Day 9 - Sunday 5th April 09 - Damascus

We hoped to go to the Chaldean church this morning but although my stomach felt more stable I didn't feel confident to be sat for an hour without easy access to a toilet. Matthew was visiting his friend Ruham (who lives in his old house) so we decided a wander round old Damascus would be best since cafes would be available for emergency comfort breaks. Tim was tired and fed up that he couldn't stay at Matt's house to play with his Go-go Crazy Bone models on the mud huts he made yesterday. He decided to stay with Matthew and Ruham, leaving Terry and I some time to wander round together.

We decided to start by sneaking in the back of the Armenian Church’s Palm Sunday celebration. It seemed an informal (if not chaotic) affair. The courtyard outside the church was packed with families. Most had a small cross made from olive leaves pinned together onto a jacket lapel but the leafy cross appeared to be the only thing of any religious significance. The overall feel was more like a fashion show. Men were in smart jackets with gelled hair, children dressed up like page boys or bridesmaids and women looking like they'd fallen out the pages of a style magazine. This had nothing of Islamic modesty or propriety nor much of the Christian virtues of simplicity and moderation. Instead it seemed like a festival of cultural capitalism and individualism.

We had a sense that something interesting might eventually happen but in the end the fumes from the ubiquitous cigarettes and the overwhelming ostentatiousness drove us outside, back to the main street from which we decided to explore the chapel of Ananias. According to the Acts of the Apostles there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, "Ananias. Rise and go to Straight Street, and inquire in the house of Judas for a man of Tarsus named Saul; for behold, he is praying and he has seen a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight." Ananias had an important and indeed courageous role in Saul’s conversion. It was a bit like German Jew being told to go to someone’s house and pray for a prominent Gestapo leader who is claiming he is now a Jew. It was extraordinary to climb down so many steps to the original street level and to realise that the present streets are a good 3 metres above the biblical level. No wonder it is so rare to see a ghost from Roman times - they are walking around deep underground, still following the paths they once remembered...