10 km, delivering the bikes to Fadi’s workshop. We have decided to leave the bikes and a bunch of our gear with Fadi in Aleppo. We will take a bus from Aleppo to Amman, Jordan, and from there take another bus to Aqaba. Aqaba is on the Red Sea and is experiencing daytime temperatures of…

When we first arrived in Aleppo, Fadi had offered to take us out to see Saint Simeon, a church about 40 km to the north of Aleppo. Unfortunately, Becky was not feeling up for the trip, so we had to decline. Today, with Becky feeling much better, we took Fadi up on his offer. The…

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…