Bon Voyage!

So Carlene is requiring us to write a personal reflection, though still unable to digest it all, this is what I came up with:

This morning I woke up peacefully lying on my big down pillow looking out the window at future land, aka big shiny glass buildings in Doha.  I instantly though about going home tomorrow and couldn’t help but smile.  This trip has been non-stop emotionally and physically for the past five weeks, and frankly, I’m exhausted.  But it’s the good kind of exhausted, like the good kind of soar after you work out for the first time in months, which I’m also feeling today.

It’s that strange feeling where five weeks ago seems like forever, yet it also went by very quickly.  I look at my journal and see my notes and business cards and tourist attraction entrance tickets and it almost all seems so foreign.  Did I really do all this?  Then I read my notes and see my annoyances and intrigues in our speakers’ words.  I remember the emotions and I remember being there.  So I must have been.  And I must say, I am pretty impressed at what I see in my notebook.  Not only at my beautifully artistic doodles and my profound notes (especially those from the U.S. Embassy-HA!), but at the impressive program that Northeastern University provided.  I have to hand it to Dr. Denis, he did an amazing job at putting this dialogue together and it was very enriching.  Thank you!

This experience has been a whole lot of adjectives and four letter words at times, but all in all I have to look at it optimistically and say this has been an astounding five weeks.  I think most importantly it has helped me regain, or perhaps just strengthen, my integrity.  On a variety of personal levels- to regain a sense of myself and get my head on straight, but also on a professional level.  I have regained my passion for journalism.  I think I had forgotten how badly I wanted to be a journalist somewhere along the way.  With the turn of the economy and the never-ending talks of how journalism as we know it is plummeting down the drain, I had forgotten the purpose- my purpose.  To give a voice to those who don’t have one.

In the U.S. we seem to misuse our freedom of voice and choose to talk about the wrong things.  There is no faith or trust in the majority of the press.  But here in the Middle East, we have met so many inspirational journalists who are fighting every day for free speech and the ability to write their objective yet controversial stories.  Their words of fighting are giving the opinions of the public, which for so long have been silenced.

I have wanted to be a journalist for a long time.  I love to write.  I think I’ve wanted to save the world since I was a child.  I always wanted to invite everyone in my kindergarten class to my birthday because I didn’t want anyone to be left out.  Yet I was still so shy I would cry when everyone looked at me to sing “Happy Birthday.”  It’s in my nature to want humanity to be happy and at peace.

The biggest thing I have learned in life is to gain a thick skin.  Instead of crying, I switched to begging for attention, apparent in my reckless actions as a teenager.  As a journalist I want to write about the most controversial topics to raise hell and get them heard.

I am not a physical fighter, but as they say, “The pen is mightier than the sword.”  For the past year this idea of fighting was lost in my mind.  I spend a majority of my studies of journalism pissed off at the industry for turning so commercial.  I believe it was Richard Lewis from Al Jazeera who said the American press was like “Jerry Springer meets journalism.”

It also angers me that our society, instead of opening our minds to the globalizing world, we have closed them and shut ourselves off from progression.  I shouldn’t generalize, not all of us have, but it still frustrates me when we buy US Weekly over the New York Times.

So I’ve gone off on a tangent, these past frustrations have been put to rest after my few weeks here is the point I’m trying to get to, which is that I have found my profession to be honorable and worth fighting for again.

Furthermore, I learned so much about international affairs, especially in regards to the Israeli-Pakistan conflict.  The speakers we’ve met and sights we’ve seen have given me instant knowledge to this part of the world that absolutely cannot be taught in a classroom.  I hope for the sake of many forced hours of blogging I have spread some of this insight to those who cannot make it here.

To sum, I feel more intelligent, more beautiful and more liberated.  My life is a little more on track- on a newer sturdier one.  I’m happy and so grateful to have experience these five weeks, but my life awaits to begin again at Logan airport on Friday.  See you then. : )

Al Jazeera does not show beheadings.

