Photos from the visit to Hassake.
Please have a look at the newly uploaded photos on each of my posts from Syria.
Saturday, 21 November 2009
Monday, 16 November 2009
Syria: Hassake part 1
With Abuna Ephrem who looked after me during my time at St. Mary's Monastery
With staff and students at the Amal Secondary School
On the bridge over the Euphrates at Deir Ezzur
Looking suitably solemn after Mass at St. George's Cathedral, Hassake!
Looking a bit more relaxed with the Archbishop and one of his parishioners!
The Monastery of St. Mary at Tel Wardiaat, near Hassake, where I stayed for three nights
On the bridge over the Euphrates at Deir Ezzur
Looking suitably solemn after Mass at St. George's Cathedral, Hassake!
Looking a bit more relaxed with the Archbishop and one of his parishioners!
It's not the King of Saudi Arabia - he just looks like him.
The Monastery of St. Mary at Tel Wardiaat, near Hassake, where I stayed for three nightsI spent an hour or so on Thursday morning trying to work out whether my blogs were getting through. Blogger - like Facebook - is blocked in Syria - but it would appear that you can post blogs - you just cannot read it when its been published! All very strange!
After sorting out my stuff at the hotel I got a taxi to what I thought was the bus station - in fact it was a service station somewhere on the south side of Tadmor/Palmyra. I got a coach to Deir Ezzur - about 150 kms further east than Palmyra. There is nothing to see there but it is on the Euphrates - and so I took a taxi from the bus station and got the driver to give me ten minutes at a very nice pedestrianised suspension bridge over one the most famous rivers in the world! It was great to see it - Miss Chadwick (my former history teacher) would be pround of me! The taxi driver took me for a falafel sandwich and then back to the bus station where I waited for about an hour I guess for the next bus to Hassake. It left soon after 230 for the journey of again about 150 kms. This time we were going north up to the very north-east corner of Syria. Again there was NOTHING to see for the two hour journey except flat relentless desert. When we arrived in Hassake about 430 it was already dark. Hassake is about 700 kms from Damascus and very close to both the Iraqi and Turkish borders. I don't think that I have ever been in such a remote place.
Bishop Matta who is my contact here was still in Damascus but I was met from the bus by one of his priests and another man - Abu Yousif - they took me to the Monastery of St. Mary at Tel Wardiaat about 25 kms outside Hassake. This was to be my base for the next three days. It is called a monastery but as there is only one monk in residence - Father Ephrem - it operates more like a retreat and conference centre. It is a beautiful building - only established in 2000 as a result of Bishop Matta's legendary fundraising skills! I had supper in the kitchen with Leila the cook and Abuna Ephrem and then a very welcome early night.
On Friday I was up soon after 7 and breakfasted in the kitchen with the same people as the previous night. About 83o I was driven back into town to meet Abu Yousif who was to be my host for the day. We spent the morning visiting the five schools that are run by the Diocese of Jazirah and the Euphrates here in Hassake. Bishop Matta has made a great priority of education and there are now 1800 children in his schools compared to 400 when he took office in 1990. The schools are completely self funding and receive no government finance at all. BibleLands had made two grants to the schools in the past but they would obviously like to receive more regular funding - hence my visit! The Syrian Orthodox Community is not wealthy and 30% of pupils pay no fees at all; the rest pay modest fees of between $200 - $300 per annum. The schools are open to all faiths and I was encouraged to find that each school has about 25% of Muslim children.
Abu Yousif to me back to his house for lunch about 2pm and I was then brought back to the monastery to rest for about 2 hours before returning to town for an early evening walk with Abu Yousif's nephew Yousif and his friend Firas. It was an interesting couple of hours as they are more much relaxed than the older generation and much more willing to engage in real conversation. We returned to the family home about 8 as I was being taken out to dinner by five of the grandees of the Diocese ( all male); the last guest did not arrive until about 930 so we were somewhat late in heading out. We went to the "Agricultural Club" - famous in Hassake as having been visited by Egypt's President Nasser in the 1950s - and not decorated since by the look of the place! The clientele and staff were entirely male; I would guess that the manager was in his 80s; and the whole evening was quite an experience. Whisky is drunk with the meal ; I asked for wine (though I wish I hadn't!); it was a fairly typical Arab/Turkish meal of mezes to start with and kebabs of various kinds for the main course. It was an interesting and entertaining evening and one that I shall not forget for a long time. They arranged a taxi to take me back to the monastery and we got back about 11.30pm.
