Busy, busy, busy

It has been very busy and next week will be very busy too. My last week before I go back to Syria to supervise the building project in my favourite village, Kafaramme.
The walls are already standing. This week the roof will be added.

Yesterday I have been collecting all things (handy stuff and souvenirs mainly) that I want to take with me. It will take a few trips before everything will be over there. I will have to categorize them according to priority.
It is not really necessary to move all these things, but it is nice to have some of your own things around you.

My new laptop is super. On Friday I bought a webcam... in the supermarket. Installed it in 2 minutes. I hope to have my own Internet connection soon, so I will be able to communicate with friends and family whenever there is a need or an urge to do so.

Will be very busy this week to. With some boring issues, like initiating the procedure to sell the apartment in Belgium. Also with a lot of fun. Actually, most of it will be fun.

In the meantime, I'm still waiting for good weather here in Belgium. When will it start. It is freezing cold today. When I left at 11 o'clock to go to my parents' home, I felt like putting on gloves.

In Syria, it is 28° !

Why is the sun hiding ?

Belgium is nice. I'm glad to see everybody. But at the same time, I would prefer to be in Syria.

The sun is shining over there. Over here the sun is usually hiding behind grey clouds.

On Saturday May 6th, I'm flying back. I will start immediately with the interior design of my new apartment. Got news that all walls are built. In a few days the roof will be added. After that, it is a matter of having water and electricity and a clean spot for sleeping.

In the meantime, I'm moving here in Belgium to my parent's house, as I am selling my half of my Belgian apartment to my sister. That procedure takes a long time. I will have to come back end of August to sign the final agreement.
And, of course, to do some other stuff, like seeing family and friends.

Last week, I was feeling restless and realized that I was bored sleeping in my apartment every day. Joke, good friend of mine, proposed to visit her and her family and stay the night. I enjoyed it, and we will repeat it this week.

Joke gave birth to her 3rd daughter end of April. 3 small daughters are a guarantee for a busy life.

Hope to do some more stuff this week. Will play with the new acquired laptop which I want to take to Syria, as phoning by Internet is cheap and even for free when inter-computer.

An Internet connection is one of the indispensable things I need in my new house.

Belgium weather not inviting

3 days back in Belguim and feel like returning to Syria.

The weather is grey and life is so different here. At the same time interesting things are happening on the other side. The appartment is being built and I cannot wait to see the result.

I left detailed instructions and talked them through 100 times with Mohamed. He is supervising the construction.

Mohamed has good taste and a sense for quality, but at the same time I can confirm that the arabic standard for aesthetics is different from ours.
That's why most of the decoration inside the house will be done when I will be back.

And I'm sure the weather is so much better over there

My last week

This is my last week in Syria before my return to Belgium, for a while. Suddenly the time is passing by very quickly.

I'm very popular in the village, because the women are curious about my habits and the children like to do there English homework with me.
Sometimes it is not easy explaining what the exercise is about, as they are all small children and do not understand English. So, I have to explain in Arabic and sign language which I also do with the women when they want to know something.

I've got 2 new friends : Ahmed is 5, and Rehaaf is 3. Ahmed is learning how to count to 10 in English. When I will leave, he will know. His little sister shows me often 4 fingers and asks me "how much?". When I respond "I forgot", she says "foul".

Sometimes I am leaving the house for a long time, and then they are very glad to see me back.

Yesterday morning, I had some quality time with Ahmed in my room. Is slept in late (until 9, actually) and he couldn't wait for me to have a wash and come to the living room. He knocked on the door and came in and staid chatting with me for an hour telling me he was very worried the day before, because I came in very late when he was asleep and he thought I had returned to Belgium. I needed some coffee and made some and he wanted some too, chatting politely about the weather and the family and returning the empty glass with a "daime" which means something like "I wish you a lot of prosperity". Then he left to give me time to prepare for the day.
I think tomorrow we will have some time together because today I left very early for Hama and am spending the night here. He's probably asking his every 5 minutes whether I will return.

In the afternoon, some family from the other village was visiting. The girls where all the time with me asking me a lot of questions -of course - and offering me all kinds of delicacies from the garden, the weed that we would never keep in the garden ;-)

Whenever I feel like I get in some kind of routine or think I will be bored that day, something is happening or someone is visiting. Never a dull moment !

Belgacom operational in Aleppo ?

Before leaving for Belgium, I moved my belongings to Kafaramme after having lived in the Old City of Aleppo for nearly 4 months.

I came with 1 suitcase and travel bag, but couldn't manage to put all my personal belongings in them. I wonder why, because have not bought anything else but a few galabias and imported some things - like second hand children's clothing - that have been distributed in the meantime. It is probably a matter of organizing, because we packed very quickly.

Am glad to be back fulltime in the village, because Aleppo is very crowdy and noisy at times. But also a city full of surprises.

Last week I spotted a van with the old Belgacom logo. Belgacom is the Belgian telecommunication company I've been working for for 5 years. It was really weird to see that van here in the North of Syria. Would like 1 of my colleagues to tell management that the project team responsible for replacing the old logo's with new ones did not reach 100% of their objective yet.

Anyway, my time left in Syria is short. Will try to do some traveling still and focus on the apartment. On Wednesday we ordered 5000 cement bricks. They will be ready end of next week. Immediately after, the building will start. Am excited about that !

Two days before my move, we had a sun eclipse. The sky turned from clear blue to lavender blue and was able to see it very clearly. It was not a total eclipse like in Lybia, but an interesting event anyway. Maybe some coincidence : as of the start of the eclipse, we had a cold wind for about 24 hours. That is gone now. Fortunately.

The Syrians all agree that we are at the beginning of Summer.