We got to see the Al Jazeera Network yesterday.  It was pretty impressive. I left wanting to instantly start working there.  To be part of an organization that I feel fifty years from now could be a network given partial credit to saving journalism. I think this network demonstrates that we are headed to a brighter future where global communication is an actual practice not a concept.  We are due for a turn around in the economy and the profession.  It’s time we fought for good journalism and got it back.  This is not the mission of Al Jazeera, but it is what I was inspired to think in what I heard and saw yesterday.

An anchor prepping to go on air.

I was thoroughly impressed and educated with our tour of the network as well as the conversation we had with several men dealing in international relations and one program editor.  Richard Lewis a lovely British man gave some remarkable insight to how much pressure he as a program editor is under to create a fair and biased news piece. “It is very hard to be objective in this part of the world,” he said.

Because of all the criticism Al Jazeera deals with, they absolutely HAVE to remain objective.  Still, they not only receive criticism by Western nations such as the United States, but also by the extreme religious groups in the Middle East, such as Al Qaeda.  It’s a common misconception for many in the United States that Al Jazeera supports Al Qaeda.  Still, network criticisms aside, Lewis believes, “If you balance a story, you’re safe.  The people are safe.”  This is vital to any story any journalist writes.

Richard Lewis

Al Jazeera was founded in 1996 and quickly became a major news network known worldwide. The network aimed to give a voice to a very important region of the world that was not being heard.  The network now has 50 million viewers with 40 bureaus around the globe, including one in Washington D.C.  Unfortunately because of controlling regimes, such as the Bush administration, the network was placed in a severely negative light.  For example, Donald Rumsfeld called the organization out for showing beheadings.  This rumor spread nationally and globally largely discrediting the organization.  However, the network has never shown a beheading because it is against their code of ethics.

Things are looking up for Al Jazeera and US relations, however.  With the turn of administrations and the Bush legacy quickly burning, Al Jazeera is making breakthroughs in our media.  On July 1^st, Al Jazeera will be broadcast in 20 different US cities, including Washington D.C.

Al Jazeera is also known for showing war and conflict zone coverage of images that would never be broadcast in the United States.  This rose some questioning as to whether or not Al Jazeera will be successful back home.  But while I think it may make some people cringe, it needs to be shown.

They are showing the realities.  How many of us are numb to headlines stating statistics of those killed in the war?  It starts to lose impact.  Lewis referenced the Vietnam War.  It took images for the people to rise up against the war.  Al Jazeera is not trying to say that people should try and oppose the war; they just want to give us a picture of the truth.  “These are real people, losing real lives, people need to know that,” Lewis said.

We’ve seen what it looks like to be lied to.  To be told by our president that there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.  We need to see what those lies created.  I think a lot of us back home WANT to see this, and need to see this.  Lewis referenced the West’s’ “hyper-sanitized” image of the war I agree with this, but I think many of us want the truth, no matter how dirty.

I regained a certain level of respect for journalism yesterday.  I thought this kind of news organization had totally vanished.  I’m frustrated I didn’t know more about Al Jazeera until yesterday.  As a senior in college at a prestigious East Coast university studying the craft, I’m hurt that I was not taught about Al Jazeera in any of my journalism classes.  However, a colleague recommends that everyone should watch the movie “Control Room” to get a better picture of the network as well as coverage of the war in Iraq.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

We arrived in Doha yesterday and it is like no other city I have ever been to.  The first adjective that comes to mind is RICH, filthy rich.  I started reading The Great Gatsby again two days ago and that money-can-buy-you-everything attitude is absolutely prevalent here, only in a weird Middle Eastern twist.  The majority of the people are not from Doha, but are ex pats living in this rich, modern and religious land. I don’t mind the comfort of our exquisite hotel, the Movenpick one bit, so I am NOT complaining!

As we drove in last night the lit up buildings were like a clean version of Las Vegas- on steroids.  While the other two cities we’ve visited on this trip have amazing ancient architecture, this city has equally as impressive modern works of art- aka business buildings and fancy hotels.

