Haleb

Looking back on our time in Aleppo, Syria...

Amazingly, after making friends with incredibly kind strangers on our way to Aleppo, we weren't in Aleppo more than a few hours before we made more friends out of the ether of friends that seems to lie waiting for us everywhere we go on this trip. We stepped out of an internet cafe in the downtown area, and pulled our guidebook to help us sniff out some falafel, and suddenly a soft voice asked in English if we might need any help. Two young men in western-style clothing were standing next to us in the packed evening crowd, Hasam (pronounced "Ha-zim") and Fares (pronounced "Far-iss"). College juniors, they had recently finished their exams and were on their summer vacations. Fares, who did most of the talking, just as Hasam did a great deal of the laughing and rapping, quickly indicated the golden trophy falafel stand and we were soon monchmonching down as described below. The amazing thing is how instantly devoted they were to us and how kindly they spent hours and hours just walking around with us, showing us around their beautiful city. Their only worry was that we might have other plans, seemingly oblivious that being shown around by locals was the best thing we could have possibly imagined happening to us.

Hasam is an Aleppene studying pharmacy in Amman and his father an architect ... I can't remember what his mother does. He's been friends with Fares since high school as they share an interest in rock music, which isn't all that popular in Aleppo. They described a rare rock show that drew little over 40 devotees of the form. They both especially like System of a Down, but Hasam also loves Biggy, Tupac, and other rap, and has an amazing capacity to issue forth with several lines from these rappers in an English that is otherwise less fluent. He plays the electric bass and played over his cellphone some raps he's recorded in both English and Arabic. He especially likes calling things "old school," and we had some good laughs saying this repeatedly as we pointed to the old american cars and extremely old buildings that fill Aleppo. Hasam is one of those people who radiates warmth and friendship, and I felt an immediate kinship with him despite our greater difficulty in communicating.

Fares is an Aleppene studying English literature in Aleppo and his father a veterinary pharmacist ... again, I can't remember what his mother does. His outlook is remarkably secular and in manys I felt I was speaking with a friend from back in the US. He plays the piano and was trying to get a band together with Hasam and some friends. They're looking for a drummer and a vocalist. He told us that, at 21, he's too young to be involved with girl. It's complicated to be involved because dating is frowned upon and he feels he's not ready to marry. Before we left, he invited us to meet his family at their apartment. His brother, 16, who loves classical music, played some pieces on the piano and they both griped to us about the rote-learning that bores them to death in school, and Fares mentioned a professor who had been caught selling exam answers to his students. He talked wistfully of perhaps coming to Canada, the US, or the UK for a masters degree.

I had a conversation with Fares about politics in America, after he had already asked us if we were Democrats or Republicans -- he stated firmly that he thought the Democrats would make the world safer and seemed primed to grill us if we had said we were Republicans. By the way, everyone who greeted us on the street, and found out where we were from, was unfailingly positive about America, but several said that they did not like George Bush and said things like "Enough George Bush" or, in the case of one fellow, made machine gun sounds, said "Bush," then shook his head. One young man, outside a mosque, explained to me in good English that he would not let us into the mosque unless Kate had a head covering, and stated that this was simply the rule, and that he welcomed us in his country warmly despite the aggression of the Bush administration, which he disapproved of but knew was separate from us individual Americans. Fares asked many questions about politics in the US, and ended up concluding that he thought the world would be a much better place if Kate and I ran the country. He really made me feel a renewed conviction to get involved, out a sense of responsibility to his voiceless (as in without a vote) sincerity for change.

Fares and Hasam took us to cafes, accompanied us in walks through the trendy parts of town where the youth hang out at night, brought us to a music store, introduced us to their friends (who presented us with an Egyptian singer's CD they thought we would like), and guided us in taxis around the different parts of the city. Without their help it would have taken us four days to do part of what we did on the first day. Fares even accompanied us on a tourist excursion to the Cathedral of St. Simeon (qa'laat samaan) just outside Aleppo and helped us immensely by ascertaining transport routes and bartering for rates with a local's skill. He seemed so happy to have people he could talk to about his secular views (he described how he on many occasions has to put on a religious front). He explained how he adheres to the first pillar of Islam (there is no god but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet) and believes that living a moral life is all that matters, which is possible outside of religion. He recounted a conversation with a cab driver; the cabbie had lived in Switzerland for many years and was bashing the secular life there, with naked people in the streets, but then the cabbie added that he thought people there were quite moral and ethical, perhaps even more so than in Aleppo ... Fares took this anecdote as emblematic of his belief in the possibility of separating morality from religion. To say the least, I was not expecting to have this conversation with a local on my travels in the middle east.

Fares also mentioned a bit about what is like to live under the Syrian state. He told us never to say the word "Israel" in Syria, never to send him emails from Israel, and said that the security people knew everywhere we had gone, everyone we had seen, and everything we had done, most likely. We observed that Syria is very safe and he confirmed that crime is rare and, owing to the large number of informants the state retains, that criminals were almost unfailingy caught extremely quickly. He would not talk to us about the elections in Syria a few months ago. He did tell us that there are a lot of police and that it not uncommon for them to seek bribes. He described one occasion when he was pulled over while driving and detained on trumped charges until his father came to bail him out.

Fares is probably checking his grade on his Victorian Literature exam and I know he's done well as his English is arrestingly good. I will miss him and hope to see him on his visit in the US one day. It was for him that I titled the last blog post "save room for falafel," the joke CD title we offered his insipent band and which he found hilarious. I'll be saving room for Allepene falafel.