Long week end

It is too hot for the time of the year. Time to put away the carpets and keep the sun out of the house during the day.

This is Syria, one day it feels too cold, the next day it is too hot. There is no real in-between.

From now on it will get hotter. I hope that the heat will bring some thunderstorms at the end of each day, as it did last April and May. The rain will wash away the dust hanging in the sky and it saves me the effort and time of watering the flowers and growing vegetables.

It is definitely tourist high season. Every day, for the last ¾ weeks, there have been campers in the garden. I am never alone, although Mohamed is often away touring around with travellers flying in for a week or so.

The garden looks clean, so different from a few weeks ago when wild flowers were growing all around.

It is quite beautiful to have all these colours in the garden, but wild plants suck all the water from the soil leaving it full of cracks. As the “hashish” is coming to its end, the air is full of “pollen” making it difficult to breathe sometimes for hay fever victims such as I.

All together, it was time to take a day off and nothing better than a Friday (the Muslim Sunday) to do that.

I might extend and make it a long weekend.

Killed in an accident

I’ve been so sad these last few days.

Saturday morning a little girl from has been killed in an accident right in front of her doorstep and mine.

I heard the noise of shrieking tyres followed by the blow of an impact that is so typical for a car accident. When looking out of the window, I did not see 2 vehicles that collided but a man picking up the unconscious 5 year old daughter from across the road and driving off with it.

It was obvious what happened. The impact I had heard was with her. It had thrown her about 20 meters further.

I immediately told Mohamed who was starving for breakfast after coming home from Damascus early in the morning. He rushed off to Tareb where the driver had headed to with the little one, most probably to the hospital.

2 hours later, he brought Abu Abdu holding the body of his little girl in his arms. Washed and wrapped in cloths, she was ready to be buried.

4 people witnessed it all. They all said the car was driven much too fast and partially off the road. She was not even on the road itself, but as often in front of the house.

She used to bring me flowers regularly together with her sister, babbling away, always full of joy. A very happy little girl.

Now her sister comes alone and offers me the most beautiful bunches of wild flowers with a sad smile on her face, as to say that live goes on but we should not forget.

Tortoise

Weather wise it was a relief to be back in Syria. Although some days were still overcast and fresh, I felt much better and by now the temperatures are nice and warm over all.

When coming home at night on Saturday, I found a group of Sahara Club members staying on the camping site. They stayed for 2 nights enjoying visits to Aleppo and Saint Simeon. Then left for Palmyra in different directions.

This is the first time I encountered a group of travellers organized the way they are. 27 (mostly 2 per car) left Europe, each following their own itinerary, meeting other members of the group at some reference points on the travel map. Not only that, but some of them travelled to the Middle East via Northern Africa, while some came through Turkey. Some are flying back home after a few weeks, while others join in by landing in Damascus, for example.

They are in contact with each other and know perfectly well how everybody is proceeding with the journey.

It is a good way to travel all together individually and to have 1st hand feedback on accommodation and places to visit.

Yesterday evening another team of the group arrived at our doorstep. 1 is taking the bus to Turkey today to fly home tonight. The other one will travel a few days alone before his girlfriend is joining him in Damascus.

The house has been cleaned and “de-dusted”. The next few weeks getting rid of the weed is again on the agenda. The weather has been very favourable to all things growing. I would like to see my vegetables and flowers growing and not lose them in an ocean of weed.

This is probably the last big round of weeding. It will not be so hard to get rid of it, as many women in the neighbourhood have sheep and they are glad to come and help in exchange for a good meal for their animals.

One of the signs that as from now the weather will get hotter gradually is that the tortoise has surfaced. This is a tortoise rescued from the hectic traffic on the road last year. I put it in the back of the garden and lost it out of view after a few days. Thought it had gone, as the wall was not completely closed back then and we did not have a gate. It stayed.

I didn’t see it. It was spotted by Ahmed and Rahaaf leaving the garden. They had never seen a tortoise before and with a terrified voice called me to have a look at “something”. My first thought was that they had seen a snake, but they would have called “hajjé”. Had a look and laughed. Took it in my hands and showed it to them. They were astonished/relieved to see it didn’t bite or sting. After a careful observation “from a distance” and a lot of questions they went home.

I put it in the back of the garden where the weeds will remain, far away from the vegetables and the flowers, but am afraid I will have to keep it else where. Maybe I’ll take it up on the veranda. They are believed to bring good luck.