Mother's Day

On Tuesday it was March 21st. Not only the first day of Spring, but Mother's Day in Syria.

The first day of Spring is an important day for the Kurds. There are 2 Kurdish areas in the North of Aleppo.
Mother's Day is a national holiday. No school, banks and shops closed.

I didn't know about the Kurdish celebrations on the first day of Spring, but Helen told me.

Helen, the Australian living in Italy, is back after 7 weeks of absence. She is staying for 2 months to continue reading about Syria's ancient history and to visit more of the archaeological remains.

The first day she was back we had 20 hours of heavy rain on end and she was not happy about it. We kept ensuring her that it had been marvelous weather for a month already and that this was only temporarily. She was not convinced until the next evening.

She left on Thursday for Antakia which is now Turkish territory, but it was Syrian until not long ago. Dzjidde regularly went to Antakia by horse to trade.

We had a picnic with him on Wednesday and once again proved he was in good condition again. He asked one of his grandsons to push his wheelchair for about 1 kilometer to eat and sit with us until 4 o'clock in the afternoon.

Will see him regularly over the next weeks, as I'm moving to the village.