No baby yet

Since 4 days, it seems like the harsh winter is over. Sometimes there is heavy rain or a hail storm, but usually it is bright and sunny.
The Aleppines still complain that it is cold in the morning. I really do not care. Today, I'm wearing less than half the clothes I got used to wearing (5 layers of T-shirts and pullovers, 2 pairs of socks and sportstrousers with jeans). And in Europe it is really really cold now and snowing heavily, so we shouldn't complain.

I'm very proud today because I didn't only find a dry cleaners to get my pashmeena scarf cleaned (It had become disgustingly dirty), I also found the dry cleaner's back in a labyrinth of streets full of shops of all kinds.

The next challenge is to go to the hairdresser. I first wanted to have my scarf cleaned, just in case the result will not be as expected.

The last 3 days I was in Ebzimo again, staying with Fozie and family. As she and her brother just came back from Mekka, they are having a lot of visitors. And a lot are interested in that European woman that talks a little bit of Arabic and that they have heard about.

Serwat also came to visit her father and Amtie. She still did not have the baby. But nobody is panicking. Allah will decide when the baby will be born.

Apparently, caesarians are very common here too. You just need the money. The hospitals are categorized from bad to excellent and the price varies accordingly. An acceptable degree of quality costs 30.000 Syrian Pounds, a huge amount for people having an income of 6.000 a month.

The next few days I will be in Palmyra. I'm beginning to know more and more people and that means visiting a lot.

Rainbow

Today we are having a fantastic blue sky again after an extreme cold day with rain and a stormy day with some sunny intervals yesterday. My Australian housemate, Helen, decided to do some excursions and I could go along yesterday to keep Mohamed company, as her visits are always long. She is an "ancient roman historian' working in Rome and always spends a lot of time at the sites absorbing every detail.

We visited Afamia of which she told me that the Romans bread 50.000 horses there and hundreds of elephants. Elephants were used in battle by the Romans.
We arrived when a full rainbow was showing and after 1 hour it started storming heavily. After half an hour on the site, I spent my time in the gatekeeper's office smoking the "arguileh" and having hot tea. Helen came back much later soaking wet.

After some more tea, we left for Huarte, a small village 15 km from Afamia, where according to Helen's documentation there were 3 rooms under the remains of a Byzantine church with well preserved painted surfaces.

So, after some driving around we arrived in a small village called Huarte according to the Bedouin we asked. He invited us into his house for tea, because the it was cold and raining. Helen went with an older Bedouin in search of the rooms which he knew and which he had seen from the inside. It was not possible get inside, but she was very pleased to have found the spot of such unique findings. Back around the "sopa" (stove) we asked the man to describe us everything he had seen which was an honour for him, of course. These strangers came all the way from Australia and Belgium in this terrible weather to talk to him.

Warm and content, we set off to some Dead Cities and afterwards back to Aleppo.

We are all still waiting for Serwat's baby to be born. Maybe it is waiting for its Grandfather and Great Aunt to come back from Mekka.

Turks everywhere

Today is the last day of the Eid-el-Adha. In Syria they made 4 days of it instead of 3. I wonder whether they did that also in the other countries.

Anyway, it started on Tuesday. The first and second day were the most important ones. There were no micro buses to the village, but as always you find someone to take you along without even looking for it. You just have to mention to your friends and acquaintances that you would like to go somewhere and word will reach you on who is going on the same day and whether you want to join them.

The Eid is like the 1st of January in Belgium. Family is visiting one another, especially on the 1st day. The children get money. And, of course, everywhere where you visit a table full of sweets and plenty of food is served to you. And it is impossible to refuse. It is the Eid, after all.

I've spent 2 days in the village and learnt there that the Turkish-Syrian border is open during the Eid to allow families to visit each other easily. Through history the border has been changing and in the past a big part of Eastern Turkey was part of Syria.

So, we tried to drive to a town near the Turkish border to go to a souk where a lot of Turkish merchandise is sold, but the police had blocked the road. It seems that this year the border is only open for Turkish people. Because, there are many here.

Yesterday evening, I arrived in Aleppo and a lot of shops are open. 99% of the customers are Turks buying tons of food and cloths. Everything is a lot cheaper here.

Will go and have a walk in the Christian area now. To see how the ambiance is over there.

Eid

Since yesterday, it feels like spring is in the air, but before it was very very cold. I saw almost everybody walking around with their head covered in one way or another and wondered why. I know now why. Myself, I caught a nasty ear infection and am recovering from it since last weekend. It hurts ! Am now walking around day and night with a big scarf wrapped around my head. I will do this for some time still.

The shopping areas are filled with people nowadays. Next Tuesday is the Eid-al-Adha (the annual slaughtering of the lamb) and many villagers come to the city to buy cloths, sweets, and all the other stuff that they need. You can feel the excitement walking for the upcoming celebrations. I hope to be in the village next Tuesday. Serwat will have her firstborn somewhere next week. So, it is an extra exciting time for my adoptive family.

At the same time lots of Muslims are in Mekka still. And they are returning about a week after the Eid and we will welcome back my friend Fozie and her brother.

Nothing but excitement for the next weeks. No time to be ill ! I will cover my head.

Happy New Year

Spent X-mas in Ebzimo, 1 of the 2 villages in which the family that adopted me lives. Although they are Muslims, they know that X-mas is special for us. They gave me a present and put on a X-mas program on the television.
But I was more interested in the visitors, as there were a lot. They came to say goodbye to Fozie and here brother who left for Mekka on Wednesday.
As it is now very cold (there is a lot of snow in the Turkish mountains), I decided to give myself a X-mas present by traveling to Deir Ezzor for a few days.

On Sunday I went and explored the different bus stations to see where and when I could catch a bus on Monday and I am proud to say that I did this all on my own in Arabic. Monday morning I caught the bus all on my own also and after 4,5 hours we arrived in Deir Ezzor.

Deir Ezzor is a town at the Euphratis next to the border with Iraq. Monday was a magnificent day with clear blue sky. After having checked in in the hotel, I explored the souk and walked for hours at the riverside.
The next morning, early in the morning, I went to the souk again and spent hours in it. I actually sat down between the Bedouin women who were trying to sell their stuff which was an excellent spot to observe their selling techniques, the candidate buyer's techniques to get a fir price and all the other visitors in the souk. 99% are Bedouin. The women are dressed extremely colourful and all different from one another.

At night I was joined by Mohammed who was touring around with Helen, an Australian woman living in the same house as I do and Michael. The next day I drove back with them to Aleppo stopping at a Bedouin market in a village and at Rasafa, an archaeological site in the East of the country still.

Rasafa must have been a very beautiful city. It was built with a very special kind of stone that glitters in the sun and when the sun settles the city becomes golden.

On Friday, I left for Ebzimo again to spend the New Year, but on Saturday I decided to go to Kafaramme where I found Hadji (106 year old Pater Familias) who was pleased to see me. He is sleeping a lot these days and hardly comes out of his room, but gave me the pleasure of his company for a few hours. We put him back to bed after a little surprise party by the Italian campers in the garden, pizza and fireworks included.

This morning I was very disorientated because (the same as yesterday evening) a big X-mas show was on television to celebrate the New Year. X-mas has a whole different meaning here...