Our plated glass, three-sided hotel is among them.  Walking in to the lobby there was not a frowning face on any one of us.  We were overwhelmed with the helpful staff and the gold couches.  As for myself, as soon as I entered our room on the 28^th floor, I could not help but scream aloud and instantly run over to the big fluffy bed with gigantic pillows and start jumping up and down like a five year old.

After kicking back and relaxing in our modern hotel room surfing the many English channels offered on the flat screen television, we decided to venture out to get some food.  Unfortunately, at 10:30 the restaurants in our hotel were closed and we were not offered many other options.  A few of us ventured over to the Four Seasons across the street.  Treated with equal courtesy there, I still felt entirely out of place, and after looking at the prices, I knew I was.

The Four Seasons, Doha.

No worries though, we came back for a lovely room service dinner.  Now for my favorite part, this morning, I woke up just before 8 to head to the gym/spa/amazingness.  I have never wanted to work out more since being in the Middle East, party due to the fact that I have been eating irregularly and partly due to the fact that it’s not allowed to just go for a run, so clearly I want to.

Our poooool!!

After a nice work out in the state of the art gym, I enjoyed the sauna and the steam room.  Though I didn’t have time to use the Jacuzzi, I made use of the free waters!  The pool, also located on this 26^th floor looks out to the ocean where oil-transporting boats are spread out to look as though they are creeping in through the haze on this little peninsula to attack.

The view from my treadmill was also of the sea and some upcoming works of art.  Seeing the city in the daylight, it was even more obvious that Doha is in the process of being built.  Grass has not arrived around many of the hotels yet, though I’m sure it’s coming.  There is just too much construction going on at the base of these buildings for it to be laid down yet.  On the tops of the vertical buildings and standing even taller surrounding, are massive yellow cranes.

This place is one of the weirdest places I’ve ever been and I’m not sure my description did it justice.  But I can say, no matter your culture, oil money can buy you nice things.

No patience for saving face

I apologize if my blog posts have been a little “bleh” recently.  Since being in Syria we have had to attend meeting after meeting where we have basically been given the same message- these dialogues are good for Syrian/US relations and it means a lot that we are here, blah, blah, blah.  I hate to be cynical, but these dialogues aren’t really fixing the problems, especially when we ask the “tough” questions in these meetings and the answers are avoided.  These dialogues are not very helpful if we don’t dialogue freely and get needed information.  We need all information, good and bad to make any change.

Even when we met with a group of students at Damascus university for an “open dialogue”, one particular student e-mailed one of our students with his “real” thoughts about Americans afterwards.  He didn’t want to voice them in our dialogue because they had been told to be nice to the Americans.

Lisa and Caitlin conversing with a NUSS student.

I do think these dialogues are important and a step in the right direction.  I just get angered at the fact that we essentially all live in a world of paranoia.  It’s clearly a lot worse here in Syria, but we have been told on numerous occasions to watch what we, as Americans, say as well. Sometimes I think if we were just more blunt, we could say what we had to say, get over the emotions, and then work on a real solution.

I am not really sure how to interpret the whole Syria experience.  It has been an amazing and unforgettable one, that’s for sure.  I get easily agitated when I stay in one place too long, and this was absolutely what I needed.

Dr. Denis being watched over by the President of Syria, Bashar al-Assad.

I will say, for this experience, unlike other abroad experiences I’ve had, more background information about these countries would have been helpful.  It’s been a little difficult not knowing more about Syrian politics and US-Syrian relations.  I dropped the ball on that one.

One big political issue facing both the United States and Syria that I have come to know quite a bit about are the Syrian sanctions that President Obama recently renewed.  These sanctions are greatly upsetting to the Syrian government and the people of Syria.  These sanctions affect the economy in general and reconstruction in Syria.

I am not sure if I agree with the Obama’s action on this.  It seems like a step backward and not forward.  Part of that agreement is that Syria needs to end its support of terrorist groups, specifically Hezbollah and Hamas.  But who’s a terrorist?  The language becomes so complicated.  Further, it’s not that easy!  These groups are partly embedded in the culture and government here.  We need to better understand that and put some effort in to resolving the problems and the involvement.  Was our country not founded partly due to terrorist acts?

