Aug 14, 2015

The road crossing the Zabadani plain on the way to Bloudan is not a typical one. To the left, the biggest battle in Rif Dimashq rages on. And as the sound of gunshots echoes in the air between the surrounding mountains, the buses operating between Damascus and Bloudan make their way hastily up the high hill to reach the village square.

Although the Syrian army was able to secure the left side of the road, which overlooks Zabadani neighborhoods, erecting sand barricades to protect pedestrians from snipers, the sound and shrapnel from the battles are enough to provoke fear among [some] passers-by and thus stop them from taking this road.

However, the faces of bus passengers do not betray any trace of fear, and as one of the bus drivers put it, “This is life,” adding, “In the earlier days of the battle, the road was blocked, and access to Damascus became impossible. The people of Bloudan have jobs and businesses there, and students were no longer able to go to university. When the road was reopened after it was relatively secured, and due to the scarcity of goods, we chose to bring life back to the village.”

The distance is short on the winding road of Bloudan hill, and at the end of it, one reaches the Bloudan Grand Hotel, located at the entrance of the village. It is not long before the passengers from the plain road feel at ease again. Behind the car, the smoke from the bloody clashes can be seen billowing into the air, while to the front, a completely different scene, as if from another country, catches the eye: kids playing in the street, men and women doing their groceries, peddlers roaming around the village, a traffic jam due to the crowding on the way to the village square, while music students head to the Cultural Center in Bloudan.

This is only a hundred miles from the ongoing clashes in Zabadani. An uninformed observer would be shocked and amazed, thinking that the inhabitants had lost their hearing, as sounds of battle become louder and louder but the people remain indifferent. A visiting stranger wonders how people continue to live here, and why they haven't left yet, at least until the fighting ends.