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.