This trip has made me realize that political science and international relations are severely challenging and frustrating.  I don’t think I have the patience to do what our government officials and the equivalent Syrian officials are dealing with daily.

I think all in all, my frustrations aside, this has been a very successful trip and is a step in the right direction.  I would recommend traveling to Syria to anyone, and I truly hope I can visit again some day.

Traveling days

Syria has been an unforgettable experience.  We are in Aleppo, five hours from Damascus.

Ma'aloula

We left Damascus two days ago in the morning and drove several hours stopping first in Ma’aloula, one of the only remaining towns to speak “Jesus,” also known as Aramaic.  We stopped in a little church and got to hear the Lords Prayer performed by the local priest in the native language.  It was humbling.

We then went to this amazing castle a little further away.  After a local buffet lunch, we got to play in the castle.  I say play because the place was huge and I felt like I was five years old again discovering the woods and secret hideaways in my back yard. However, after several hours of climbing up and down in and out of dark basements and scenic towers, it was time to go.

We drove quickly through the small country town to our hotel.  By far the best one we’ve stayed in yet.  The large rooms and balconies with scenic hillside/castle views were a nice touch to the long day.  The highlight of the night was room 407’s massive balcony.  It was nice to sit outside without the usual honking of horns and noise of the city.  Sadly, it came as a shock to me to be able to see the stars and a clear sky.

Anyway, yesterday we finished the drive to Aleppo and visited another castle.  The exhaustion of traveling and living out of a suitcase started to hit.  Not to mention traveling with the same people with has started to wear on frustrations.  I’m in much need of some alone time.

Golan Heights visit

Yesterday we went to the Golan Heights to see a preserved site from the Israeli attacks in 1967. It was incredible and I’m sure my words cannot do the feelings I experienced justice.  The hour or so drive there was a scenic one, I saw fields with camouflage soldiers popping up out of the grass and children laughing and playing around their gypsy tents they call home.  The rebuilding of towns was evident and reminded me of up-and-coming towns on the West coast of Mexico.  We could tell we were getting close when we passed a UN building and then were stopped at a checkpoint.

I have absolutely no concept of what it feels like to be living with 40 years of conflict, or to be born into it, or to lose loved ones to it.  I am embarrassed at how little I knew about the Israeli Arab conflict before coming on this trip.  Horrifically embarrassed.  I think, in general, the US coverage of the conflict is slim to none and clearly unbiased.

In Syria every meeting we’ve had has always had some mention of the conflict.  In fact, every minister and educational official we’ve met have said that their main and Syria’s main objective is to regain the Golan Heights.  The feeling here is that if the conflict between Israel and Palestine is solved, basically Syria benefits and the country’s infrastructure will be greatly improved.

Of the 1,800 square kilometers that make up the heights, 600 sq. km are liberated and the other 1,200 are under Israeli occupation.  Approximately 510,000 people live in this area.  The specific area we visited was Quneitra Governate.  We were fortunate enough to meet with the mayor.

When we met with the mayor, there were also Syrian national television reporters there as well as many other reporters and photographers.  Us being there was a very big deal.  Many of us were interviewed; I was not one of these people- thank god.  I was too emotionally distraught to have said anything significant.

The buildings were for the most part completely crumbled.  We did get a chance to walk around in an old hospital.  The hospital was taken over by the Israelis and used as a type of base camp.  There were countless bullet holes in the building and it was visible where the Israelis practice throwing grenades in the windows.  There were piles of human feces in some of the corners of the building, most likely from the Syrian guards who shyly occupy the building now.

We then got to go to the border and the UN cease-fire zone.  Just yards away we could see Israel.  This was pretty intense.  I can’t quite explain it.  The Israeli-Arab conflict has never been a passionate topic in my life.  After meeting people here, Americans on our trip and locals who have been living day in and day out with this conflict their whole lives, I can’t even pretend to have emotions significant to theirs.  All I can say is, standing there looking over at Israel was a very powerful moment.