Friday, 13 November 2009
Syria: Palmyra
Scenes from my afternoon in PalmyraI left Mar Moussa after breakfast on Wednesday. There were five of us leaving at the same time and we were able to get the use of the "teleferique" to carry our luggage down the hill. The girls were nothing short of dumbfounded that I had a SUITCASE!
We took a shared taxi to Nebek and there we split up: Samera and Juyu went to Damascus; Kelly, Sandrine and I went to Homs. The shared minibus to Homs left at 11 and took about one hour - it was just 55 syrian pounds (just over a dollar). The bus was full and included a friendly Iraqi called Adnan who was keen to talk. Kelly and I both felt that we had to apologise for the Iraq war and Adnan was quite clear that life had been better under Saddam. He is one of thousands of refugees from his homeland - all as a result of the Bush-Blair war. It really makes one feel ashamed.
We were soon in Homs where Kelly and Sandrine were staying so I said goodbye to them and was led to the bus to Tadmor as the Syrians call Palymra. Once again I had to go through the slightly bizarre rigmorole of giving not only my passport details but also my father's and mother's names! Syria clearly likes to keep an eye on its "ajanib" but I should have thought that my passport number would be enough.
This was to be my first taste of the LUXURY BUSES that pound the Syrian desert. You have large leather chairs - just like first class on an airline - a television and frequent cups of water. The windows were all curtained both to keep out the sun and the bleak views. There is nothing to see and I had forgotten how unremittingly relentless is the desert: flat sand for ever and ever! The journey from Homs to Tadmor took about two hours and we were let off at the "garage" on the outskirts of town. The approach to Palmyra gives a fantastic view of the ruins and a taste of things to come. Even before I was out of the bus my bag had been taken by a driver who had loaded it into his car and was busy giving me the card of a hotel where he was about to take me. As I had no idea where this hotel was I quickly grabbed my Lonely Planet and said NO - take me to the Oasis Hotel - one of their recommended stays. This was in the centre of town and undoubtedly better than the driver's option. After a quick shower I wandered into the ruins where I spent a good two hours or more snapping too many pictures of the amazing ruins in the afternoon sun. Palmyra is not only Syria's number one tourist attraction - it is also one the world's great Roman sites. I cannot believe that I have not been here before even though this is my third or fourth visit to Syria - I am unclear. But it is definitely one of the MUST SEE sights of the middle east and I was very happy to finally make it! I walked through the ruins up the hill to the impressive castle that overlooks the whole town. According to LP this is THE place to see the sunset. Unfortunately the sunset was very disappointing on Wednesday but the views were impressive nevertheless. I waited until dusk and then made my way back down the hill where I had a beer with the friendly staff at the Ishkar Hotel. After some time at the Internet cafe - and retrieving my jacket from the Oasis (it was cool) I had a lonely dinner of mansaf in a nearby restaurant. There are a few tourists around but they are not as friendly as the crowd at Mar Moussa!
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Syria: Mar Moussa
Preparing lunch at Mar Moussa 
Me and the girls when we were leaving
Our crowd on the final day
The amazing Mar Moussa Monastery from above
And another one from the other side!
After two crazy days in Manchester on November 2nd and 3rd I went to London on the 4th to join two colleagues from BibleLands in a meeting at Victoria. After spending the night with friends David and Robert I flew early on the 5th to Beirut via Paris. With three hours in transit at CDG I did not arrive in Lebanon until 7pm in the evening but Raif Shwayri was there to meet me and in no time at all we were cruising through the Beirut traffic and up the hills to Baabda.
I knew that the Shwayris lived in style but I had not realised just how stylish! I dined like a Lord on both Thursday and Friday evenings, courtesy of their Philipino house keeper. During the day on Friday Raif and I enjoyed a perfect leisurely mezze at Raouche - the pigeon rocks - overlooking the med on a day that any European could have mistaken for the middle of August. It was hot! Raif left me at the Bay Rock Cafe and I spent a lazy few hours wandering through Hamra before taking an overprice taxi back up the hills in the worst teatime traffic I have seen for a long long time. I was last in Beirut in 2004 and the pollution and the gridlock is worse than ever.
