-Syria-Part II

11-29-2007------12-4-2007

I woke up early…… said farewell to my host…….and boarded a minibus for Damascus just after 9am. I arrived at the Lebanese-Syrian border at around 11am……..and hit a snag while passing through Syrian Immigration. My single entry visa……was both invalid and expired……..After about 3 hours of waiting around and pleading with the border officers to give me a transit visa; they finally gave in and handed me a 3 day visa, so I could travel through to Turkey. My bus driver had lost patience with me within the first 30 minutes of arriving at the border, and had left me to fend for myself.

After getting my passport stamped on the Syrian side of the border; I walked passed the armed guards and through the border to Syria. When I arrived in Syria I took a mini-bus to Damascus (50cents, 45min).

I sat next to a Lebanese university student….who happened to speak fluent English. After a bit of small talk and tiptoeing around the usual questions about America's foreign policies……..we had arrived in Damascus. My new friend immediately flagged down an old man to help me find a bus for Aleppo.

Getting around in Syria…..is seriously impossible without help from the natives. About 30min later the old man put me on a mini-bus, mumbled something to the driver and waved me goodbye. About 20min later; I was signaled off the bus and escorted by a friendly Syrian about 1/2 mile and onto another mini-bus. After the stranger helping me…paid for my bus fair; we were off again………..10 minutes later we arrived at a frighteningly crowded bus station on the edge of the city. I was escorted by my new friend to the ticket office…where I spent $1.20 for a ticket to Aleppo………After taking me to my bus………the Syrian guy smiled at me and said goodbye.

It is hard for me to comprehend exactly why Syrians are so friendly; is it a cultural trait? Or perhaps something rooted in Islam?..............The bottom line is that Syrians in general, portray a deep rooted kindness and selflessness that is hardly seen at all in our cold, selfish, greedy, frightened, and highly industrialized world.

After boarding the dirty, rundown, foul smelling barely tolerable bus……I was immediately greeted by warm smiles and curious stares. I had boarded the commoners bus (blue collar), a bus that most middle to upper class Syrians would never consider taking. My seat was beside a severely cracked window, sporting a hole the size of a quarter in the center; the front windshield of the bus was also completely webbed with cracks…..

While I was sitting on the bus and observing my surroundings…..a parade of vendors boarded the bus and began soliciting the sale of their products, which ranged from cookies to hair clippers. It was now 4pm…..and I had not eaten since breakfast……so I eagerly accepted some stale cookies from one of the vendors.…..Before I could take out my 20cents to pay for the cookies; a Kurdish guy pulled out a few coins and paid for my cookies. He then smiled, and sat down beside me. Mohammed and his Kurdish friends……(about 10 of them, all in their early 20s) work construction in Damascus, but are from a village outside of Aleppo. Mohammed new a handful of English word phrases…….but for the most part could not communicate in English. This did not stop him from spending almost the entire 4 hour bus ride trying to teach me Arabic………….I was seriously not in the mood to learn……nor did I later retain any of the Arabic I was taught that night. The guys on the bus were really cool……two of them were soldiers, the rest rugged looking construction workers….most had tattoos and a few had what looked like self inflicted scars on their forearms.

About two hours into the ride the bus stopped at a rest station for a quick break. I was starving…..and thankfully my new Kurdish friends kindheartedly helped me to secure a snack from the restaurant. I am not sure how I would have been able to get any food without them; The cashier and the food court are on opposite ends of the restaurant……..and you must order your food, pay for it,…….then walk across the restaurant to the food area to collect your food after handing the cooks your receipt. So as you can imagine……this would be difficult to do without knowing the Arabic word for French-fry sandwich.

The bus pulled into Aleppo at around 10pm……as we were pulling in, an old Kurdish man sitting behind me called my Syrian friends with his cell phone and told them which bus stop to meet me at. The kindness never stops in Syria!

After arriving at the bus station……..my Kurdish friends waited with me for about 15 minutes until my friends showed up to retrieve me. I then said farewell to my new friends with a few cheek kisses and was off to Jamal's English institute with my friends to meet up with the crew.

The cheek kisses: this seems to be a bit different in each country…….

Bulgaria: a usual greeting or farewell would be to kiss each cheek of your friend. This is always a male-female situation.

Turkey: Kiss on each cheek, but usually only male on male, or female on female. A common farewell or greeting amongst the younger hip crowd is; instead of kissing each others cheeks you simple tap skulls……..sounds weird…….and actually looks a bit weird…..but it is definitely common among the young crowd(men).

Albania: Men kiss each other on each cheek as a greeting or a farewell.

Syria: for men: kiss on right side of cheek, then left side and then back to ride side…..and if you are good friends with the person the last cheek kis is followed by a few mini kisses.
For women: right side of cheek kiss, back up, right side of cheek kiss, back up, right side of cheek kiss………..A male-female kiss is never acceptable unless you are married to the women…….in that case it is only appropriate to kiss on the cheek(in public).
-It is actually very rare in Islamic countries to be able to shake a women's hand….only her husband is allowed this privilege.

Iran: from observations of my Iranian friends…..right-left-right……and heterosexual cheek kisses are perfectly acceptable amongst friends.

OK……..now that we are clear on the kissing situation…….I will move on.

I was picked up by Mustafa and Mohammed…….my original Syrian friends……they greeted me with kisses…….even the extra ones at the end………which was nice and welcoming. The Syrian crew is awesome……….perhaps it will be a bit repetitive if I go into detail about all of my Syrian experiences so I will just mention a couple things.

Jihad: 'for the sake of heaven', It is simply described as a sort of holy battle a Muslim will fight against a non-Muslim group, country or people.

Most people think of bearded suicide bombers when they hear this word…….but truth be told; it is not always a negative extremist tool for terrorism like we are taught by the media.

For example: my good friend Jamal……constantly hosts foreign travelers from all over the world, he brings them into his home and treats them like family, for as long as they want to stay. He is showing people of foreign (non-Muslim) lands that Muslims are peaceful, and that the stereotypes portrayed by national media are often disgustingly false and without merit. He is essentially a goodwill ambassador for Syrian people and the religion of Islam. He portrays kindness, friendliness, selfishness, openness, and above all else love for the different. "love thy neighbor as thyself comes to mind".

So anyways………last night while Jamal and I were discussing all of the misconceptions and negative stereotypes of Islam culture……he mentioned to me that he considers his 'hosting' his Jihad. At first I was a bit confused…….but after he explained it to me……it made a lot of sense. He is simply leading a war against prejudice and hatred toward Muslims. Jamal feels driven to teach all the people he hosts, how false and damaging, ignorant thinking has been for the mostly peaceful Muslim community.

I fully agree with Jamal…….and find it an absolute shame, that so many people associate terrorism with Islamic culture. I hope that one day this media induced falsity is changed from 'terrorism' to peace, kindness, acceptance and hospitality. For they deserve this reputation much more than they deserve the current one.

After researching the logistics of getting to my next destination (Armenia) I found that is was quicker, cheaper, and easier to fly than take overland transport. The main reason being that the border between Turkey and Armenia has been closed for ages (they hate each other).

So I splurged and spent $135 on a flight to Yerevan, Armenia from Aleppo, Syria…….