Leaving Syria

“F*** that country” says Jordanian KK “and come chill with us”. He’s not understood that I need to get out of the group rather than out of the country but now he comes to mention it I am feeling much as I did when I left Syria after a year in 2006: pretty revolted. It’s the gap between what we’ve seen and what’s going on: mazut, the fuel, went up from 7 to 25 SP (Syrian pounds) per litre - that’s a rise of over three times in one hike while we were there. There were mass protests: life is already hard in Syria, so what will happen when winter kicks in I dread to think. I spent the winter of 2005-6 in layers of jumpers, even inside the apartment, because mazut was too much for us. (It actually turned out that Yusuf the doorman was stealing most of it so we probably could have afforded it, but still, it was too expensive then, even without theft, for others.) So people are worried and scared about the future, and we are having dinners and parties. Of course, we have to eat, and of course we are cycling so there isn’t a lot of time for exploring the society, and with so many women it is difficult to do so, but we have been overprotected from reality. The roads are closed and lined with MTN and FtW publicity and pictures of the president only. This is the image of Syria we have to take away with us – and apparently to tell the people back home.

I don’t know if I can carry on with FtW after this: we have been used to promote the Syrian regime which I have hated for years.