I first met my friend Rasha when I was in Syria in 2010. We were co-square supervisors excavating a tripartite building and spending our days documenting what felt like a never ending number of sling bullets. Five years later Rasha and I are still friends and now we even live in the same city working on our doctorates at the same University with the same supervisor.

The little boys in the village would come over to show us creatures they’d caught – birds, hedgehogs, scorpions (Ack!), etc. The little girls would come over wanting to pose for photos and watch us work. They were so curious! And also pretty shy at first. But Rasha is such a kind and gentle person that she was able to get the girls to open up and smile with us. Afterwards they came by more often while we were working to say hi and pose for mini photo shoots. Such gorgeous little faces and precious smiles.