On Saturday morning after bacon and eggs, Raif drove me over to the main road to Damascus and we immediately found a shared minibus going to Chtaura near Zahle. A friendly passenger decided to look after me and arranged a place for me in a shared taxi from Chtaura to the border at Masnaa. I suppose we waited about half an hour before the car filled up and we were soon steaming up the hill towards the border. It was all very straightforward - both leaving Lebanon and entering Syria. I had heard that it could take up to two hours for Europeans to get a visa at the Syrian border but either the reports were wrong or I was lucky. I paid my $52 and in no time at all my passport was stamped and we were in Syria! We had left Chtaura at 10.30am and by 12 noon we were on the outskirts of Damascus. The incredibly cheap shared taxis disappeared however, and before I had got the hang of the money I had been well and truly ripped off by a taxi driver taking me into the city centre. It cost me 1000 Syrian pounds (about 20 dollars) - three times the cost of the entire journey from Beirut! Never mind - I will not make the same mistake again. At the time I was managing four currencies in four different pockets - sterling, dollars, Lebanese pounds and Syrian pounds.
With the help of Lonely Planet I very soon found a cheap hotel - Al Haramein - in the Souk Saroujeh. It has got to be seen to be believed. It claims to have been built in 1200 and who knows? My room on the second floor was accessed by the most rickety staircase I have ever ascended and you really felt that it could come away from the wall at any moment. The whole place was full of atmosphere and the staff could not have been more friendly. I would certainly recommend it and indeed use it again!
On Saturday evening I went in search of Metropolitan Matta Roham - a senior Bishop in the Syrian Orthodox Church who I have met before through BibleLands. BL has given his church a grant in the past and they have just applied for funding for another project. One of the reasons for visiting Syria is to check out his community in Hassake in the north east of the country. I had spoken to Bishop Matta in the afternoon and went in search of the Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate in the Christian Quarter of the Old City. I soon found it and then realised that I had been there before - on my first visit to Syria in 1999 with a CMS group from Wales. Bishop Matta is charming and we had tea in the Patriarch's throne room while he showed me the latest pictures of his church and school in Hassake via his new site on Facebook! Facebook is banned in Syria but can be easily accessed through a proxy in Saudi Arabia! All very bizarre......
I arranged to join him in church the following morning and left for a slow meander through the streets of the Old City, calling at a wonderful coffee shop near the walls of the Omayyad Mosque where I whiled away an hour in the company of a nargilah.
On Sunday morning I had breakfast and got a taxi back to the Christian Quarter in plenty of time for the beginning of the liturgy at 9am. The service lasted just over an hour and a half - most of it conducted in Aramaic -the language of Christ. The sermon lasted about half an hour and was given in arabic by Bishop Matta. It was a Mass and I assumed that I should not receive communion but the Bishop beckoned me forward and adminstered me himself. This is the first time I have ever received communion in any branch of the Orthodox Church and it was a great privilege.
After the service there was coffee and I was introduced to a number of people before making my goodbyes and heading back across the city. I collected my bags from Al Haramein and took a taxi to the Abaseen Bus Station to find a bus to Nebek - the town nearest to Mar Moussa - which is the other real reason that I have come to Syria.
I had heard about Mar Moussa in Manchester from one of my interfaith colleagues. It has quite a reputation for encouraging interfaith dialogue in Syria and happens to be located in a 6th century monastery in the Syrian desert. I knew at once that I wanted to visit it for many reasons but including my need for a retreat in the middle of this sabbatical.
And so on Sunday afternoon I took a minibus from Damascus to Nebek where the guide book told me that I would be dropped off and need to negotiate a special taxi. But having dropped off the rest of the passengers, the driver just kept going until he got to the foot of the mountain where Mar Moussa is located. I was about to thank him for this wonderful act of generosity when he informed me that it would cost me 350 Syrian pounds (about 7 dollars). There really is no such thing as a free lunch and I paid up without quibbling.
Although I had seen photos of Mar Moussa on the website the reality is far more breathtaking. It can only be accessed by a steep path that would take the fittest of people about 15 minutes. As I was carrying my months luggage in a totally inappropriate suitcase (NOBODY goes to Mar Moussa with a suitcase) it took me about 40 minutes in the hot afternoon sun to make the ascent. Fortunately I had arrived at the same time as Derek - a guy from Seattle who is cycling around Syria. He was in no rush to get to the top so I had company all the way.
