This post was originally published on France24
When Syrian grandfather Omar Kafozi returned to his house near Damascus after Bashar al-Assad’s ouster, he saw unfathomable destruction. Now, cushions and plants brighten the wreckage that he is determined to call home again. “As soon as we found out that… the regime was gone and that people were coming back… we sorted our things” and packed the car, says Kafozi, 74, standing in the wreckage of his home in a former rebel bastion near the capital.