Hello Blog, it’s been awhile. After a whirlwind tour of southwest Turkey, Nic and I are back in Damascus. We are planning on heading to Jordan tomorrow to see some biblical sites and make it to the gem of our trip- Petra!
Yesterday, we drove all the way from Adana Turkey to have dinner in Aleppo Syria and then arrived back in Damascus at 3am. That is of course with 10 other people in a van and that includes 4 kids. Woohoo. We hit a massive dust storm about 2am and visibility was down to maybe being able to glimpse the headlights in front of us. Of course that didn’t stop the driver from going 90 mph the entire way.
That brings us to our friend the driver. Abdul was hired by my friends the Abdi’s to drive us all over tarnation. The guy has never been out of Syria before so this was his first trip abroad. He was a very nice, very religious, and, how shall we say it?, colloquial guy. During our trip with the Abdi’s, I stayed with the teenage daughter and Nic got to stay with the driver. The first night, the driver got the thermostat mixed up and put it on heat instead of cool. He thought it was broken and proceeded to pull his bed out on the balcony. Of the Hilton. Nic waved his arms alot and explained that it wasn’t broken so that disaster was adverted. He also had the habit of waking up at 4 am to do the early prayer. Before the prayer, he would make wudu, which is where Muslims wash their hands, face, and feet in preparation for prayer. In Syria, there are spigots near the bottom of the floor and every bathroom has a drain on the floor, so you can splash around a bit. Well, the driver used the sink and of course it being the Hilton, there was no drain on the floor. Every morning Nic would wake up to water on the walls, ceiling, floors, towels, everything. The guy totally took a bath every morning in the sink. Ohhh, the driver.
It was ok though. We got to be there for the driver’s first taste of McDonalds. Plus, he gave us some delicious date cookies. Nic forgave him for trying to sleep on the balcony, snoring all night, and taking a bath in the sink. Happy moments for all!
P.S. Speaking of McDonalds, when we went there, the driver let us out and then went to find somewhere to park. Never having seen a drive-through before, he thought the nice shady place next to the menu would be the perfect place to park. Needless to say, about 4 cars got behind him and honked. He looked confused and motioned them around. Finally, we explained that he couldnt park there and then he ate a sunday.