We also stopped along the side of a field.  Directly in front of us was barbed wire stretching for miles marking off the line between Israel and Syria.  The field was still filled with mines.

On the topic of mines, the mayor told us that Israel left behind more than 1 million mines in the Golan Heights area.  This has led to 400 persons, mainly children with lost hands, legs, and eyes.  He said that even more are now dead.  This is still a current issue.  Just two months ago, two children were killed while working their cotton crop.

The mayor also spoke about those still suffering directly due to Israeli occupation.  Many in the area are deprived of education, healthcare, and trade markets.  Some Syrians have been held captive in Israeli prisons for up to 20 years now.  Syrians can be held in detention even for peacefully protesting.

I find it disturbing that a country that thrives on the ability to give these liberties and freedoms to its people will one-sidedly support a conflict that so swiftly denies them to others.

The following are some more quotes from the mayor that I enjoyed:

“More than a million widows, more than 4.5 million orphans, this is the democracy of Bush.” ~in reference to the Iraq war

“Most important that this land comes back, no matter how fertile the soil or the conditions are.” ~in reference to the Israeli occupied Golan Heights

Israel has destroyed “man, stone and tree.” ~referencing the fighting in Gaza recently

“We wish that you as journalists will convey the truth that u will see.  We think that the West in general, in Europe and the United States, the portrait is no so clear.  We are very glad with these visits to let the community know the truth as it is.”

“On the news tonight.”

Yesterday morning we met with the president of the National Union of Syrian Students.  Though he was asked to steer clear of politics, when, towards the end of his lecture, he started speaking about the war in Iraq and the Arab-Israeli conflict, I deeply admired his passion and his drive.  He spoke specifically about the people who have been affected by death in these conflicts.

The brochure promoting the NUSS organization talks a bit about their drive in politics as well.  The brochure has some very strong language, such as “Israeli nazism.”

When we asked what the organization was trying to say by this, he said that, yes, he thinks the content to be a little strong, but he pointed out that it was an advertising and recruiting piece, like the many annoying pamphlets Northeastern sends appealing high school graduates.

“You have to remember, many of our students have lost family in this war,” he said.  It made since that perhaps talking about the Red Sox wouldn’t work to promote an organization here in Syria like it does in Boston.  That promoting the attempt to help end a war that has killed many loved ones would make more sense as a marketing strategy.

He also talked about the way our media is covering the Israel- Palestine conflict.  He gave the example of when a Palestinian soldier who has lost his brothers, sisters and parents and goes and blows up a bus full of Israeli soldiers.  The American press only reports that a Palestinian blew up a bus full of soldiers and killed one innocent civilian, not that the armed to-the-teeth Israeli army killed his whole family.

Furthermore, he spoke about American mothers who lost their sons in the Iraq war.  He asked why they aren’t speaking out.  While I have read coverage in years past about this, I wondered too why they were staying silent now.  Have they been brainwashed in to believing the war to look for weapons of mass destruction was necessary?  Or, are they speaking out and the press isn’t covering them?

It all made me think of the Jack Johnson song, “The News.”

It goes like this:

“A billion people died on the news tonight

But not so many cried at the terrible sight

Well momma said, it’s just make believe

you can’t believe everything you see

So baby close your eyes to the lullabies on the news tonight.

Who’s the one to decide that it would be all right

To put the music behind the news tonight?

Well momma said, you can’t believe everything you hear

The diagetic world is so unclear

So baby close your ears, on the news tonight.

On the news tonight.

The unobtrusive tones on the news tonight.

And momma said mmmm mmmm.

Why don’t the newscasters cry when the read about people who die?

AT least they could be decent enough to put just a tear in their eyes.

But momma said, it’s just make believe, you can’t believe everything you see

so baby close your eyes to the lullabies on the news tonight.”

