Tuesday found us in Bosra. Well, we found it by taking the bus two hours outside of Damascus. We went with Marie and Saa again to explore this town famous for its Roman ruins, particularly for its 15,000 seat free-standing Roman theater which was weirdly turned into a citadel at one point. The theater itself was incredible and made it very clear that the Romans invented nose bleed seats. It was pretty cool to stand on the stage and see how close people at the top seats appeared. We then wandered behind the ampitheater to see some of the town's ruins. Bosra is unique in that townspeople have taken bits of the ruins and made houses out of them so houses are sprinkled throughout--definitely a bit eerie.
The real fun of the day, however, started when we spied two goats stuck up on a roof. I, of course, was thoroughly amused and began taking pictures of them. While this was going on, Marie started talking to some curious kids through a window and before I knew it she had gotten an invitation into the their home for coffee. There were tons of kids wandering around so Courtney and I first thought it was a daycare. We soon found out that it was one big family as everyone was introduced to us--aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, brothers, and sisters. There were three main characters--two sisters and their younger brother who all came from a family of 10 kids. The brother's wife was also there as were a few neighbors and all of their children. They immediately fetched a the 12 year old daughter of one of the sisters who spoke English fairly well (much better than my Arabic) so we tried to converse as much as we could.
We were all struck by how outgoing all the family members were and it was interesting to see how the women carried themselves in the home. Being invited into their home was was definitely an advantage we had as four women travelling together. As we were leaving to catch our bus, one of the sisters took us to their other family home across the street to show us a picture of her late father, the Emir of Bosra (governor) who had passed away last year. It was beyond surreal! Not only had we met an interesting and gracious family, but also a very well connected one. As we left the second house for the bus, another one of her daughters made sure to incorporate "Obama!" into her goodbye (an 11 year old Syrian girl up on US politics!). It was a wonderfully bizarre day.
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| Pic courtesy of Saa |
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| Causing a small riot by showing them their pictures (Pic courtesy of Saa) |
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The main family: the eldest sister, her youngest sister,
youngest brother, and all her kids (Pic courtesy of Saa) |
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| Marie, Courtney, and I with the whole family (Pic courtesy of Saa) |
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