Day 4 - Syria (Hama)

Greetings from Hama, Syria. I am currently sitting in a very nice Internet Cafe enjoying the irony of the evening. Right now a musical rendition of an old Michael W. Smith (or Amy Grant) song is playing over the speakers. Moments ago was some American R&B (Beyonce, I think) and Rap (I don't know the artist but they were going to party and dance all night long). Hama is a very conservative large city in Syria, and surprisingly is 40% Christian! See my next post for a little more info on the hospitality of those in Hama.

Today has been my favorite day so far, even if it was exhausting. We began waking up at the Al Wadi Hotel and then hiked up to the Crac de Chevaliers, the best preserved medieval castle in the world. It was a crusader castle that was only defeated by trickery (a great Trojan Horse kind of story). Even Saladin passed up trying to siege this castle. It is beautiful. The architecture and engineering are stunning. The castle held 2000 soldiers and 1000 horses. It could withstand a siege of five years.

On the hike up the mountain I was taking a slow pace and had fell to the back of the line. I eventually caught up with a couple of other women on the trip. As the three of us walked up a tractor came up and stopped. The man motioned for us to get on the back. I was quite content walking up the mountain and was enjoying the exercise, but how could I pass up a Syrian tractor trailer ride up the mountain! So we hopped in and quickly were passing everyone else along the road! It was great and another example of amazing Syrian hospitality. The man seemed to revel in giving us the ride.

After spending most of the morning at the castle, we got on the bus and headed to the City of Catba a huge archaeological dig of a city from about 2000 B.C. Our American professor was beaming with delight at this "tell" (a mound that designates where an ancient city used to be). But I think most of us would have been happy to leave more quickly. What are old mud bricks when compared to a medieval castle? Well, I suppose that could be debated.

After Catba we drove on to Hama and visited the water wheels (two pictures at left, one at night). These are spectacular ancient wooden wheels that take water up to an aqueduct. They creak and moan very loudly. Young men would hold on to them as they went into the air and would jump from them. It was quite a sight!

While in Hama we visited the Atelier, a small artists' colony that had beautiful art work of the area (the picture below of Bethel and Amy is just outside the Atelier). We also visited the acropolis tell at the center of the ancient city of Hama. It is just amazing how old things are here. I was struck by this when we visited Italy, but these places are even older! America is but a drop in the water in the time chart history of the world. (parenthetical comment: Aerosmith just came on over the speakers!...oh...somebody just changed the channel!...now its Air Supply!). Probably the most interesting thing during this time was the attention the women received from the men of Hama, or I should say the young men of Hama. Literally, about 15 men followed us around the park staring at the women. They are apparently not used to seeing women without head scarves, or with long blond hair and colorful clothing (very modest by our standards). Some of the men of our group became rather protective (I kept an eye out myself). I do not believe anyone intended any harm. As Steve said, this was probably a once in a lifetime moment for most of these young men. It was interesting nonetheless, and we spent a good deal of time talking about it all.

I continue to reflect upon the conversation we had the other evening in Damascus. What does it mean to be a Christian and American or Christian and Syrian/Arab? What does it mean for our faith to interact with our culture? When does our faith critique our culture and what does that mean when there is no way for us to get outside ourselves and see things from a stance that is not in a particular culture? I suspect a very important answer to these questions includes building relationships with Christians in very different cultures than our own (i.e. Syrian Christians). In fact, I'm beginning to think that it is essential for us to stay honest in our own culture. This is one of the gifts of God's ever shrinking planet: the gift of Christians who experience the world very different than we do.

P.S. If you've got questions, leave them in the comments section, and I'll do my best to answer them.

P.S.S. I forgot to mention that one other little piece of trouble we had crossing the border was that the Syrian authorities found a banned book in my suitcase. It was a little red booked called "What's on Your Mind." I don't know how it got there. But eventually they let me into the country and I even got to keep the book for a good read on the way home. (Note to everyone except those few people who understand this inside joke: this didn't really happen. There was no problem getting in the country. Though a little red book by the above title did somehow mysteriously end up in my luggage. The last time I saw it was at Neill's wedding.)