Day 36 From Rain to Sunshine

 SYNOPSIS: I hired Ali the taxi driver again to explore the East of Aleppo.  I saw an important castle at the Euphrates and a village with traditional beehive houses.WHAT JACQUES CHIRAC AND I HAVE IN COMMON – A DAY FULL OF SURPRISESAfter the rainy, overpaid, and underutilized day with Abu Ishmail, the GTZ driver, yesterday, I was ready to just give it all up.  I had reconciled to doing a quiet Aleppo day, strolling one more time through the old city and saying goodbye.  This morning, however, the sun was shining, and I had second thoughts.  I would regret this!  One major point on my program was still open – to see the traditional beehive homes which have a history going back thousands of years.  But I needed a driver.Half-heartedly, I started to roam the souq, visited an exhibition in an ancient, beautifully restored madrassa by GTZ about the renewal of Aleppo’s Old Town, and headed to the new city from there.  Let’s just see if I could get a hold of Ali, the young taxi driver who had taken Ian and me up to the NW the other day.  I went to the same hotel in which Ian had hired the driver and asked for him.  Within minutes he was on the phone and yes, he was available for the day!  Well, the dice were rolled now.  I would do the 120 km journey to Qasr Al Najm, which was situated in the North near the Turkish border and along the way look for some of the famous beehive homes.You just got to love Ali’s personality.  He came, beaming of joy that I had gone through all this trouble to hire him again rather than just flag down one of the hundreds of available taxis on the street.  He told me that he could not just call me by my name as I was a person he needed to respect, so he attached the title of “aunt” to me:  Chale Elisabeth (To pronounce this, you need the “Ch” has in Challah bread-sound).  How funny! He had only been to the Qasr once in his life and was excited to be able to go again.  He had never seen any of the beehive homes either.  He navigated with great instinct through some of the towns on the back road I wanted to use in order to increase our chances to see the beehive villages.  Even the villages without the beehive homes - that means almost all the villages we passed – were clearly traditional villages made of plastered sun-dried brick homes; all one level high and hardly a sign of modernity, except for the ever present satellite dish.Qasr Al Najm was an impressive fortification but what made it all special was its setting; once again perched high above the Euphrates overlooking a fertile valley.  The river here was wider than I had seen anywhere else.  And it was absolutely quiet.  If you would not know that there had to be a current to it, you could have thought of it as a lake.  So tranquil.  So beautiful.  So big.  A cemetery was right below the ruins which created an interesting contrast.  And the villages around were pleasant to look at with the low rising architecture, their round ovens, their stables, hay stacks, chickens, children, and dogs.  Lush green fields, perhaps, the lushest I have seen anywhere in Syria so far, stretch to the horizon alongside olive tree plantations old and new.  Cotton trucks were passing by loaded to the brim, but the cotton was just beginning to grow, so we could not see any mature fields.The roads were sparsely populated and driving or riding, for that matter, was a stress-free and pleasant experience.  Ali was thrilled to be out of the Aleppo traffic in which he has to fight, honk, watch out and worry at any given moment. Finally, we spotted a hillside with beehive homes.  Ali took the car deep into the village and then we began to hike into the narrow walls.  I was hoping for a glimpse beyond the walls and my wildest dream came true when a young boy saw me photographing. The usual:  He came because he was curious.  I asked him if he wanted his picture taken and of course, he wanted that.  Then he gestured me to follow him and he took me right to his family’s home.  I felt so awkward to show up unannounced at their doorsteps.  Almost all the family members were perched on an outdoor platform smoking, chatting, and enjoying the gorgeous day.  But once they saw me hesitating at the threshold they gestured, too.  I was welcomed into their home!  They did not mind me photographing and proudly pointed out the various parts of their dwelling.The main part of the home was an area with four domes.  Along the sides there were shelves, closets, and bedding.  The middle was covered with carpets and pillows on which you could sit.  Somewhere on the floor there was a baby sleeping.  The home was built by the father of the grandfather of the house, over 80 years ago.  His picture was proudly pointed out to me.  As in so many homes and stores around here, the ancestors are prominently displayed in large frames on the walls.The entire extended family lived together here.  I saw about half of them:  Grandfather, two sons, a son-in-law, two daughter-in-laws, and five children.  The four-domed common area was also the women’s and children’s quarter.  Across the courtyard which had an outhouse and an animal area for sheep and chickens, there was a separate building – the men’s quarter.  Over the door, the Ka’ba was depicted which means that one of the men had undertaken the Hajj to Mecca – it was the grandfather with one of his sons.  Their photos were prominently displayed in that room.  Only men would hang out here and sleep together.  I was told that newly-wed couple gets their own room for a few years until there are enough babies, then they separate into the gender specific areas.What an absolute treat!  I never would have dreamt in my life that I would be able to have this much of an insight into traditional living quarters.  Ali was thrilled as well – all this was as new to him as it was to me.  And just as we were about to part – grandfather told me that the French President Jacques Chirac had visited their village a few years ago and had stopped exactly in that house as well!  I assured them that Jacques Chirac was a very important person. I was just a teacher and very much honored and touched by the hospitality which they were willing to extend to a total stranger.  I am humbled by the fact that now I will be remembered as the “professor from America” next to Jacques Chirac.Too bad none of them uses the internet – I would have emailed them some of my pictures.After it rained and hailed yesterday, the sun today was shining and the temperatures felt like a mild summer day!  At the Euphrates, the river seemed as blue as the sky.  Ali was glowing and I was very pleased that I did not skimp out on this day.  What a gift traveling is.  Every day there is an unexpected turn.  How could any of this have been planned!Good night.