Cleansing...

I met my first Jordainan mosquito last night over dinner. He was a very persistent little bugger. Al-hamdoulillah at least the meal was good.

So I’ve been a little absent for quite a while now – each week I intend to write, but I just don’t seem to have the himma for some reason sleep just seems so much more appealing. So I’ll put some bits and pieces down and see where we get to. Warning: this post will probably be all over the place.

Prior to exam week not much happened at all. Just study and study and study. The exams went ok, I got an 80% in skills and 97.625% (don’t ask – our teacher is very…ummm… specific?) in sciences. So al-hamdoulillah I was relatively pleased with the marks.

Between then and last weekend it was just more and more study – although I’m terribly behind at the moment. So last weekend was Jordanian Independence Day (long weekend) which meant that we had three days of class which was really nice – although the 6 day week before the break was torturous! My flatmate and I trotted off to Syria to escape the crazyness of Amman. We left after class on Thursday and got a taxi from Abd Ali to the boarder, where al-hamdoulillah the Syrians were very kind and processed my visa request swiftly. All I can say is thank God I am traveling on my Aussie passport – it cost me US$30 to enter Syria – if I was on the British it was US$56! Either way it sucks to be Conganese, they have to pay a whopping US$256! Subhan’allah.

Anyway, so we got into Damascus at around 9:30pm and went to the hotel to dump stuff before heading out to dinner. By the time we left for dinner it was 10pm and we didn’t get back to the hotel until 2:30am… A little crazy – fajr was agonizing at 4am.

On the first day we went to Bosra to see the Roman ruins and then went to the local mosque (which was really nice, and surprisingly had a massive women’s section – in Jordan it can sometimes be hard to find a mosque with room for ladies). Unfortunately I couldn’t pray though – someone had locked themselves in the women’s wudu section was was refusing to open the door… So I couldn’t pray. Kheir insha’allah – Al-hamdoulillah for shafi’i prayer dispensations while traveling.

From Bosra we went to Nowah to visit the maqam of Imam Nawawi. Subhan’allah it is such a mubarak place. Imam Nawawi banned anyone from constructing anything over his grave, but subhan’allah within months a massive tree had grown out of the earth of his grave to shade him. Subhan’allah, it really is an amazing site to see. It is the only tree of that type in the area and is HUGE!

After that, we headed back to Damascus to pick up some snacks before heading off to Ma’lula, a small Christian town situated in the mountains above Damascus, built out of the mountain-sides. It’s a really beautiful little town, there are two monestaries and a sprawling old city. We went up to the top of the mountain and when walked down though the gorge that cuts through the middle of the town. All the street signs are in Aramaic (the language of Prophet Isa – Jesus – a.s.) and the main spoken language is Aramaic – subhan’allah. The people of the town also keep the original Sabbath (i.e. Friday night/Saturday day until sunset). The town looked absolutely amazing at sunset, all the mountains were glowing pink, subhan’allah.

From Ma’lula we returned to Damascus and our hotel to wash up before dinner – it was another late night…2:30am! I was so wrecked – I’m just not as young as I once was! Lol

On the second day we headed to Bab As-Saghrir – which is a graveyard that covers about three blocks in the middle of Damascus – where a large number of companions and family of the Prophet Muhammed saaws are buried (like Bilal Habshi – the Prophet’s muezzin – and Ruqayyah – the Prophet saaws daughter among many others). After that we walked through the Old City, did a bit of shipping and had an amazing lunch – there was this fruit salad, it was so fresh, with fresh cream aaaaaarrrrrrggggggggghhhhhh…. And soooooo cheap. I’ve failed to mention just how good the food is in Syria and just how little it costs! Mmmmmmmmm….

After lunch we went up to this mountain lookout above Damascus for the sunset and watched the Omayyad Mosque in the middle of Damascus shine yellow and then glow pink until the sunset and the lights came on making it golden again. So we drove down and went to the mosque to pray and wander. It was stunning. There was so much space, and so many people sitting around. I just stood there thinking that up until 100 years ago some of the most brilliant scholars the Ummah has ever known were sitting and taking knowledge in the courtyard. Subhan’allah.

