DERSÎM MÎRZA

Shahba - It is autumn.

Clean air…

Today is the school holiday for children.

They play with each other in neighborhoods, streets.

They play with each other without caring about the destruction caused by the war…

A warm September day is perfect to play games and travel around. Children use this warm weather as an opportunity to play.

We come across them while we walk around in a neighborhood of Shahba. Actually, we hear their voices from away.

When I hear their voices, I feel happy. I feel happy to see children playing game together away from technology, phone and internet.

I decide to go to the place where children’s voices come from.

They call out to each other while playing.

“Run fast, don't get caught…”

“Somehow, you cannot hit the stones, be fast…”

“Uff, I got caught again…”

I remember my childhood but cannot remember the name of the game. I do not ask its name in order not to disrupt them.

I watch them.

Then, I remember the name of the game.

Nine stones…

“It was one of the most favorite games of my childhood”

Then, I try to remember how this game is played and its rules. Even if I have difficulties in remembering them, I remember them while watching the children.

First children split into two groups. Then, they put nine stones on top of each other to make a tower. The members of the first group try to hit the stones by using a ball for three times. If none of the members cannot hit the stones with the ball, they fail. The members of the second group then try to hit the stones. When the members of the group hit the stones with the ball, the group members run away. At that time, the members of the first group catch the members of the second group. The members of the running away group try to put the stones on top of each other to remake the tower. If they put all nine stones on top of each other and rebuild the tower, they win.

The nine stones game was one of the most favorite games of my childhood. We used to play each other, have a fun day. We were able to channel our energy and had a healthy life.

Now, most children spend their time online; they are antisocial and introverted.

When I think about the rules of the game and my childhood, I see the slippers in the hands of the children. At that moment, I realize that the children use slippers to hit the stones, not balls.

When children end their game, I ask them the name of the game.

One of the children answers:

“The name of this game is bottle”

It is played with slippers

When they tell me how they play this game and the rules of the game, they eyes shine with joy.

The rules of the game are the same rules of the nine stones game.

There is only one difference; it is played with slippers.

I ask them why they use slippers.

They show me their exploded ball and say, ‘We do not have a ball’.

So I admire these children once again.

Neither the war nor the destruction caused by the war can prevent these children from playing and being creative.

These beautiful children are those who resist all the brutality of war; they show us that there is still a livable world.

Dead bodies of children

Then, I remember the innocent children who were killed by a mortar while playing in Tell Rifaat.

Children having no ball, children having an exploded ball, children, who were killed by a mortar while playing…

I remember the names of those innocent children:

Muhammed Ali, Mustafa Muhammed, Hacı Omer, Arif Cafer Muhammed, İmad Ahmet Kêfo, Abdul Fetah Aliko, Semir Abdurrahman Hiso, Muhammed Abdullrahman Hiso…

Then, I want to learn the names of the children playing the nine stones game.

They tell me their names:

Arjîn, Zeyid, Ayşe, Barîn, Masir, Xelîl, Mehmet, Dilşêr, Heda, Şirîn, Mustafa...