It is early in the morning as my plane finally lands in damascus syria.
i had a horribke flight as i was sitting between some families with many children and they weren't able to sleep which made it impossible for me to rest. i had some funny and strange conversations on the flight with some syrien people that sat beside me.
one of them was a guy who sells cars from germany to syria. as we talked he asked me how i would describe the german culture. i tried my best to point out the positive things but as i just came back from the ship my mind was filled with all the negative stuff. well i guess i painted a interesting picture of the so called german culture. something that i found fascinating but also scary was that the man interfered the way the parents talked to the children. in front of me was a little boy who kept poping up his head to me. the parents told him to stop but he wasn't really listening and then suddenly the guy beside me hit the boy and told him to stop. i expecte a argument between the father and the man but nothing happened instead it almost looked like the father apologized to the man who hit his child.
another conversation i had was with a family that sat behind me. a monther and her two grown up children. the woman talked about the family they wanted to visit and along the conversation offered me a ride to aleppo. in fact i wasn't really sure how i would get to aleppo. as my cotact with the team was limited i wasn't able to organize a pick up. my plan was to fight my way trough the airport and then somehow manage to get to aleppo. this rather stupid idea seemed the perfect and exiting thing to do for me in that moment. as the woman offered me the ride i was somewhat glad but also sceptic. but as we left the airplane and entered the airport i could point out georg who stood in between the crowd's and waited for me. i had never seen him before but he wasn't hard to identify as he was the only western looking guy with short blond hair and blue eyes. we exhanged some brief welcome words and then made our way to the bus station. we had to take the bus to damaskus main station and then again a bus to aleppo. i would have been more then just lost without georg . at the mainstation in damascus i ate my first syrien food. it was a so called "potato sandwich". it had many fries in it and some vegetables. it tasted "interesting" but i was glad to have something in my stomach after half a day without food. the ride to aleppo took us about 5 hours and most of the time i was sleeping. i tried to stay up and to get a glimps of the country but as it was night and pitch black i couldn't see a thing. the bus ride was a really nice experience as it was so different to what i expected. they had some really nice seats almost like thrones and they had someone walking around asking if we needed anything. i was happy and glad that i arrived safe in a country i knew almost nothing of.
as we arrived in aleppo we had to take a cap to get to the apartment. as we drove trough aleppo i was super exited. all these new impressions, smells, sounds, looks. we arrived in the apartment shortly after the sunrise. as we got in i met the other two guys from the team steven and paul. i was impressed with the apartment. it had three rather small rooms one kitchen and a small bathroom but a HUGE balcony that went all the way around the apartment. besides the owner of the house we were the only people living in the house which is common for aleppo. george and the others sat down with me and we talked a bit about the ground rules while i was visiting them. it all sounded a lot like "sebi we wane serve you and wane make this the best experience for you ever". i kind of have to laugh about this right now ;)
they taught me some of the basic arabic words such as "my name is", "i am from germany", "thank you"...with these few words they gave me my keys for the apartment and send me off to the city, alone.
there i was in aleppo syria the city i had longed to see and the country i had prayed for. unsure where i would go i just followed some of the road markes the guys gave me. before i knew it i had entered the historic city core. it is almost like entering a different time. the buildings looked just how they look in the old movies. the entire old part of the city has never changed. the same people groups live there as they did back in the time of jesus. the entire scenery made me feel like back in time. i slowly walked towards the entrance of the souk, the traditional market in aleppo. i will not be able to describe how i felt in there. i will not even be able to describe how it looked in there. maybe later when my mind allows me to go back some more.
on my way back i realized that i could only se guys. it was a strange picture that was painted there in my mind. at first it was all i had expected and then again not at all like i thought it would be. on my way back i had to cross one of the bigger roads in aleppo. trafic is ridiculous and dangerous in syria. as there are no real crosswalks you have to just walk as soon as there is a smaller gap in the never ending traffic. well i found a small gap and walked on the street just to find out that my gap wasn't as big as i thought it would be and that i faced a huge bus that did not seem to slow down. i am not really sure how i made it to the other side all i know is that the bus was so close that it had toughed my bag. but i made it to the other side. i had to walk trough a park on my way back. in this park a random guy followed me and started talking with me. he spoke good english and at first i was ok talking to him but then i realised that he was after something special. as soon as he said "your handsome" i knew that i should rather get going. how weirdm, the one moment i see a totally covered woman and the next one a gay guy hits on me.
i was glad to be back in the apartment and it took the rest of the day to write down what i had seen. i wrote in my syria journal which sadly never made it back along with my bible and my prayer book but more about that soon ;)
Picture for the day
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