After breakfast, Joe Greene, our lecturer on Archaeology and related topics, gave an overview of our time in Syria – what we saw, how it fit together. I must admit that archaeology was not my motivation for going on this trip, but thanks to Joe, I have a much greater appreciation of why the discipline is relevant to contemporary life. In different ways, most if not all, human beings, search for some sense of meaning in their lives. Where we come from is one source of meaning and archaeology can help to identify, to pin-point, the ancient past. Pulling from sources as divergent as the Torah, the Christian Bible ( New Testament), Homer and other Greeks, actual locations of events written about thousands of years ago are continually being identified all across the Middle East and Mediterranean Europe. What were once considered myths are sometimes turning out to be more or less accurate descriptions of real events that took place in the ancient world.
Seeing locations where battles were fought along the Euphrates River 2500 years ago over control of the same territory that is being fought over today, is humbling.
Later, on the bus, Walid asked us how our impressions of Syria had changed by our time in his country. Most felt more positive towards Syrians, if not the government. I spoke up, after listening to a few others. I felt that it was important to understand that Syria, like other countries in the midst of cultural change, in the end, cannot resist change. The more the government tries to hold on to the status quo, the resistance to the demand for change becomes stronger. There is a quote from Norman Mailer, of all people, that I keep taped to my telephone at home. It says, more or less – that change is law of nature, and that holding out against change takes its toll, in many ways.
We continued on to the town of Bosra, not far from Deraa, where there has been a great deal of protest. All the roads leading into Deraa from the main highway were blocked by security forces. It was not a pleasant sight.
In Bosra we toured a Roman -era theater built of the local black basalt stone, which lent it a more sober, almost ominous air. But the stage area had gorgeous columns and pediments of pale limestone, which in contrast with the black stone made for a setting of high drama, even before the actors appeared on the stage!
We left the theater and walked through the old, really old, part of Bosra where residents have used the existing ruins of the same black stone to create homes for themselves. There were also remains of other structures such as wells and city gates. It was the end of the school day for the young kids, and they were filtering home through the ruins as we walked along. Some volunteered “Hello”, some were shy. Some liked having their photo taken, some said “NO!”. Walid suspected it was linked in some way to the Deraa violence and over hearing their parents talking about fear of security people taking photos of protestors. Or maybe just shyness.
I loved walking along through the jumble of buildings, taking photos of doors,windows, white-washed stones, people. We have had so little time to explore and interact with people on this trip, I missed that and took the opportunity to lag behind the group and explore on my own.
Eventually I caught up with the others and joined them for a nice lunch in a rather lovely hotel on the outskirts of the town, the sort of place where local girls might dream of holding their wedding.
After lunch we headed for a border crossing into Jordan. Lots of waiting on the Syria side as the officials reviewed our visas, looked at us all, looked at the passports again, and made us wait, again. Then onto Jordan, where we had to all purchase our visas individually, then get them stamped, then get back on the bus. As we left Syria, a scowling young man got on the bus and examined each of our passports one last time. In Jordan, a young man joked and laughed with us as he checked our passports and visas. The process was the same, but the attitude was very different.
Crossing the border took about 2 hours all told, mostly waiting. But we saw lines of trucks trying to cross from Syria into Jordan that must have been there for days! Apparently Jordan searches them carefully looking for arms and other contraband being smuggled in from Iran through Syria. On the Syria -Iraq side of the country, the border is rather “porous” was what I heard.
We reached our hotel in Amman at 7pm, exhausted by the long hours on the bus as much as anything we actually did. Our hotel, while not the fanciest in Amman, is head and shoulders above the Damascus Sheraton, our fanciest hotel in Syria.
Jordan just feels different, lighter, brighter, less worried. More later.
Karen