美国国家公共电台 NPR Refugee Women Cook Up Syrian Cuisine To Eke Out A Living In Turkey

 

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

As we have been reporting this weekend, the U.S.-led raids in Syria were limited, targeting suspected chemical weapons sites. But that is just the latest chapter in Syria's brutal¹ civil war, which is now in its eighth year. Millions of Syrians have fled the carnage in their homeland. Of those refugees, more than 3 1/2 million are now in Turkey. They often live on meager² rations³ and struggle to fill the hours in refugee camps. NPR's Peter Kenyon reports on a group of Syrian women who have found a way to beat the boredom⁴ and help some of their fellow refugees.

PETER KENYON, BYLINE⁵: The first thing that hits you is the noise - Syrian children playing in one corner, separated by a small fence from the rest of the large space, a former textile factory that's been transformed into a commercial kitchen.

The women's solidarity⁶ refugee kitchen is the new creation of a group of Syrian women who looked at the apparently⁷ never-ending war in their homeland and decided⁸ they'd better find a way to support their families here in Turkey. A young woman named Feride Abic shows me the setup.

FERIDE ABIC: (Speaking Turkish).

KENYON: She says, "the first thing we do is wash our hands, find our gloves and wash the food." Working in a commercial kitchen has more rules than cooking at home, as they make large quantities of Syrian-style Mezze, breads, salads and stews⁹. Helping¹⁰ the women get their venture off the ground is Zeynep Kurmus Hurbas. She's a Turkish woman I met two years ago, distributing clothes and food to needy¹¹ families. She says these women asked if there was something useful they could do. And when a grant made it possible to open this kitchen, they launched the catering¹² business.

ZEYNEP KURMUS HURBAS: But they're doing falafels really well, and I never actually ate falafels before here because I didn't like them. But they make it differently. They put sesame seeds on top. And it's lightly fried, so it's, like, really crispy on the outside and really smooth on the inside.

KENYON: Fifty-five-year-old Maryam Ahmed is from Northeastern Syria. She says they're just getting started, but it feels great to be useful instead of a burden on their host city.

MARYAM AHMED: (Through interpreter) Now, we're starting to feel more like we belong here, like we have lives actually. When we escaped from the war, we were really depressed¹³, just sitting behind closed doors. Now, we feel part of the community. It's much better.

KENYON: It's a case of a grassroots, small-scale solution to larger problems vexing¹⁴ Turkey. Metin Corabatir at the Research Center for Migration¹⁵ and Asylum¹⁶ says Turkey would like, for instance, to move Syrian refugees out of camps and into more permanent housing. But a growing share of the Turkish population doesn't like hearing the words refugees and permanent in the same sentence.

METIN CORABATIR: Nobody knows what to do, which includes from the top down. That is why Mr. President Erdogan occasionally puts forward some ideas like giving them citizenship¹⁷. But all these things create new public reaction.

KENYON: As the women planned for a weekend of cooking, Zeynep Hurbas says they've had early success. At one three-day conference they catered¹⁸, their food vanished so quickly on the first day, they stayed up much of the night making more. But Hurbas knows this transition from helpless refugees to active community members also confirms something she told me two years ago - for these people and millions like them, home is still far away.

HURBAS: And that's why I tell you, you know, it's important for that Syrian woman to go shopping from that Turkish store because at one point, in 10 years, their children will marry Turkish children because - I'm just very pessimistic about this, but I think this is not going to end anytime soon.

KENYON: She hopes she's wrong. But for now, it remains¹⁹ just a hope. Peter Kenyon, NPR News, Istanbul.

1 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

2 meager   

adj.缺乏的，不足的，瘦的

参考例句：

• He could not support his family on his meager salary.他靠微薄的工资无法养家。
• The two men and the woman grouped about the fire and began their meager meal.两个男人同一个女人围着火，开始吃起少得可怜的午饭。

3 rations   

定量( ration的名词复数 )； 配给量； 正常量； 合理的量

参考例句：

• They are provisioned with seven days' rations. 他们得到了7天的给养。
• The soldiers complained that they were getting short rations. 士兵们抱怨他们得到的配给不够数。

4 boredom   

n.厌烦，厌倦，乏味，无聊

参考例句：

• Unemployment can drive you mad with boredom.失业会让你无聊得发疯。
• A walkman can relieve the boredom of running.跑步时带着随身听就不那么乏味了。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 solidarity   

n.团结；休戚相关

参考例句：

• They must preserve their solidarity.他们必须维护他们的团结。
• The solidarity among China's various nationalities is as firm as a rock.中国各族人民之间的团结坚如磐石。

7 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

8 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

9 stews   

n.炖煮的菜肴( stew的名词复数 )；烦恼，焦虑v.炖( stew的第三人称单数 )；煨；思考；担忧

参考例句：

• Corn starch is used as a thickener in stews. 玉米淀粉在炖煮菜肴中被用作增稠剂。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Most stews contain meat and vegetables. 炖的食物大多是肉类和蔬菜。 来自辞典例句

10 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

11 needy   

adj.贫穷的，贫困的，生活艰苦的

参考例句：

• Although he was poor,he was quite generous to his needy friends.他虽穷，但对贫苦的朋友很慷慨。
• They awarded scholarships to needy students.他们给贫苦学生颁发奖学金。

12 catering   

n. 给养

参考例句：

• Most of our work now involves catering for weddings. 我们现在的工作多半是承办婚宴。
• Who did the catering for your son's wedding? 你儿子的婚宴是由谁承办的？

13 depressed   

adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的

参考例句：

• When he was depressed,he felt utterly divorced from reality.他心情沮丧时就感到完全脱离了现实。
• His mother was depressed by the sad news.这个坏消息使他的母亲意志消沉。

14 vexing   

adj.使人烦恼的，使人恼火的v.使烦恼( vex的现在分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论

参考例句：

• It is vexing to have to wait a long time for him. 长时间地等他真使人厌烦。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Lately a vexing problem had grown infuriatingly worse. 最近发生了一个讨厌的问题，而且严重到令人发指的地步。 来自辞典例句

15 migration   

n.迁移，移居，（鸟类等的）迁徙

参考例句：

• Swallows begin their migration south in autumn.燕子在秋季开始向南方迁移。
• He described the vernal migration of birds in detail.他详细地描述了鸟的春季移居。

16 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。

17 citizenship   

n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份)

参考例句：

• He was born in Sweden,but he doesn't have Swedish citizenship.他在瑞典出生，但没有瑞典公民身分。
• Ten years later,she chose to take Australian citizenship.十年后，她选择了澳大利亚国籍。

18 catered   

提供饮食及服务( cater的过去式和过去分词 )； 满足需要，适合

参考例句：

• We catered for forty but only twenty came. 我们准备了40客饭菜，但只来了20个人。
• They catered for everyone regardless of social rank. 他们为所有人服务而不计较其社会地位。

19 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。