Day 9: I'd never thought of highways as amusement parks

I'd never thought of highways as amusement parks until I went to live in Syria.  On that first evening we left the airport for the drive into Damascus and found ourselves on a highway turned into a picnic ground.  Barbecues had been set up on either side of the road, various vendors were selling their wares to the partying crowds and children were playing football from one side to the other.  I think that I remember someone offering camel rides but that might have been another time and other city. The journey was slow.   I was later to learn that the president's son had died on that road when he hit one of the round-a-bouts at high speed.  It obviously didn't happen on a Friday or Saturday night.

I remember the heat, the neon lights, the traffic, both animal and otherwise, the truck horns and flashes of women clothed in black at the edge of roads.  And then we were in the peace and sanity of the ICARDA guest house where we were to spend the night before the drive up to Aleppo.  Our introduction to Syria was a series of sensory bombardments, which continued till the day we left.  So exciting, so life affirming!  How I miss it!