Riverside, California with her husband. Sitting at her dining room table, she recalls many interesting stories and memories of her life in Ma'loula, Syria, even though she is in her seventies. Although my grandmother had many chores to do, she lived a very simple lifestyle. There was no stress or anxiety. When the French attacked Damascus, a city near Ma'loula, in 1945, the people only focused on living their lives. Coming from a religious background, she told me about how people were very respectful and friendly to neighbors and new visitors. People in Ma'loula were very generous and welcoming. Unfortunately, she and her siblings had a laborious life. She recalls having to do laundry by hand for the entire family. Now that she lives in America, she does not want to have the rigorous life anymore. "I would rather visit my old town than living there because I got used to the lifestyle here in America."

Ma'loula is located about 50-60 kilometers outside and north of Damascus. Ma'loula is a historical place where there are two famous churches named Mar Sarkis and Mar Taqla. They named the churches after the saints who helped people there. Ma'loula actually is a Christian town where people came from many surrounding towns just to see those historical churches, to pray, and see what is happening. Many miracles have happened there. They go there to pray and ask for wishes. Everybody's wishes came true because there were so many histories from old times that many religious people lived there. Almost everyone, not almost, everyone was Christian there. No one was segregated. We were all the same. We had the same culture and we did the same things.

There was a day during the year called Cross Day. We made fires and people came from the surrounding cities of Syria. They came to see the fires around the church. They would also jump on the fires. We had many foods and drinks prepared. We enjoyed this day because it was a very religious day.

The people were very friendly in Ma'loula. The neighbors were very friendly to each other. We actually slept with the doors open. We helped each other. We also were very friendly to people who came from outside to visit our town. In our town, there was a man who always used to collect money, go door to door, and ask for change. Everybody helped him because he was blind. But everybody thought that he wasn't because sometimes he used to walk very fast and he used to know his way around very well.

Everyday we went to the bakery to buy our fresh bread. It was called tonir. It was a very famous bread and some people even made it in their backyards. When I had free time, I used to help my mom and my grandma. We knit, made food, worked in the garden, and washed clothes. The day of laundry, we would like, you know, hide somewhere so that my mom wouldn't find us and ask us to do laundry. We did the laundry for the whole family. But the boys, little boys, when they had free time, they went with their papas and helped them. They had to learn the jobs of their dads so they can take over when they grow up. After we finished our chores, we went outside, called our friends, jump roped, and played with our toys, which we made. We didn't buy them. We made them with old rags and wood. We used to sit on the floor with like two or three friends and we played the Five Stone Game. The boys also made their own toys with wood. They used to make little cars, you know, they used to play with that. They also played with small balls. They played catch and that's it. There was nothing else to do.

School was simple and it was very different from what school is now. It was almost in the center of the town. In each area of the town, if there were three or four kids, they walked together. It was mostly walking distance. All the children from all ages had one class. We learned in one room with one teacher. We also had no uniform. We sat on the floor and we had only one notebook and one pencil. We had no books. The teacher had one book. The teacher wrote on the board and we learned. The teachers didn't give us any grades. We had no report cards whatsoever. Learning was very easy. Everyday we would look forward to go to school because learning was very fun. We liked to go to school because we didn't have to do chores with our mothers.

In 1945, the French attacked Damascus, which was very near my town. We didn't really do anything at that time. We tried to live our lives like there was no tomorrow. We were very frightened, but we didn't let the war bother us or we didn't let it interfere in our daily chores or routines. Everybody went to work and school. But the only thing that was different was when, of course, parents didn't let children go outside to play, you know, especially when it was dark because they were scared because something would happen. We were mostly inside. But other than that, everything was normal for us. Me and my siblings were in one room. Our parents told us stories and my dad wanted us to know more about the Bible. He usually asked us questions from the bible and we discussed them. We discussed stories from the Bible. That's all we did.

There was no competition on like what to wear, grades, hair do's, make-up, you know, those kinds of things. We didn't have much. Everyone wore the same thing to school like almost everyday. We didn't have TV's, radios, newspapers, nothing. The mayor in our town was kind of rich and he owned like a little old fashioned radio so sometimes he would listen to the news. The news would spread orally and everybody in town would know the latest news on what was happening in the surrounding towns. Sometimes a person went out of town and came back with some news and he told somebody else.

Now that I think about my life in Ma'loula, I miss the simplicity, the no anxiety, the no stress, and no pressure. I mostly miss the fresh and organic foods. We even traded our milk for eggs with our neighbors. I miss my neighbors and my friendly community. Everyday I think about that. Life was easy. We had fresh air every morning. There were no drugs. Of course, we did a lot of chores there, but still, I miss those days. It was nothing compared to today's society. I definitely do not miss doing laundry by hand though. I don't think I want to go back to live there. Everything here is easy. But one day, I would really like to go visit there and renew my childhood memories.

Interviewed by Natalie Altounian