December in Damascus

It's official--Jill and I are returning to Damascus in December for two weeks of training. Jill will get to travel outside Damascus to visit schools where inclusion is taking place (Homs and Tartus). We are both scheduled to participate in a national conference on disabilities and conduct trainings for nonprofits.

I will be visiting University of Damascus and conducting workshop on drama and disabilities.

Full schedule but we are very excited about seeing all our friends and continuing our work.

Our trip runs December 3-17, so keep a watch for blogs.

Last Few Days In Damascus

Our trainings are done and we are on the down slope of our stay in Damascus. Although we are ready to head home, we will miss this great city and the great people—friends—we have found here. Several of them have hosted us over the last couple of days.

Last week, Hazem (our greatest champion here) and his parents took us to “the world’s biggest restaurant” according to the sign outside. I didn’t count, but they told us the restaurant could serve 6,000 people at one time—most in outdoor gardens. It was huge, but since temperatures have hovered in the min-90s for the last week, we ate in a huge banquet hall.

Yesterday, Maya (Jill’s interpreter friend) took us to a gallery opening in the Jewish quarter of the old city. Although there are few Jewish people left (although some remain), the area has been taken over by artists. We visited the gallery of Moustafa Ali, one of Damascus’ most famous. It was quite a place with cellars filled with artwork.

Later, we had dinner with people from the embassy and a member of AAMAL’s board and her husband. We ate on the roof of a hotel owned by Marie (the board member) and her family close to Bab Toume. Bab is Arabic for gate and there are seven in the old city, with our hotel close to the eastern gate—Bab Sharqi. Makes it very easy to direct taxi drivers, because they all know Bab Sharqi. Dinner was lovely, although Jill is still recuperating from a stomach virus that really knocked the wind out of her sails.

On the way home, we passed Eureka, this really cool pizza shop we’ve had take-out from several times. One of the owners who knows us rushed out to say he had seen us on TV last week. Unfortunately, he didn’t ask for our autographs.

Today, Moutaz, Ruba and their son Kareem drove us into the mountains to see Maloula, a Syrian Orthodox Convent. Quite impressive. The story goes that a young girl, Takla, had run away from home because she had become a Christian in 45 AD, but her father sent servants to retrieve her. When she reached the mountains they opened in front of her and she escaped the servants. The convent lies in the mountain range that separates Syria and Lebanon, and for all the world looks like parts of Arizona—including the scorching heat.

T.V. Stars

One of my media friends, Kinde, has a TV show on Syria TV, state-run satellite station, and invited us to appear. It was live and dealt with disabilities and what we were doing in Syria. The studio was a quarter of the size of my studio at Sprayberry, but the crew was very professional. It went great. Jill was a star. We talked about our workshops and how impressed we are with the commitment Syria has to advance the lives of the disabled. I felt right at home and Jill had to stop me from playing director.

The next day one of Jill’s friends, May, invited us to the country home of another friend. After bumping through tiny back streets about 15 miles north of Damascus we reach the house. We discovered that this was a ‘summer home’ and once inside, found a lavish back garden with grape vines everywhere and a swimming pool—but nobody told us to bring suits. Damn, could have used a swim in this heat. There were several other couples and Maha (May’s friend) set out yet another lavish Syrian meal. These meals seem to overflow the table and Maha’s husband insisted we try everything on the table. Then fruit in the garden. Then sweets. We should have walked back to the city to walk off the dinner.

Tonight we had dinner at a lovely outdoor restaurant with Moutez, the PR director at AAMAL, with his wife and child. It was wonderful to see them caring for their 18-month-old boy. It took real restraint on Jill’s part not to bring the boy back with her. Rubara works for the first lady. We discovered the first lady spent her first 25 years in England—her father was a surgeon there. The president was an ophthalmologist in London and that’s where they met. We are going to find a way to meet the first lady, who is the patron of AAMAL, when we come back in December.

Tomorrow is my final day of training. This group has been a bit more contentious than in March. Actually, only one guy seems to question things I say. I think it is working for me, because the others are seeing his reluctance to consider new ways to do journalism. The rest of the group has been very supportive and seem genuinely interested in expanding the coverage of the disabled. In fact, two of the young people from March (who were back in May)—Milia and Arwa—will adapt the workshop and present it to new groups of journalists starting in July. It is so great to see such energy and commitment. They are part of a small cadre of young people who have big plans about changing how journalism is done in Syria.

Dinner With May

Wednesday, we were invited to dinner with one of Jill’s participants, May, who works for the Ministry of Education and also heads a women’s organization—a very influential person.

