Samir made it through the desert with his daughters and granddaughter. I made it through the air, the dangerous airport road was empty, the corkscrew take-off exhilarating. We met for hummus in Hashem’s, the best hummus out here, drank wine and smoked cigars in the Four Seasons hotel, pretending we were rich for half an hour then went back to the humble apartment Samir has rented.

Tomorrow we see lawyers and plan for Saha’s visit to the US embassy. The weight of the war zone has been lifted from all of us and although we face impending goodbyes we are on holiday doing normal things like shopping in Safeway’s.