After prayer we went to dinner at a truly amazing restaurant in the old city which looked over an old Church and the Mosque next door to it. The place was filled with ex-pats, but we ordered so much food it couldn’t fit on the table (nor could we finish it) and all it cost us was JD9! I really can’t explain just how good the food is in Syria. Subhan’allah I’m so tempted to go and study at Abu Nur University just so I can eat well (except that there are no “real” toilets to be found, and well you know, I have a very sensitive stomache)!

We got back to the hotel at around midnight – which was a nice early change.

On our last morning we went to the souk and shopped for gifts – no I’m not telling what I bought so don’t ask!

We left Damascus at 1pm and headed out on the highway with our driver. It was an insane ride – most of the time he was traveling at about 160kmph (no joke I was scared)! Apparently Jordan doesn’t allow hired taxi’s to cross the boarder after 3pm and you just have to sit and wait until they feel that maybe, just maybe you can cross. So driving along at 160km I notice that the driver is trying to turn the ignition… over and over again he tries and nothing happens. We slow to a stop on the edge of the highway (still in Syria) in the middle of nowhere and he tells us we’ve run out of petrol. So he stands for half an hour trying to flag down a passing motorist for a tow (there are not many) and no one stops. After about 45mins a truck stops and attempts to give us a tow but has no success, so the drivers hops into the truck and roars off to the closest petrol station, and we sit on the rocky embankment next to the taxi. He returns about 25mins later with a little 1.25lt bottle of fuel empties it into the car and attempts to start it. NO SUCCESS! He tries for about 10mins and then my flattie and I get out to push the car. And we do. It must have looked ridiculous – two hijabi ajanib pushing a Syrian taxi along the highway in the middle of nowhere, thank God there were only the goats and sheep to watch. Anyway, alhamdoulillah the car starts and he start flying towards the boarder – I swear faster than before but commonsense tells me that the car couldn’t handle it, so I just didn’t look at the speedo… And no, there are no seatbelts!

We got to the Syrian side of the boarder at about 2:55pm, got our exit visas in 4 mins and ran back to the car. We made it to the Jordanian gate at 3:01pm! They wouldn’t let us through! Subhan’allah. So the driver put on a sad face and said “habibi” (my darling) more times than I could count to the Customs officer manning the gate, and after about 20mins they let us cross (once they made sure we weren’t American lol).

I was upset that the Jordanians made me pay for an entry visa even though I have Iqama (residency) – but apparently that’s just how it works. Al-hamdoulillah we got home right on ‘Asr (4pm).

So that was Syria.

Today I went on a 30km cycle ride from Madaba to Mount Nebo which was fantastic – I was amazed that I actually finished it! It was a mix of hills and flats. After traveling on the main road for about 20mins, the rest of the ride was through the villages on the hills up to Mount Nebo (been before see earlier posts for pics – I think it was one of the first posts I did). It was really peaceful – I wish I had the moolah to go every week (its about $30 aussie which includes all equipment, snacks, lunch and unlimited water). So I’m feeling active and alert this afternoon, which is perfect because I haven’t done any work at all and need to do a mountain of it.

My flattie is about to make Pakkora (YUM) and I’ve got to get a wriggle on and write my assessment presentation – I think we might have to give it this week – 10mins in Arabic, no papers/English or anything – my topic is Islamic Spain, history, places to visit etc. Make du’a for me it goes well – I think the teacher might be inviting the other classes to watch them… I’m scared!

Anyway, I can’t wait to come home – I’m really missing open space and the sea (yes of course I miss you all too). Being here really makes me realize how fortunate I am to have been born, raised and to live in a country as beautiful as Australia. Subhan’allah, there are just so many blessings in it.

Anyway, insha’allah you are all in the best of health and imaan. Please make du’a for my final exams (sciences is on the 10^th and skills is on the 16^th) – there are crazy days ahead!

Much love. Ma’a salama.