One of the first people to invite us to her home is Fathia Almmaran, an elderly woman and matriarch to a large extended family.
- Harrowing journey for refugees
- Fleeing the bombs
- Acid poured on handcuff wounds
- Shelter offers relative comfort
- Winter journey to safety
- 'Please, photos and write . . . anything'
- Existence in exile severe
- Purpose-built, orderly and secure
- 2000 asylum seekers interviewed daily
- 85,000 souls spread across camp
- Young scholar pleads for help
- Travel diary
We crowd into her UNHCR tent and it is excruciatingly hot inside.
The extended family of 15 packs around us and we sit together discussing the camp. Soon some neighbours join us to tell their tales as well.
Fathia sits holding court along with her neighbour, Hendria Alwadi, as they recount stories of horror about their lives in Syria and escape.
I ask how they escaped and Fathia mimics crawling across the tent. They crawled in the night under fire.
They decided to leave after the town in which they lived, Neymar in Dara'a, ran out of food.
''There was nothing to eat. My son was dead in the war'' - killed fighting for the Free Syrian Army against Assad.
There had been many deaths among her neighbours.
They crossed the desert under enemy aerial fire, making the 30km journey on foot.
Her neighbour Hendria joins the conversation. She is dressed in heavy black hijab and has an ornate tribal tattoo on her left hand.
She had been well off in Syria and is living in a nearby tent with her husband, who is very unwell.
She too is from Dara'a and had fled with her husband when the Syrian Regular Army arrived.
''The army came into our city and started killing the people there. Beheading them.''
This was just before Ramadan last year, she says.
''After that they started with bombings.''
Her house was hit by a bomb and she was lucky to survive.
''We had to buy a car to get to the border. It cost $50,000 Syrian.
''We left. My brother is dead. I still have five sons in Syria.''
Two of these are fighting in the Free Syrian Army.
''Yesterday I cried all night because I had heard bad news about the army.''
Her eyes well up with tears and she starts to cry.
''But we want to go home to Syria. We want it to be safe.
"This life here is not good. Living in the sand. The tents fill up with water when it rains. It makes the children sick. Snakes come into the tents at night and bite you,'' she demonstrates.
''They bite the children when they sleep.''
