In the depressing atmosphere of Gaza, Palestine, filled with loneliness, poverty, and limitation of freedom, I lived my first 19 years and up to a month before my departure to Istanbul, this reality wasn’t about to change. Gaza’s situation has always been the same: there’s a bit of money, but there are no friends to hang out with and no real connection or belonging to a community. Gaza had its own way of making sure no such things happened, as friendships with the opposite gender are extremely forbidden and the high prices of food compared to the average income make hanging out with same-gender friends so difficult.
In such an environment, I was deprived of the deep humane need for connection and belonging. Many feel the same and find their coping mechanism in their religion, addiction, or introversion.
For me, I had a dream of having real loving connections within the arms of another culture in another country, and in pursuing that dream I found my hope and my medicine. For two years, I worked on applying to US universities, but when the financial aid of these institutions failed to meet my need, I felt my dream was fading away and it became more and more certain that there’s no way out of Gaza. That feeling remained until I applied to Turkey Scholarships and after 6 months, with no expectations of acceptance, I read an email that I was admitted to Marmara University, a prestigious university in Istanbul with a full-funded scholarship. In such a moment, just like in the movies, my whole life changed and what was once a dream became true.
I arrived in Istanbul in October 2022 – after a 3-days trip from Gaza through Egypt’s Cairo Airport. It immediately occurred to me that the air here feels different. The roads are super clean, there are so many shops and restaurants, and the beauty is just so captivating, both natural and artificial. The biggest change, however, was seeing that there’s an opposite gender. Women in Gaza had limited looks, with their full hijab and very few options. Here, every woman was unique. They had different fashion styles, expressed personalities, and most importantly, they had freedom. What a magical thing freedom is. Surely enough, I was hooked. I could feel the longing for freedom in every inch of my body, the desire for a way of life away from the restrictions of my past society and closer to the warmth of communities and people.
As the culture shock was fading, another one was in the making and it was coming soon. The days have passed by and I started studying Turkish at the university. I made friends with my classmates fairly quickly, and they were accepting and warm. However, what stood out the most was a guy from Mexico. Coming from the Latin culture famous for its good connection with people, shared communities, open-mindedness, and freedom to hug and show love to both genders equally, my Mexican friend introduced me to the culture I needed the most. In the first week, we started hanging out with two other friends from Venezuela and Mexico. We tried Italian pasta, cheeseburgers, and American pizza, all of which were new to me as I’m living my life for the first time. We tried riding the ship to the European side; we helped each other with settling procedures; and so our group started.
In the next few weeks, we expanded our group as we met more lovely people. It’s interesting, nonetheless, that the overall vibe of our group is built on unspoken rules I have never seen before and a level of caring for others that can only make the Latin culture shine more in my eyes.
Our habits include:
– We wait for someone to come for as long as he takes, so we can go together to hang out. If it’s an hour, then so it happens, and we are happy to wait; it’s not like anyone has to do something he doesn’t want to do.
– Everyone’s opinion really matters. If you want us to visit some place you like, we’ll go. If you have to pay for a subscription or solve a problem, we’ll help you with it and happily hang out afterwards.
– We celebrate everyone’s birthdays and make sure to buy them a gift, almost always a simple, cheap, and meaningful one.
– At the end of each day we spend together, we make sure to say our goodbyes, either with hugs or high fives, both of which are uncommon, if not impossible, gestures in Gaza.
In the end, each of us is his own independent individual with his private life, but we are one close community, and we are enjoying life and the moment. This Christmas, we’ll be together in an Airbnb as one united community.
Coming from the depressed world of Gaza to the beautiful city of Istanbul, getting immersed in the warmth of the Latin culture and the love of a shared community, and experiencing life for the first time is, with no doubt, a dream and a journey that leaves a story worth telling.
As my friend Daniella once asked me on top of the Ferry ship in the Bosphorus: “How’s Istanbul?”, and I said: “Istanbul is Heaven”.