churches

today our cross-cultural group visited three churches off of Straight Street in the Old City of Damascus. One was Greek Orthodox, one was Armenian Orthodox, and one was Greek Catholic. In the Greek Orthodox church we were able to speak with a priest and in the Armenian Orthodox we heard from the Bishop of the Damascus diocese.

it is so interesting to begin to realize the ways of knowing God that I haven't learned about and don't understand. my Mennonite background has done little to help me understand God through mediums such as icons and grand architecture. and yet as the priest and bishop spoke it was clear that for many people these symbols hold deep significance...

i am learning a lot about Christianity from being here; realizing the role Syria played in the Christian story - even from before Jesus' birth. One of the oddest and most complicated thing about being here is that I am an American Christian. By this I mean: as an American I am, in the eyes of many people in the Middle East, at best meddling in things I have no right to, and at worst directly opposed to the interests of people living here. While I have been told and have witnessed that Syrian people are very good at separating people from their government, I still feel like I am lumped into a category of people that I don't necessarily want to be a part of. [Side note: see below] At the same time, I am a Christian who is part of an international family - one with no borders, no boundaries. I belong in the Syrian Orthodox church, I can pray with the Armenians...

[side note] to quote my Arabic teacher, the support the US government has given to Egypt's Hosni Mubarak is the type of thing that "makes the Arab world fume." many of the democracy minded people living in the Middle East hear western countries (namely the US with our 'war on terror') promoting democracy and seeking to develop democracy in the Middle Eastern countries, while simultaneously supporting rulers like Mubarak with billions of dollars. soooo maybe that makes it clear why I am reluctant to be identified as American here.

interesting factoid of the day: the armenian orthodox church does not have crucifixes, because they say that Jesus on the cross is only the beginning. All of their crosses are empty. In the words of the Armenian bishop, their focus on the resurrection is "perhaps the reason [we] survived the genocide."
^for those of you that don't know, Armenians were heavily persecuted (under the ottoman empire? i'm not sure) and, while the numbers are disputed, up to a million or more may have died around 1915.

wahid, tnein, tlati...yalla!

or 1, 2, 3...let's go!

that's how i feel right now...we are always running off to the next thing. and really, this part of the trip is going to be the most restful out of all of them. it is tiring just thinking about it.

today I visited the modern downtown shopping mall. we had an assignment to explore the mall and compare it to the Old City souk. I got subway and a donut for lunch. :) crazy, right? I bought my brother a cool gift - I can't wait to give it to him!!!! haha.

yesterday our group was privileged to meet a Bishop in the Syrian Orthodox church. Amazingly enough, he has been to EMU before! In 2002 he attended EMU's summer peacebuilding institute. We enjoyed hearing his perspective on what it means to be a Christian in the middle east, what peace means, and how all Christians share the same faith. The Syrian Orthodox church is active in the world ecumenical movement, which I think is pretty cool.
and guess what? we might get to meet the Patriarch of the Syrian Orthodox! he is sort of like how the pope is to the Catholic church. so that's pretty exciting. There is a couple here who work for MCC and they do most of their work alongside the Syrian Orthodox; apparently a good working relationship between the two groups has developed here.
I've been reading a lot of interesting books. For those of you interested in what I'm reading, so far I have almost finished The Brothers K, am halfway through Everything is Illuminated, have just started The Time Traveler's Wife, and am contemplating beginning Jesus among other Gods.

I think I will finish this post by remarking on some small parts of Syrian life that don't really deserve their own post:
-there are cats everywhere
-only men ride bikes
-taxis honk when they are empty at pedestrians to see if you want a ride
-baklava is SOOOOOO good
-there are bakeries that sell these awesome chocolate ball things (about the size of a clenched fist) for between 5 and 35L (between around 5-50 cents)
-there are juice stands throughout the old city and on the walk from the monastery to the old city that have bags of oranges hanging from the ceiling. if you want juice, you go ask them and they grab an orange or two from the bag, peel them, and juice them in front of you.
-used toilet paper is thrown in trashcans, not flushed...the plumbing here is quite delicate ;)
-the best conversations always happen over food

and i think that's all for now. Salaam!

chocolate waffles

so my lunch today was a falafel sandwich that cost 25L and a chocolate covered chocolate waffle for 30L. Which, all told, is ... a few cents over $1. I feel sort of like I'm robbing the shop owners; of course then I go to buy stamps for some postcards and am overcharged by 70L, so I guess it all evens out in the end.


spoiler for Jess Sarriot's postcard... ;)

a bit of poetry that has been going through my head while I've been here is

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

-TS Eliot, 4 Quartets

I'm so excited by the idea of returning. Even after just 4 days gone it felt so nice to return to Damascus where things felt somewhat familiar. I think one of the most intense things about this whole trip will be returning to the US and knowing the place in a new way. Mmm.


