• Home
  • Projects
    • Faces of Asia
      • Images
      • Postcards
    • 2060 My Hood
  • Expos
    • Legends of Liondance
    • Lucky Number Three
    • Travel Storytelling Festival
    • Chinatown Antwerp
  • Media
    • Radio 2
  • About me
    • My life-mission
    • Biography in a nutshell
  • Nederlands
Local Stories

Antwerp, Belgium

Achmed

“My grandfather had a nut shop in Aleppo. Back in the days, he would roast the nuts by hand, above a fire. His name was Saber Saber. He died a long time ago. Now, we have around fifteen “Saber Nuts” in Aleppo, six stores in Belgium, one in the Netherlands and one in Germany. Still today, we roast the nuts ourselves, although using machines.” Achmed left Syria 3.5 years ago. His brother had left two months before him and was able to travel to Belgium directly from Greece. “I was less lucky. I had to wait for six months in Greece. If the war were over today, I would go back to Syria tomorrow,” he sincerely says. “In Aleppo, everything is open 24/7, even now during the war. People are happy, the streets are very lively day and night and there’s a beautiful energy around. Just like in the capital of Damascus. Here in Belgium, people go home at five,” he smiles. “Our first store in Belgium opened on October 10, 2016,” he says timidly. “But today is October 10,” I say surprised. “Yes, I just realized that we have been open for exactly three years today.” What a coincidence that I came to Achmed today. This makes me happy. “Do you want to take a bag of nuts with you?” he asks me before I leave. “Yes, please!” I thank him with a full heart. “Bye!”, he says.

Saber Nuts
Sint-Gummarusstraat 25⁣
2060 Antwerpen

 

* Series for 2060 My Hood (5/9)

Share

Share
Tweet
Email
Pin
Comment
Previous
Next

More storytelling…

  • E-mail
  • Facebook
  • Instagram

About me

My mother is yellow, my father is white and I am something in between. Belgian endive rolls in cheese sauce or wantan soup with stuffed dumplings, soy sauce and sesame oil? Don’t ask me to choose. I’m a banana, yellow on the outside, white on the inside.

Copyright 2023 Local Stories | Storytelling by Wendy Kegels