Syria Day two

this world disgusts me.
in america thousands of people are on the streets celebrating the death of the worlds number one terrorist osama bin laden. as i turned on the TV in the cafe where i work this morning it was already all over the news. the imagine that was given showed houndreds of people standing in front of the parlament screaming USA and wavering the american flag. time jump back to 9/11 two thousand and one. i turn on the TV and i see thousands of iraqi people running on the streets shouting anti american slogans and burning american flags. before i will say something that will start a huge argument about this topic i just wane ask this question: is this a day where god is celebrating or crying?

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it is early in the moning and it is my first morning in aleppo syria.
the sun is on its way up and the first thing i realise is that it is really hot. georg is already up and prepared a small breakfast. it is my first syrien breakfast and i am not to sure what to expect. the table is filled with some vegetables, some arabic bread (pita), humus and arabic coffee. at first the food never really filled me and i am sure that the team spent some extra money buying more food as i was never really filled but soon my body did adjust to the new given situation and i got used to the feeling of hunger. it is not that we did not eat a lot just that i was so used to rich food that even ifwe ate some good amounts of bread i never seemed filled. now thinking back to my time there i really have to say that i got to love the syrien food. the pitas and the humus together with fresh cut onions, tomatoes and cucumbers served with some hot coffee...hmm i'm hungry.

well my first day was a rather quiet one. i went to one of the shops with georg in order to get a prepaid card for my cell phone which was a really strange experience. i was already confused back when we had to take the bus to aleppo that i had to show my passport and also here i had to take my passport with me and believe it or not in order for me to get a prepaid card i had to hand in my passportnumber and i had to give fingerprints. imagine giving your fingerprints in a local store in germany or the states or south africa to get a prepaid card, how weird would that be. well it was back then that i realised that the govermental system is controlling each and every move you make as a foreigner in their country. at first it felt weird and wrong to give somebody such essential and important details about myself but then again i was so into the adventure that it all seemed right and in some ways i guess i didn't really care.

i spent the rest of the day reading my bible and working on my arabic. the guys gave me some of their study material and i was all motivated to master this strange but fascinating language.

at the end of the day i had to realise that i was somehow really tired. i had slept enough sure i was hungry at least my body did tell me so but all in all i had no real reason to be tired. but i listened to my inner voice and went to bed early right after the evening prayer.

Picture of the Day