When we finally got to the top we made our way into the central part of the monastery through two impossibly low doorways - reminscent of the entrance to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. We were made welcome by David - a volunteer from Damascus- and were soon show to our rooms carved out of the rock further up the mountain side. And so this was my base for Monday and Tuesday until leaving after breakfast on Wednesday.
Both days I followed a similar pattern, joining the community for prayers at 7.30am; breakfast about 9; some reading in the morning followed by a walk before lunch; more reading and resting in the afternoon; evening prayers at 7 took the form of a short liturgy followed by a hours silence. Supper did not happen until about 9 and bed came soon after.
I was there for nearly three full days. It does not sound very long but it was a very good time and gave me enough space to slow down and do some serious thinking and praying. I came away feeling very refreshed and renewed by the time. The community is fascinating. It was founded in the 1980s by Father Paolo, an Italian Jesuit with a passion for interfaith dialogue and desert spirituality. I did not get to meet him as he was away most of the time that I was there. Around him he has built up a community of nine monks and nuns, all Syrian bar one Swiss member, firmly rooted in the Syrian Catholic tradition. The services are all conducted in Arabic and are a mixture of ancient aramaic liturgy and recognisable Catholic prayers - just like the Syrian Catholic church itself. As well as the committed core community members there are a number of Syrian and foreign aspirants and volunteers - including at the moment a guy from Brittany, just beginning his third year there, and another guy from Virginia.
I knew that the Shwayris lived in style but I had not realised just how stylish! I dined like a Lord on both Thursday and Friday evenings, courtesy of their Philipino house keeper. During the day on Friday Raif and I enjoyed a perfect leisurely mezze at Raouche - the pigeon rocks - overlooking the med on a day that any European could have mistaken for the middle of August. It was hot! Raif left me at the Bay Rock Cafe and I spent a lazy few hours wandering through Hamra before taking an overprice taxi back up the hills in the worst teatime traffic I have seen for a long long time. I was last in Beirut in 2004 and the pollution and the gridlock is worse than ever.
On Saturday morning after bacon and eggs, Raif drove me over to the main road to Damascus and we immediately found a shared minibus going to Chtaura near Zahle. A friendly passenger decided to look after me and arranged a place for me in a shared taxi from Chtaura to the border at Masnaa. I suppose we waited about half an hour before the car filled up and we were soon steaming up the hill towards the border. It was all very straightforward - both leaving Lebanon and entering Syria. I had heard that it could take up to two hours for Europeans to get a visa at the Syrian border but either the reports were wrong or I was lucky. I paid my $52 and in no time at all my passport was stamped and we were in Syria! We had left Chtaura at 10.30am and by 12 noon we were on the outskirts of Damascus. The incredibly cheap shared taxis disappeared however, and before I had got the hang of the money I had been well and truly ripped off by a taxi driver taking me into the city centre. It cost me 1000 Syrian pounds (about 20 dollars) - three times the cost of the entire journey from Beirut! Never mind - I will not make the same mistake again. At the time I was managing four currencies in four different pockets - sterling, dollars, Lebanese pounds and Syrian pounds.
With the help of Lonely Planet I very soon found a cheap hotel - Al Haramein - in the Souk Saroujeh. It has got to be seen to be believed. It claims to have been built in 1200 and who knows? My room on the second floor was accessed by the most rickety staircase I have ever ascended and you really felt that it could come away from the wall at any moment. The whole place was full of atmosphere and the staff could not have been more friendly. I would certainly recommend it and indeed use it again!
On Saturday evening I went in search of Metropolitan Matta Roham - a senior Bishop in the Syrian Orthodox Church who I have met before through BibleLands. BL has given his church a grant in the past and they have just applied for funding for another project. One of the reasons for visiting Syria is to check out his community in Hassake in the north east of the country. I had spoken to Bishop Matta in the afternoon and went in search of the Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate in the Christian Quarter of the Old City. I soon found it and then realised that I had been there before - on my first visit to Syria in 1999 with a CMS group from Wales. Bishop Matta is charming and we had tea in the Patriarch's throne room while he showed me the latest pictures of his church and school in Hassake via his new site on Facebook! Facebook is banned in Syria but can be easily accessed through a proxy in Saudi Arabia! All very bizarre......