A look back at the Zabaleen

This is a blog post I wrote back in Egypt. I couldn’t post it until we left the country due to the security issues surrounding the visit. Here it is:

The images of the Zabaleen children’s faces will haunt me for the rest of my life. The smell of trash and the zillion rabid flies that are as natural as the sight of garbage in this area were quickly overcome, because there were children living and playing here amongst the filth. Playing soccer on a run down dirt patch riddled with holes and feet away from trash piled as high as buildings. The children were the most enlightening part of this experience.

As I started away from the community school we first visited that morning, I stumbled down the main road in awe. Realizing a little too late that trash and dirt and rotting food weren’t the only things littering the ground in piles. Dead rats smooshed in to the ground could be distinguished after staring at the remains of a fly infested corpse.

As I swayed along jumping at the honks of the trash delivery trucks coming in for the day and the sudden glimpse of an emaciated donkey creeping up behind me out of the corner of my eye, I came across four children. They resembled closely in my mind four lost boys from never-never land and with dirty black faces and dreaded hair sticking up in all directions begging to be cleaned. They shouted “hello!” “Hello!” I stopped and looked them in the eye smiling, though my heart was braking. I touched their hands and couldn’t help but wince at the feel of dirt and grime on their clammy palms. I instantly wanted hand sanitizer but I had to continue to touch hand with all. I was disgusted and yet totally enthralled. I wanted even more of a connection, I wanted more than to just touch their hands. I wanted to pick them up, to hold them, to tell them everything would be okay, and to grab them and run with them down the road out of Cairo to a better place. But they quickly were running and laughing down the road off to their childhoods. I couldn’t help but to take pause and reflect on my own childhood. How different they were, but the curiosity, laughter and excitement were the same.

That was my only physical encounter with the Zabaleen. I’ll never forget that momentary wince when I first touched that little girls small filthy hand, or the way their eyes smiled, or the way their smiles pained me and made me hate so many things, including the privileges I was granted.

As I walked down the rest of the streets there were functioning businesses along the main stretch of road. There was a paint shop, a metal shop, many safes filled with tea drinking and sheesha smoking men. Most of the men dressed in their dingy gallibayas stared at me through their dark orbs, their few teeth accentuating their unsmiling mouths made me conscious of photographing them like a science exhibit. The women walking down paths, working in their shops and sorting trash held up their hands in protest as a pulled my camera out. Some younger women would smile and say hello in their awkward accents.

I stopped with our translator at one woman’s chicken stand. She didn’t want to talk much because it was illegal to sell chickens in the Zabaleen area after the bird flu. She said she had been selling them for ten years. She sat in a plastic chair next to 6 cages piled high full of live squawking chickens. I had to step back because of the overpowering smell of bird shit. The opening to her shop couldn’t have been more than 5 feet wide and 5 feet back. As she talked I looked towards the back of the dark, dirt floor shop. On the back wall there was a white basin attached that resembled a sink. Lying in it was a dirty butcher knife coated in flies. Along the sidewall was a dirty counter with splotches of filth that I can only imagine to be chicken guts and blood, though it could have been a number of other things. There were more fly knives. She said that she cleans the chickens for her customers. I almost threw up and moved on, only to see more unsanitary shops. A fish shop with fish laid out minus the ice was left to the merciless sun.

I have tried to capture the sites of the Zabaleen in photos and my words, but it cannot do the trash city justice. Please keep in mind that many of these people choose to live here. It is a community that has been built up for decades. And it is so easy for us too look at this place in horror. It is horrible. But these people also have it better than many others living in filthier slums around the world. (That’s my attempt to be objective and move on from what I saw that morning.)

I think we need to really dwell on this. On the poverty, on the filth, on the health issues that are left unattended and unnoted to the rest of the world. Let’s think about what we can do, and if at very least, we can start appreciating what we have a hell of a lot more.

A bunch of smaht kids from Boston

It’s 4:30 on a cloudless breezy day in Syria.  I am lying by our hotel pool with Caitlin writing this blog post in a bikini and thinking about ordering a glass of wine.  We met with the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Abdul Fattah Ammourah, this morning.  A few of us just came back here and had a very leisurely lunch by the pool and digested our delicious salads and the morning’s meeting among other foreign political issue.