Final message - send me emails! comment on my blog! i only have regular computer access for sure for the next two weeks, so. write to me!

lebanon

this past weekend my cross-cultural group traveled to Lebanon. we left Damascus early Thursday morning for Beirut. during our stay there we: wandered through downtown Beirut, walked along the Mediterranean Sea, visited Biblos, Baalbek, the northern Cedar grove, and saw a whole bunch of churches (Greek Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Latin Catholic, Meronite, and Protestant).

my experience of Lebanon was overwhelming. Beirut is completely different from anything we have seen so far in the Middle East. it feels European; there is extreme wealth in the country that overshadows the poverty lurking in the margins. walking just a few minutes from our hotel, we passed a Caribou Coffee, a Starbucks, a Hermes shop, several clothing stores that looked super upscale (although I didn't recognize the names)... and while there were mosques throughout the city, you were as likely to hear a thumping bass line in a passing car at sundown as the call to prayer. Actually, at least once I heard both at the same time.

the most interesting thing about being in Lebanon this past weekend was the fact that we were in Beirut just days after their government collapsed, and at the same time that Egypt was beginning to descend into chaos. it is so odd. i can't quite find the words...I really wish I knew what the newspapers at home are saying about this area of the world right now. From where we saw things, life just seemed to keep on moving. People still sat with their newspapers at starbucks, still prayed at their mosque or cathedral, taxis still honked at pedestrians in the streets. Even the military presence on the street didn't seem much out of the ordinary. Only a few roads in Beirut were blocked off, and the protests happening in the country were entirely out of our sight.

and yet it was clear that there was tension. our tour guide, a Meronite Christian, said that because of the Lebanese civil war, many Muslims and Christians have grown up without knowing each other at all. In the center of the downtown, there is a church built within spitting distance of a mosque. Right now the church is undergoing renovation from the most recent war, and they are in the process of constructing the bell tower. She said, "I think it is going to be very tall...they want it to be higher than the minaret." So that is the attitude...

Today as we left the country we drove north to visit Baalbek, the site of one of the best preserved Roman temples in the world. Just outside the town, which is almost entirely Shia, we saw pictures of Ayatollah Khomeini and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad plastered to walls and telephone poles. As we exited our tour bus and headed to the ruins, some men started following our group hawking Hezbollah t-shirts. It was crazy. Some of us contemplated buying a shirt, but realized we would have some trouble getting them through certain border crossings...

another interesting moment from the weekend was when we visited the oldest protestant church in the Middle East. The pastor of the church has a son who spent a year at EMU (I actually had a class with him - small world). It was so American - but for about two things; 1.) how mennonite it seemed, with the pastor talking about critiquing power and Christianity outside the Christendom context and 2.) the fact that he called Christian Zionism a heresy. And wasn't that interesting! I could probably write a whole post on that...it might have to wait until another time.

....

Over the weekend between our tour finishing around 4:00 and supper at 7:30 we had free time. A lot of my free time all weekend was spent seated in front of the hotel's television watching BBC or Al-Jezeera (English, of course) for news of Egypt. It was unreal to be watching the riots knowing that last year on this date the EMU cross-cultural was in Egypt, maybe visiting the (now looted) National Museum, maybe touring the pyramids, maybe wandering through Cairo. I was able to be part of or overhear several interesting discussions over the weekend about democracy, freedom, and the surprising benefits of oppression (namely: stability). On one hand, it was thrilling for our democracy loving hearts to see poor and ill-treated people realize that they have the power to throw a corrupt politician out of his lofty seat. On the other hand, it was, and continues to be sobering to realize that there will be a severe vacuum of power and knowledge in a post-Mubarak Egypt. The people there are mostly poor, mostly uneducated... it is sort of likely that the country will end up in the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood, and who knows what will happen then?