I arranged to join him in church the following morning and left for a slow meander through the streets of the Old City, calling at a wonderful coffee shop near the walls of the Omayyad Mosque where I whiled away an hour in the company of a nargilah.
On Sunday morning I had breakfast and got a taxi back to the Christian Quarter in plenty of time for the beginning of the liturgy at 9am. The service lasted just over an hour and a half - most of it conducted in Aramaic -the language of Christ. The sermon lasted about half an hour and was given in arabic by Bishop Matta. It was a Mass and I assumed that I should not receive communion but the Bishop beckoned me forward and adminstered me himself. This is the first time I have ever received communion in any branch of the Orthodox Church and it was a great privilege.
After the service there was coffee and I was introduced to a number of people before making my goodbyes and heading back across the city. I collected my bags from Al Haramein and took a taxi to the Abaseen Bus Station to find a bus to Nebek - the town nearest to Mar Moussa - which is the other real reason that I have come to Syria.
I had heard about Mar Moussa in Manchester from one of my interfaith colleagues. It has quite a reputation for encouraging interfaith dialogue in Syria and happens to be located in a 6th century monastery in the Syrian desert. I knew at once that I wanted to visit it for many reasons but including my need for a retreat in the middle of this sabbatical.
And so on Sunday afternoon I took a minibus from Damascus to Nebek where the guide book told me that I would be dropped off and need to negotiate a special taxi. But having dropped off the rest of the passengers, the driver just kept going until he got to the foot of the mountain where Mar Moussa is located. I was about to thank him for this wonderful act of generosity when he informed me that it would cost me 350 Syrian pounds (about 7 dollars). There really is no such thing as a free lunch and I paid up without quibbling.
Although I had seen photos of Mar Moussa on the website the reality is far more breathtaking. It can only be accessed by a steep path that would take the fittest of people about 15 minutes. As I was carrying my months luggage in a totally inappropriate suitcase (NOBODY goes to Mar Moussa with a suitcase) it took me about 40 minutes in the hot afternoon sun to make the ascent. Fortunately I had arrived at the same time as Derek - a guy from Seattle who is cycling around Syria. He was in no rush to get to the top so I had company all the way.
When we finally got to the top we made our way into the central part of the monastery through two impossibly low doorways - reminscent of the entrance to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. We were made welcome by David - a volunteer from Damascus- and were soon show to our rooms carved out of the rock further up the mountain side. And so this was my base for Monday and Tuesday until leaving after breakfast on Wednesday.
Both days I followed a similar pattern, joining the community for prayers at 7.30am; breakfast about 9; some reading in the morning followed by a walk before lunch; more reading and resting in the afternoon; evening prayers at 7 took the form of a short liturgy followed by a hours silence. Supper did not happen until about 9 and bed came soon after.
I was there for nearly three full days. It does not sound very long but it was a very good time and gave me enough space to slow down and do some serious thinking and praying. I came away feeling very refreshed and renewed by the time. The community is fascinating. It was founded in the 1980s by Father Paolo, an Italian Jesuit with a passion for interfaith dialogue and desert spirituality. I did not get to meet him as he was away most of the time that I was there. Around him he has built up a community of nine monks and nuns, all Syrian bar one Swiss member, firmly rooted in the Syrian Catholic tradition. The services are all conducted in Arabic and are a mixture of ancient aramaic liturgy and recognisable Catholic prayers - just like the Syrian Catholic church itself. As well as the committed core community members there are a number of Syrian and foreign aspirants and volunteers - including at the moment a guy from Brittany, just beginning his third year there, and another guy from Virginia.
But perhaps most surprising is that Mar Moussa has become a must see stop on the backpackers tour around Syria. The visitors during my time there included Derek the Seattle cyclist, Kelly from San Francisco, Samera - a German/Palestinian currently studying arabic in Damascus, Patrick who is walking from Switzerland to Bethlehem, another Swiss guy on his way to Ethiopia, three delightful people from South Korea, Sandrine from Paris - and so it goes on! Fascinating and fun people all of them - I had forgotten how many interesting people you meet when travelling.
Mar Moussa has clearly found a niche as the Taize of Syria - though the comparison is not really valid. Raphael, the French volunteer, answered many of my questions and said that acceptance by and integration with the local church is the most pressing concern for the community. I came away very impressed with the place and determined to visit again.
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