Sunday 31 January 2010

Days 27-30th - 31st December 2009 - 3rd January 2010 - Lattakia

31st December 2009

Alpha Team is again only as fast as its slowest members but nevertheless we all manage to leave Sahara Hotel together in the morning and make the journey to Lattakia on the northern coastline of Syria. The landscape becomes green and garden-like as we travel and it looks like a fertile place where lots of produce is probably grown. Again as we get near to the destination and pull over for some fuel we are joined by an escort of police vehicles that will lead us to the stop.

The stop is what looks like a scout camp. There seem to be many supporters of the convoy in and around the camp. There is one set of gates at the main entrance where there is some security. The camp has a multitude of small white huts some of which have iron beds in them and there are a few larger buildings where we can see some more mattresses being pulled out. We are given food in a covered dining room open along one side - long stone or concrete tables and benches. The other edge of the camp is the sea. There is an option to sleep in a hut but I haven't sorted one out yet and I'm happy to sleep in the cab. Richard T is with me now after we picked him up again in Damascus but he goes off and finds a berth in a hut.












Lattakia



Kevin speaks to the convoy at dinner time - first urging people to be more vigilant as we are in a town now and a couple of unattended laptops have gone missing. He tells us that planning is underway for a large ferry to carry the vehicles. It is not known at this time how many people will be able to travel on the boat as it is a cargo ferry not a passenger ferry and there are maritime rules about the number of people that can travel onboard. Kevin hopes that 60 people will be able to travel with it and says this will be voluntary - I take down all the volunteers names - oddly it reaches 60. People very much want to be able to stay with their vehicles. It is then made public that the rest of us will need to take flights and the planes will need to be chartered for this. The Syrian, Turkish and Malaysian governments as well as some private donors and a fundraising effort via Viva Palestina's website is going to pay for this logisitical maneouvre - to the tune of $250,000 it is reckoned.





Turkish members getting camped in









Tonight is New Years Eve so people are determined to celebrate in some way. Richard V has located an off-licence in the area so we walk down there together and pick up a few cans. Some go off to town, some remain in the camp and light a big bonfire. Dejanka, Richard V, Julian, Bob and I also light one as there is a picnic table nearby we can sit at. All evening the camp is surrounded by fireworks being let off by people in an uncoordinated but spectacular way. I wander about the camp and spend the last hour sitting by the bigger bonfire where sounds are being blasted out of the door of a van and there is a shot or two of tequila on the go.



1st January New Years Day 2010

At around 11am I go with Ruqayyah and Amina into Lattakia in a minibus taxi-bus that heads past the camp entrance and into the centre. Its around 15 mins and very easy and cheap. The camp where we are staying is situated in an area where there are many Palestinian refugee families. Originally they lived in the North of Palestine until the Nakba 'the catastrophe' of 1948 led to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fleeing the country to neighbouring lands in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt and wider. Palestinian villages were destroyed and ethnic cleansing took place. Understandably the local population are very supportive of the convoy. It is possible to see that supporters of both Hamas and Fatah political parties are here to provide food, shelter, guidance as evidenced by flags. There are everyday people around too that just want to meet us and many people are invited to homes for tea, food and to stay.

Outside the gates of the scout camp are coffee vans selling great espresso from machines.















In town we manage to track down an ATM and a cafe that has wifi and an internet cafe. It is quiet as it's a Friday and many shops are closed.







You can't use Facebook in Syria (but you can sort of if you know how to access it by adding http's' in front)






Not long in the cafe before we have to head back to the camp for a team leaders meeting - there is much to be sorted out for the logisitics of the next step. There are only nine people from Viva Palestina who can travel on the ship. Each team leader nominates a person from their team. We have to make sure that people know they need to get their personal stuff for the next couple of days off their vehicles as tomorrow we will be loading them onto the cargo ferry and saying goodbye until the charter flights catch up in El Arish. We decide the order of the flights and which groups will be on which flights. Custom manifest has to be taped onto the inside of the windscreen. One person to drive each vehicle onto the ship - the rest of the convoy to travel in buses there and back. Two teams to deal with the Harbour Master and Bill of Laden.

As I'm clearing away left over food containers after dinner I meet a young man who introduces himself - Shadi. He invites me to a family home nearby, they are a Palestinian refugee who now have lives and homes in Syria but yearn to visit or return to Palestine. I meet his uncle, aunt, mother and two nephews. His mother invites me to stay at their home.