....

To close my post, I guess I'll say that I'm still loving it here - although to be honest I am missing some small comforts like the freedom to sit on the floor or cross my legs in public. ;)

Reading the Old Testament in Syria

yeah, it gets interesting real fast. we read from 1 and 2 Kings today - and it is interesting to see how some of the same conflicts that occurred in 1000+ BC are still going on now. (see 1 Kings 11:24-25)

one of the things that is important on this trip is the understanding that geography, that place, is important to a clear understanding of the Biblical story. today during our daily 6:00 pm debriefing session, Linford said, "Reading the Bible is just like stepping into another culture. You should ask questions...It tells the story without explaining why the story is there. You don't have to judge it. You can just compare your own experience of God with it."

I found that quite comforting, as we were reading verses such as "The Israelites inflicted a hundred thousand casualties on the Aramean foot soldiers in one day. " (1 Kings 20:29) and "Joab and all the Israelites stayed there for six months, until they had destroyed all the men in Edom." (1 Kings 11:16) and "David also defeated the Moabites. He made them lie down on the ground and measured them off with a length of cord. Every two lengths of them were put to death, and the third length was allowed to live." (2 Samuel 8:2)

Reading those verses does feel like I'm stepping into a foreign country; and maybe even more scary than traveling across the ocean to an Arabic speaking nation with few Americans in sight or reach. I remember one of the first nights we were here, Linford said "There are lots of crazy things going on in the Old Testament, and people ignore it because they don't understand it, or it is hard, or it conflicts with pacifism..." and it was funny and we laughed, but it is true. Reading verses like 1 Kings 11:16 and 2 Samuel 8:2 is terrifying to me, because the words seem to directly contradict the character of what or who or why I believe God to be.

Reading those verses here is even harder - because it all feels very real. I am living in Damascus, which is mentioned in all of the stories we read today. And (WHAT?) I saw and touched the wall Paul escaped over. It isn't like I can just ignore the history; I am literally walking on and in and through it every day. The culture here is also very militaristic, which only drives home the sense that I am a player in this drama that keeps repeating over and over and over and over and over again...

All that to say, I am excited to read the Old Testament here. (Which, if you know me well, is somewhat surprising. Let's just say that I am much more a fan of the New Testament - and the Psalms, I suppose - than I am of what seems to me to be a violent and angry Old Testament).
Third Linford quote of this post: "Christianity is just as exotic as any other religion. We're just used to it." One of the things I am most excited about right now is that this city takes what I'm used to, my sense of being established as a Mennonite, as a Christian - and shakes it all up, turns things around, upside down, inside out. I think I will emerge still a pacifist. I'm fairly certain I will still be a follower of the Way. But my understanding will be different, and that is good, I think. It will be good.


so going back to how I opened this post -

Reading the Bible is just like stepping into another culture. You should ask questions...It tells the story without explaining why the story is there. You don't have to judge it. You can just compare your own experience of God with it.

I think I am getting through the culture shock of the Old Testament right now and hopefully sometime soon on this trip I will be able to "observe" my Bible in ways that will help me grow and understand the world better. And that, for sure, is pretty sweet.

a new way to post

because the US has sanctions on syria, the syrian government actually blocks sites like facebook, blogspot, etc. the only reason i was able to get onto blogger earlier was because the monastery had a proxy server running those sites. unfortunately, in the time since we've been here, they've found that proxy server and shut it down...meaning i can't update my blog -

***So she is sending her blogs to me to post***(mom)

its sort of funny - a lot of people here use facebook even though it is technically outlawed... facebook (pronounced sort of like facebuk, long U) is a word i've heard on the streets. i guess people find ways around the firewalls. darian actually figured out a way to do it but i don't know how...

today i went to a syrian orthodox church. it was really odd...although after our group discussed it later in the day i felt like i understood it better. we decided that a lot of the things during the service came out of the old testament. there was a priest and he served as the mediator between God and people. most of the time he stood with his back to the congregants, facing the alter; Linford said he was the people's representative before God. Then during the service he turned to the congregation and was like God to the people.

