The Hospital

The Hotel

The Hotel we stayed at was great. There was a theme park with rides and everything. The Hotel was the only hotel in the northern part of the West Bank. They even have a web site:
www.haddadtourismvillage.com The hotel building itself that we stayed in has only been open 3 months so the building is not complete. Everyone at the hotel spoken broken English and was kind to me when I tried to speak Arabic. The service was really top notch, but they are use to entertaining international guest. There seems to be a connection with France because I was told that most of there international guest are french. Note the picture below of the camel parked with the cars.

The Food

Everything Taste better in Palestine.
The food was so fresh and tasty. There food is all organic because they use the resources that have. I felt like I was going from one meal to the next.

Taxi ride to Jordan

So after spend a great week in Syria my trip continued to Amman, Jordan by Taxi. The Taxi ride it self was an adventure all in its own. I have no idea what was going on but we made random stops, including meeting up with another car on the side of the road to be handed off a package. The packages that went in and out of that car in the short 4 hour drive were too many to count. I felt like i was watching one of those magic tricks where they put a coin under a glass move the glasses around and ask you to pick the glass with the coin under it. My taxi driver was definitely an experienced driver across the boarder. He tipped everyone we came in contact with. Mostly military and police. Not much only about $5 to say thank you for letting us right through.

Chapel of St. Paul

On my last day in Damascus I did some sightseeing before I left. After seeing many mosque I was happy to see a church. Here is a little about the Chapel of St Paul.

The Chapel of St. Paul is a modern stone chapel in Damascus that incorporates materials from the Bab Kisan, the ancient city gate through which Paul was lowered out of a window in Acts 9:25. In the Bible, after his baptism on the Street Called Straight in Damascus, St. Paul began the tireless Christian preaching that would characterize the rest of his life, which led to a narrow escape from Damascus (Acts 9:20-25):
At once he began to preach in the [Damascus] synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. All those who heard him were astonished and asked, "Isn't he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn't he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?" Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ. After many days had gone by, the Jews conspired to kill him, but Saul learned of their plan. Day and night they kept close watch on the city gates in order to kill him. But his followers took him by night and lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall.
Paul himself later says that it was through a window that he escaped from certain death (2 Cor 11:32-33).

Bosra

Bosra was conquered by the Roman emperor Trajan and made the capital of the Roman province of Arabia. It served as a key Roman fortress east of the Jordan River. The city eventually achieved the title "metropolis" under the Roman emperor Philip, who was a native of the city.

Bosra became a Christian bishopric early in the 4th century and ruins of two early churches can still be seen today. The city fell to the Muslims in 634/635; the ruins of ancient mosques can be seen from this period. As it was situated at the crossroads of trade routes, Bosra was a stop-off point for Muslim pilgrims heading to Mecca and Medina. The Crusaders captured Bosra in the 12th century but failed to hold it. In the same century earthquakes, together with Turkish misrule hastened its decline.

Dinner with friends & family

We went to the Arabian Night Restaurant. It was so much fun meeting all Nahid's extended family. At the restaurant there was even a replica of the leaning tower of Pisa. I am unsure what that has to due with the Arabian nights, but boy it was fun running up and down the 6 flights of stairs.

During the trip I had been learning Arabic. I had been getting better and better every day. There is always those times when learning a new language that you mix up words and have an embarrassing situation. We for me the two words that I mixed up were: Tomorrow = Bukra & Kiss = Boosney. So I tried to tell Nahid'd brother in law that I was leaving tomorrow, but instead told him that I was going to kiss him, right in front of his wife. Thankfully she laughed and understood I just had made a mistake.