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.