They are so hospitable, friendly and curious - I am given tea, fruit and lots of questions and chat. Shadi calls his brother Fadi and shortly he arrives in a car and they take me back to the family apartment overlooking the bay. I meet their father and spend some time talking to them all until late at night. I'm absolutely knackered. Their father shows me a picture of the location where their family used to live in Palestine - now he says there is a fast-food restaurant there. Soon it becomes evident I'm falling asleep at the kitchen table and they give me the bathroom and a bed - the comfort is immense!

2nd January 2010
There's another meeting to communicate to people what we have to do next and the plan for getting the vehicles and us to El-Arish. Fadi and Shadi's mother is preparing lunch for later - stuffing a mix of lamb and rice into cored courgettes ready for baking or steaming.















We then have time to go off and do whatever we need until return. I go with Fadi and Shadi to Fadi's university in Lattakia. There is a pair of security guards on the gate of the Uni. One is a serious-faced small skinny dude who decides its not ok for me to enter the Uni - the other is a large-ish mad looking person who walks away from the gate with Shadi and I while Fadi goes in as he has lectures to attend. The mad bloke talks at us and seems to be describing himself as Russian (but speaks in Arabic) he walks us to a different entrance and in to the Uni campus. He continues to accompany us across the car park and half way across pulls an almost empty whisky bottle from his pocket and laughs. Aha he's not mad he's drunk! It takes some physical effort to escape him. Wandering around the lecture hall corridors is very similar to any other Uni.

Shadi and I get a bus back to his folks place where his mother has made some delicious stuffed courgettes and stuffed vine leaves. I am feeling extremely spoilt.















Then return to the camp to move the vehicles down to the ship. Massive send off.
















I wander back by myself to Cafe Express on American Street, feeling bereft without the vehicle.











Mosque in Lattakia








3rd January


Another meeting to let us know that the ship left ok apart from having its journey extended by several hours as Israeli exclusion zone has become larger around the coast. We are still awaiting security clearance to land in Egypt so won't be flying today.

After the meeting I bump into Ian SOAS Student from Alpha Team, he's not sure where he is staying and immediately Shadi and Fadi insist he stays at their home as well. We agree to meet up later on. I wander through town with Shadi and he takes me to internet shop with quite a fast connection. Fadi is going to come back and meet me later on. and comes back with their friend Majdee. We locate Ian and all go together to Majdee's flat where his sister also lives. They provide a delicious spread of bread, dips, eggs, yoghurt, cheese.


















We talk about family life - curiosity as to why I am not married and don't have any children. I say that I could have done but it has not happened like that, I am working full-time and if I did have a child now I could provide for it myself if needed. Majdee's cousin is there with her children. The girl is about 3 or 4 and the boy is a toddler. She explains that her daughter is always crying and she does not know why. I ask her about when she cries most and how often and about her routine. Mum wants me to stay so we can talk about child development. Fadi takes Ian away to stay at their flat and I stay at Majdee's place so we can carry on talking. Her husband works away often in Saudia Arabia, she says when they are there together her child is more settled. It is 10 or 11 pm now and I can hear the 4 year old starting to have some sort of hysterics next door and it appears the girl and boy have had a fight over a toy. We agree that both children must be unsettled and tired as they are staying over with friends and it is really late for their bedtime. As soon as the little girl is put to bed - silence! All I can recommend is basic routine and earlier bedtimes - you never know....

She shows me her wedding photos. Her husband's mother apparently approached her and asked her if she wanted to get married - she agreed that she did and handed over a photo of herself. Her future husband approved of her photo and the deal was arranged. The wedding photos show them both looking very happy. She also shows me more pics of her friends all leaping around in high heels, dresses and with their hair down. I am surprised, 'How come these girls are not covered up?' she tells me this party is just for the women, 'but the photos?' - the men are not allowed to see the photographs.

Majdee's sister Taghreed lives at the flat. She is studying English, she says she has considered coming to Europe to study English but it is a concern for her family to let her travel away by herself so this is not yet definitely in the pipeline. I explain how my family found it difficult when I went away as an 18 year old to Africa for six months but they did let me go and how lucky I was to have had this independence and freedom to travel.









Taghreed and me






Taghreed stays up studying way after I have gone to bed.

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