She selected a restaurant that gave us an Indian Jones-esque journey through the back alleys of the old city. Our friend at the hotel told us to go left, go right and then ask somebody. We finally found it, but had to backtrack because the restaurant was in the Moslem quarter of the old city and didn’t serve drinks.

The dinner was to begin at 9 PM (yes, our bedtime). Syrians prefer late dinners even though they still arrive early to work the next day. Yikes. We could only do that once, but it does allow us to go to any restaurant at our normal time (6 PM) and ALWAYS find a table—usually the only ones in the place.

There were a dozen at dinner and everyone was talking at once, which was fun. The waiters started to bring wave after wave of food—dishes piling up on top of each other. The dishes were fantastic—hummus, dips, salads, chicken, lamp, beef. I looked at all this then at my watch realizing I would be going to bed stuffed.

Not to worry. We left at 11 PM (the rest of the folks were there until 1 AM) and walked more than a mile back to our hotel. Now we know why there are very few overweight people in Damascus—you walk everywhere.

We spent the morning at AAMAL and then Jill was off to the Ministry of Education for a meeting. We have another meeting at 5 with the media folks I met in March. Jill said the meeting went very well, with the deputy minister for research accepting all of the surveys Jill’s team has been working on to assess teacher and parent attitudes about inclusion. They also presented a rubric to be used to evaluate inclusive classrooms this fall—the minister was doubly impressed with that.

Tomorrow, we will be interviewed live on Syria TV, a show about disabilities. The host was one of my participants in March and it should be fun, but we spent the morning for an outfit for Jill to wear.

Our Anniversary

What a memorable place to celebrate our 36th anniversary. Our friends at AAMAL gave us a surprise party not with one but three cakes (there goes the diet). They are so kind to us, always solicitous about our needs. We had to take the hear-shaped cake home with us and had some this morning—again, not a ‘healthy’ breakfast.

In the evening we went to the Cham Palace Hotel that has a revolving restaurant that gives a great panoramic view of the city. Good food and incredible view.

Jill has almost finished with her workshop—getting the participants ready to re-deliver training for including students with special needs into the regular classroom, which begins Fall. We had thought about visiting other cities over the weekend, but since the temp is supposed to be in the high 90s, think we’ll hide out someplace cool. Besides we are scheduled to return in December when we will be able to travel more.

Check AAMAL’s website—Jill is featured on front page. http://www.aamalsyria.org/ (you can translate through Google)

My training doesn’t begin until Sunday, although I’ve spent the week with the PR team at AAMAL going over a long list of questions.

We continue to be amazed at the openness and friendliness of everyone we meet—from our friends at AAMAL to shopkeepers and even taxi drivers. Jill no longer freaks out when we get into the cabs. It seems they negotiate the streets with the skill of ice skaters (maybe more like hockey players without the crashing into each other).

Arrived In Damascus

Well, we’re back. Trip was fine, although 14 hours in a jam-packed airplane was not the most exciting part of the trip. We landed in Dubai on time and found our hotel right in the gate area. For a place in an airport, it was fancier than most places we’ve stayed. Had fish and chips at an Irish Pub, also in the airport. Flight to Damascus next morning was lovely—Jill says we are only allowed to fly Emirates Air from now on.

We are staying at the Hanania again, but they put us in a bigger room up four flights of stairs, but the room has more desks, more windows and its own terrace. As we walked to the hotel, several of the shopkeepers greeted us like we were old friends—a real sense of home away from home.

Spent Sunday at AAMAL. Jill met with her participants from March. Jill says they were even sitting in the same seats they had in March. She had a wonderful time with them and continues until Thursday. I found out my training was to begin Monday, then it was changed until next Sunday. We have learned to expect the unexpected.

It is great to be back in Damascus. Feels like we were here just a few weeks ago, everything is so familiar. Had dinner last night in our favorite restaurant, but this time the awning covering the courtyard was pulled back. Great to have that el fresco feel. The weather is wonderful—cool, dry and sunny. Only supposed to be 78 degrees today, down to 58 tonight.

We're Off (Flying that is)

Well, the day is here and we're just waiting for the shuttle to take us to the airport. No way we were going to have the kids drive us, since traffic is a nightmare and we would be panicked. We return 5:30 AM, June 7th, so we've arranged for a round trip on the shuttle.

We have been working on new presentations and hope we can advance the training we did in March.

Fortunately, we will be staying in the same hotel--Hanania--in the old city, which is so wonderful because we know the area so well.

Can't wait to see all our friends and get to work.