They had a huge velvet curtain that they opened and closed at various points during the service and i think it was to symbolize the veil between God and men. There was a man wafting incense all around (it was also very warm in the church - there was a hot air vent blowing right on my head. I though i was going to pass out. We had to stand almost an hour and a half and it was just...sickening. blech.) and a young boy with a tambourine type thingy that was fastened to a long stick. he shook it above the priest's head. there were icons all around the church and the priest was holding a little ornate golden cross. for probably at least 45 minutes there was a whole bunch of chanting going on - from the priest, the deacons, and the church members. it was in syriac, which is the mother tongue of aramaic (so it is SUPER ancient). when he would gesture to the congregation with his little gold cross, they would all cross themselves and bow (shallowly, luckily. i heard that in the russian orthodox church they bow very deeply and visitors that aren't expecting it look really dumb). the women sat on one side and the men sat on the other. A lot of the women covered their hair, but it was with a different type (color and size) scarf than the Muslim women wear to enter the mosques, so none of us had the right scarves. (We had an assignment to visit the Ummayyad Mosque last Friday and so we at least had those

scarves...) We sat in the back and tried to look inconspicuous. At the end of the service most people in the church headed to the front of the building and got in a long line to kiss the Bible.

umm...other things i've done this past week are

-long, epic hike up mt. cassion (i might not be spelling that right).

at the top i got a good sense of how HUGE damascus is. wow. it disappeared into the smog - we literally couldn't see the edges of the city -arabic class (ahhh so hard) -movie night at the monastery - watched Gladiator on Linford's projection system -escaped like Paul over the damascus wall. we visited a house that supposedly is right by where Paul escaped. The man who owns the house has a fire pole built off his back balcony and you can pay to walk through his house and escape over the wall.

-visited the syrian national museam

-bought a pair of turquoise and lapis lazuli earrings for 350 syrian pounds each (about $7 each). the lapis lazuli stone is from Afghanistan. i also learned that turquoise is the color of damascus.

the shopkeeper who sold them to me told me that his store has been in his family for at minimum 300 years. that is as far back as the paper trail goes... which is, of course, older than America. mmhmm. he also gave me tea; i sat in this little dim shop next to the Ummayyad mosque surrounded by old swords and silver earrings and prayer beads...

I guess that's probably pretty much all for now...I hope things are well at home. Give me some news! :)

also you'll notice if you look at the people i'm following on my blog that i joined a site called "james and the giant lemon" http://jdsouder.blogspot.com/ ...that is the blog of the photography guy on our trip. he has good pictures and interesting things to say so you all should check it out :) oh, and hopefully EMU's website will have pictures up soon. we sent some in.

Salaam Alaykum!

here is a snippet from yesterday.

four of us walked down the street from the monastery and found a little pastry shop - we had been given a tip from some of the other students of a shop owned by two Syrian men who were very nice and tried to speak English. They had these chocolate desserts for 5 Syrian pounds (which is literally like - a penny. or less.) And so the four of us found this little shop and went in. The two men (George and ... Faisal? We can't remember the second man's name) gave us the pastries for free. We tried to pay three times and they refused our money. They kept saying "Welcome to Damascus!" We tried to talk (using our 50 or so Arabic words) and they talked back in broken English. It was wonderful. Partway through the exchange, one of the girls with me noticed a picture of Mary on the wall and pointed to it. She asked, "Mary?" and they said, "Ah, Margaret!" and after a brief pause, pointed at themselves and said "Christian." We smiled and pointed at ourselves and said "Christian."

They called their niece up on the phone and had her come over to help translate. She invited us to come to her house at some point; we weren't sure if we would be able to and responded with "Inshallah." (if God wills).

I've decided that I have two wishes that are equal and opposing - I wish that everyone could visit Damashque. I wish they could see the friendliness of this city; the marriage of ancient and modern; the way East and West coexist; the way Christians and Muslims live in peace and respect. I also wish that foreigners wouldn't come here. I wish that tourism would never ruin this place; that people would not be jaded out of their worldview; that money and its host of ills would not corrupt the crooked streets of this city.

But how does that saying go? If wishes were horses...
I suppose rather than wasting time on wishes I will just go walk through the Old City or play a game of Hearts or read a book. :)