I attended midnight mass on Christmas Eve with Fadi, Ghina and family at the Greek Orthodox church. It was both very different and very familiar. This was my first Orthodox service, but I knew a little about the tradition, so I expected the ornately garbed priests, iconostasis (wall of icons and religious paintings separating the…

We awoke bright and early (OK, Scott woke Becky up at 9 am), to sun shine – although the sky was threatening rain. Since this was the first sign of decent weather in a few days, we headed up to the citadel to see what all the fuss was about. The Aleppo Citadel is one…

Last spring, we took a course on world religions. In that course, we were introduced to the idea that as Canadians, we lived in a culturally Christian society. That is, even if you do not identify as a Christian, your life is still heavily influenced by Christian culture. This made me want to learn more…

We awoke to a rainy morning. For the first time in days, I finally had energy and wanted to see a little bit of Aleppo. With the rain, the best thing to see was the old Souk (bazaar) since it is covered in many places. We spent a few hours wandering around the various aisles.…

On Sunday we were invited over to the home of Fadi and Ghina for lunch. We had a great meal and a good visit. Ghina speaks French and Arabic, and the kids (Fawad and Hayim) spoke a little bit of English and French as well as Arabic. So, the conversations were an interesting combination of…

After a fitful night, Becky’s cough was not getting any better. We decided to ask for Fadi’s [1] assistance with visiting a doctor. He had mentioned last night that his cousin Bassam was a Pharmacist at a hospital, and spoke excellent English. Ten minutes after our request, Fadi was at our doorstep to whisk us…

25 km, 1.5 hours Last night was cold! We were able to get warm enough wearing our wool tights and shirts and bundling into our sleeping bags – but at various times in the night we each awoke to cold feet and other body parts. We definitely need to get a warmer liner or outer…

42 km, 3.5 hours Bright and early on Tuesday morning, Becky and Peter were the first to get up. Becky was happy to discover that getting out of the tent in the morning was not nearly as painful as she thought it would be. Even by 6:30 am, it had warmed up a little from…