This is a glimpse in to my life here.  It’s easy to understand why I love it.

After our discussion, I had a sense of accomplishment and a deep sentiment of hope for our future.  While the world is currently a mess, whether its Syrian relations or American relations, I think our generation will have a lot to offer in changing the violent and hostile ways many in the world try to resolve conflicts.

Sam and Ian

It’s very hard for a lot of us to understand just how amazing this experience is and how much this trip is subconsciously educating us.  I am speaking on behalf of myself and assuming that many of my colleagues feel the same, I suppose I shouldn’t do that.  However, for most of us, we have had many past travel experiences and have been able to thrive in educational opportunities.  Therefore, being abroad and having thorough educational discussions with important political figures and journalists doesn’t seem natural or normal, but doesn’t really faze me either.

I think for many of the people running the world right now, they do not see these approaches as normal or customary. The generation currently in charge of governments were used to seeing collasal wars and aggression as a means to political confronting ends.

Dani and Kate

I am not speaking to one specific issue, and I’m not naïve.  I am fully aware that there will be violence and aggression in the future and sitting down and talking will not solve some issues.  But, I think we are headed to a more peaceful time.  I think Obama and his administration are a start to this change.  I know Obama and change in the same sentence is getting seriously cliché, BUT I really believe this! And it feels good to believe in something.

John and Nick

I would also like to say that I think my colleagues on this trip are some of the most brilliant people.  I can see many of them ten years from now running the UN and holding many important positions in our government.  I’m grateful for knowing every one of them and will keep their integrity in my thoughts as motivation for my own career.

Love you guys!

Peace of Mind

I.

Love.

Syria.

Damascus is BY FAR, top five places I’ve ever been, up there with Budapest, Prague, Ireland & midcoast Maine, of course. (And no- I don’t have to say this because the officials here are making me.)

This city is everything I expected Cairo to be and then some.  Not that Cairo was a let down by any means.  It’s just that the people here are exceptionally nice, the city is immaculate in retrospect, there is not a high level of anxiety, there are no daily check ins with security, we have one large air conditioned bus with snacks and water, and our tour guide, Osama (yes- that’s really his name) loves us!

Today, though thoroughly exhausted and off to a rough start with Turkish coffee mud lacking any significant caffeine, was quite the experience.  The museum- eh not so fascinating.  But the garden outside was beautiful and set the tone for the day- peaceful.  There was a breeze and when the wind blew it wasn’t like a layer of smog stuck to you.  As I sat outside in the garden at the museum, the sky was blue and the birds were chirping. I couldn’t stop smiling.  It was one of those simply pure moments.  It most absolutely set the tone for the day.

Even though our next stop was a market and after shopping in Cairo’s Khan I was a little weary, everything went smoothly.  We walked through a covered street where the only traffic was other easy-going shoppers and passersby.  There was no harassment, no camel offerings and no bartering.  There were lovely shops and some great little eateries.  One of which served amazingly delicious homemade strawberry ice cream topped with pistachios.  It reminded me of mid 1900 Europe.

After weaving through this delightful market, which I WILL be going back to- at least once. We came to the end or the beginning?  In front of us stood this beautiful mosque.  We entered- heads covered and additional brown bags- or sacks if you will.  Inside the mosque there were beautiful mosaics on the ceilings and adorned stained windows.  We ere lucky enough to be their during one of the daily prayers- it was really a beautiful experience.  Minus the other tourists there taking pictures.  I felt a little rude.

After the mosque we went to X palace.  It was so beautiful.  The courtyard again resonated this feeling of peace.  More birds and sunlight and clean air.  It was comforting.

Later, we walked through the alleys of Old Damascus and stopped at St. Ananias church.  More peacefulness.  The little alleys and the friendly encounters with locals reminded me of what I assume Italy to be like again in the middle of the 1900s.

After, it was back on the air-conditioned bus.  The cool waters had been refilled and more sweets were passed out.

I love Syria.